Page 152 of The Stolen Kingdom

Gulping mouthfuls of air, Valda turned to Kayden, who had just picked up an injured Cerberus. Miraculously, the cat didn’t fight, but leaned against his chest while he spoke words Valda couldn’t register.

Kenna screamed something at the top of her lungs, holding what appeared to be another bomb. But Valda pivoted towards the entrance of the throne room just as it collapsed. There was no way out now. Pulling Maris closer, Valda turned back to the doors behind the chamber, finding them still intact.

“I have to go to the pool,” Valda announced, looking back at Kenna, her voice dripping with desperation. “The water is from the Sea Kingdom—we—” She looked down and held on a sob. “I can get her there, maybe—”

Kayden’s face made her stomach turn. He mustered a rueful smile before the ache dissolved.

“No!” Valda roared. She would not have him use his powers on her. She needed to be aware of all her feelings. “Don’t! Not now, Kayden. Get me to the pools!”

Kenna pushed Valda away and walked past the exit. After a long second, an explosion went off, and Kenna called out from within the rubble for Valda to follow her.

The narrow and hidden halls leading out to the pool room weren’t as damaged as the main hall, and it filled Valda with hope that she could save Maris. The fact that she could still feel her was enough to stifle the quivering exhaustion of her legs as she raced down the corridors. She ignored the thunderous sounds of the walls collapsing. She could always build a new castle, but she would have to wait a lifetime to find Maris again.

The doors to the pool room were intact. The thick glass didn’t budge when Kayden slammed his shoulder into it. “I can’t open it!”

Stepping next to Valda, Kenna touched the glass door and shook her head. “I cannot blow this one up with a bomb. I might hurt you all.”

“I can,” Valda muttered, placing Maris in Kenna’s arms before standing before the doors.

With the last sliver of her gift, Valda closed her eyes, releasing a gust of wind strong enough to crack the door and open a path to the pool. As the debris settled, she turned to Kenna, who looked down at Maris with a downcast expression. Valda ignored Kenna’s observation that Maris didn’t look good. She didn’t listen to Kayden asking her to reconsider and to leave the castle before it collapsed on all of them.

Snarling, she carefully took Maris back in her arms and cradled her to her chest, as if wanting to hide Maris away. She made it to the edge of the pool and jumped in. In seconds, the once pristine water was dyed crimson. She opened her eyes from under the surface, looking down as Maris floated within her embrace.

Please. Work. Please.

The blood continued to seep from the wounds until it fully stopped. Silence spread in her chest and mind, circling Valda in a darkness far greater than when she was blind.

And then there was nothing but emptiness. A suffocating emptiness that pierced her heart, stomach, and mind.

Dragging Maris to her, she swam to the surface and gasped for air. By the edge of the pool, Kayden held Cerberus, who quietly watched Valda, her tail swaying from side to side. Kenna stood unmoving, swallowing hard and blinking rapidly.

“She is not dead,” Valda said, but knew that she was lying. She looked down at Maris again, taking in her parted lips, closed eyes, the drops of water sluicing from her face.

“Please, please,” she shuddered in a breath. “I can’t go back to that darkness, please, Maris… Seashell… please.”

Shaking her head, Valda took another deep breath, and allowed herself to sink, submerging Maris completely. Valda held her breath as long as she could. Her lungs burned with the need to breathe as her eyes stung with tears which mixed within the Sealian water.

Still, she waited. She gazed at Maris’s face, looking for a sign, a subtle expression, a twitch on her lips or her eyes moving underneath the eyelids. But all she felt was emptiness.

Cursing, she swam back up, gasping, and then taking mouthfuls of air.

“Valda…” Kayden started, taking a step closer to the edge. “We have to go—”

“No! Not yet!” She shook her head, the tears streaming down her cheeks. “We can’t leave.”

“Kayden is right. We must leave before the castle collapses.”

“Then let it collapse on top of us. I will not leave. If she won’t wake up, I will stay behind. I will—” She swallowed hard. “I will go right after her.”

“Valda, please—”

She swam back down, ignoring Kayden’s pleas. She held Maris tighter and closed her eyes as the burning became unbearable. If Maris wouldn’t wake up, she wouldn’t leave the pool. She would stay inside the castle and hope she’d wake up somewhere else, finding Maris in another body, in another kingdom, but still her Maris. Still her mate.

Ouranos, please.Pain scoured through her as the steady beam of her god glowed on her forehead.Please, please, please.

Pressing her forehead to Maris’s, the crumbling walls of the castle ebbed away into a peaceful silence. The burning of her lungs was gone, and she didn’t feel the need tobreathe. Instead, the comfortable feeling of Maris in her arms enveloped her as the warmth on her forehead increased.

She floated within a darkness she welcomed with open arms.

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