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Chapter Eight

Caspian threw up the silencing spell a fraction of a second before Aria’s scream left her lips, echoed by a ground-rumbling boom of thunder. The storm would have muffled much, but the anguish laced in that heart-wrenching sound could have sliced through the wind and rain.

Aria collapsed to her knees and gathered her sister’s body into her arms, against her chest. She sobbed, her tears scorching his soul. She rocked like the motion would bring her sister back from the dead, but the milky protein coating her once blue eyes and the waxy yellow-gray of her skin did not lie.

“Stacia,” Aria cried, brushing lavender strands of hair back from her sister’s forehead. Caspian bit the insides of his cheeks to keep his anger and his grief, grief for Aria’s loss and is own, at bay. Slowly, he lowered to his knees beside Aria, resting a hand on her shoulder. Her head jerked to him, her nose pink and her eyes glowing bright green with swirls of flashing gold. Her power. “She did this? The witch did this to my sister?”

Caspian nodded. “I’m afraid she did.”

Another pained wail poured out of Aria as she lifted her face to the ceiling. Her entire body trembled with her cries.

Jagged lightning cracked and popped across the sky outside, the piercing white glow pulsing through the windows. Caspian glanced over his shoulder, brows furrowing. The lightning didn’t disappear, continued to blaze. He turned back to Aria.

Bolts of gold skittered across her skin, breaking free from the tears streaming from her eyes.

His heart could have stopped as lightheadedness overcame him.

Without a logical thought in his head, he cupped her face and pulled her close, countering the energy from her tears until the lightning outside faded.

It took a few moments for her eyes to focus on his. For her to calm enough to see through her grief.

But the instant she did, Caspian leaned in and brushed his lips across hers, tasting the salt from her tears.

Her sobs softened. Her whimpers quieted.

He didn’t press for a full kiss. Now wasn’t the time. He sighed and pressed his forehead to hers, the tips of their noses brushing.

“A sea demon possesses no morals. None. Her word is worthless. She will strike down another of your sisters each day until I’ve returned.” With a deep breath, he said, “And I will. I can’t bear to see this happen to you. It’s not your battle to fight, and I’ve placed you in the middle of it all. Stacia’s death, her blood, is on—”

Aria pressed a finger to his lips, silencing him. “No. Her blood is not on your hands. It’s on Dima’s, and Dima’s alone.”

A minute tilt of her head with a caress of her breath across his lips weakened him. Her finger slipped along his jaw, down the side of his neck, and her hand came to rest on his shoulder.

“We go together. I won’t let you go alone,” she murmured. “We’ll fight her, you and me. As one.”

“Aria, I won’t allow it.”

Aria leaned back enough to catch his gaze. Fresh tears shimmered along her eyelids and clung to her lashes, but the lightning bolts in her irises were gone. Her lips quivered, and when she next spoke, it was from between clenched teeth.

“Shekilledmy sister.” Aria looked down at the woman in her lap. “Killedher with such brutality. Sharks!”

“Listen to me,” Caspian begged in his most reasonable tone, but his darling princess was already shaking her head. “Yes. You’ll listen to me. I forbid you to return with me. I won’t allow Dima to use you against me. I won’t let her hurt you, too, because she will. She will mercilessly torture you to tear me apart until I do what she demands. And I would, because Aria”—he forced her to look at him, straight in the eyes—“if something happens to you, it willdestroyme.”

His throat was raw as he spoke the truest of truths directly into her soul.

“A decade, a century, gods hear me, amillenniacould pass, but my heart will always,alwaysbelong to you. You can hate me with every fiber in your body, call me the biggest fool to ever live, and it won’t change a thing. Never has a day passed that you haven’t plagued my mind. I stare into the sea every single day and night, and think of you. I’ve had solace knowing you are alive, even if you’re not with me.”

He lowered his hand to hers, resting on the thin, slick scales of Stacia’s belly. Aria’s chin creased and trembled, but she managed to keep her tears from spilling. The strength swelling inside her astonished him.

“We can’t stay here. The fire on the ship will draw guards, if it hasn’t already. And I think you created a phenomena in your grief that might raise a few brows.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll explain later, when we’re home.”

Aria sniffled, dropping her gaze to her sister’s body. Caspian released her hand and she tenderly traced the sharp contours of Stacia’s cheeks, the ridges along her forehead.

“I promise you, I will avenge your death. She will pay, Stacia. I will make certain of it, to the fullest extent,” she swore quietly. Caspian silently agreed. “She needs to return to the water. A proper burial.”