Isla brightened at the prospect of action. “Great. I’ll talk to Dorothea.” She turned on her heels and headed for the door.
Bri reached for her arm. “Isla, wait! It’s the middle of the night. We’ve been traveling all day, and you literally took out a pack of savage thieves single-handedly.” Arden grimaced at Bri’s words. “You can talk to Dorothea and make all sorts of plans in the morning, but right now, you need rest.”
Isla’s shoulders dropped. Of course, Bri was right—though she couldn’t imagine being able to sleep right now. There were too many thoughts flying through her head.
“Alright, fine,” she conceded with a sigh.
They worked out sleeping arrangements with August and Damien and quickly settled in for the night. Despite what she had thought, Isla fell asleep almost instantly, a piercing gray stare gazing back at her as she closed her eyes.
Chapter Eight
Kai
Afewdaysonthe water was exactly what Kai needed to clear her head after coming back to a world she never thought she’d see again.
Life was a fickle thing. Unpredictable, like her oceans. One moment, the sea might seem peaceful, serene, perfect—as if it were meant to coexist with the world around it. But in an instant, in a single breath, chaos could break the surface like a fierce whirlwind piercing the still waters. That was how she had felt when woken from her slumber and thrust into this new world.
She couldn’t speak for the other elementals, but Kai desperately missed her time among the humans on Iona. The years they had lived with the people left a mark on her, and the shame she carried for the part she’d played in the kingdom falling into disarray a thousand years ago still clung to her heart. She often believed she felt things more tumultuously than the others; perhaps it was her curse, being so easily moved and tossed to and fro, like a ship on the waves.
Waking up in the depths of the sea, not knowing what year or decade orcenturyshe was in, and being flooded with memories of her last years awake had been overwhelming. Kai put on a brave face, but finding Jade had filled her with relief so strong she could’ve cried. Her companion had always been the most grounded and stable; Jade calmed her and kept her rooted when she felt like she was drowning.
Which was ironic, considering she couldn’tdrown.
Kai leaned into the wooden railings at the bow of the ship. The sun was starting to set over the horizon, casting the sky and sea in hues of pink, gold, and deep purple. Closing her eyes, she opened up her other senses. The wind whipped around her hair and tunic, the salt from the sea tickled her nose, the waves crashed gently against the bottom of the boat.
This was peace. This was freedom.
“Kai!” Jade’s husky voice called from behind her. “They’ve spotted land. We’ll be in Karstos by morning.”
She straightened. This had to be the kingdom they would findhimin, but she wasn’t sure exactly where. It was also one step closer to Aataran, the mountains that the ethereal whisper had spoken of to both her and Jade when they had awoken.
The sailors aboard theSea Urchinhad been incredibly accommodating and never questioned the sudden appearance of the two women or the strange request Kai had made to veer off their intended path—Kai made sure of that, of course. Her ability to place thoughts into the minds of others, make them more willing and compliant to follow her orders or turn a blind eye, often came in handy when she wanted to go unnoticed. Upon luring in the ship and meeting the men, she’d ensured they wouldn’t know who orwhatshe and Jade were; the crew believed they were simply two innocent women needing passage to Karstos.
It wasn’tmanipulation. It was convenient.
She and Jade had spent the past three days learning how their world had evolved in the last millennium. Crew members told them of changes in leadership over the various kingdoms, wars and divisions among groups that still plagued the humans, and vast technological advances—such as pipes that allowed water to be pumped directly from a well into a bathing chamber. Some of the information was interesting, but the knowledge was mainly a necessity so they would blend into society.
Although, she did want to learn more about those magical pipes.
Another thing that caught their attention was the recent unrest in Karstos. The late king had established a neutral, peaceful port on its eastern coast for all three kingdoms—Karstos, Evonlea, and Ara Mir—to be able to travel to and trade with one another. Since his death, it had become wildly abused by his heir.
Practically overnight, the new King of Karstos had gone from a generous and ambitious—albeit young—ruler to a greedy, power-hungry tyrant who cared nothing for his people or keeping the peace among the kingdoms. The sailors told Kai and Jade how two years ago this young king had started imposing heavy taxes on anyone who traded with Karstos—harsher than any ruler before him. He was keeping a portion of the profits for his personal endeavors and threatening those unable to make their required payments with imprisonment and death. Turmoil and fear ran rampant. The king was taking advantage of the people’s dependency on their ports and the fact that many needed to trade at this centrally located spot to make a living. Lately, he’d even begun ordering intrusive, often violent raids on ships and trading ports all along the coast to ensure citizens followed his orders.
Kai kept this information tucked away. She didn’t know why the Aether had called them, but she knew how dangerous men with unchecked power could be.
Other than that troubling news, what intrigued both Kai and Jade were stories the crew told of the lost island of the gods and the deities that used to dwell there. While the elementals were not “gods” as the people often believed, she still knew the crew referred to herself and her fellow elementals. Naturally, Kai wanted to know what glorious legends had been spun about them after disappearing from the earth.
As the sun set and the waters churned restlessly under the stars, the crew gathered on the main deck, as had become their nightly tradition. They passed around small wooden cups of watered-down ale, gazing out at the dark sea and sharing tales of the mythical beings.
“I heard they used to go to the lost island and eat the humans that lived there,” one man said.
“Iheard the fire-breathing one made a mountain erupt, and that’s why only gods can live there now.”
Fire-breathing?Kai scoffed. If only Aidan, the fire elemental, could hear this.
“I read this one account from a sailor over a thousand years ago who met the water goddess.” That piqued Kai’s interest. “He wrote that she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen, but also the most vengeful. She went out on his ship once and the entire crew fell in love with her. When they got back to shore where their wives waited for them, they blamed the sea temptress for seducing them and scorned her. She was so angry she capsized their ship with a storm and all of their treasures were lost to the sea. Some of the men even said the drinking water in each of their wells was tainted with salt and unusable for a year.”
Ah, yes. Shehaddone that. Not her proudest moment.
