We plopped Vouri in my vanity chair. Cebrinne threw open my wardrobe, shuffling through the hung gowns.
“Search the ones in the back for something I haven’t worn recently,” I said, gathering Vouri’s braids in one hand and angling them left and right. What to do with a shaved head and a crown of rope? I didn’t even consider unbraiding them all. Every Venusian wore braids, and instinct warned me against suggesting their dismantling.
Cebrinne tossed a dress onto my bed, a heavy garment at least three years out of season. More of a winter piece than spring, it landed in an enormous puddle of striking satin resembling the color of the tropical leaves in the palace solarium.
Vouri’s eyes bulged. She stroked a cautious finger down a shining corner of the satin fabric. “I can’t wear this. I’ll destroy it climbing down the rocks.”
Cebrinne shrugged. “Take it off when you get there. Senna doesn’t care if it’s ruined, though.”
I nodded, still musing over Vouri’s hair. “She’s right. I don’t. You can keep it.”
“Keep it?” A sparkle lit in Vouri’s eyes. I smirked down at her.Byssussilk was delicate and lightweight. Nearly sheer. Most Naiads wore simple sheath dresses, and even though Vouri’s Venusian garb was more illustriously styled than the average siren’s, it didn’t change the fact that all of her dresses were the same silver silk as the rest of herDomus.
I pulled her braids to the side, shielding her shaved scalp from any wandering eyes, and twisted the length into a bun under her ear, pinning it into place. “Ceba, I have a box of masks on my wardrobe floor.”
My sister stooped, sliding shoes out of her way.
“Undress in the bathroom,” I said, adjusting the final pin in her hair and pointing down the hall. “If you need help lacing the back, we can do it for you.”
Vouri slid out from my vanity seat. She gathered the dress at the waist, offering us a shy smile. A heavy contrast to the bold confidence that usually angled the sharpness of her mouth. We watched her disappear through the door together, our own smiles dropping as soon as we heard the door latch.
“Get dressed,” I said.
“Senna, we’re not done talking about it.”
“We’re done talking about it tonight.”
“I can’t ignore fate.”
“No,” I said. “You just want to give up. You’ve been looking for a path, and Theia offered you one. It’s not the right one, but you don’t care. Well, I care, Ceba. I care that you want to go kill yourself just to be free of him. And I know you think I’m just here fighting you for the sake of fighting you. But yes, if that’s what it takes, I’ll fight you. If that’s what keeps you safe, I won’t stop fighting. Thaan has taken everything—everything—from us. I’ll spend my last breath fighting to keep you. Now, get dressed. I have a king to deal with, and you’ve promised to sneak Vouri out of the palace.”
“I’m going to Leihani,” Cebrinne said quietly. “I picked out a name.”
I turned to look at her fully. “A what?”
“A name. Alana.” She didn’t even flinch under my iron stare. “It’s common enough here that the islanders wouldn’t find it odd. And common enough there that it would go unnoticed in their yearly census. I’m going to Leihani, Senna. Not today, not tomorrow. I know you don’t want me to, and I’ll wait until you’re ready. But I’m going. I’ve made up my mind.”
Didn’t want her to?
She made it sound so casual. Sonothing. I didn’t want her to rearrange my wardrobe. Didn’t want her to spoil the ending of my book. Didn’t want her to take the last cookie from a tray.
Leave me to let her own blood take her life?Didn’t want hertodidn’t even come close to what I actually felt.
Her words didn’t sound like words. They rattled and wavered, her voice lost under the roar of sudden wind and tide in my ears, a haunted echo in a storm. And I don’t think it fully registered until I stood there trying to break through the gale of those words.
I’m going to Leihani.
A void opened under my feet. I stood erect, staring into her teal eyes. Eyes made for the tropics, for island water and jeweled birds. But I felt myself fall, a sudden drop that sent my body plummeting somewhere deeper than the bowels of the palace. An unending spiral, a cavern that yawned deeper and deeper below.
She was still talking, her voice still trapped under the wind, but I couldn’t hear anything but the tempest vacuum of space I’d been thrust into.
“No,” I murmured. My fists flexed at my sides. I watched her throat tighten.
“Senna.”
“No. You will not. I promise you, you will not.”
I scrambled to halt my fall, latching onto anything that might save me. Any idea, no matter how wrong. Just to buy me time and convince her we could break her vow another way. Any other way. I’d lock her in her room. Accuse her of stealing to have her sent to the dungeons.
