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Chapter Twenty-Five

THALIA

“T hese are the coordinates, miss,” Harper calls from the crow’s nest.

I hurry out of the cabin to stare out to sea. This was where my father found the rowboat with me inside. Off the coast of Pincher Isle, an uninhabited rock that marked the rim of uncharted seas.

Seas that I was about to chart. The ship that Vaarin left me with had been traded in for a larger one, under contract to bring back new maps to a merchant in the western isles. He provided me with a cartographer and a small crew for my travels, and after a week of sailing, I was at the location my father had told me about.

I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting, some kind of clarity, a revelation perhaps, not this crushing disappointment.

What did you expect, Thalia? For your mother to be treading water and waiting for you? She abandoned you, remember?

Or had she?

I was a child of human and sea fae, unable to live beneath the waves. Maybe she’d seen no other choice. Whatever the reason, I would find out. The past two months I’d gathered tales of sea folk living beyond the Pincher Isles. Of ways to summon them with bloody bait and music. I had both on hand. I was sure I’d be able to enlist their help in locating my mother.

Vaarin exiling me had been the best thing, because if he’d asked me to stay, then I might never have taken my discovery voyage. Yes. Losing him was for the best.

“You all right, Captain?” Freya, my second, joined me at the pulpit. “Ready to venture forth into uncharted seas?”

I summoned a smile. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Then give the command.”

A frisson of excitement raced up my spine, not just at the possibility of finding my sea folk family but also at exploring the uncharted waters. And after everything I’d lost, why shouldn’t I allow myself the joy?

I dropped Freya a nod and turned, ready to call out for Barnaby to hoist the sails when Freya let out a shriek and pointed out to sea. “Whirlpool!”

I followed her gaze to the swirling vortex that had opened in the ocean ahead of us. It swirled with color, glowing softly.

“That’s no whirlpool!” Barnaby said.

“No, it isn’t.” My heart beat hard and fast, unbidden hope flaring in my chest. “That’s a vortex.”

Could it be…?

A figure shot out of it—male, muscular, and large, dark hair streaming out behind him. And, oh Thalor, my heart felt fit to burst because Vaarin was here.

Had he come to find me?

Had he changed his mind?

Anger licked at my chest, a reminder of how he’d so callously dismissed me, and my joy winked. I hadn’t deserved to be treated that way.

He didn’t deserve me, and I’d reminded myself of this over and over during the past couple of months. Yes, I’d lied, I’d planned to deceive him, but I’d done it for my people, something I knew he would have done too. If he’d given me a chance to explain, then I would have told him that getting to know him and falling in love with him had changed everything. But he’d discarded me so quickly it had me doubting everything that I’d felt, and now he was here, rising out of the sea like a fucking god, all rippling muscles and taut abdominals, and damn the tides, I still wanted him.

He climbed onto my ship, dripping wet and glorious, but as soon as his feet hit the deck, the water clinging to him evaporated.

“Um…Thalia?” Freya stepped closer. “Is that?—”

“Yes.” I’d shared my woes more often than I cared to admit over whiskey or ale. My crew knew my story. They knew that we were being graced by the king of the Northern Sea and as he approached, they made themselves scarce, giving us the illusion of privacy while being close enough to eavesdrop.

I crossed my arms and fixed a glare on my face, no difficult task because I was recalling that morning on the boat, the way he’d simply turned his back on me and walked away after I’d shared my body with him, after I’d offered him my heart. My throat pinched. I could do the same to him now—turn and walk away. But no, I was better than that, and…and I wanted to look at him, to drink him in. Even if it was only for a moment.

He came to stand a few feet from me, and the urge to move toward him had me locking my knees.

“Thalia…”

The shield I’d been building back around my heart cracked a little at the sound of my name on his lips.

I gritted my teeth. “What do you want?”

“I want your forgiveness.”

His words knocked the breath from my lungs. “What?”

“I’m sorry, so sorry for the way I treated you. For walking away. For not coming to find you sooner. I…I was a fool. A stubborn fool.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “You should have stayed and listened. You should have given me a chance to explain.”

“I know. I’m here now, but I don’t need any explanations. I understand why you lied. I understand what was at stake, and I…I would have done the same. Truth be told, I was afraid of the feelings you evoked, of how they were not in my control, and your deception was the excuse I needed to justify running.”

For him to stand here and admit he’d been wrong. To ask for forgiveness…Could it mean…I had to be sure.

My eyes burned with the threat of tears. “What are you saying, Vaarin?”

“I’m saying that I exiled you from my waters, but I couldn’t exile you from my heart. I’m saying that I want another chance. I’m saying that I want you to marry me.”

My heart punched my ribs, blood rushing in my ears because I’d fantasized about this very turn of events over and over between bouts of telling myself I hated him. In those fantasies, I always turned my back on him. In those fantasies I hurt him .

But the reality was something wholly different. The reality was flesh and blood and the scent of the sea, the reality was heat rushing through my veins and filling my heart.

The reality was that I loved this man with every fiber of my being, but I had fears of my own now. Fears he would need to assuage. “I won’t be hurt again, Vaarin.”

“I swear to Thalor I will never hurt you. Please…Thalia.”

I would be deceiving myself if I said no. He was my heart, but before I could give myself to him wholly, I needed to find out who I truly was. “I can’t go back with you. Not yet, not until I find my mother. I need to know where I came from.”

He exhaled sharply, his body going still. “Is that…Is that a yes?”

The surprise in his tone, the vulnerability on his face shattered the last of my reservations. “Yes. Yes, it’s a?—”

I let out a squeak as my feet left the ground and I was crushed to his chest. I melted into the embrace, inhaling his scent greedily.

He was here. He’d come for me. This was real. “What took you so long?” It was a light comment, but he tensed against me. “Vaarin?” I pulled back so I could study his face.

His mouth turned down slightly. “You’re right. I should have come sooner, but I didn’t want to admit I was wrong, and then I had a visitor. An ancient sea fae with crimson hair, she said she saved you from drowning. She confirmed what I knew already, that I was a fool for letting you go, and then…she told me that you were my soul mate.” His throat bobbed. “You, Thalia, are the key to my heart.”

I took a shuddering breath because I felt the truth of those words, had felt the longing for him even across the vast expanse of this ocean. But there was more. I could sense it, and so I held my tongue, waiting for him to continue.

“After she left, two things happened at once. Your people arrived, and I was given the news that there were four pregnancies confirmed in my undersea realm.” His gaze flicked over my face as if he was looking for something. “I had a suspicion then that maybe your adopted father was indeed your blood father, but he denied it, which left me with only one conclusion. That unlocking my heart freed my people from the curse of their infertility. My adviser confirmed it. The archives show that our fertility problems began after my ancestor sealed the abyss…after he lost his ability to love. It’s clear now that the fertility of my people is linked to the fertility of their monarch’s heart. Of my heart.” He lightly caressed my cheek. “By loving me, you’ve saved not only me but my people.”

I didn’t need more words. No more convincing. In truth, he’d had me as soon as he stepped on board my ship, and now…Now I wanted to lose myself in him.

I took his hand and tipped my face up to his. “How about we finish this conversation in my quarters?”