Page 57

The words carry none of the distance he has been hiding behind for weeks. They sound like what they always were underneath it all. Fear.

“I know you would have.” I move closer until the ward presses softly against the broad curve of his tentacle. “But I didn’t come all the way out here because I wanted to leave.”

His gaze remains fixed on me.

I think of Saltweather, of my grandmother’s cottage, of the library and Hattie and Marta. None of those things have stopped mattering. Choosing Sigurd does not erase them. Loving the life I had doesn’t mean I have to give up on a different future.

I came into the abyss believing everything down here was something I had to survive. Somewhere along the way, that stopped being true.

“I want you,” I tell him. “Not because of the claim, and not because I’m trapped here. I want the life that comes with you.”

The tentacle against the ward tightens slightly, careful even now. Sigurd lowers his head until one enormous eye is level with me. The silence between us no longer feels like something he is using to keep me away.

“There is a cavern nearby,” he says eventually. “Deep enough that I can complete the claim without hurting you.”

My heart starts beating harder, but the choice itself feels calmer than anything has in weeks. Lotan is gone, and Saltweather is safe. Sigurd is finally waiting for my answer instead of fearing it.

I swim closer until only Maren’s thin layer of magic remains between us. “Then take me there, Sigurd, and claim me properly.”

18

The Settled Magic

Sigurd & Valerie

For a few seconds after Valerie asks me to claim her, I stay where I am, one tentacle resting against the thin ward around her. She has already given me the answer I was too afraid to hear in the Great Hall. Questioning it now would only be another way to delay. I curl the end of my tentacle around the ward and draw her carefully against my side, watching the magic shimmer where it meets my skin.

“The cavern isn’t far,” I tell her as I turn away from the fortress. “The current gets stronger beyond the trench, so stay close until we’re inside.”

Valerie glances into the dark water ahead and braces one hand against the ward. “Then take me there. I’ve had enough abyssal politics for one day.”

A laugh nearly escapes me, absurdly inappropriate after I almost killed a leviathan. I swallow it and carry us away from the damaged transit doors instead. I keep her tucked close enough that my body takes the strongest part of the current.

Black rock closes around the trench as we enter a narrower passage. The flow begins pulling upward through a fissure in the stone. After testing its strength, I guide us inside. Valerie starts swimming with the current, adjusting naturally whenever the water shifts. Within moments I no longer need to watch every movement of the ward.

The passage widens farther up, where a faint wash of light along the stone reveals the cavern ahead. I angle us toward the surface and emerge beneath a high dome. Here, the pool lies undisturbed by the currents outside.

Valerie stays beside me while I draw the kraken inward. My shifted body recedes beneath the water. Like this, I can stand with the surface high against my chest, leaving two tentacles loose behind me. She watches the entire change without looking away.

“There’s air here,” I tell her once I am steady again. “When I break the spell, you’ll drop into the water. I’ll catch you.”

She presses her palm to the barrier and meets my eyes. “I know you will, Sigurd. Break it.”

I close one tentacle around the ward until Maren’s magic fractures. Water rushes into the space around Valerie. I catch her before she can sink, hauling her against my chest while she gasps at the sudden temperature.

“That is freezing.” She pushes wet hair from her face, then catches me watching her too closely and gives me a knowing look. “I’m breathing, Sigurd. You can stop looking at me like I’m about to expire.”

The last time I put venom into her body, I watched her struggle for air with no way to undo what I had done. I still need several steady breaths before that memory loosens its grip. But Valerie refuses to let me disappear into it. She slides a hand around the back of my neck and pulls me down until her mouth meets mine.

The kiss wipes out most of the sensible things I intended to say. Salt lingers on her lips, and the wet fabric between us feels suddenly intolerable.

Valerie breaks the kiss only long enough to tug irritably at her shirt. “These have to go.”

“I agree,” I tell her, and the eagerness in my answer makes her smile.

“You could have mentioned that before spending several weeks pretending you didn’t want me.”

“I was attempting restraint.”