She had never been so glad to see the night sky as she came up, gasping for air. She paddled to shore, her muscles shaking with both cold and exhaustion. She sang as she walked, emboldened by her earlier success, and managed to magic most of the water from her clothes. The air was still cold, but she was no longer in immediate danger of freezing to death.
I need to find Papa.
She jogged the remaining distance home, bursting through the door with enough force that it slammed against the wall. Daland jumped up in surprise from his chair. “Senta! What is it?”
Sienna quickly closed the distance between them, wrapping him in a tight hug. “You’re safe.”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be? Why aren’t you at the Festival?”
“Erik,” she answered darkly.
Daland paled. “What about him? What has he done.”
She kissed him on the cheek. “It’s a long story, and I promise I will tell you later. Right now, I need to find Casper.”
“He left.”
“What? When?”
“Just a short while ago. I saw thePetrelleaving the harbor when I went up to refill the lamp. What has Erik done, Senta?”
No. He can’t just leave. Tomorrow is the eighth day. He won’t be able to set foot on land for another seven years. Forget about the smugglers; I can’t let him spend all that time believing a lie.
She spun on her heels, ignoring her father’s concerned questions, and ran out the door. She raced to the cliff where the overhang had been, straining her eyes over the water. It was thankfully a cloudless night, and in the moonlight, she could make out the outline of Casper’s ship, already well out to sea.
“CASPER!” she yelled, even though she knew he couldn’t possibly hear her. Her heart dropped to her toes. By the time she ran back into town and found someone to borrow a boat from, thePetrelwould be so far gone that she would never catch up before midnight.
She looked down at the jagged rocks protruding from the water below, mentally gauging the distance she would need to cover to clear them.
I can do it.
The music of the sea called, promising to catch her if she jumped. She could hear a chorus of voices in the back of her mind—Devri, her father, Jem, Casper—all yelling at her not to be reckless.
Sienna ignored them.
She walked back twenty paces, then turned around, tied her skirts up around her waist, sprinted forward…
And jumped.
Chapter eighteen
Broken
Casper
“CASPER!”The Winter wind carried Sienna’s voice over the distance, taunting Casper’s ears. He glared at the helm.
How long will it be until I don’t still hear her voice in my head?
“Um, Casp?”
The concern in Jem’s voice drew his attention. He looked over his shoulder to the receding shoreline. “What is it?”
His first mate was standing at the aft railing, looking back at Nivem’s coast. He pointed to the cliffs near the lighthouse. “Look.”
Illuminated by the glow of the lighthouse, Casper could just barely make out a pale figure standing on the cliff’s edge.
Sienna.
