My fingers brushed the hilt of the blade strapped to my thigh. I might not have mastered my mind or my magic, but with a dagger in hand, Aranare had made me dangerous.
The colorful coral beds surrounding the Thálassian palace stretchedbeneath us for what must have been miles, their brightness dulled to indigos, deep blues, and greens in the water. Soon, the coral dispersed, and our surroundings became unkempt. Sandy turrets wound below, rocks were scattered here and there, and dark seaweed clumps swayed with the current.
We hadn’t spoken since leaving Thálassa, and the tension between us was growing thicker. I kept my strokes smooth, calm, refusing to meet Finn’s gaze, although I’d seen him observing me in my peripheral vision a few times.
Finally, I broke the silence—if I was going to do this, I needed to know more about his plans. “So your dream told you the prophecy is on Santorini?” I pinned him with an incredulous stare.
He gave a low grunt, folding his arms across his sculpted chest.
I shot him a glare. “Seriously?”
“What?” Finn stopped moving, his tail beating sharply against the water as a muscle feathered in his jaw.
“I don’t want to be on this journey with you any more than you want to be here with me. But do you think you could set your bruised ego aside while we find the rest of the prophecy?”
“My bruised ego?” Finn’s eyes flashed onyx, and he laughed without warmth. “You never cease to surprise me.”
I ignored his comment, keeping my eyes ahead. “We’re here to find the prophecy. That’s all that matters.”
He let out a harsh breath, bubbles trailing upward. “Right. Because suddenly, none of it matters to you anymore.”
I forced my features into a mask. My heart hammered against the words I couldn’t say:Did you kill her? Did you take my grandmother from me?
“I never said it didn’t matter,” I replied, my tone cold. “I said I no longer cared for you.”
Finn’s jaw tightened. His strokes grew harder, tail flicking in sharp bursts. “If you think I wanted any of this—”
That cracked something in me. The ache. The anger. The unbearable weight of suspicion. “What, Finn? What is it that you’re not saying?”
“I— It’s nothing.” Finn shook his head quickly.
“Let’s just get this done. I’ll meet you at Santorini. I see no need to travel together.” I veered off, cutting to the right beneath an outcropping of rock.
“Morgana—”
But I was already on the other side of the rock face, slicing through the water as fast as I could, my muscles burning as I kicked into the gloom. At this moment, I didn’t care where I was going—only that it was away from him.
I didn’t slow until the burn in my chest became unbearable and my muscles screamed for relief. Releasing a frustrated breath, I took in my surroundings. The moonlit waters seemed darker without a companion by my side, but I kept going, moving through schools of pale fish as the seafloor fanned out beneath me.
Something caught my eye in the sand, and I slowed. It looked purposeful, man-made. Goosebumps formed on my fur-covered arms, and I rubbed them, kicking forward and almost colliding with a gleaming blue marble rock half-buried in sand.
I jerked backward, spinning around to take in my surroundings. In the dim light, I could still see the sapphire-colored stones and painted tiles scattered across the seabed, their cobalt patterns breaking through ribbons of sand. Once-grand columns were now fractured and leaning, and an altar at their center lay broken in two.
I drew in a sharp breath, drifting forward to trail my webbed fingers along the nearest pillar, its base scattered with fallen stones. A scream tore through my mind as my skin met the cold marble. I whipped around, clutching my temples with trembling hands.
What the hell?
I nearly gagged on my panic as curls of crimson mist wound through the ruins and snaked around my legs.
Is that blood?
I tried to shake the red substance from me, but it was everywhere, twisting through the water and hanging like claret shrouds over the crumbling temple before me.
An eerie silence clung to the place, and a chill raced over my skin. I hugged myself, exhaled slowly, and closed my eyes as a haunting cry seeped from the ruins, swelling around me.
Manannán, as I’d seen him in my visions, emerged in my mind, his tanned skin streaked with blood as he carved through bodies with a crimson-soaked blade. His olive eyes were narrowed on a figure in the distance—Mer Prince Kyano, crowned in glittering gold, with a vibrant jade tail, his dark eyes burning with fury. Around them, the sea bloomed red. My blood. Siana’s blood. I inhaled sharply as I noticed the lifeless body of a seal drifting just beyond the shattered temple, unnoticed by either man, both too blinded by their rage to see what they’d lost.
A touch on my shoulder, and the images faded. I spun around. Finn was floating behind me, his face pale with worry. Pháos hovered next to him, angling his head and chirping.
