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“You’ve been holed up in your bedchamber for days. I figured it looked as dreary in here as it does outside.”
A mesmerizing display unfolded as he moved his wrist in a fluid motion, covering the walls of her room with a tapestry of blooming dahlias—strawberry red and lemon yellow. The contrasting colors unpleasantly transformed the gloomy hue. The cheer of it thoroughly disgusted Naia.
He took a seat across from her, making it known he had no intention of leaving anytime soon. “Tell me what is on your mind, darling.”
Naia swept her eyes over the dahlias, their graceful blooms and intoxicating fragrance instantly transporting her back to the cherished moments when her father would gently place one behind her ear.
She tilted her head towards him and noticed the frown underneath the scruffiness of his facial hair as he stared at her.
For once, his flowers failed to bring her an ounce of joy.
“You have never been more than a call away,” she whispered. “Yet, I am to believe you did not know?”
His brow furrowed. “Naia, is everything all right?”
An explosion of emotions detonated in her chest. The force clamped away under her breath.
“Did you pretend to be oblivious of the past four nights Raksa escorted Solaris to my bedchamber? Or the night in the library?”
He said nothing.
Naia expected the cold, deafening sound of silence from Mira, from Marina, from Solaris—but never her father.
A lump swelled in her throat, threatening to spill tears.
His gaze dropped to the surface of the table.
“What binds you here in Kaimana? Tell me the truth. Tell me why you never go against her!” Naia demanded. “You owe me an explanation. I deserve that much from you.”
He took a deep breath, allowing a long second to elapse before uttering his words in a composed and soft-spoken manner. “Lord Cassian and I used to be close friends.”
Naia blinked at him.
She could not imagine such a thing.
“The story is quite ordinary. I fell in love with a mortal. We married, and she became pregnant.”
Naia lightly gasped.
“I never got to meet my first child, though, because she was caught in the crosshairs of one of your mother’s and Levina’s battles that had swept through the Mortal Land. I believe they refer to it as the War of Tides.”
His eyes flickered, and Naia could tell he was somewhere in the past. The burden of grief lived in them, longing and full of anguish. Shame washed over her as she realized she had never noticed before.
“We lived on a patch of land I formed in the middle of the Kaimana Sea. Within the following years, voyagers settled on the island, and we built it into a village. It became known as Nohealani Island. Mira surged the sea and Levina struck her lightning down, turning the island into their battlefield. The villagers died. I tried to save them, but the damage was too severe. When I found my beloved among the rubble—” He sucked in a sharp breath. “Furious, I went to the Land of the Dead to bring her back. Cassian wouldn’t allow it. There are rules we must follow to maintain order, he told me. I expected him to say such nonsense since he was a part of the Council, and if I had been in any other mindset, I would’ve agreed. However, my raging desperation and infinite devotion led me to enter through his ominous gates in search of my wife and child.”
Naia’s heart pulsed behind her eyes as she stared at him. “Did you find them?”
He nodded lightly, gazing down at his hands in his lap. “I did. Before Cassian could catch me, I took them from the Land of the Dead.”
It was forbidden to do such a thing without the High Goddess of Fate’s approval, an exchange for a soul from Cassian as the High God of Death, and an agreement with the High Goddess of Life and Balance.
He lifted his chin to look at her, rolling his lips. After a beat, he continued. “Cassian found us quickly and escorted her and my child back to his land. In return, I blamed my grim twist of fate on your mother, for it was her attack that caused devastation on my island, and immediately sought her out to make her pay. My grief and hatred blinded me, and when I returned to my island to find Levina and Mira still fighting on the debris of where my home once stood, on the corpses of those I cherished, I broke.”
Naia’s hand came up to rest over her heart as it ached for all the torment and pain her father had endured.
Her lips quivered as she fought to hold back tears, yearning to embrace him and absorb his sorrow.
“I nearly had them buried a hundred feet underground when Cassian showed up and punished us all. He cursed Mira beneath the sea, Levina into a volcano, and he bound me to the one who took away the love of my life. The Council did not agree that the level of my punishment exceeded my crime, but Cassian persuaded them that my anguish would be far greater than any physical pain would bring me in his prison.”
