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“Arden.” He actually looked amused as he angled himself to face her, hand still on her back.

Amused! After Prince Finn announced his intention to wipe Daryatla off the map with hurricanes.

“Stop. I don’t doubt her loyalty, but that really isn’t the issue here.

The point is that they’ve managed to Awaken her and are teaching her to use her gifts, even if what she can do with them will be limited from the Far City.

They’ll take her to the surface soon—it’s the only way to really train her.

That’s what we need to learn more about.

That’s when we’ll have to be ready to move. ”

Was that hope welling up inside her? Fear? Some combination of the two? “I…don’t know if Kiyana will be able to get us word of that before it happens. Whoever recorded this was clearly someone in the crowd. Not privy to the prince’s council.”

“My cousins will have other contacts, perhaps ones too risky to have leveraged before. But they’ll come through. I have to believe that. We’ll find a way past that wall, and we’ll get your sister back, love. I promise.”

She wanted to melt. She wanted to freeze. Even now, he was making it about her. Not Jade. Not even his kingdom, though that had to be his true priority.

Her eyes burned, and she had to avert them in hopes that he wouldn’t notice.

It was the lack of sleep, that was all. Too many emotions.

But geysers, Enoch was even more right than he knew.

Arden wasn’t just not the right woman for him, she was quite possibly a danger.

Because he shouldn’t think of her now. This shouldn’t be about her at all.

“Seidon—”

“You heard it all, didn’t you? My conversation with Enoch?”

She sighed and let her eyes fall closed. Another mistake, though, which she realized when the hand on her back drew her closer, when his other hand cupped her face.

“I knew you must have when you vanished yesterday. Skies, Arden. I’m sorry.

So sorry.” His thumb stroked over her cheekbone, turning her effectively to mush.

Or fire. Or pure energy. Of course now he would apologize for not telling her before about his connection to Jade, but that didn’t change it.

“That’s not how I wanted you first to hear from my lips that I love you. ”

And skies, but he undid her all over again.

She wanted to open her eyes and look at him.

She wanted to squeeze them shut forever.

Because if she looked at him now, if she saw his earnest eyes, how in the world was she supposed to remember that she needed to be strong?

To do the right thing? “It doesn’t matter. Nothing can come of it anyway.”

“Maybe I’ll believe that when you can say it with your eyes open.”

Blast him. She forced them open, not entirely sure whether she wanted to punch him or give up and collapse against him. “It doesn’t matter,” she said again, praying the words sounded more convincing to his ears than they did to her own. “Nothing can come of it anyway.”

Apparently not, given the twitch of his mouth. She expected him to argue. Bat the words away. Find something logical to say that would attempt to undo the objections she knew she had to cling to.

Instead, he leaned down and brushed his lips softly over hers. “I love you,” he said.

“No you don’t.” Somehow, her hand had fisted in his shirt, though she couldn’t recall giving it permission to do something so stupid. “Or won’t for long. I heard that too, Seidon. That Jade is the one the Triada created for you. As soon as you meet her—”

“I will love her as a sister, because she’s yours.” His mouth moved, feathering kisses over her jaw. “And we can work together for the good of Daryatla and all of humanity. But my heart is yours. That’s not going to change.”

Of course it would. “No. Enoch is right. The Triada sent him to tell you so in that moment—”

“Enoch is a good man, a good friend, and a good priest. And yes, I believe he was following a prompting of the Triada. But not because I need to be dissuaded, Arden.” His hand moved up her back, the other tipped her face up to his.

“Because I need to be prepared. I need to be ready to stand up to the test—not just to love you because it’s the feeling that has overtaken my heart and spirit, but because I choose to, every day.

I need to know that loving you as you deserve will require work and sacrifice and awareness and determination.

I needed the warning not to dissuade me but to challenge me to love you right. ”

She shook her head—or tried to, though the movement was small against his hand. Her eyes burned all the more. “You’re trying to convince yourself. But you know, Si. You know it’s not true.”

“What I know is that love is never a gift the Triada gives to break us. It is how he gives us wings. It is how he takes us to new heights, new depths. Love, real love makes us better.”

“Does it? Because it seems like it just rips us to pieces.” She had to blink furiously to convince the burning not to give way to tears, but that did nothing to keep them from her throat.

“And yet I choose it. I choose it today. I will choose it tomorrow.” His nose traced a path along her cheek.

The earth might as well have been quaking, the way the tremors started in her stomach and radiated outward. “You can’t. You have more to think about than…this. Whatever it is. You need children, Seidon, and I can’t give you that.”

“The Triada can make a way. I choose to trust.” He looked so deeply into her eyes it felt like he was trying to see to her soul, or to drink her in, or to pour himself out. “Will you marry me, Arden Bleu?”

Her knees went weak. She might have sunk to a puddle like she had in her room the other night as she listened to him and Enoch, if he weren’t holding her against him.

Geysers, how was she supposed to do the right thing when he looked at her like that?

Like every word he spoke was true? Like the impossible could be captured, subdued, forced into reality?

It took every ounce of willpower she had to shake her head. “You know I can’t.” He would be able to hear that she wanted to give a different answer. But still, she said the words.

So why in blazes did he smile? “I know you think you can’t.

Now. But I needed to give you the words—to you, not to Enoch.

And when we rescue your sister and my love for you doesn’t change, then you can reconsider.

When I’ve proven that you can trust me, trust my heart, trust that I’m not going to hurt you like that… then I’ll ask again. Deal?”

Her nostrils flared. How she wanted to believe it was possible. Wanted to think, if only for another minute or two, that it would be enough. That she could be enough.

