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I jerked away, but she grabbed my shoulders and forced a hug on me.

“Here’s what you’re going to do,” she quickly advised. “You’ll sign the papers. Which will inconveniently disappear. And by then, we’ll see where the cards fall. Okay? Just sign. Save his life.”

I squeezed my eyes close. “That’s a betrayal. I made a vow, Pen.”

“A vow of the heart isn’t broken by a sheet of paper,” she assured me.

The front door opened. There was no time to come up with another solution. I needed to act.

“Fine,” I gasped. “Fine, I’ll sign.”

“Good.” She kissed my skull. “Good girl.”

And then she took off running and shouting. “Wait! Wwwaaiiittt!”

I stumbled after her, taking my time to fight back the nausea and brushing my hair back. My brothers would not see me as a weak, distraught mess.

Penny was urgently rattling off commands to the men in the entryway. I joined her, discreetly leaching off her strength.Together, we stared down two of the most powerful men in the city, united as sisters, and defied their edicts.

“It’s good to know you’ve come to your senses,” Sandro rumbled.

Leo watched me with a silent, skeptical look in his eyes.

I’ll never stop fighting you.They would not win. I didn’t know how, but they wouldn’t. As Heaven was my witness, they would not win this fight.

Chapter 38 – Serena

The sand was warm and cozy, even though the sun set hours ago. I stretched out, tired from my run. The horizon was bare, no pirate ship bearing down on the shore.

He should be here.

I’d been searching and searching.

The castle loomed behind me, voices beckoning me in terrible whispers. They told me that was where I belonged. My voice was hoarse from screaming at them.

The sea stole my heart.

I was his princess, and I belonged in the sea.

Sweeping a glance over the water, a sob cracked in my chest. The mermaid tail he joked I had was gone. I was caged to land again. My brothers, the King and Lord of the Empire, wanted me to stay.

To be safe.

Only my sister-in-law, the Queen of the Underworld, wanted me to be happy. She understood. She tricked the old king once, but it was only a matter of time before he discovered her treachery.

I had to find him. The old god of the sea was the one who protected me. Who cared for me.

Who loves me.

And I loved him.

I opened my mouth to scream for him, but before the noise cracked across the sky, a ship appeared. Three masts held sails. The wind whipped hard, driving my pirate straight to me. The king took me away, but I never doubted my pirate would find me.

Pirate!

“I’m here, princess.”

And there he was, forged by the sea and terribly beautiful. He moved across the water, walking over the waves. I couldn’t do that, not even in this strange world of castles and missing mermaid tails.