Kingdom of Sea and Stone (Crown of Coral and Pearl #2) - Mara Rutherford Page 0,11

my rib cage as my muscles began to spasm. I was being ridiculous. I was the one who had jumped out of the boat, and Talin would be a fool to abandon his only guide back to land. He didn’t know the first thing about navigating in the ocean.

The blood drained from my face. Talin knew nothing about the ocean. And no one else knew where I was.

Just as another stab of pain went through me, something grabbed my shoulder from behind. I screamed, inhaling another lungful of seawater, and found myself being pulled backward.

Into a boat.

“Good gods,” Talin cried, looking down at me with sunlight surrounding him like a halo. “I thought I’d lost you! You were under for so long, and when I went in after you, you were gone.”

“You—you what?” I sat up and took in his soaked clothing, his dripping hair.

“What happened, Nor? I was terrified!” He rubbed his hands on my arms, attempting to warm me.

“I’m so sorry. The current must have been stronger than I realized. And when I was coming up, I had a...”

His grip tightened in concern. “A what?”

A vision? It sounded like nonsense, even to me. It could have just as easily been a dream or hallucination. Maybe I’d been unconscious for a minute or two. “I don’t know. It was as if I blacked out for a moment. But maybe it was longer than I realized.”

“It must have been,” he said, smoothing my wet hair off my forehead. “We should get back. You clearly need to rest. We’ll get some food into you and warm you up.”

I nodded, hoping he was right and I was simply exhausted and overwhelmed. But the vision had seemed so real. When Ceren turned to me, I could have sworn he saw me.

I shook the thought away and sat up a little in Talin’s lap. I hated myself for doubting him, even if I had been momentarily lost at sea.

I rowed us back home, allowing the rhythm to settle my frayed nerves. But all too soon the house came into view, and we both knew that after we stepped inside, there would be no going back.

I reached up to tuck a sun-kissed strand of hair behind his ear. No matter what happened, I was glad he had come.

“I wish I could make this easier for you,” he said, his voice so earnest it made my heart ache.

But he couldn’t make any of this easier. He couldn’t change the fact that Ceren was alive or give Varenia enough fresh water to ensure no one would die of thirst this month. He couldn’t make any promises, and neither could I.

I blinked back my tears. We were too young to have such burdens hanging over us. But perhaps Father was right: some of us were not meant to have easy journeys.

So far, life had conspired against us at every opportunity, and I wasn’t naive enough to think that was going to change anytime soon. But for now, I would take whatever moments I could get.

“Kiss me,” I whispered.

His brow furrowed for a moment, as if he wished he had something more to give, before he finally pulled me toward him and lowered his lips to mine.

4

We entered the house hand in hand.

Zadie stood up from the table abruptly, nearly knocking over her stool.

Mother rose far more gracefully than Zadie. “Prince Talin,” she said, inclining her head. Her hair was braided neatly, and she wore a fresh tunic and a lemon-yellow skirt. “Welcome back to Varenia.”

He released my hand gently and bowed to Mother. “Thank you, my lady.”

“I know it’s not much,” she replied, gesturing to the house around us, “but we are honored by your presence.”

I had forgotten Talin had never been inside our home before. For one brief moment I saw the tiny living space through his eyes, the mismatched dishes in a stack on our salvaged wooden shelf, the tattered hems of our curtains. But we had worked hard to make this place a home, and I was proud of it, even if—

“Your home is lovely,” Talin said, taking one of Mother’s trembling hands in his and kissing the back of it, as he’d once done to me, and I felt my heart swell with gratitude as Mother’s cheeks turned a flattering shade of pink.

“Thank you,” she said. “Can I offer you something to drink? We have a little wine, and water, of course.”

“Water would be perfect.”

Mother nodded graciously, then turned away from Talin and shot