My eyes find their way back to my friends, and Doren’s already gesturing for me to follow. I blow out a nervous breath. Although it makes me incredibly uneasy, I feel it’s the least I can do since he seemingly signed the parchment for the guys, no questions asked.
My toes wiggle in the sand, and I take a wobbly step forward. Alamar holds his arm out, gesturing for me to go ahead.
Please, for the love of the stars, don’t let this be a trap.
I’m pretty sure if the God of the Sea feels like drowning me, he can.
Calm down. If Doren trusts him as much as he does, you can too.
He falls into step beside me, and for a while, he says nothing. Neither do I. I take in the experience of watching hip-high waves roll to shore as I walk farther into the Lost Sea.
“You push like a storm,” he says, finally breaking the peaceful silence.
I glance at him, frowning. “That’s a bad thing?”
“It’s not a simple thing. Storms force change. They reshape shorelines and cliffs, uproot what’s settled too deeply, drag things to the surface that were meant to stay buried. But they also exhaust themselves.”
I hum. “So you’re saying I’m going to burn out.”
“I’m saying that even the sea doesn’t rage without end.” He arches a brow at me before focusing his gaze back on the horizon.
“I don’t really have the option to slow down.”
“No, you don’t. But you do have the option to learn when to pull back. When to let the current carry what you’ve already set in motion.”
“Are we going to continue talking in sea metaphors?” I ask, and a faint smirk tugs at my mouth when he tosses his head back, laughing.
“They come quite naturally to me,” he says.
I let out a quiet breath through my nose.
“I don’t think I really have the option to pull back anymore. What I’ve set in motion…” I huff under my breath and run my fingers through the wall of water that now rises to my shoulder. “Well, let’s just say it’s going to make some waves.”
He chuckles and nods.
“It is, but you’re not alone in this. We’re going to ride the waves with you and your Valtrue.”
I peer at him and his easygoing smile. Yemi made the comment she heard he was a little rough around the edges when we were out at sea. I can see that, and the flooding the realm comment sort of confirms he has a side to him. Other than that, though, he seems very laid-back.
Neither of us pushes to continue the conversation and when he stops walking, so do I. We both stare ahead of us, and I take a shaky breath as I watch the sun kiss the sea.
It’s truly a breathtaking view.
“You’re nothing like you were in Oddian.”
That gives me pause, and I pivot my head toward him.
“What?”
His guilty smile causes more questions to brew in my mind.
“I’ve only ever received one message from the Messenger in my time, and that’s when they told me to help Doren and stay by his side. I never heard from them again, but I put my faith in them, and of course, Doren. Don’t get me wrong, I had my doubts, questions, and fears, but I continued to believe in him. Ithelped that he was always open and honest about everything he could tell me.
“When he asked me to deliver the book he wrote to the Oddian library, I couldn’t help my curiosity. I needed to see what was so special about this girl that a whole book had to be written for her and I had to map out my sea. Lo and behold, I tracked you down to the very first hot spring Evani made.”
Shock steals my voice for a good two seconds.
“The Goddess of Nature made my hot spring?”
