My entire body is trembling in anger, shame, regret. Then I remember the lock of hair that the Sea Court guards cut, and wonder if they did some kind of tracking spell.Ibrought them here, and spent too long underwater wasting time that wasn’t even needed.
“Did they leave anything? A note, something?”
“They did not.”
I want to scream, break something, explode. I want to turn back time and stay here, stay with her. Regret is tearing me apart, breaking me.
No, I have to think. This had to be the Sea Prince’s doing, not the Sea King’s. I gulp as much air as I can, create an air bubble around me, and transcend.
I’m back in that same room, but the king is no longer here.
Instead, five guards point tridents at me.
21
ZIVEN
Ilearned to climb the walls of the Krastel castle by copying the training they gave the substitutes, imagining that I’d need to evade assassins one day—and I was right, even if I didn’t need to jump out of a window to save my life. I never thought I’d be going to the top of a strange fae castle that looks like a hill with a cliff, but here I am.
The top of the castle is a jagged rock, and I find Marlak’s sister there, just like I predicted, looking at the landscape below her, her dark hair lit only by the trail of stars in the sky and the partially covered moon.
She shudders and turns around when I approach her. “What are you doing here?”
“What a coincidence. I was going to ask you the same question.”
She snorts and looks away. “How did you find me?”
I sit by her and shrug. “I tried to imagine what kind of place a bird would seek.”
“A monster bird?”
“No. Any bird.”
Without turning to me, she asks, “Do you hate me?”
“I…” I hesitate for a second, afraid she’ll be offended, angry, or something, but at the same time, she’ll notice if I spend too much time trying to think. “Don’t know you well enough to either like or dislike you.”
She finally looks at me, eyes narrowed. “You’re human.”
I truly don’t understand what she means by that. “And?”
“You could lie.”
Fine. That makes some sense. I say, “I had no reason to do that.”
“Can you tell me a lie?” Her eyes widen in something akin to childish wonder. “Say something completely absurd?”
“The sun is shining above us.”
She smiles. “Something else. More absurd.”
“I’m a pink dog with green stripes.”
Mirella lets out a laugh that fades too soon, giving way to a gloomy expression. “You’re right that it’s obvious.”
“Sometimes it isn’t obvious, if it’s close to the truth.”
“I see. Why did you follow me?”
