Page 44 of The Ocean's Heart
He looks up at me with bright eyes filled with hope. “Good news. So much good news.”
ChapterTwenty-Five
THALIA
“These are the coordinates, miss,” Harper calls from the crow’s nest.
I hurry out of the cabin to stare out to sea. This was where my father found the rowboat with me inside. Off the coast of Pincher Isle, an uninhabited rock that marked the rim of uncharted seas.
Seas that I was about to chart. The ship that Vaarin left me with had been traded in for a larger one, under contract to bring back new maps to a merchant in the western isles. He provided me with a cartographer and a small crew for my travels, and after a week of sailing, I was at the location my father had told me about.
I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, some kind of clarity, a revelation perhaps, not this crushing disappointment.
What did you expect, Thalia? For your mother to be treading water and waiting for you? She abandoned you, remember?
Or had she?
I was a child of human and sea fae, unable to live beneath the waves. Maybe she’d seen no other choice. Whatever the reason, I would find out. The past two months I’d gathered tales of sea folk living beyond the Pincher Isles. Of ways to summon them with bloody bait and music. I had both on hand. I was sure I’d be able to enlist their help in locating my mother.
Vaarin exiling me had been the best thing, because if he’d asked me to stay, then I might never have taken my discovery voyage. Yes. Losing him was for the best.
“You all right, Captain?” Freya, my second, joined me at the pulpit. “Ready to venture forth into uncharted seas?”
I summoned a smile. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
“Then give the command.”
A frisson of excitement raced up my spine, not just at the possibility of finding my sea folk family but also at exploring the uncharted waters. And after everything I’d lost, why shouldn’t I allow myself the joy?
I dropped Freya a nod and turned, ready to call out for Barnaby to hoist the sails when Freya let out a shriek and pointed out to sea. “Whirlpool!”
I followed her gaze to the swirling vortex that had opened in the ocean ahead of us. It swirled with color, glowing softly.
“That’s no whirlpool!” Barnaby said.
“No, it isn’t.” My heart beat hard and fast, unbidden hope flaring in my chest. “That’s a vortex.”
Could it be…?
A figure shot out of it—male, muscular, and large, dark hair streaming out behind him. And, oh Thalor, my heart felt fit to burst because Vaarin was here.
Had he come to find me?
Had he changed his mind?
Anger licked at my chest, a reminder of how he’d so callously dismissed me, and my joy winked. I hadn’t deserved to be treated that way.
He didn’t deserve me, and I’d reminded myself of this over and over during the past couple of months. Yes, I’d lied, I’d planned to deceive him, but I’d done it for my people, something I knew he would have done too. If he’d given me a chance to explain, then I would have told him that getting to know him and falling in love with him had changed everything. But he’d discarded me so quickly it had me doubting everything that I’d felt, and now he was here, rising out of the sea like a fucking god, all rippling muscles and taut abdominals, and damn the tides, I still wanted him.
He climbed onto my ship, dripping wet and glorious, but as soon as his feet hit the deck, the water clinging to him evaporated.
“Um…Thalia?” Freya stepped closer. “Is that?—”
“Yes.” I’d shared my woes more often than I cared to admit over whiskey or ale. My crew knew my story. They knew that we were being graced by the king of the Northern Sea and as he approached, they made themselves scarce, giving us the illusion of privacy while being close enough to eavesdrop.
I crossed my arms and fixed a glare on my face, no difficult task because I was recalling that morning on the boat, the way he’d simply turned his back on me and walked away after I’d shared my body with him, after I’d offered him my heart. My throat pinched. I could do the same to him now—turn and walk away. But no, I was better than that, and…and I wanted to look at him, to drink him in. Even if it was only for a moment.
He came to stand a few feet from me, and the urge to move toward him had me locking my knees.
