Selena watched me with an expression of pleasant surprise. “Did Nori and Olinne instruct you to work under the full moon?”
“No. But they knew I did.”
Her mouth twitched. “You must have great lunar energy. We’ll know more about your capabilities when you transition. And it really can't wait. The next full moon is tonight. It will provide for an optimal transition.”
My eyes narrowed. “It wasn't a full moon when Nori and Olinne tried before.”
Selena frowned. “That's odd.”
“It was almost a week ago,” I remembered, the picture of it clear in my head, a silver curve in the dark sky.
Selena’s frown deepened. “Were they desperate? Had something just happened?”
“N—no?” I said, unsure. The only thing that had changed was the appearance of Kye. But he’d been there almost three weeks by then.
Selena’s eyes drifted across the walls of the room, her gaze losing focus. “They started your transition during a waxing moon and didn't finish,” she murmured to herself. “They can't have planned it that way. The strongest lunar energy is during a full moon. Something happened to make them think they were running out of time and needed to act. But they didn’t finish? They must have been interrupted. Perhaps something scared them off? Unless they tried it out of desperation and itdidn’t take, the moon wasn’t full enough, and the whole thing backfired. They should’ve never started if they weren’t able to finish.” Wandering back into the main suite, she suddenly turned and faced me. “Did they explain to you what they were doing?”
“No,” I breathed.
Something scared them off.The keel of Kye’s rowboat from below the water slid across my memory, followed by a burst of violent bubbles, his hands and face careening through the water. But they’d tried to attack him. Hadn’t they? I was sure they’d at least started to before dashing away, abandoning me in the water.
Selena sighed. “I’ll have to spend some time thinking about it. Fools. I imagine she wasn’t happy with them.”
I gazed up at her, the memory hanging in the air. “She?”
Selena clicked her tongue. “Sidra. TheirVidere. The Naiad monarch of the Juile Sea. It doesn’t matter. We need to finish your transition. You’re stuck in the middle, with only half of your abilities. The most important one, the ability to change, is out of reach. But we can’t do it here.” She looked out the window beyond the red cliffs toward the sea, dull gray and never-ending.
“Why not? Where else?”
“Naiad laws aren’t like human laws, written in stone or paper, argued in courtrooms, disciplined in lashings. Our laws are built into our bodies, inscribed in our bones and blood. If we break our laws—our vows, our promises— our bodies answer. Your blood will always keep the score, Maren. Sidra controls the waters of the Juile Sea, everything south of this coastline, including the island of Leihani. She knows your blood. She’ll know if you enter her realm.”
“So, we travel,” I guessed, trying to follow.
“We travel up the west coast, to the Venus Sea. We could go east to the Anatola. Water covers Calder on three sides, so wehave options. Though the Venus Sea would make the most sense. It’s closer, and we are on better terms with the Naiads there.”
I nodded, even though I had no experience to do anything other than blindly agree.The Naiads there. Another Naiadic colony.
I couldn’t detach Kye’s face from my thoughts, the feeling of his hands underwater, patting against my shoulders, making sure I was alive. A shudder laced through my spine.
Men are traitors. All of them.
“What would happen if wediduse the Juile Sea?” I asked, shutting my eyes against Kye’s touch. Pushing him away.
“She’d know where to find you,” Selena said, pointing to my new leather boots in silent instruction. “Sidra discovered you as a child. She knew what you were the moment you set foot in her waters. Nori and Olinne have been grooming you for a very long time. For all intents and purposes, you were meant to join their colony. They likely thought they had all the time in the world to mold you however they wanted. They probably know your birth date, and the day you began your first period, and precisely when the door to transition will close, and were edging up as close as they could to that date, waiting as you collected lunar energy each month.” She softened a bit, her eyes apologetic. “It was only by a stroke of luck we found you.”
I didn’t answer.
It didn’t feel lucky.
I’d simply vacated one jail cell and occupied another. A cargo hold, a palace tower, an arranged marriage with someone I hated.
If Kye had never come to Leihani, I’d still be there. I might even have transitioned to a Naiad by now. Joined Nori and Olinne’s Naiad colony, found a family pod. Would they have told me eventually that they’d killed the sailors I’d been blamedfor? Would the leader of the Juile Sea have forced me to make promises in blood?
Was she like Thaan?
“You’re very different from him,” I said slowly, avoiding Selena’s eyes.
Selena nodded slightly, knowing who I referred to. Her mouth opened as she began to say something but decided against it. “Yes,” she murmured instead, hand on the doorknob.
