“Did you see the ocean today? The current’s fierce. It should be the same tomorrow.”
She inhaled deeply and looked up, blue eyes scanning the beautiful lawn and the towering turrets of the castle beyond. After a long moment, she nodded. “It’s a start.”
It was. I just didn’t know it was the beginning of the end.
Now, I sigh and look to where this Anna is rooted, here, forever with me. Because of me.
“What should I do?” I ask, finally.
If she weren’t tethered to the sea floor, Anna likely would’ve leaped into a grand twirl for all the joy that’s in her voice when the suggestion she’d kept deep inside bursts forth into the murk between us. “You need to become human, Evie! Go home. Restore the balance. It’s the only way you can stop the sea king.”
She’s so happy I nearly feel bad cutting her down. “I can’t do that. You know I can’t. You know I tried to leave long before I asked him to free me.”
“Yes, long before. You haven’t triednow.” She says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “You just sent two mermaids to the surface. If the sea king is that upset about losing a fraction of his magic with two of his brood on land and three others with missing hair, you know it would make his fins curl to know you’d escaped above.”
She’s made her case.
And she’s still going. “Besides, you’ve used your land magic and coupled it successfully with sea magic. Urda has made you strong in ways no one has ever been, Evie.”
It’s a compliment, and I let it seep into my bones, because I can’t remember the last one I received. Still, what she’s saying is an impossibility.
“But I have nothing to give Urda for the exchange,” I say, piling my tentacles beneath me. The one abbreviated tip sits nicely on top. “My hair, my voice, I’d need it all to weather the trip above and survive whatever the sea king does to retaliate.”
“What about the ring the girl has? It was Nik’s, no?”
I flinch at his name on her lips. I’m unsure if she can tell, though. I keep my voice colorless. “Runa has no need to bring it to me now.”
Anna laughs. “And you’re going to let a little thing like that get in your way?”
The ring, the knife, the princesses’ unused hair—Anna has a point. It could work.
18
Runa
AS THE GOLDEN RAYS OF DAWN SWEEP INTO MY EYES,the memory of Oma Ragn singing hits me like a cannonball to the chest.
Come away, come away—
O’er the waters wild.
Our earth-born child
Died this day, died this day.
Come away, come away—
The tempest loud
Weaves the shroud
For him who did betray.
Come away, come away—
Beneath the wave
Lieth the grave
