“How could you—” King Salazar started, but I held out a hand.
“Let her speak.”
He cut me a glare.
Marian’s voice shook. “They took me to my aunt. At first I told her I wouldn’t make any deals with her. But she promised me that she would tell me the key to saving Mal if I made a deal. I told her I’d think about it.”
“You didn’t,” King Salazar said.
“I’d do anything to save Mal,” Marian snapped. “I went to your father, told him about this deal, and he didn’t think I should take it. But he was no closer to figuring out how to get Mal and Lochlan off that island either. It was becoming more hopeless.”
All this had been going on, and I’d had no idea. I’d been grieving, broken and lost, and my father had been scheming with the sea princess, searching for the trident. No wonder he’d been gone so long.
Marian shrugged, tears now spilling down her cheeks. “I didn’t know what else to do. Your father said he’d gotten a lead on the trident’s location that he was going to follow, but I just assumed it would be another dead end. We’ve been searching for that trident for centuries with no luck. I told your father I was going to take the deal, that it was a price worth paying. He said he’d have his ship waiting for me near the sea witch’s lair, to come directly to him after I took the deal.”
“Where was the sea witch’s lair?” I asked, dread growing like a weed in my gut.
“Near the human island, Porth,” Marian said. “I went to the sea witch and agreed to her terms. She said all I had to do was wear a necklace that she’d gotten from the shadow court.” Marian fingered the broken shell around her neck. “She said I could ask it a question and it would give me an answer, but it would also demand a price. I know how shadow court magic works. I know how these items are created, that for every shadow ripped from a person’s body, a new magical item appears. I also knew my aunt was doing this to hurt me. I didn’t care. I planned to find out how to save Mal and go directly to your father and tell him. Even if the necklace took my life, I figured I’d get to your father first, be able to relay the information.”
She paused, then, like this was almost too painful to speak about.
“I put on the necklace and asked it how to save Mal. It whispered to me, told me the key lay in the light. That shadows are afraid of light and in order to keep them at bay, we’d have to bring light to the island to save Mal’s life.”
“But we already know the shadows are afraid of light,” I said, disappointment already welling up in me.
“This dark magic is full of riddles, just like my sister,” King Salazar said, voice tight. “The necklace spoke the truth. If it says the light is the key, then it is. But it didn’t give enough details to help. That’s why if my daughter had come to me, I would’ve forbidden her from doing this.”
Marian’s face flushed, and I put a hand on her arm. “This isn’t your fault. You are brave for what you did.”
She sucked in a shuddering breath. “That’s when my voice disappeared.” She shook her head. “No, it was ripped from me. It felt like someone was physically pulling it up through my throatand out of my mouth. I couldn’t take the necklace off, couldn’t break it. I knew my voice was trapped inside. That was the price I paid for it answering my question.”
I shuddered at that description, and King Salazar’s eyes squeezed shut like it physically pained him to hear this.
Marian’s hand floated to her throat. “It hurt worse than any other pain I’ve ever felt—like someone was dragging their sharp nails up through my throat, and once my voice was gone, a burning sensation was left in its wake. You have no idea how many times I’ve wanted to rip out my own throat just to not feel the pain anymore.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
“I swam to the surface in pain, and your father was waiting on his ship, holding the trident in his hand.”
I gasped. He’d done it. He’d found it.
“He knew something was wrong right away. I gestured to the shell, and he was about to use the trident to break it when a wave hit his ship, and the trident fell straight into the sea.”
“The sea witch,” I guessed. “Why would she do that?”
“To keep your father from freeing my voice. She is so focused on the destruction of my family. It’s all she wants. To weaken us, to hurt us. That’s why she gave me that necklace. She knew that hurting me would be the ultimate way to hurt my father.”
“So my father got caught in the crossfire of her vengeance,” I said.
Marian looked down. “Yes. She capsized the ship. She and her followers used their magic to drown your father and his men. They tried to fight it, to use their own magic against her, but they were caught by surprise and they were outnumbered. They were also weak from using their magic to get that trident. Your father didn’t even have a chance to tell me how he’d found it. I tried to save them, but the sea witch and her followers kept me from going after them. The witch and all her sea creatures descendedon your father and his men, tearing them to pieces. I led her right to them.” Her voice broke, and she sobbed.
What a brutal end for my father, and after he’d finally realized his dream of finding that trident.
“The trident was lost, your father and his men were dead, and I no longer had my voice, couldn’t tell a soul what had happened. Couldn’t write it either. I never returned to the shadow court to see Mal. I was so ashamed of what I’d done, how I’d caused your father’s death.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks as well, and Leoni and a few of the crew members sniffled behind me.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I said. “You made such a great sacrifice for my brother. Please don’t blame yourself.”
