Page 67 of Beneath the Haunting Sea
“What did you see?”
He didn’t answer. Somehow, she hadn’t expected him to. “It hasn’t killedyou,” she said. “Whatever you saw, it hasn’t killed you. Maybe it was a fluke, what happened to the Baronesses. Maybe they misinterpreted the things they saw—”
“It hasn’t happened yet.” He went over to the fire and stood staring into the flames. “What I saw hasn’t happened yet.”
This time, Talia didn’t follow. She watched him, pondering this new depth to his character she hadn’t even guessedat before.
“What are you going to do?” Wen said, without looking at her. “About the thingsyousaw in the mirror.”
She blinked and saw her mother, reaching out to her, desperate and screaming.Take me back to the light! Take me back to the light!
“I don’t know.”
He caught her eye, and she knew he could see she was lying.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
SHE CAME DOWN FROM THE LIBRARY ALONE.
Now she was certain.
She wouldn’t leave her mother for Rahn to torment. She couldn’t. She was going to save her. Set her free.
How, she didn’t quite know yet. But that had to be what the Waves were calling her to do, and the mirrors proved she would make it that far. Beyond that—
She knew one thing: She couldn’t tell Wen what she’dseen, couldn’t tell him the plans forming slowly in her mind.
He would try and stop her.
And she was afraid she’d let him. Because Rahn had been looking forher,and if the goddess ever found her—
“Talia?”
She jerked around. Caiden stood there in his shirtsleeves, hair wet from a bath.
His face relaxed at the sight of her, and he laid a hand on her arm. “I’m so glad to see you. Are you feelingbetter?”
She blinked at him in confusion before she remembered Wen saying something about explaining their two-day absence with illness. “Oh, um … yes. Much better.” She smiled thinly.
He smiled back, the lamp in the hall glimmering on his smooth skin. He slid his arm around her waist and she breathed him in, soap and ink and cedar. “The mare missed you,” he said softly. “I took her out yesterday,but she didn’t run as well for me. What do you think you’ll name her?”
Talia was suddenly hyperaware of her heartbeat, pulsing harder where Caiden’s skin touched her own. She wanted to forget everything and melt into him, but the images she’d seen in the mirror were too recent. Too real. “Ahdairon,” she said quietly. “After the wind goddess.”
He laughed a little into her hair. “Fitting.”
Andthen he was kissing her forehead, her cheek, her—
“Stealing your brother’s betrothed is not exactly honorable, Caiden,” came a sudden voice. “I wouldn’t have thought it your style.”
Caiden jolted away from her, and Talia turned to see Blaive dressed for dinner. Her curls glinted in the lamplight. The neckline of her blush-pink gown was cut low, showing off her pale shoulders, her perfect collarbones,the emerald glittering on her breast.
“What do youwant,Blaive?” Caiden demanded.
Talia sagged back against her bedroom door. She hadn’t meant to let him kiss her. It wasn’t fair to Wen, or herself, or Caiden either.
“Your father would never approve, you know,” said Blaive, not quailing under his gaze.
“Of what?” said Caiden.
