Page 43

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Salt water crashed over her, sweeping her off her feet. No one had seen the wave coming. Her body twisted and turned at the mercy of the ocean. Splintered wood was everywhere. When she surfaced for a moment, she heard the strangled cries of her companions. Beneath her, the raging sea tore the ship apart. Celeste’s body slammed into a railing. The impact left her gasping, bringing in a lungful of bitter water. It was all she could do to keep her grip on the trident. She couldn’t tell where she was. Didn’t know what was up or down. Her body shook with each cough, lungs desperately trying to remove the water from them. But with every exhale, more flooded in.

I’m going to drown . The thought appeared before her, clear despite the chaos. But it was unbelievable. Sirens could not drown. Yet she was no longer a siren. Not without her gills. Celeste kicked, looking for the surface. The sea was so dark. She saw nothing but endless night in all directions. Faced with her impending death, Celeste did not think of her past. Did not see her choices flashing before her eyes. Instead, she thought of what would happen next. She saw how angry Kiyami would be with her for “getting herself killed.” She saw Sephone, a prisoner of the Pirate King, abandoned. She saw her parents mourning her, despite everything she had done. She knew they loved her, even if they didn’t understand her.

Then, inexplicably, she saw Raiden. His dark hair. His warm smile. And although everything told her to believe otherwise, she knew her death would hurt him. Even though he’d betrayed her and his crew for a father who didn’t care if he lived or died. She could feel his arms around her. For the last time.

Darkness crept into the edges of her vision. Her body gave one final shudder. And then everything went blissfully dark.

* * *

Celeste awoke coughing. Her eyes blinked open to see the night sky spread above her. As she sat up, salt water poured from her mouth. The ground beneath her dipped and swayed. Each gasping breath was painful, raw. When her coughing subsided, Celeste looked down to see she was laid upon a splintered piece of wood. At her feet sat a very familiar, very wet dog.

“The princess awakens.” Raiden floated in the water, his forearms crossed and resting on the piece of wood beside her.

“Oh, thank God.” Kiyami sighed.

Celeste, at seeing her friend safe and awake, felt very much the same. Nasir, Torben, and Bastian treaded water next to her. But as Kiyami struggled a little, Bastian helped her to another piece of wood floating nearby. Celeste’s shoulders fell in relief. She almost couldn’t believe they’d all survived. She nearly hadn’t. But when Celeste looked up for the king’s ship, she saw that it was far away, fading into the night. Grief pressed like a weight upon her chest. What’s the point of having power if I can’t protect the ones I love? The king had her sister. And the power of immortality itself, if Nerissa was to be believed. But why did they sink Lunapesce? And why had they left them alive?

That question promptly answered itself when she took in what remained of their vessel. The Red Revenge was gone. The fragments of wood around them were the only sign a ship had ever been there at all. They weren’t left alive. They were stranded and left to die.

“Celeste?”

She turned to see Maeve swimming toward her, the remaining Chorus members following behind. From their numbers, it seemed that three had fallen in the skirmish. The once jovial officer Io looked so small floating in the water despite their muscular frame. As Maeve neared, Celeste noticed there was something wrong about the way she moved. With every forward push, her right side dipped a little into the water. And then she saw the body in her arms.

The violet hair.

It was Analora. Their classmate. A siren who spoke little but worked hard. Gone. She hadn’t known her well, but they had been initiates for four cycles together. The wood beneath Celeste tipped as her body swayed. She would have fallen into the sea, if not for Raiden righting her.

Maeve looked upon Celeste as a solider, no sign of the grief she surely felt. “I was intercepted on the way to Staria. A messenger was able to take your warning back,” Maeve assured her. “The waters have also cooled. So we’re safe for now.”

“ Analora ,” Celeste breathed, scanning the body for the source of the injury. A glass shard protruded from the siren’s stomach. “Was there no one to heal her?”

“The healer on our squad was killed as well,” Io said softly.

And that’s when Celeste realized the general should be the one delivering such news. “Xandra?” she asked, but for once she did not want the answer.

“Cannon,” Io replied. “There is no body to return home with.”

Tears fell freely down Celeste’s cheeks as reality sunk in.

“Celeste,” Maeve said, her soldier’s demeanor softening slightly. “Crying isn’t going to help, you know.”

“I know,” the princess replied, but the words were stifled by sobs.

“The human king has Sephone,” Maeve said, a slight teasing in her voice despite everything, as though they were back in the training ring taunting each other. “Are you going to sit here and cry, or are you going to do something about it?”

Celeste smiled through her tears. “Bold of you to assume I can’t do both.”

It was as much comfort as she would get from her old friend, and far more than she deserved. Maeve nodded and straightened.

