His fingers flexed, then balled into fists.
“You can’t stay here tonight,” he said resolutely.
“What? Why?” My heart tripped in alarm. “But where else can I go?”
I didn’t stop to analyze the fact that as much as I wished to leave this place, spending a night anywhere else, away from Kye, seemed unthinkable.
He saw my distress and gentled his voice. “Maren, sweetheart, you and I will have a wonderful day together. We’ll have lunch. You said you liked scallops?”
I’d never actually voiced that. But he must’ve noticed that I always ate them all at dinner.
“I’ll get you a whole pile of them,” he promised. “We’ll go swimming, just as you wanted. You’ll teach me how to tread water.”
I exhaled a humorless laugh. “You’re way past that stage of learning, Kye.”
“Oh, but we can always tread it again, together.” He grinned, clearly trying to sweeten the bitter pill he was about to deliver. “Then you’ll leave to spend the night at Arnon’s palace.”
And there it was. The bitter pill.
“I’m not leaving,” I protested, acutely aware of the fact that escaping the glass palace was supposed to be my goal.
The thought of spending the night elsewhere filled me with anxiety I couldn’t explain. Was it because I didn’t really know Arnon and had never been to his palace before? Or was it because of the darkness that I feared to brace on my own, without Kye’s voice to comfort me.
The last notion was true, I realized, as much as it was disturbing. Where did this fervent dependence on him come from? How did I let it happen? How had I allowed my jailer to become my one source of solace and safety?
“Arnon was right when he said you should stay with him,” Kye admitted with a grim expression. “It’s not safe for you here. Never was. I’m selfish enough as it is to keep you here with me. But at least I’m in control of my own touch. Sadly, I’ve no control over those beasts. By keeping you here now, I’m subjecting you to danger, the full extent of which I can’t even name.”
“But we moved to the tower,” I argued. “It’s high from the water. Higher than anything.”
He shook his head, determinedly.
“What if they slither up the stairs?” he asked. “What if they break the tower? What if they make the wave rise high enoughto reach you? No. I can’t risk it.” He raised his hands in protest, refusing to allow even the idea of something like that happening to me.
“How can they make a wave rise that high?” I wondered.
He stepped away from me, tossing his hands up in the air.
“I don’t know. I’m not sure I want to know. But they have enough strength to break things, enough mind to organize.”
So, he had noticed too how coordinated the monsters’ attack was last night.
“How did they do it? They’re just animals, aren’t they? They’re not intelligent species,” I said before I remembered the voice again. At least one of those monsters could speak.
“The ocean is filled with wisdom, magic, and intelligence, my dear. There are wonders in its depths beyond our comprehension. The ocean is where all Olathana’s Ancient Ones live. It’s also home to its mother, Goddess Nanami.”
“Are you saying some ancient gods sent the monsters after me?”
The reasonable, practical part of me rejected any possibility of gods existing, let alone being concerned about me in any way. But a part of me that had been learning from all the magical, unbelievable things I’d witnessed in this world was open to allow for anything to happen. Nothing seemed too crazy or impossible anymore.
He rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know. I’ll need to talk to Arnon about it again. I hope he’ll find an explanation soon, with all his hags and the full royal library at his disposal. It’s not like he or his court would come to my palace to investigate it with me.”
“ButI’mhere,” I offered. “I’ll ask for more books to be brought here from the library. There must be some records from the times when those monsters rose to the surface before. We can read them together.”
He rested his gaze on me. His broad chest expanded with a deep sigh.
“You, my darling, are the best thing that has happened to me in a hundred years and possibly in my entire life. How can I allow you to sleep on a salvaged bed in an empty tower with murderous monsters lurking below when there is a safe, quiet bedroom fit for a princess waiting for you tonight?”
“Will you come with me to Arnon’s palace?” I hated how small my voice sounded, but the idea of going to bed without his lullaby disturbed me more than I could express or would ever admit to anyone.
