Then we heard it, boots clacking down the steps. Guards were coming.
“Elowyn,” Arlo called from the hall, “we have to go. Now.”
My stomach sank and twisted. How was I to leave? To allow this to continue? To allow the people who showed me love and beauty and respect to suffer at the hands of the crown.
To allow my father to continue to inflict suffering on so many. I was leaving them all behind to fend for themselves.
“Go, little princess. Find your brother,”Aegir sang on the end of a single note, weak and fading.
And from my heart, with my song, I sang back to Aegir, “I already have.”
Chapter 42
On the silent sea, in the boat only big enough for two, Arlo paddled along the coast as Cedric had directed us to. North. Toward Thornley. The stars were shrouded behind cloud cover. How much longer until daybreak shined down and Hylos attacked?
If I could talk to him, send him a message or something. Anything. Maybe I could stop this.
“Find your brother.”Aegir’s words swam through my soul, to my heart, as my fingertips traced my mother’s prayer beads on my wrist.
If Hylos knew I was his sister, that he was right all along, that our paths had been intertwined since birth, then maybe the tides of destiny could change. We could save Aegir now that I knew where he was. I could warn him of the trap Calypstra had set, ready to ensnare him. This war could be stopped.
“I need to get back to Naiadon,” I said, my heart frenzied in my chest.
Arlo only rowed on, and on, and on. He said nothing.
“Arlo?” I pushed. But still nothing.
The bastard. He thought he could avoid me for the rest of my life?
“Fucking talk to me!” I screamed.
“And say what?” he snapped. “That I didn’t have the stomach to be like Ced? For courtier life, like the pathetic weakling I am? That I abandoned my duty to hide at sea? Trading everything to captain afucking cargo ship? That I abandoned my daughter for—” His voice broke, then faded to a bitter whisper. “All because I was too spineless. I gave up everything … only to go fuck the king’s daughter.”
The last sentence was a sword crunching past my sternum straight into my heart, leaving a gash gaping and vulnerable.
That was all I was?
Not a friend.
Not a partner.
But a fuck.
“You could have trusted me,” I stammered, staggering from the blow. “As I trusted you.”
“I cannot trust anyone!” he shouted.
Tears burned, threatening to fall, but I wouldn’t let them. Not now. Not for him.
“I can’t do this,” I said, realizing it. “I cannot leave everything behind.” I stood, rocking the boat with the movement, the sea stretching infinitely before me. Land, a distant dream, behind.
“Elowyn. Don’t be a fool. Sit down,” he said, stern but fear-laced. His honey eyes no longer beamed at me, obscured by this endless night. But that allowed me to see everything clearly.
I could not leave my birthright behind. Could not hide away and pretend like nothing was happening. All for what? What truly waited on the other side of this boat ride? A relationship with Arlo? Maybe it would have been enough if I was the woman I was before. But I knew the truth now. It was whistling through my bones.
I had to help the sirens. To help Oakhaven. Not flee.
“Elowyn,please.”
