Page 140 of Storm and Sea

They could have helped. They should have helped. But they didn’t. Yet the petals only shimmered, indifferent, as the vines tightened their grip and dragged him closer to the waiting abyss.

“You didn’t save her!” Atreus shouted at them like a curse.

But delicate blooms didn’t respond. Didn’t move. They swayed with the lazy movement of the tide. Unfeeling.

The vines dug through his scales, penetrating muscle and scraping bone.

“You’re mine.”

“Let me go!”

“You’re nothing without me.

Nobody wants you.

Nobody ever will.

I am all you have, all you’ll ever have.

Stop fighting. Give in.”

“You aren’t real!” Atreus cried to the voice that echoed from the pit. The same voice that tormented him in his waking hours. The voice that took root in his mind when his father left. The voice that blinked with the unfeeling glow of nameless flowers.

“I am as real as you are.”

“Let me go!” Atreus’s fingernails tore as he clawed at the dirt.

“We are one and the same.”

“Atreus!”

Someone called to him, but the voice was muffled as though reverberating underwater.

“Wake up!

Atreus gasped and shot upright, nearly colliding with Nyel, who was bent over him, his face pale.

“Where is it?” Atreus shouted, heart in his throat and body ready to face the threat. He grabbed at his ankles.

“There is nothing here. You were having a nightmare,” Nyel said soothingly.

“No, it’s…” Atreus’s eyes darted around wildly, his heart pounding. It was here. It was right here. It…. Was…

As he blinked, his heart rate slowed. Clarity returned, along with a throbbing headache. He rubbed his temples.

“You were thrashing in your sleep.”

Atreus swallowed hard. The nightmares were getting worse—perhaps the fear of losing everything he cared about was finally sinking in. He wasn’t ready to let it go. Wasn’t ready to let Baia Vita fade to memory.

A tentative hand gripped his fingertips.

“You okay?” Nyel asked, and all at once, Atreus was.

This sireno’s touch was enough to steady the storm within him, grounding him in a way nothing else could. It was enough. Nyel was enough. Once again, Atreus remembered that risking it all had been his choice. A quiet reassurance settled inside him, knowing that if given the chance, he’d do it all again.

Even though it makes no goddamn sense.

Risking his life for one person? It was stupid. Yet he couldn’t make himself believe that. Not anymore. Something had shifted deep inside him. It was as if a part of him had awakened, unearthing feelings he didn’t fully understand—or perhaps didn’t want to. All he knew was that he wasn’t the same, and the uncertainty of it both gnawed at him as much as it strangely settled him.