A cold feeling spreads through my chest. “Who?”
“Callie Bennett.”
The name hits me like a slap.
“Callie,” I repeat flatly. “Your ex-girlfriend Callie. The one who refuses to take off your promise ring and looks at you like she wants to devour you whole.ThatCallie.”
“Her family’s been teaching her how to sail since she could walk,” Logan says, staying carefully neutral. “And Helen’s group trusts the Bennetts.”
My electricity crackles so much along my skin that I’m surprised my shirt doesn’t singe. Because of course it’s Callie. Of course the universe couldn’t give me a terrifying sea voyage without adding the one person guaranteed to make me feel like an outsider in my own relationship.
I want to demand that we find literally anyone else. But the logical part of my brain knows he wouldn’t do this without it being a last resort option that he truly believes will keep us alive.
“Fine.” I hate the word the moment I speak it. “But if she tries anything…”
“She won’t.” Logan cups my face, tilting it up to force me to meet his eyes. “Callie’s coming because we need her skills. You’re the one I love. You’re the one I chose.”
“I know.” And I do. Mostly.
“I love you,” he says, like it’s the only truth that matters. “No matter what I have to do or become to keep you safe, I need you to remember that.”
“I love you too.” I hold his gaze for a beat, then raise an eyebrow. “Even though you’re dragging me onto a boat with your delusional ex-girlfriend, my roommate who I’m keeping the world’s worst secret from, and a combat instructor with more knives than friends who once made a student cry just by looking at him.”
His mouth twitches, and he takes a step back. “Kieran made a student cry?”
“Kieran makes everyone cry. It’s basically his hobby.”
“Not everyone.” He gives me a boyish smile—a rarity from Logan—and shoulders two of the supply bags like they weigh nothing.
“Of course not.” I grab the remaining bags and blankets. “Logan Ashford, immune to all human emotion. How could I forget.”
His smile fades, and the mask clicks back into place, as if I said something wrong.
“Ready?” He turns away from me, looking out at the passage that stretches ahead of us—dark, cold, and smelling like wet stone.
“No.” I reach for his hand, and the second our fingers touch, a spark jumps between us, sharp and silver. His breath hitches, and just like that, the Logan I know and love is back. “But let’s go anyway.”
JADE
As the passage descends,the air becomes warm and heavy, with the unmistakable smell of salt.
“We’re close,” Logan confirms what my nose already told me.
He stops in front of an ancient door, the iron green with age. When he presses his palm to the center, the door shimmers out of existence, and the sight that greets us makes me forget how to breathe.
We’re standing at the edge of a cavern so massive it shouldn’t exist. The ceiling disappears into darkness hundreds of feet above us, and the walls curve outward like the inside of a giant’s skull. Water fills most of the space, dark and still, reflecting a glow of tiny bioluminescent sea creatures clinging to the rock.
And the boats. Gods, the boats. They bob on the underground lake, tethered to stone docks that jut out from the cavern walls.
If boats could talk, I’d apologize to them for having such little faith in them.
There’s an entire fleet, ranging from rowboats to larger vessels with masts and furled sails. The larger ones aren’t even boats. They’re ships, with carved railings, multiple masts, andhulls big enough to have rooms below deck. The wood gleams like it was sealed last week, the sails are pristine, and the whole fleet looks ready to launch at a moment’s notice.
I want to grab Logan by the shirt and ask him why he let me spiral about tiny sinkable death traps when he had an entire hidden navy down here.
We’ll have time for that later. Because right now, my gaze travels to the far end of the cavern, where a curtain of water cascades down from above. It shimmers with an otherworldly light, and through its translucent veil, I can make out the gray expanse of open ocean beyond.
“Holy shit,” I breathe.
