Page 68 of Beneath the Haunting Sea

A humorless smile touched Blaive’s face. “Ofher.”

Talia bristled.“There’s nothing—”

“Nothing going on? No kissing in the hall when you think no one’s looking, no purchasing of extravagant horses, no making a mockery of your future with Wen? Don’t you dare claim there’s nothing going on.”

“You haveno rightto address me like that.”

“I have every right, Miss Dahl-Saida.” Blaive shifted her glance to Caiden, though she kept talking to Talia. “I am Caiden’soldest friend. His dearest friend. It’s you who has no right.” Her curls trembled around her temples. “My father’s growing old, as well as yours. I’ll inherit soon. I won’t be able to manage everything myself.”

Caiden stared at her. “Blaive—”

“I wouldn’t need to stay there,” she continued, cutting him off. “I’ll only need to hire a competent steward, and visit once or twice a year, to make surethey’re handling it properly.” Her green eyes caught his brown ones, and Talia felt something rippling between them, a connection that was broken now, and mostly forgotten, but had once been strong.

His face grew taut, sharpening the angle of his jaw.

“Your father wrote to me last month,” she said softly. “Told me to come, hinted that the Ruen-Dahr needed a new mistress. Make him proud, Caiden.Let me stay here with you. It’s what we always planned, after all.”

Rage hardened every line of Caiden’s frame. “My father had norightto invite you here. You might as well pack your bags and leave this evening, Blaive. It will save you future disappointment.”

She smiled. “Does your father know? About Talia?”

“There’s nothing to know,” Talia objected, but neither of them was paying attentionto her.

“If you think for one second that I woulddreamof marryingyou—”

“You’ll do what your father tells you to,” Blaive snapped, “like you always have.”

He shut his mouth, eyes blazing fire.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me,” said Blaive, gathering her taffeta skirts. “I believe I’m late for dinner.” And she swept down the stairs in a haze of righteous fury.

Talia stared after her, shocked.She disliked Blaive more than she thought possible, but she was also a little awed by the girl’s tenacity.

Caiden was obviously rattled. He stood there vacantly staring for a solid minute, before at last bowing vaguely in Talia’s direction and retreating upstairs.

Talia took a breath and went into her room, collapsing in the window seat and ringing for one of the maids to bring her dinner. Shehad no wish to encounter Blaive again.

She dreamed of the boat from the hidden cove, upright and whole, adrift in a dark sea. A patchwork sail swelled to catch the wind. She was standing at the tiller, guiding the boat through the black waves.

The sea began to groan, and a host of shadows rose from beneath the water. They were clothed in gray and bound in chains and every one of them was screaming,though they made no sound. At their head a goddess rode on the back of a sea serpent. She wore a crown of bones and fire, and the Star shone bright from her finger.

A wave crashed against Talia’s boat, and black water enveloped her. Chains wrapped around her ankles, dragging her down and down and down. No matter how she fought, she couldn’t get free.

The goddess’s laughter rang in her ears,and she could see nothing before her but shadows, and death.

Talia jerked from sleep, skin drenched in sweat. She got out of bed, lit a candle, and changed into a fresh nightgown, splashing water on her face and willing her pulse to return to normal.

Outside the window the clouds had ebbed away, stars showing white in the fathomless dark. She unlatched the casement and leaned out into the night.Icy air raced into her lungs, and away out over the sea, she heard music. It was filled with longing, and danger, and impossible sorrow. She tried not to listen.

The boat from the hidden cove. How had she not remembered that yesterday—no, two days ago—in the mirror room? Was it possible she was meant to use that boat to sail to Rahn’s Hall and free her mother? She couldn’t think about the otherpart of her dream—the dead rising from the sea, chains around her ankles. Death.

She shivered in the frigid wind, but didn’t pull the window shut.

She could feel her fate like an inescapable noose, every moment cinching tighter. The gods were giving her all the pieces. She just had to figure out how to put them together.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

CAIDEN WASN’T AT DINNER.

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