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I shook off the thought, my stomach turning sour, and refocused my energy on the water in front of me. The sun was setting, casting a brilliant wash of deep orange and pink across the sky and reflecting off the water.
Beautiful, objectively. But sunsets just made me feel guilty. Guilty for abandoning a friend who loved them.
I liked dusk, the time right after the sun dropped below the horizon but the night sky hadn’t quite taken over. The water and the sky were almost the same color in those precious minutes, a soft azul that reminded me of peace. Contentment. The color of Lukas’s eyes when he was content.
And that was the reason for the dread. I was a fool in love with someone who wanted nothing to do with me. Not like that anyway.
Except for a minor slip up that was a momentary lapse in sanity on my part, he hadn’t changed his tune.
My cheeks colored with the memory ofthatnight.
And if I hadn’t lost my mind, I’d probably never have left. I would never be here, waiting for a dolphin to come pick me up, hoping it might buck me off in the middle of the ocean so I didn’t have to confront Lukas.
The water started bubbling then, signaling the arrival of said dolphin.
A moment later, Loretta popped her head above the surface, her eyes narrowing. I recognized that look. It meant get with it and get busy, no time to waste.
That was the thing about communicating with sea life. You didn’t speak a language that could be translated word for word, but you could understand emotion, intention, and questions as clearly as if they were spoken aloud.
And Loretta was screaming at me to get moving. No comment about the last time I’d seen her. Another dolphin I didn’t recognize, a young one—male by the looks of it—broke the surface a second later.
I breathed out in relief. Two meant they were hauling a chariot.
It also meant I didn’t have to quite face the fear that being away from the ocean for so long had completely destroyed my ability to ward off the effects of water and I would show up to Lukas’s front door sopping wet.
It was a silly fear, given it was quite literally impossible for me to forget something I’d learned. But doubt was a fickle little monster in that regard.
Loretta swam over and I tossed her a bit of the tuna I’d picked up on my way over. She caught it gracefully in the air then sent gratitude channeling toward me while she chomped away.
I threw a piece to the other dolphin who sent me thanks and his name—Dave—in the same thought. They maneuvered the chariot toward me, and I slipped in the water and down into it, covering myself and my small duffel in a protective field.
I ran out of Lukas’s palace so fast that I was only able to grab a few essentials.
I was really hoping he didn’t throw my stuff out. Logically, I knew that I could replace anything I’d left behind, but I wanted my things. The books I kept on the bedside table. The trinkets I’d gathered over years of pouring through markets. My bags of coffee beans that I special ordered from a farm in Sicily.
I reached forward and stroked Loretta’s tail lightly, letting her know I was ready. She blew out a bubble of water and then we were off, racing away from the shoreline and deeper and deeper underwater.
As my eyes adjusted to the dark, I worked through explanations for why Lukas would be at Lounion in August.
Lounion was the seat of his rule, where he was most tapped into his power. The closer he was to the heart of the sea, the stronger he was.
He kept Sounion more as a vacation home, a fortress even, on the coast. But he'd started to travel up earlier and earlier into the summer and stay through the winter.
I never complained. Before. I spent most of the summer and fall at the university, matching up with the schedule of the researchers I worked with who focused on digs during the fall and lectured in the spring.
It probably had something to do with the reduced fish stocks. He needed to be as close to his power as possible.
The old court was also full of families who had been involved with House Poseidon for years.
That was a group of people I wassurewould have some choice words to say about my return. I’d won most of them over through years of careful maneuvering, but some were probably coughing up rainbows in my absence.
I was stuck in my head for most of the short descent, but when the lights of the palace started illuminating the water, I was shocked back into focus.
Shit.
Despite my nerves, the soles of my feet felt heavier, and my body relaxed. I was home and my soul knew it.
The golden glow of the candles and lights made the water light with a calm sort of green that had quickly become my second favorite color. The balcony I’d sat on as a girl looked exactly the way I’d remembered.
