Page 173 of In Rising Tides

The pleading in her voice was enough for him to obey her command, and he peeled his eyes open.

There wasn’t sadness in her eyes. Only steely resolve.

“We can do this together. I know the words to say.I know what to do, and then I’ll come right back to you—to all of you.”

His chest hollowed, and he laughed weakly, like a dying man. “I only just got you back, and you’re already talking about leaving me.”

She shook her head, her eyes sliding shut. “Not leaving you. I’m leaving for you. I will break the pact the sea holds on the bargain. Then I will return on two legs,” she gestured to her tail curled around her, “to break the pact the land has.”

Each thump of his heart brought him closer to a quiet death.

“Please don’t do this. I will break under this weight. I cannot bear it.”

Lyra pressed a hand to his chest. “Do you love me?”

His brow creased, and he felt the tug of his skin that had dried beneath the saltwater. “You know I do.”

“Then have faith in our love. Let it give you strength while my arms cannot.”

There would be no arguing with her. He knew this deep in his bones, but he could not stop the words from falling from his lips.

“Please stay with me.”

Ablade slid through her ribs and pierced her heart in a bitter slowness that took her breath away. With each heartbeat she spent on the shore, she was dying. And she hadn’t had the heart to tell him.

As soon as she had washed up on that beach with fins and not feet, she realized she could not stay.

“I will be yours for the rest of our lives,” she whispered. “I promise. But right now I have to make sure we get to have a life.”

Each breath was excruciating.

She was surprised it wasn’t written all over her face, the pain she was in.

He kissed her again, and she let him, let his lips on her take away the burning in her chest. She swallowed him down.

Feasted on his lips and tongue.

She was a starving woman, and he was a delectable meal. She was thirsty, and he was water.

She had gills, and he was the sea.

They broke apart, and she could see the tears trailing down his cheeks. She wiped one away with her fingertip before putting it on her tongue.

Wilder groaned, and his eyelids drooped.

“You’re making this impossible,” he said between clenched teeth.

He tasted of cool, deep waters, and it sparked something deep in her soul.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, feeling the tightness return to her chest.

A vice cinching tight with every breath.

He pulled her to his chest once more, and she let him. “At least let me know you will be alright if you return. Did we stop your wedding?”

Lyra reeled back. “You knew?”

“I’ve had Jordania and Otto keeping an eye on you down there.”Wilder grinned sheepishly.