I stepped toward the edge of the pool. “How interesting…mind if I join?”
Derrick’s eyebrows furrowed. “Serafina, you cannot swim.”
I sat down at the edge and eased my feet in. The magic tingled around my skin as I dipped my legs into the glowing water.
I curled my fingers around the stone edge of the pool. I would not drown, my magic would protect me…hopefully. I could at least see the bottom of the pool, but that did not mean my toes would touch.
My eyes found Derrick’s discarded pants and shoes in the corner of the room but I quickly glanced away.
I needed to be in the water with him, skin to skin, just as I had been with Riyan in the real healing spring.
I pulled off my nightgown and tossed it in the corner of the room. I had already seen him nude and he had seen me. We were just humans in bodies.
This wasnothinglike the Darkest Night.
Just as I was about to shove myself off the edge, Derrick held out his hand. “Here, hold onto me.”
I banished my reservations and took Derrick’s hands as he eased me into the water. Magic swirled around my belly and then my chest as I dipped into the pool. Derrick locked his arms around my waist and pulled me in so my back was securely against his chest. My legs kicked limply in the water, but Derrick was tall enough to stand on the bottom of the pool. He was still too thin, but he had enough muscle in his arms and chest that I was not afraid of him collapsing again.
I let out a breath. My face was above the water. I was fine.
“Just imagine if we could relax like this all the time.” Derrick sighed.
I lifted an eyebrow. “Does anyone get to relax all the time?”
“Fraleigh does.” He chuckled. “Oh, to be the Great Sorceress, living in a palace of gold with every need provided for and only being called to work once a year. She surely got the better end of her arrangement with us.”
Arrangement? Isthatwhat he thought Fraleigh’s forced servitude was?
I tried to keep my voice pleasantly inquisitive instead of disgusted. “What do you mean?”
One of Derrick’s fingers swirled around a strand of my hair in the water. “We protect her, she protects us. You can imagine what the other kingdoms and empires would try to get their hands on her magic, but theypaythousands of marks for the blood bond enchantments instead of stealing the magic for themselves because the entire continent fears her.”
I swallowed. It was exactly as Fraleigh had said, but sounded different coming from Derrick’s mouth—like spreading balm over a festering wound.
“A good portion of Lycaster’s treasury comes from selling those blood bonds—more than you would want to think.” His muscles stiffened behind me. “But that is only one side of it. Everyone fearing Fraleigh means we do not have to spend what little money we have on armies or weapons of siege.”
Did Derrick just admit the entire Lycaster economy relied on selling brides to other countries? How much did the Hytons get just from selling off his sisters?
A tremor in Derrick’s left arm disturbed the water. “You have seen a map of the continent. The Sudrian empire is ten times our size and it is about to collapse. Rokuhama boasts a thousand ships in its navy and is ready to pick up the pieces the Sudrian rebels leave behind. The o-only thing keeping us out of all that c-conflict and from t-total financial collapse…is Fraleigh.”
The weight of his words sank into my chest as his back muscles twitched. His voice broke. “And all s-she has t-to do…is s-sit in her…golden palace.”
He was breaking down. I turned and wrapped my arms around him, pressing my cheek in the center of his chest. “Derrick, stop. Stop. I am here.”
His chin dropped to the top of my head. His jaw trembled. His throat vibrated against my forehead, like his words were stuck and fighting to get out. “I…fuck…I am s-so….fuck!” His hold on me tightened. “I am fucking scared! I am s-scared and weak a-and…!”
He started to shake. I needed to calm him down, but using my magic would make the crystals glow.
“Close your eyes,” I whispered. “Just close your eyes and breathe.”
As soon as his face was buried in my hair, I sent out a wave of magic, waking up the thousands of tears in the pool.
The tears thrummed with power as I sent them swirling into Derrick’s skin, each one a kiss of calmness. He let out a shakingbreath over my forehead and the harp music sang in my mind again.
I could hear those chains over those paper castle doors slipping down, one by one. Yes, it was working! Just like with Riyan, the magic in the water was healing him.
The invisible doors to Derrick’s mind slowly creaked open as harp music flooded out of the entrance. The power of the magic around me heated up the water as my magic pushed me toward Derrick’s mind. I traveled down the tether my magic created and entered the space between Derrick’s mind and mine—the dark gap between worlds.