“Take care of her,” the cecaelia said to the crew, voice stern.

“We will,” Raiden replied. To most, he would have looked calm, stoic, but Celeste could see the pain in his eyes.

Satisfied with his answer, Maeve fell into line behind her superior officer. Together the sirens disappeared beneath the waves. And Celeste fell apart.

Three Chorus members dead. Because of her . And now the crew was stranded. Tears dripped down her chin. It should have been me, not Analora. Not Xandra . The Admiral moved closer, curling up against Celeste with his head atop her leg. She didn’t feel it. Didn’t notice when the crew gathered to her. They did not try to speak to her or stop her from crying. They merely listened, bearing witness to her pain. She didn’t want them to see her like this. Didn’t want the Chorus to see her like this. But she didn’t have the energy to care. And, if she was honest, it felt good. It was a small comfort to know she wasn’t alone.

She wondered if she’d ever stop crying. If this endless expanse of grief would ever ease. And although the grief did not, the tears eventually did. Her hands stopped shaking. And at last she was able to breathe.

In the water before them, rowboats emerged, each towed by two sirens. The princess’s eyes widened in disbelief. Why had they returned? Why had they retrieved these from the wreckage of the Revenge ? Leif, an initiate from her class, pushed one of the boats toward them.

“We take you to nearest human trade route,” Maeve said in the common human tongue, her accent thick. “Perhaps you find a ship. Take you to land.”

“Thank you,” Kiyami breathed.

Celeste didn’t know what to say. She lifted her head and found the two sirens helping each of the humans into a boat, Io steadying it as Oakes pushed himself over the edge. The process was awkward, and mostly silent. And although only days ago Celeste would have done anything to see humans and sirens working together, the victory was hollow.

Once they were all aboard, the sirens gathered behind the boats and pushed them east. The hours passed in silence. There was nothing to say. They swam through the night, until at last they saw the flickering lights of a ship on the horizon.

* * *

Nothing about the ocean felt safe anymore. For the next week, Celeste hardly went above decks, preferring to lay upon the hammock she’d been provided. The trade ship that had picked them up had been more than generous to the small group of survivors. Raiden had spun an easy tale about their ship being lost in a storm, and that was that. They were allowed to remain until the ship reached Velluno. The crew, in general, gave her space. Kiyami and Nasir were the only ones Celeste spoke to with any regularity. And only when they sat with her below deck.

It wasn’t until the final evening that Celeste found herself stir-crazy enough to get fresh air. She stood along the railing, thoughts of her lost sister and the fallen Chorus members still plaguing her. What must her mother think? Her father? Had Staria been compromised? Surely, with Nerissa feeding the king information, it couldn’t be safe for them to remain. But Celeste had no way of knowing. Of contacting them.

“Are you okay?” Kiyami sidled up to her friend, leaning against the banister as they gazed upon the endless ocean before them.

“No,” Celeste said. It was perhaps the first time she’d answered the question in the many times her friend had asked. With a nod, Kiyami wrapped her into a hug, squeezing tight. Celeste sagged in her arms, the last bit of fight leaving her body.

“Neither am I,” Kiyami said into her hair.

They held each other together, until at last Celeste pulled away. When they did, Celeste saw Raiden standing behind them. Her heart thudded in her chest at the sight.

“May I have a word?”

They hadn’t spoken for a week. He had visited her many times, but Celeste always turned him away. She accepted the Admiral’s company, although the dog greatly disliked being placed upon a hammock.

Kiyami opened her mouth to argue, but Celeste quieted her with a hand. “It’s fine.”

With a glare in the captain’s direction, Kiyami stalked away, leaving the two alone for the first time since the brig.

“What do you want?” she asked.

“I want to apologize.” His eyes were red rimmed, as if he hadn’t been sleeping, and his mouth was pulled into a permanent frown. “I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I want you to know I did not mean for all this to happen.”

Celeste remained quiet, keeping her eyes trained on the ocean.

“I did not know the Voice of the Ocean was a siren, let alone your sister. I thought it was a necklace or a ring or—” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “What happened was my fault. I should have told you everything. Should have trusted you with the truth. But you know what failure would have meant. I couldn’t risk it with my crew’s lives as forfeit. Your life.”

Raiden drew closer, watching her carefully.

“You’re right,” Celeste said, turning toward him. “You don’t deserve forgiveness.” She hated him. Hated what he had done to her sister. To the Chorus. To her. She didn’t trust him. And what’s worse, she didn’t trust herself around him. Not when he looked at her like that. As if all the world was darkness, and she was the moon.

“I promise I will help you make things right,” he said, his voice a low rumble.

