Lucky, by all accounts.
I hide my own limp. Bear has enough to tend—besides, my pulsing ankle and bruised ribs are nothing compared to the others, and I don’t think anyone would take kindly to the pirate stealing the medic’s attention away from the noble folk who need it more.
The sun has begun to sink toward the trees. The uninjured had returned to the ship and brought extra hands to move the fallen and wounded, and as they pack everyone up to head out, Rune lets them know we plan to stay behind to scout the cenote again.
“If we aren’t back by sunset, don’t come looking until the sun rises.”
Hopefully, they won’t need that instruction.
Rune doesn’t comment on my slower pace. Either he doesn’t notice because he’s just as tired, or he pulls back on purpose, keeping his steps short to keep pace with me.
The white-noise of the waterfall slowly returns as we near, growing until we’re facing the massive cavern again. The walls are steep, the drop long. Even if we wanted to climb down, there’d be no way back up. Rune eyes the water. It’s a gorgeous, clear blue. Seaweed and water foliage float in the bottom, disguising little darting movements. Fish, maybe. From here, they look small, but the water and the distance will warp any perspective.
Rune chews at his lip. “Otto, how much rope do we have?”
“I’ve got fifty feet,” the boy says. “There’s probably a hundred more being packed up right now.”
“We’ll have to get it.”
“We can’t climb down,” Elio argues. “Even if we had a good way to secure it, we can’t trust the ground here. Whatever we tied the rope to could just pull up.”
Rune’s hands go to his belt. “I know.”
I feel my eyes go wide as he shucks off his belt, then pulls his shirt over his head.
“What are you doing?” The words spill out of me. There’s no way I can climb down a hundred and fifty feet of rope right now.
He throws the shirt at me, bathing me in a cloud of salt and oranges. The fabric is warm from the heat of his body. “To step is to leap,” he says simply.
I again refuse to let myself gape at his shirtlessness, though the broad plane of his chest is no less impressive in the light of day. Smallcuts line his arms and there’s a shallow wound at the tip of his shoulder. It only takes a moment before I catch up to what he’s saying.
“Rune, youcan’t—”
“—you guys keep an eye on Odi for me, yeah?” His eyes are bright as he smirks.
Then he jumps.
I lunge for him, but an iron grip chains around my forearm, jarring my sore ribs. I whimper and pull out of Tavi’s hold.
“Shit,” Elio says under his breath.
I drop to my knees, scooting to peer over the edge. “We have to go after him!” There’s no way he’ll be conscious after the impact. The height alone could kill him, not to mention the monsters that may wait below. The water still ripples with where he went down. I hold my breath, counting the seconds before he comes back up.
But he doesn’t.
Light-blue scales flicker beneath the surface, surrounding him, and my heart’s in my throat not knowing if the creature is curious or hungry or ready to rip the sinew from his bones for entering its territory.
A long tail breaches the water, curling up and out before splashing again. The cyan fin is gorgeously frayed, with trailing tendrils and iridescent scales. The shape is familiar, at once calling to mind the shadow in the ocean the day Rune brought me ontoThe Gilded Hart.Tavi and Elio haven’t moved. They’re tense, but not worried. Rune’s voice floats through my head.
I’m a strong swimmer.
The pieces collide. The way he dragged me from the ocean’s grasp. The mistleroot from Nareth. The royal seal I didn’t recognize on his desk. Hell, even his build and bright blue, ocean wave hair.
“He’s a siren?” I don’t know who I’m asking. I can see him now, through the water. The clearest, most stunning blue trailing behind his powerful body. The relief weighs me down alongside pulsing pain and the absence of fear. He’s okay. We’re okay. We’re going to live through this day.
Bear kneels next to me, clinking as he adjusts his pack full of centipede talons. “I mean. Technically? He’s a siren prince.”
PLAYING CHICKEN WITH CLAMS
