Page 49 of She Who Was Once the Sea

I pretended not to notice, but when I breathed in, I could smell the scent of his soap.

I was alarmed at how little of the map I recognized. It was so old that much of its contents were no longer accurate.

I should remember, I thought as I stared at the paper, brow furrowed, trying desperately to make myself recall what it was like living in that version of the city.

At least the water was familiar.

Blue veins cut through the city in every direction, branching between homes and markets before converging around the center. Garrett traced one finger along a faded line, following the movement with his eyes. It disappeared beneath a row of buildings I didn’t recognize, then reappeared farther east.

"The water was moved underground slowly," I explained, wishing that he’d look at me. "Not all at once, but piece by piece, until there were basically no accessible canals left."

Lucas nodded. "I thought that might be the point," he said. "Moving the canals underground meant that access to them became limited. It created artificial drought—wealthier men had all the water they needed. But the rest of the city…"

He trailed off.

I remembered the fights. I remembered watching from the fountain as families wandered the streets with buckets, looking for water.

And the more water Rossaia buried, the stronger Petra seemed to become.

"If she wanted the city dry, why not just remove the water entirely?" Garrett asked. "Why leave any access at all?"

I glanced at him, but he remained stubbornly focused on the map.

His hair was falling into his eyes. He pushed it away with one hand without looking up, revealing the sharp line of his cheekbone before the stubborn strands fell forward again.

I dragged my attention back to the table.

"She couldn’t," I said. "Not if she wanted humans to remain here."

It was so obvious that I almost felt foolish for never thinking of it before. Petra could have emptied Rossaia. She could have driven every human away, dried every well, buried every canal and left nothing behind but stone.

But she hadn’t. She’d left just enough. Just enough for humans to survive, if not thrive. Enough for life to continue, even if it was difficult.

She left enough water for people to fight over.

"It’s about control," I said, and Lucas nodded slowly.

Garrett frowned. "Maybe."

I glanced at him. "You disagree?"

"I don’t know."

He was quiet for a long time. And he still wouldn’t look at me.

Eventually, irritation got the better of me. "Care to explain?"

"I’m thinking." Finally, his eyes cut upward and locked on mine. His mouth curved upward.

I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back, which only caused his to grow wider. His entire face changed when he smiled like that. I’d noticed it before, but there was something different about seeing it here, surrounded by the dark robes and ancient books of the Fratelli. His eyes brightened until they were almost impossibly blue, and the worry that had pulled at his features seemed to disappear.

For just a moment, he looked completely open.

Then he looked back down, and I did too.

Lucas pulled a book from a pile beside the map and flipped through it until he found a marked page.

The earliest official records were written after the curse. By then, the relationship between my people and the humans had already deteriorated beyond repair.