But the rock in her stomach said she’d only be setting herself up for an even deeper heartbreak later—if that were possible—by hoping now. She had to resign herself to the fact that even if his intentions were good, reality would win.

He didn’t need her. Couldn’t love her forever. Because he needed Jade.

She lifted her chin, made herself hold his gaze. “My answer isn’t going to change, Seidon. Because I love you, and that means I will fight for what you need. For what is right for you. That’s never going to be me.”

A smile still played over his mouth. “Is it any wonder I love you?” And then he was kissing her.

Not the brush of his lips over hers of a minute ago, but really kissing her, like he had the other night.

Arm pulling her closer, lips parting hers, passion in every touch, tempting her to believe it could work.

Because this was fire brighter than any they ever built on the beach. This was depth beyond the darkest trench of the sea. This was wind more forceful than a hurricane, and even while she knew she needed to pull away, she couldn’t make herself obey.

Today. Just today. Today she could still pretend for a minute that he was hers. Today she could feel alive. For this one stolen minute, they’d just be Seidon and Arden. The world would come crashing in soon enough.

“Uh…ahem?”

And already had, apparently. She jerked away from Seidon’s mouth at the intrusion of her cousin’s voice, though yet again, Seidon didn’t seem to think he had any reason to be embarrassed at being caught with her in his arms.

Irritated, if anything. He sighed and turned a narrowed gaze on Storm.

Her cousin cleared his throat again. “Just…coming to collect Arden.” He motioned toward her, as if they needed the illustration of who she was. Maybe he thought Seidon had forgotten, to be kissing her. Probably made more sense than the actual scene. Then he frowned. “Sorry if I…interrupted?”

She could actually feel Seidon’s irritation shift to amusement in the face of Storm’s awkward confusion.

The way his arms shifted without releasing her, the new line of his shoulders, the way his fingers danced over her spine.

“It’s all right. I was only proposing to your cousin.

And given that she said no, I’ll have plenty of opportunities to do it again. ”

Storm’s eyes bulged. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. She felt Seidon’s chuckle begin in his chest.

She pushed at him, and she suspected it was only the playfulness of the gesture that had him dropping his arms. “If you go around telling everyone you proposed to me, I’m going to make you regret it.” Not that she had any idea how.

Which he knew. Hence the grin. “You know, I owe your father a call…”

“Don’t you dare!” He wouldn’t, would he? He surely wouldn’t stoop so low as to recruit her father to his cause.

Because if there was one other person in the world who thought she had a hope of deserving a king’s heart, it was her father. Though surely, surely his logic would win out.

Seidon chuckled and nudged her away, toward Storm. “I suppose really it’s Sapphire I need to talk to. She’s the one who told me not to waste a minute, when she saw the way I was looking at you at her party. Clearly a formidable woman. I’ll let her convince you.”

Though she’d taken a few steps away, at that she paused. Turned. Was he serious? Mama had said something to him?

But then, Mama didn’t know how special Jade really was. Mama didn’t realize that it was her real daughter who had a claim to this man, not her stepdaughter. She never would have said a thing to him if she’d known.

Familiar fingers curled around her wrist and tugged. “Come on, Arden. We’re already late, and I have my own training in an hour.”

She held Seidon’s smiling gaze a second more and then spun, turning with her cousin to the door.

They didn’t speak as they hastened away, not until they’d turned a corner into an empty hallway. Then Storm glanced over his shoulder, brows crashing down. “What in the world is going on with you two?” His voice was low, despite the lack of people around to overhear.

“Nothing.” A blatant lie, but the word was out before she could even think about it.

“Nothing?” Storm’s gaze was as thunderous as his name promised.

He gestured behind them. “That wasn’t nothing.

That was the king kissing you like he never meant to let you go.

Do I need to talk to Uncle Rico? Have him talk to Seidon?

Because while I realize he’s a good man, monarchs have a reputation for taking whatever they want and—”

She cut him off with a squeak that couldn’t rightly be termed a word. Then grabbed his wrist. “He would never!” Maybe the first Sea King had been rather famous for his lecherous behavior, but that wasn’t who Seidon was.

Storm didn’t look mollified. “Maybe I would be appeased, if he really proposed.”

Her fingers relaxed a degree. “He did.”

“And you really refused?”

She looked straight ahead rather than at his face. “I did.”

“And he still kissed you like that?”

She blustered out a sigh. “He… It’s… Skies, Storm. We both know I can’t marry him. What do I have to offer?”

He lifted his hand, knocking hers free. He raised a finger.

“Well, you’re the daughter of his most trusted advisor, one of the five most powerful people in the kingdom.

” He raised another finger. “You’re smart and loyal and beautiful.

” He raised a third. “The people clearly love you, given the way they all stare and smile after you at each missa.” A fourth.

“And let’s not forget the fleet of sea hawks. ”

She pushed his hand back down. “None of that’s enough.

He needs…” But she couldn’t say it, not outright.

Not to Storm, who loved Jade with his whole heart, who had for so many years.

How could she look her cousin in the eye and tell him that he would soon be as miserable as she would be?

That the moment Jade and Seidon met, no one else would matter to them?

She cleared her throat, looked forward again.

“He needs someone with magic. Strong magic.”

Storm sighed. “You love him.”

Not a question. She must be as transparent as she was hopeless. “I do. But that’s not enough either. Love isn’t magic.”

“No.” Her cousin bumped their arms together. “But it can be miraculous. And I think a miracle trumps magic any day.”