Page 37 of A Sea of Vows and Silence (The Naiads of Juile #3)

“Shoes off,” I murmured as we reached the flagstones.

Vouri sat on a wooden bench to pull her secretary slippers from her feet.

I peered down the edge of a bush drowning in fat lilac blooms to the level below.

The guards stood under a stone archway in Calder’s royal blue uniforms, swords dangling from their belts, sharing casual conversation.

Pigeons roosted in the corners above them.

Using my toes to pry my heels bare, I shook my own shoes off, sending them under the bench and hiking my skirt.

Then leaned against the woody brambles where they couldn’t see me and sang.

Vouri watched, amusement shimmering in her forest eyes as I projected the wordless tune from my chest. She dared to gaze down through the leaves halfway through my vocals, motioning for me to continue.

Selena would have had them under her spell within several heartbeats.

Thaan, an instant. My incantation was sharp enough to be effective, but I’d never honed the speed of it like they had.

It surprised me when Vouri gave a cool nod and said, “That was fast. They’re under. ”

“Fast?” I smiled to myself, following her down the flagstone path. We’d become phantoms without the click of our shoes, but we both glanced up as we passed under the curtain wall anyway, ensuring no guards had stopped to investigate sound or motion.

“It took me twice as long to incant Madam Freisa.”

“Oh. Well, she’s been incanted plenty of times before. They always take longer to become vacouses when siren song exists in their head already, buried under their memories. And women take longer than men. How many times have you incanted ?”

She chuckled. “Madam Freisa was my first one. I wasn’t even sure I was doing it right at first.”

I cringed. “Sorry. I guess we could have warned you.”

“Don’t be. I’ve had a few chances to practice since.

I’ve never had a reason to before. Besides, it’s entertaining when I’m bored.

I just go down to the servants’ quarters and find a footman.

Last night I incanted one into fetching me a meal from the kitchens wearing one of my byssus silk dresses—” She stopped, her gaze locked ahead.

In a dip between cliffs, where the tide spat a low valley of rock, Sindri stood in the rain.

His silk cloak tapered to the wide flare of his shoulders, nearly transparent against his skin, and his ink-black hair hung in damp waves from the side of his head.

I’m sure he saw me standing there, but he only had eyes for Vouri.

Behind him, seated lazily on a boulder in the surf, Aegir propped himself up by one arm and a bent knee, a small smile in the crook of his mouth.

Vouri made a sound of pure glee, charging across the rocks.

Waves lapped at her ankles, dragging her silk skirt behind her, but she propelled herself forward, launching into Sindri’s arms. He caught her and almost fell backwards.

She flung her arms around his neck, kissing him full on the mouth.

Under the muffled chant of the falling rain, he laughed softly.

I smiled, watching them embrace. Watching her peel out of his arms only to take his hand and slip under a cresting wave, never even looking back.

Watching him disappear after her, the sea washing them both away as though they’d never stood there.

Watching, and realizing only after they’d gone that Aegir had lingered, his dark gaze consuming me one slow heartbeat after another .

I stared back. Something as green and verdant as Vouri’s silk dress twisted, coiling around my heart. Some secret that twirled and shrank, a small craving that I realized wasn’t so small.

The crook of Aegir’s mouth slowly fell. Clouds shifted across the moon, sending a strand of light across his body, then leaving him silhouetted against the water.

He lowered his drawn knee, his attention entirely focused on me.

Then, with a sigh, dropped smoothly into the water, and the sea ate him as well.

I stayed there on the edge of the rock, watching the place they’d vanished, the rain dousing me in cold.

When I finally turned, my drenched skirts felt twice as heavy, my bare feet now wooden as I dragged them back to the flagstones under the archway.

The guards were where I left them, two statues under the curtain wall.

“I release you,” I said as I passed them, searching for the bench under which I’d stashed my shoes.

A shadow sat on it in the dark.

Not a shadow. Madam Freisa.

Odd. She stood as I approached, but I opened my mouth, filling my lungs with air to sing for the second time that night.

I’d sung to her before. Not as often as Selena had, but once or twice when I needed to get myself out of a tight spot in Thaan’s offices.

I watched the side of her face, the small wrinkles just beginning to pull at the lobe of her ears.

The strict, thin knot that held her hair, streaked with gray, not a strand escaping its pins.

The black collar pressed flat across her shoulders.

I waited for her to turn to me, pupils dilated.

But she didn’t. She didn’t move.

Something was wrong. I’d never seen her in the palace gardens before, let alone out in the dark with a royal ball thrumming away so loudly nearby. Rain splattered around her, but she seemed dry.

She was dry .

Theia above, she was dry, and I’d just noticed. I’d curved toward her, but my steps faltered as I realized her dress was devoid of any rain under a pouring sky.

She raised her head, and her eyes shone even in the night, icy blue.

I turned to run. And the rest of them emerged from the corners of the night.