Page 43 of A Sea of Fate and Starfire

“Was cordaed, yes.” I tsked in silence, my vision burning. Out of everything I’d spat at him, that was all he could say? Though I’d come to realize, through Nori and Olinne, that Naiads honored the bonds of a corda-cruor more than humans honored marriage.

Aegir glanced sympathetically at me. “Did you lose him? Your human?”

Ah. There it was. There was my line. The boundary my words couldn’t cross. They bubbled inside me, gathering in a lump against my throat, raw and hot. They stung the backs of my eyes, burned inside my nose, gouged at my heart.

I swallowed and didn’t answer.

I see you, Kye rumbled quietly into my head. At least, I see torches ahead. I think it’s you.

It’s me.

The mountainside carved a jagged silhouette against the night sky, but among the few trees in our path, figures stepped from the trail.

I couldn’t see his face, but I recognized him anyway. His height gave him away, taller than the others. That, and the shape of his shoulders, the soft way his shadow faded at the top of his head where light became lost within his curls. And the internal stream of relief that flowed from him the moment he spotted me.

Aegir started in surprise as I heaved to the side, pushing off my saddle, though the Videre did nothing to stop me from running to Kye. He and the Venusians halted where they were, content to give my troupe a wide berth.

Snow crunched under my heels, my silk-spun toes scraping rock and ice, my breath loud against the quiet night.

And then I was in Kye’s warm arms, my cheek against his hard chest. And nothing else really mattered.

19

Maren

Aegir and his Naiads approached slowly. Cautiously. Perhaps even respectfully. They edged in only enough so that the light from their torches kissed ours, then waited.

Nori was at Kye’s side in an instant. “Foolish,” she hissed, though she took me in with a gleam of relief that rivaled Kye’s.

Aitne circled my other side, gently pulling me from Kye’s warmth. “Injuries?”

“None,” I sighed, unwilling to look anywhere but the golden hearth of Kye’s eyes. “Just tired. My back and lungs are sore.”

“How’s your leg?”

“My leg?” I glanced down at myself in surprise. It hadn’t pained me since I’d crossed into Perpetuum. I hadn’t even considered it.

“Yes. You broke it fighting Sidra.”

Ah. I’d forgotten. That was in another life. A past life. It felt like hundreds of years ago now, but to Aitne, it would have only been a couple weeks. “It’s fine.”

My healer raised a brow, but I cut my attention across her to Nori. “Is everyone accounted for?”

“No.” Her face remained passive. Hard but guarded. “Olinne and Selena are counting everyone, but I’m estimating we have seventy Naiads.”

I threw a sharp look in her direction.

We’d come with one hundred. And all had been alive before I dove to the depths of Sylus Lake to barter with Darkness.

I’d traded thirty Naiads for Kye’s life.

Nori’s mouth was tight as she angled a glance sideways at the Venusians, who stood a short distance from us. Not quite inside our circle of communication, but close enough to hear everything we said. Most were water-callers. A few incanters. One water-mapper. And four of our healers.

“How many healers did you bring?” Aegir asked, as though he knew exactly what she was relaying to me.

“Five,” I answered, scanning my one remaining healer for injury from the side. “I’m fine, Aitne. See who else needs healing.”

Aegir turned to Sindri. “Send whoever is available to help any wounded Juileans.”