Page 63 of Beneath the Haunting Sea

Shouldn’t she be wishing that for her mother? Drowning for eternity. No escape. No release.

“Gone forever,” the Baron muttered to the fire, his chin dropping forward onto his chest. He sighed and fell asleep, his breaths coming in rattling rasps.

Talia crept from the room, dread knottedtight around her heart.

What if shecouldbring her mother back? What if there was a way to free her? What if—

She ran right into Wen, who was coming up the stairs the other way.

She stopped short and he did too, staring at her with his mouth hanging open. She struggled to keep control of herself, digging her fingers into the skirt of her dress. “Why did Caiden’s mother go down to the temple?How did your mother drown?” She took a steadying breath. “There’s something you’re not telling me. I want to know what it is.”

He looked at her, the muscles tight in his jaw. “I can’t tell you.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but he held up his hand.

“I have to show you.”

She blinked at him. “All right.”

He studied her, and it felt like he was looking deep down to her core. “Is that a weddinggown?” he said softly.

“Yes.”

A quiet smile touched his lips. “I think it’s bad luck for me to see you. Though I’m glad I have.”

She gave him a hesitant smile back, and he flushed a little. “Meet me in the library,” he told her. “I know you have a key.”

Despite everything, she almost laughed. He bowed and strode on up the stairs.

She went back to her room, slipping out of the unfinished bridalgown and into a patterned gray dress.

“Did the Baron approve?” the seamstress inquired, laying the gown in the box with the rest.

“He did,” said Talia.

But she wasn’t thinking about the Baron.

Chapter Twenty-Six

WEN WAS WAITING FOR HER WHEN SHEstepped into the library, his tall form dark against the window. His expression was serious, his eyes hard. “Do you know about the Words of the gods?”

“They’re mentioned in the myths,” she said after a few moments of uneasy silence. She felt again that hidden power she’d sensed so strongly when she’d first discovered the library. “Words of power,given to the gods at the beginning of the world. The spirits learned them, too, and taught them to a few mortals, or so the story goes.”

Wen nodded. “The Words were written down in books. Kept hidden. Kept secret. Some say they can be found in any great library in the world. I found one of them. And I think my mother—and Caiden’s—found it, too.”

He turned to look at the left wall of the tower,and spoke three words in a language she had never heard before. The words sounded more like music than speaking; she could feel their power.

A doorway appeared in the wall, shimmering and black.

Talia drew a sharp breath.

“The Words of opening,” he said, answering her unspoken question. Intensity burned in his blue eyes. “You have to promise me something.”

Her throat constricted. “What’s that?”

“When you see—when you see what I’m about to show you, don’t do anything rash.”

Gooseflesh prickled up and down her skin. “I’ll try not to.”

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