Page 70 of Tide of Waves and Secrets

“To be smuggled out of the palace?”

Marek winced. “Not precisely. But if he will remain there as your spy, how else do you propose to have done it?”

My spy.I wanted Rowan to be so much more than that. These past few days without him confirmed what I already knew: that he had quickly become an important part of my life.

Ignoring Marek’s question, I half-listened as he and Caelum argued over the best route to smuggle Rowan back into the palace. While they did, I looked at the water wall in front of us, trying to imagine what brought Rowan to Seren. She let so few inside her private chambers… How he and Marek found it, why she allowed him inside, were just two questions I had among many.

While we waited, I wandered to a nearby shelf, looking up to one particular bubble which held a text Seren had pointed out herself to me. I had forgotten about it until now, though I wasn’t sure why it caught my attention again. Perhaps it was the faint hum of its magic, or maybe the lingering memory of Seren’s cryptic words when she first mentioned it. “One day,” she’d said with that infuriating smile of hers. I resisted the urge to poke the bubble, if only because I could hear her scolding me in my head.

“Rowan can tell you what is inside that text, but I am not certain he will. Yet.”

I spun around at my mentor’s words. Seren and Rowan stood at the entrance of her chamber, one I hadn’t even heard open, watching me.

What did her words mean?

I wanted nothing more than to run to him. For Rowan to put his arms around me, holding me close, telling me he missed me these past few days. To ask why he was here, why Seren accepted him. What she meant by, “I’m not certain he will.” Instead, I simply stared. And waited.

“We should go,” was all he said.

“Come,” Seren said in that comforting way she always spoke, as if she was one step in the afterlife, a calming peace always surrounding her. As Rowan moved toward the others, I listened, resisting an urge to reach out my hand as we passed.

Cupping my face, as if a grandmother might, she looked into my eyes. “Trust him. And yourself.”

“Why—”

“The next we meet, you will be my queen. I’ve no doubt of it, Nerys. And neither shall you. Now go before they discover him missing. He is more valuable to your cause, especially now in these precarious days before the festival, than you realize.”

I didn’t question how Seren knew so much. It was as if she had the human Sight, her wisdom endless. My mother had respected her above all others in Thalassaria, and for that reason, I never questioned her and would not begin doing so today.

When I nodded, Seren dropped her hands and smiled. As she leaned toward me, as if to tell me a secret, Seren whispered, “I never told you. Or anyone. Not because I was ashamed that my father was human, but because some truths lose their power when they’re shared too freely.”

“You are…” I swallowed, unable to comprehend Seren’s words fully. How could she be? “You are half-human?” I whispered.

“Rowan will, I have no doubt, eventually explain. Now go, and do not be a stranger to these archives, even when you are queen.”

She was so certain of the outcome.

I listened, not because I had no more questions, or even because I wanted to leave the Deep Archives. I listened because I knew Seren would not reveal more than she had already. And because we did need to get Rowan back.

As it became apparent the others had no idea where to turn, I stepped into the lead, Rowan walking alongside me.

“I have questions,” I said, looking to see if he’d changed in three days. He hadn’t, of course.

“I wish I could provide answers.”

“But you cannot?”

“Not yet.”

What could I say? That his lack of trust in me was disappointing on a level I couldn’t put into words? How could Seren say to “trust him,” somehow knowing he would tell me nothing?

Rowan will, I have no doubt, eventually explain.

Eventually.How was that even possible when he would be leaving soon? In the meantime, there was no use pressing him. Rowan had no intention of telling me why he was here, what he spoke to Seren about… or any of it.

“I’ve heard you do not care for your new escort?”

Rowan made a sound of disgust. “‘Care for’ is putting it mildly.”

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