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Cass gave me a sly look, her gaze flicking to where Gavin’s arm was still wrapped around my shoulder.

“At least you finally started paying attention.” She let out a dramatic sigh.

“I love it when two people take years of strife and backhanded comments to finally come together. Fate is beautifully twisted.”

Bowen’s eyes creased with his smile. “It is, and I’m finally getting my manor back. He’s your problem now, Marin.”

I peered up at Gavin’s scruff-lined jaw. “He’s always been my problem. That’s what happens… when a relentless thief… stumbles upon a wary jewel.”

Gavin’s eyes met mine, the wind sailing through his disheveled hair. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

Bowen glanced toward the cliffs, his expression sobering. “We’ll be here when you get back.”

Cass nodded, her voice cracking slightly. “Making sure this thief doesn’t slack on fixing up your house.”

I swallowed hard against the ache in my throat. Then I hugged each of them one last time.

I knelt in front of Annie and held up the sea glass.

“I think I’ll take this one with me… for good luck. But we’ll find more when I get back. ”

“Promise?”

Lightning speared overhead, and thunder boomed, stealing my response. I squeezed her shoulder and glanced at Bowen. His gaze had already lifted to the billowing clouds.

“Annie, wait inside the manor until we get back. Stay away from the windows.”

She hesitated, then jolted as a crack of thunder split the air. Wrapping her gloved hands around her arms, she slipped inside the manor and closed the door.

The wind had shifted, roaring in from the sea, carrying the storm with it. Gavin checked the cutlass strapped to his back, then handed me the shard, followed by a dagger he drew from his belt, hilt-first.

“Take this too. Just in case. Sea glass isn’t my favorite choice of weapon.”

I took them both without argument; the dagger’s weight was solid in my grip, the shard humming beside it. My fingers tightened around the shard. Whatever waited beyond the waves, I’d face it head-on. We’d come this far, it was time to finish this.

A violent crash of waves against the cliffs sent a chill down my spine.

Bowen hoisted an axe from a pile of split wood nearby, and Cass adjusted the strap on her satchel. A blade etched with vines was attached to her hip. None of us spoke, but we all felt it. The storm carried more than rain and wind. There was magic in the air, and with it, a cold swell of dread.

The four of us started down the path to the beach in silence.

Sand crunched beneath our boots as we neared the shoreline. The sea was dark, roiling with fury as if it knew I was coming home, and it wanted to stop me .

My curse tightened like a vise inside my chest, even though the waves crashed and salt infused the air. The witch was close. I could feel her on the wind. Sickly tentacles of magic coiled around my ribs.

The shard trembled in my hand, and I clutched it tighter, afraid the wind would rip it away.

Gavin gripped my hand, pulling me to a stop before we reached the edge of the water. He looked at me like that night by the vine when he’d kissed me in anger because I’d tried to run away. Haunted by screams of the past. By losing control. By almost losing me.

When I’d begged him to let me go.

I reached for the chain around my neck, wrapping my fingers around the compass. Then I held it up for him to see.

“It’s not letting go,” I said softly. “If I’m taking you with me.”

Gavin’s jaw clenched. He didn’t speak, just stared at the compass as if he could will it to bring me back.

Rain pelted his shoulders, and huge drops splattered into the sand. The storm was here, and it swirled his words around me like a vortex.

“The second you step into that water, I’m figuring out how to follow you.” His eyes locked on mine. “So you better come back unless you want me tearing apart an underwater kingdom. They’ll write poems about that, too.”

A laugh cracked in my throat. “You’d do it. I believe you.”

“First rule, Mare.”

The wind howled as he settled his hands on my shoulders and dropped his forehead against mine.

“Don’t kiss me,” I whispered. “If you do, I won’t leave. It’ll feel too much like goodbye. ”

“Always asking me to do impossible things,” he murmured, pulling me in. His body shielded me from the storm, then he pressed a single kiss to the top of my head. I wasn’t sure what was rain or what was tears as I lingered. Just one second more.

Two.

I lost count.

Then I turned away before I could change my mind and faced the sea.

The clouds were black, igniting with flashes of lightning that split the sky and speared the horizon. This wasn’t right. The waves sucked sand from the shore, waiting to drag me under too. It felt like a trap.

The shard pulsed in my hand, responding to the magic in the air. And then the ground shuddered beneath my feet. Gusts of wind shrieked across the beach, the sound like a banshee rising from the depths.

But it wasn’t a ghost.

The sea witch.

She emerged from the waves, her black hair writhing like sea creatures in the gale.

Salt spray clung to her skin. A silver and blue wrap tangled around her legs—legs that shimmered with the faint gleam of scales.

Her taloned nails curled around a coral staff, capped with rough-cut amethyst crystals.

I stumbled back a step, my boots sinking into the wet sand. Tivara had felt me coming. She wasn’t going to let me leave this beach.

Her raspy voice rolled through me like a rising tide. Give me the shard, Marin. You’re not strong enough to return it to the sea queen.

The shard pulsed softly. I gritted my teeth.

Your curse is already claiming you. I can feel it. The sea queen can’t save you. No one can. You’re out of time.

My fingers tightened around my dagger. I spoke out loud, more to myself than to her. “I can still make it.”

No. You’ll die on this beach, and when you do, I’ll pry it from your cold fingers.

Tivara’s staff struck the water, unleashing a beam of violet light. And from the churning sea behind her, a figure rose. A hulking mass of coral and glittering minerals. The screams from the mines echoed in my ears. A nightmare come to life.

Salt-spiked chains clinked across its barnacled shoulders as it stepped onto the shore.

Gavin moved first.

He stepped between me and the waves, drawing his cutlass, eyes locked on the monster. Bowen flanked his left, the axe blade catching a flash of lightning. Cass drew her blade, her blonde hair snapping in the wind as she nudged me back a few more steps.

“You didn’t think you were doing this alone, did you?” Cass’s lips curled into a fierce smile. “This witch destroyed my family. I’ve been waiting for this.”