“Your promises mean nothing to me,” she replied, and turned away.

She wanted to believe him. Wanted it so desperately it stole the breath from her lungs. But nothing had changed. Raiden betrayed her. All of them. And although something within him pulled at her like an invisible string, she couldn’t bring herself to hope.

Raiden waited, searching her face. Then, with a sigh, he walked away. Good. She didn’t want to speak with him anyway. So why did she feel such pain when he left?

“Land ho!”

Sailors crowded toward the railing, searching for sight of the port after weeks at sea. Relief washed over Celeste. It was over. She could finally escape the sea. Set foot on solid ground again and consider her options. But as the lights of Velluno came into view, the town looked different from when she last saw it. The lights were not from the festival’s lanterns but fires. The long, sandy beaches she remembered weren’t there. Nor were the docks. And as they drew closer, Celeste could hear shouts. Crying.

Velluno was in chaos.

Aboard the ship, the merchant sailors halted in their preparations to make port. There was nowhere to go. Their captain shouted orders, confusion erupting upon the ship. Celeste’s heart thudded in her chest, and she tasted something bitter in her throat. Sephone hadn’t only raised the sea around the island.

Half of Velluno was underwater.

The once colorful homes of the shoreline now looked like ghosts, distorted beneath the clear water. Streets they’d walked down now ran directly into the waves. Festival banners and flowers washed up along the new shoreline like trash. People cowered in the streets, displaced from their homes, while others plundered their neighbor’s shops, the sound of breaking glass filling the air.

“ What has he done? ” Raiden was beside her now, his voice taut.

The former crew of the Red Revenge gathered along the bow, Bastian the last to arrive.

“The water must’ve risen across the entire coast. Maybe even as far as Port Romsey,” he said.

“The Broken Compass—” Torben began, turning his eyes to his husband. The pub had been close to the waterline. If the water had risen in Port Romsey as much as it had here, his business would be underwater now. Nasir’s expression darkened.

“If it’s across Ethoria, it could have happened elsewhere too,” Bastian added.

Kiyami’s eyes widened. “My family lives near the coast.”

“Did you know your father was planning this?” Bastian asked, turning to Raiden.

“No,” Raiden said. “I didn’t.” The captain’s eyes dropped to his hands. “But I guess now we know why that cargo ship was transporting my father’s assets. His home was on the shoreline. He’d been planning this for a while.”

The crew fell silent, watching Velluno with tired eyes.

“Captain said we can get you in our jolly boat and row you ashore,” a sailor said, approaching. “Looks like that’s the only way of getting to land at the moment.” He gestured to a boat being lowered on the side of the ship.

“It’s better than swimming,” Raiden joked, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes.

They gathered what little things they had and corralled the Admiral into the tiny boat. When their feet at last reached solid ground, the crew released a collective breath.

“I’m going to see if I can find a courier. Send a letter home,” Kiyami said.

“I’ll come with you,” Bastian agreed.

Torben tugged at his husband. “We should write to Viktoria—see how the Compass fares with everything that’s happened.”

The group’s eyes fell on Raiden and Celeste. Could Raiden send a message to his father? Would he? But the pirate merely shrugged.

“Go ahead,” he said, patting the Admiral on the head. “We can meet in the square.”

But Kiyami hesitated, looking between Celeste and her former captain. “Do you want to come, Cel? You don’t have to stay with him.”

Celeste shook her head. “It’s fine.”

The truth was, she didn’t want to watch the others write to their families. To watch them as they poured their worries and fears on paper, knowing she was the cause of them. Perhaps that made her a coward. But she couldn’t bring herself to go.

“All right, we’ll see you both at the square, then,” Kiyami agreed, before the group wandered off toward the shops.

When they disappeared, Raiden turned to her.

“I figured you’d want this back,” he said, pulling a large cloth-wrapped object from his back and removing the fabric. The Goddess’s trident glimmered in the city lights. How had she forgotten? She must have lost track of it in the aftermath of the wave. “I wanted to return it to you sooner,” he continued, “But I didn’t want anyone on that merchant ship seeing it.”

Celeste accepted it, trying not to react as their fingers brushed, and sparks flew within her.

“Thank you,” she ground out.

Raiden grinned. “I can think of other ways you can thank me.”

Celeste fixed him with a glare. “I’d rather swim through jellyfish than do anything for you.”

“Ah, Princess,” he said, dark eyes dancing. “You know how I love a challenge.”

The siren looked away, gazing over the endless expanse of sea. “Do you happen to know where your father is planning to go next?” she asked, purposefully changing the subject.

“I don’t,” Raiden replied, his smile fading. “But I might know someone who does.”