41
RUNE
In all my years, I have never known the peace I feel like I do in this very moment. Odi sits beside me, her head resting on my shoulder as I wrap an arm around her waist. The ocean stretches wide and endless before us, sapphire waves rolling in slow rhythm, each crest catching the last of the sun and scattering it in shards of light. Ruby and ripe orange bleed across the horizon, spilling into streaks of liquid gold that ripple over the water’s skin like fire poured onto glass.
The sky is a living canvas, billowing clouds shifting with every heartbeat, colours deepening, softening, melting into one another. Salt lingers in the air, and even though I can’t take my eyes off the sea, I’m very aware of the woman in my arms. She’s warm, and soft in all the right places.
Ivor and what’s left of his crew are bound and gagged under the watchful scowl of Tavi. I breathe deep, dragging in silent but salty air. My body aches in places I didn’t know existed, but the immediate threat of dying is over now, and the moment I get back toThe Gilded Hartand my crew are safe, I’ll be sleeping for as long as the sea will let me.
I lean down to press a kiss to the top of Odi’s head. Her dark brown waves are silky against my mouth. She burrows into my side, her left hand resting on my thigh. Behind us, with its still sealed door, sits the cavern leading to the treasure. My chest twinges at the thought of never opening it, of giving up that last shred of hope. Yet, this time when I put those feelings aside, they don’t hurt as much.
Perhaps I’ll never have answers. No clues, no solid tie to the elementals I share blood with. And I need to accept that. I do accept that.
I slip my free hand into Odi’s, weaving our fingers together, holding on like she’s the anchor in the waves. Treasure means nothing—relics, foolish hopes, any of it—if she’s not by my side. She outshines it all.
Grains of sand dance across the shore as the wind picks it up, taking it on a journey into the sea. Odi tips her head to look at me. “Where to, Captain?
“ToThe Gilded Hart,” I murmur.
She offers me a soft smile, returning her gaze towards the ocean. “Would your crew accept someone like me, if I stayed?”
Her question lingers between us, soft but heavy. She says she’s happy to be on the water, but I wonder if it’ll be enough. The sea took much from her, yet it’s still in her blood. No matter how far she runs, I think a part of her will always belong to the tide, but I know what her soul truly longs for.
“You mean someone who is fiercely brave, and knows how to put a monster down?” I pull her closer. “I think they’ll be just fine.”
Gentle waves crash against the shore, one after the other, hissing as they fall away, when something on the surface a little further out draws my gaze. My brow pinches as I try to make out the shape. A hallucination from all the adrenaline leaving my body . . . surely.
Yet, I find myself standing before I realise.
“What is it?” Odi says, standing too.
Something stirs in the surf. The swell thickening, rising higher and holding its shape when it should have broken.
I turn to her, squeezing her hand once. “Wait here.”
Then I’m walking towards the figure like my feet have given me no choice. My blade clinks at my side with every step, matching the thud in my chest. The sea climbs into a form I know isn’t possible, and yet it happens before my eyes. A woman, born of water, her body rolling and shimmering with every surge. Her hair tumbles about her like strands of tiny diamonds, her limbs nothing but flowing current. Her eyes. Deep sapphire blue. Fixed on me.
Mother.
My chest constricts. Bones aching as my ribs wrap around my heart in self protection.
She’s here.
For ten years I’ve searched for her. Clung to the hope that maybe if I sailed the seas long enough I would find her again. And each year that passed that hope grew into something hard, and painful. But as she hovers in front of me, every wall I’ve built to keep myself safe falls away.
She drifts close enough that the ocean spray cools my face. A hand of foam reaches, fingerssculpted from the tide itself. She cups my cheek with a touch that’s both there and not. Salt and brine burn through me, the scent a core memory blooming to life. For a breath I forget the battles, the blood, the weight.
“Mother,” I whisper.
Her eyes say a thousand words but her mouth makes no sound. I choke back the sob forming in my throat as her thumb brushes against my skin.
Then as quickly as she formed, she slips back into the ocean, and I’m left staring at the sea with a different kind of ache in my chest. Wondering if I’ve dreamt the whole thing.
When the tide pulls back, it leaves behind two items on the shore. My breath hitches as I lean down to scoop them up. A bottle with a letter, and a necklace.Odi’s.
I grip it firmly in my hand, taking a second to breathe, as I focus on bringing my hammering heart to a steady thud. Emotions crash through me as I glance over my shoulder to Odi who waits patiently back up the sand. But one soft smile from me has her on the move. I turn to face her when she reaches my side.
“Are you alright?” she asks, voice laced with genuine care.
