Page 15 of The Ocean's Heart
Finally, I picked up the oars and set to work.
He sat across from me, his muscled frame taking up all the room and too much of my attention.
I made sure to return my gaze to the horizon each time it strayed to him, checking the stars every now and then to ensure we weren’t straying off course.
“Where did you learn to row?” he asked.
Shit. Princesses did not row their own boats. “I…I had the head of guard teach me. We have ships…But you know that.”
“I do.”
I glanced down at him to find him watching me with narrowed eyes.
Had I sparked suspicion?
His eyelids slipped closed for a beat, and his chest rose and fell a little too erratically.
Something was wrong. “King Vaarin?”
He groaned. “I fear I must leave you for a moment,” he said. “I must take a few breaths beneath the waves. The exertion from the…the…” His eyelids fluttered, and he went limp.
Fuck! I secured the oars and then made a grab for him. “King Vaarin? Wake up!” I shook him, or tried to, but the man was like a monument of stone, and even a hearty slap did nothing to move him. I’d have to tip him into the sea.
I unhooked an oar and used it as a lever, managing to get him over the edge of the boat, the whole thing tipping beneath his weight. I had to act fast to push him over before I went in with him. I dropped the oar and shoved him with all my might.
He slipped into the sea, and the boat rocked. I lost my balance and hit the deck on my ass. There was a softplop,and my heart shot into my throat.
The oar!
It was gone. No!
How would I row with only one oar?
Oh…shit.
I peered over the edge of the boat at the spot where I’d dropped the sea king.
There was nothing to do now but wait and hope that King Vaarin would be back soon.
ChapterNine
THALIA
Iwas drifting off course, and there was nothing I could do about it. Panic was a live, writhing force in my chest. I used the single oar to fight the current as best I could, but as the minutes dragged by, my hope dwindled.
Where was King Vaarin? Surely he should have recovered and been back by now?
But what did I know about the sea fae? Only the most superficial of things, things they wanted us to know.
Things like the fact that the royals could stay on land for days, if need be, but the song that he’d sung? I didn’t know about that. It had drained him to the extent that he was forced to go into the waves.
He’d be back.
I just needed to wait.
A dark shadow passed over Thalor’s silver face, hiding the moon from view and leaving me floating in endless darkness. With thirteen moons, each chasing Lyra, the daughter sun, across the skies, you would hope to see more than one night watcher in the sky, but this far north, with the days short and skies wreathed in clouds, only Thalor succeeded in making himself known.
A splash starboard had my pulse kicking up. I peered into the darkness and was about to call out when my scalp tightened in warning.
