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I want her taste, her startled heat, the way her body clings to mine as the sea rises to take us from her world to mine.
She tastes of citrus.
Bright and shiny.
Like promises made on a summer’s dawn.
The whirlpool swallows us whole.
We tumble through waves and magic, the sea between worlds obeying my command, carrying us away like a favor owed.
When we breach into Nightfall, Castletide greets us with silence.
For a moment I regret taking her to this ruin of my once thriving keep.
The palace reeks of absence.
My people can feel this change as I can.
They know the SoulTakers are pressing closer, and I can’t help but feel as if I’m failing.
As if they’re simply waiting for my throne to fail.
I won’t let that happen. As much as I never wanted this duty, it is nonetheless mine.
I can’t let the Tidal Lands fall.
I step forward with my precious burden in my arms—with the one person who just might save us all.
Guilt washes over me and I allow it for one second—but that is all.
Whatever the Fates had in store for Phoebe Sewell, it no longer matters. Because she is here now, and I will not go back on my vow.
I will claim this tiny slip of a human.
And I will save my people with the bond we forge.
“Lord Kael.”
My inner thoughts are interrupted by my steward’s voice.
It’s thin, brittle as a gull’s bone. He comes near but refuses to meet my gaze.
“There are—there has been,” he hesitates.
“Tell me.”
My voice fills the hall like a storm front. Runes blaze under my skin, thrumming with the need to break or burn.
But I do not stop my movements. I keep on walking, ignoring the question I can feel coming from him.
“The north sluice failed at dawn. The eastern reefs bloom black, like oil. More nets have come up with dead silverfish. The people of the low stones taste ash in their breath. The mer-wardens say the currents run backward. And—” His mouth shuts.
The words die in his throat.
“Tell me, Aloysious, what do they say?”
“That the world is forgetting how to listen and that our Lord, please forgive me, master, they say our Lord has forgotten us,” he forges on.
