Page 128 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

My voice broke on the last word. I pressed a hand over my mouth, but it didn’t stop the raw sound that came out of me. Jina’s arms came around me from one side, Minha from the other, and none of us spoke as we wept in each other’s arms.

I had faced gods, creatures, and men who wanted me dead, and none of it had broken me the way losing the one person who had never once let me fall did.

Yong set the pyre alight. The flames caught fast, rising high, the smoke curling upward into the sky in a thin dark line.

The tide came in and we gave her a gentle push. We watched until the flames grew small. Until the distance swallowed her. Until there was nothing left but the open water, the sound of the waves, and the space where Nam had been.

She had left us body and soul.

I dried my eyes and turned to Jina. “I need to tell you something.”

Jina wiped her eyes. “What is it?”

“Nam told me,” I said. “Before she—” I started again. “Your parents were the rightful rulers of the underwater city. The Seelie queen had them killed when you were a child. Nam took you into the cavern to protect you. The same way she protected me.”

Minha and Sohee dropped their jaws, eyes growing wider. Jina blinked in confusion, looking between Minha, Sohee, and me.

“The city is still there,” I said. “It’s been waiting. And it’s yours.”

A long silence passed between us, the water crashing in and out at our feet, soaking our pants.

“She always said I was meant for something great,” Jina said. “I thought she meant surviving.”

“She meant you’re the queen of the Seaborn.”

Jina looked at the sea for a long moment, then something in her expression shifted. Not the girl who counted silently to hold herself together, but someone beginning to understand the size of who she was.

“Will you come with me?” Jina asked.

“Try and stop me.” Minha crossed her arms, her chin held up.

Yong pressed his fist to his heart and bowed from where he stood on the sand. “We’ve been waiting for our long lost queen. It will be my honor to gather our people so they can go home.”

“Yes, please.” Jina walked farther into the water. “I knew the moment we were thrown into the sea that I was home. I didn’t know why my legs tingled. I didn’t know why I could breathe underwater.” She glanced back at me. “I just knew it felt right.”

The water reached her waist. She looked down and smiled. Then lowered herself below the surface. First nothing happened, then Jina popped her head up, making a sound that was half laugh and half sob. Her shirt was gone, nothing but bare skin. She dove in again, and iridescent blue-green scales caught the light the way the pure stones had caught it in the dark of the cavern, unfurling as she somersaulted.

“What are you waiting for?” Jina flapped her tail once, splashing water and giggling.

“My turn.” Minha dove in.

She surfaced a moment later with no shirt, a lavender colored tail breaking the water. She glanced down at it, then shrugged. “Don’t just stand there, Goddess of the Sea.”

With those challenging words, I dove in. The pressure changed in my lungs, and warmth traveled from my head downward. As the tingling sensation rose, my shirt peeled away, pants dissolving as my legs found each other. The mother of pearl and gold scales covered into the shape of a tail.

Jina and Minha swished their tails beside me.

We couldn’t speak out in the water moving your mouth, but we spoke into each other’s mind.

Can you hear me? Jina’s voice, clear as bells.

Obviously, Minha said. Stop being amazed and swim.

Jina laughed and somersaulted.

You both are beautiful, I said.

As you, Goddess of the Sea. Minha dipped her head. I hadn’t thought about if we could see underwater, but it’s clear as day.