“Don’t lie to me,” I said quietly, narrowing my eyes. “He called for you. He was inpain.”
“Stop,” Selena said, holding up a hand behind her back, warding me off. The Naiad leaned on the desk, steadying her weight, and pressed her trembling fist against her mouth as though holding back bile. I listened to her shuddering breaths, staring impatiently at Selena’s back.
After a few long minutes, she stood, her eyes a direct line to mine.
“Never speak of this to me again,” she said, voice tight. She straightened the front of her dress, then she left me alone in the water.
Dusk met me on my balcony. Outside my room, I turned my wedding ring in my fingers.
I’d thought it a strange sort of metal at first, but now I realized it was some kind of black stone, sanded into a smooth, hollow circle. Plain in design, and yet, holding it up to the light, it shone almost transparent, flecks of white and dusty gold frozen insideit. Like the wind had tossed sand into the night air just before time went still.
Kye’s ring had matched it.
Squeezed against the door, my feet thrust through the iron railing of the narrow balcony, I'd shoved woolen blankets and down pillows under my shoulders and around my body, propping me up as I stared past Selena’s miniature juniper to clouds in the sky.
I could have used Kye’s balcony. It was twice as large as mine, and he’d left me the key, to my shock. But everything in that room smelled like him. My wedding dress still sat in a pale puddle on the floor, my knife stuck hard in his bed post.
A rap of hesitant knuckles vibrated through the wood at my back.
“Maren?” Diara said, her voice muffled and distant. “What are you doing?”
I blinked, surprised she’d come looking for me. “Sitting.”
Her face appeared, eyes narrowed at me through the small crack. “Let me out.”
I leaned forward, lifting my pillow, and Diara forced herself through the narrow opening, the corner of the door jutting into my lower back. It closed with a vehement slam when she fully materialized through and studied me, afloat in pillows and blankets. She pushed me aside like a mother bird and began constructing her own nest of feathers and fluff, then burrowed snugly into her creation without a further word.
Light faded. I thought she might stand to light the single sconce off the side of the door, but she didn’t. The shapes of our arms and legs tangled in bedding became dim and unfocused, cast in gold under the setting sun. Diara huddled closer beside me. A ceiling of stars blew slowly into existence.
“He left?” she asked softly.
“He left.” I confirmed.
She exhaled, and I braced for her judgment. For her to laugh at me. To remind me how terrible the royal family was.
“I thought it’s what you wanted,” Diara finally said. Her brow settled into the crook of my neck. Sympathy drifted in her words like a quiet current. “You wanted him to stay?” She laced her fingers into mine, holding my hand as we listened to the distant waves crashing below.
I opened my mouth, and words failed. My eyes shifted over the distant horizon, where leagues away, Leihani floated over jewel-toned water. The ghost of Kye’s fingers brushed down my arm, and glowing embers lit under my skin. I could almost smell rainwater and mint.
I didn’t know what I wanted.
All I knew was he’d coaxed a fire within me, then left me to burn.
Diara swiveled her head to watch me, mossy green eyes bright even in the failing light, her red-blonde tresses in a braid so loose it had half-escaped, fine strands flying in the wind over her crown like lengths of golden thread.
“You’re coming with me tomorrow,” she said. “I’m going to teach you to ride a horse.”
56
Diara took me riding on palace mounts every afternoon when she finished her chores. We wandered the paths and fields on the northeast side of the palace, through the trees and vines. I returned to my room at night, dusty and sore, hoofbeats echoing in my ears.
For six weeks, I met with Selena for books and training only long enough each day to avoid breaching my contract.
A full moon came and went, though the summer night was overcast, trapping its beams under thick clouds for two days. Unable to bathe in its light, I grew ill with fever—something Selena calledmoon deprivation. An ailment newly-transitioned Naiads suffered when they failed to absorb the beams sent down from the full moon. She’d promised I would outgrow it soon. Luckily, the sky was clear on the third night ofMihauna, and strength returned to my muscles as I spent the night on my balcony, soaking in its silver rays.
I continued to practice water calling and mapping throughout my day, even if it was only to stir the ice in my drink or to catch notes of boiling soup from the kitchen. But I’d masteredmy grasp over small amounts of water, and though I didn’t stop calling to the liquid in a passing horse trough or the rain puddles on my balcony, they began to challenge me less.
At night, I stole into Selena’s rooms to climb into the glass box. Sometimes I heard Thaan, Selena, and Cain sleeping through the walls. Sometimes, they were gone, doing who knew what in the dark hours.
