Page 51 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

“What’s wrong with the island?” I asked warily, noticing for the first time the wet sailcloth and damp sand beneath me. I was so used to the water that I didn’t even notice it, but it would make cooking or heating the cave difficult, and I was already shivering in the chill morning.

I knew there were superstitions about the southern islands. That they were full of terrible monsters and that only the bravest risked the hunting grounds here. So far the island seemed deserted and a little inconvenient, but not dangerous.

“I’m not entirely sure,” Caspian said, his voice hard with suspicion. “We can’t stay in this cave if it gets regularly flooded by the tide, and I have the sense that something is watching us that isn’t entirely friendly.”

“I haven’t sensed anything,” I commented, sending my magic into the surrounding sea to try to sense danger. I felt the ocean, her welcoming arms beckoning me as always to play in her surf.Not today, I told her.I’ve been too ill. The sea seemed to churn with concern at this, and I could swear the waves crashed a little more violently as I withdrew my awareness.

Just the sea. No monsters.

“Paranoia is the first sign of insanity,” I quipped, feeling much better with food in my stomach. I pulled on the magic, drawing water from the perpetual morning fog outside and cupping it into my palms to drink, then filling a shell for Caspian.

“I let myself be captured by my enemies and kidnapped a Selkie Princess,” Caspian deadpanned, taking the shell and drinking with gusto. I tried to ignore the bob of his throat as he swallowed, which did strange things to my insides. “Some would argue I’ve long passed insanity.”

“Did you know how badly they would hurt you?” I asked, eyes skipping over his wings, which were at least not bleeding anymore.

“Yes,” Caspian replied, giving me a level gaze.

I shivered, remembering his grip on my wrist in the cell as he had told me not to touch him, the terrible angle of his broken wings. “You must have been truly desperate.”

His eyes held mine in their amber depths, and something twisted in my stomach at the pain they held.

“Yes.”

I swallowed, feeling my stomach hollow out.

“Your turn, Princess,” Caspian said, eating his own fish as if he may not get another meal. “Tell me something new about yourself.”

“What do you want to know?” I asked, raising my brow. I tried to continue to focus on my breathing, despite the uptick in my heart rate at the question. Why did he want to know about me?

“Something real,” he replied, settling me with a heavy stare. “I told you about my master plan. You tell me yours.”

“I don’t have a master plan,” I laughed, which devolved into coughing.

Caspian smirked. “Dying seal,” he reminded me, handing me a shell to fill with water. “You must have dreams. Goals.”

I pulled moisture from the sand this time, grimacing at the cloudy brown liquid and drinking it anyway. It barely helped. “My goal is to do my duty,” I replied. “And my duty is to mate Vitulus.”

“But what do youwant?“ Caspian asked, frowning at me. “To be mated to a male you don’t love out of duty? That doesn’t seem like you.”

“And you know me so well?” I quipped, coughing still as the water settled. I was tiring quickly from talking, but it might have been the first time anyone asked me whatIhad wanted in life, and I felt strangely without an answer.

“Well enough,” he replied, smiling faintly. “Why did you come down to the dungeon that night, really? What is it thatyouwant in life, Marina?”

I sighed, wracking my brain for a true answer to his question, and coming up with only the same answer I had when I had been younger and duty had been far away.

“I want to fly.”

Caspian laughed, the sound throaty as he looked at me in surprise. “A selkie who wants to fly?”

“Is that so odd?” I asked, feeling a little defensive of my answer.

“No,” he said, his eyes dancing with mischief. “It’s a good dream, just not what I expected.”

“I’m an enigma,” I croaked out haughtily.

“You are,” he laughed as he replaced the pot on the fire and began stripping more herbs. He looked at me, his eyes somewhat softer than they had been before. “Perhaps neither of us is entirely what we seem.”

Chapter 19