Page 19

Chapter Seven

Hours of laughter and fun quickly faded. The look in Caspian’s face, the haunted shadow in his eyes, set her entire body on edge. He hadn’t fooled her over dinner, but she cast it aside, wanting to believe his dour mood stemmed from issues at the dock. Hoping those sailors struck a nerve and that his dark countenance was not due to something more dire. Yet, as dinner continued, she couldn’t help but notice the strain in his smile. The faint lines at the corners of his mouth that appeared when he forced an expression he didn’t quite feel. No smile reached his eyes, which remained stormy. On occasion, she caught him lost in thought, but held her tongue despite the need to understand what was happening.

Wind rattled the door in the jamb, an ominous warning rapping at the wood. Beyond the cliff, the waves crashed with renewed violence. She hoped Brack made it home before the rain came in. She smelled the moisture in the air, the electric herald of a brutal pounding.

The brandy in the glass.

The solemn weight around Caspian.

“Does it have to do with you going directly to the tunnel?” Aria asked, breaking the silence that seemed to go on endlessly.

Painfully.

Caspian motioned to the sofa. “Let’s sit.”

She nodded, allowing him to guide her to the small cushioned seat. It was a narrow piece of furniture, and when he took the seat beside her, his knee rested against hers. A strange, pleasant sensation slipped through her, a tingle and a flutter that caught in the back of her throat. She kept the newfound heat that settled in her core to herself, dismissing it as burn from the brandy.

“You asked me yesterday what Dima wanted with me.”

“You said it was convoluted.” She lowered the glass to her knee and tried to read his expression. “Do you have some connection to her?”

He lifted his snifter, muttered, “In essence,” and drained the brandy.

Raindrops pinged against the window. Over the water, the first bolt of lightning illuminated the bellies of dark, stirring clouds. Aria’s skin pebbled with tiny bumps and an uncomfortable tingle trekked down each vertebrae. A frighteningly blank expression shrouded Caspian’s face, leaving her with the feeling she sat beside a stranger.

Such a volatile contrast to the reaction of her body to the simple touch of their knees.

“How…what is your connection with her?”

Caspian raked a hand through his hair, but the mussed locks fell back over his forehead.

“I never told you about my parents.” He leaned forward to place his empty snifter on the narrow table in front of the sofa, then remained hunched over. He folded his hands between his knees and shook his head. As Aria watched him, foreboding made her heart race. “The full story about me.”

“The Forgotten Prince. You did tell me.”

“No, princess. I told you who I was by name, but never divulged much about my past. As I said last night, it’s…convoluted.” His head dropped and his shoulders tensed. “You always took the Forgotten Prince title with few questions attached. So unlike you.”

“Because I respected your privacy. I believed if there was a story to be told, you’d tell it when you were ready. As time went on, I thought it was nothing more than that. A title.”

“The story of what happened never reached these waters. Surprisingly.” He blew out a breath, tapping his index fingers together. “I’m sure your mother heard of it. Little eludes the gods.”

Aria pressed her lips together, trying to think of stories her mother used to share about the sea gods and goddesses. The ups and downs of their rules. There were a few vague stories surrounding untimely falls of kingdoms and the destruction of overbearing sea gods. She had mentioned something about the lost child of a god from a distant realm, but never in detail.

Caspian had lost his parents. He was a prince of the sea, but that didn’t mean his parents were of godly descent. There were many kingdoms in the seas across worlds and realms that had mortal rulers.

For some reason, that conclusion didn’t sit well with her. The idea of Caspian as a mere mortal entity suddenly felt…wrong.

Caspian had always possessed a magnetic allure. A resonating power below the surface of his skin. Something magical and immense. They were the very things that attracted her to him, but her young head had been too captivated by a mortal man to care about the heat her friend stirred inside her, a heat that ignited now.

“I came from a kingdom across the sea and from another realm. It was an aquatic realm, very few humans. Very little land. A peaceful realm, honestly. Small. We integrated with the humans there, with a foundation of mutual respect.” He scowled. “Nothing like here. We protected the mortals. They protected us. Every once in a while, someone with ill intentions came along. Creatures of all kinds can move between realms, if they have magic to open portals and the power to hold those portals open.”

Aria swirled the brandy in her snifter, but didn’t indulge in another drink. She wasn’t sure she cared to let the alcohol infuse her blood enough to make her indifferent to the story he had begun to share. As it stood, the muscles in his forearms strained with the flex and release of his entwined fingers. The medallion dangled from its thick chain around his neck, swaying hypnotically. A new bauble, something he never wore beneath the surface. She barely caught herself from reaching over and touching the strange disk, its edges rough, the obvious marking of a soldered seam.

“I guess the story begins when I was born. But the pertinent details come when my home, the kingdom ruled by my parents, was destroyed. As all great downfalls go, my parents ruled with a strict hand, but open hearts. They believed the best in all. The good. So when a stranger came along needing help, they offered to help. Our doors were open, our home offered, and friendship blossomed. Unfortunately, my mother had been too kind to see that the friendship she shared with the stranger was one-sided. The start of the end.”

Aria’s throat tightened. “The stranger?”

Caspian licked his lips and tipped his head to look at her. “Dima. She’d come in hopes of seducing my father. To bear a child of magic. What she wasn’t prepared for was his rebuff and the extent of my own magic. You see, my gifts are rare. So rare that even gods pray to the entities of fertility to give them a child of elemental powers. As you are aware, most children of royals of the sea or gods are granted one, possibly two, of these elemental gifts.”