Page 175 of In Rising Tides

Wilder’s scowl vanished as he held her.

Lyra shook violently as she coughed up lungfuls of water.

Wilder slammed his palm against her back, helping as much as he could.

“Lyra,” worry clung to his voice.

She wiped the salt from her lips and trembled.

“I can’t stay,” she rasped out.

Wilder gripped her chin and pulled her face to his.

“Just unbind the tithe and come back to me.”

Pure love radiated from his gaze as his eyes beseeched her.

They were as blue as the sky, and when she inhaled, she smelled the trees in the Valewood and the branches of the ancient willow.

He was home to her.

“Even if I have to marry him?” she asked, her lower lip quivering.

Wilder smiled, and a hint of sadness tinged the blue of his eyes. “You belong to no one.”

She had been so sure she could do this, return to the sea and save the world. But looking at him now, accepting that he had to let her go, all she wanted to do was curl up into a ball and die.

He pressed his lips to hers, and she savored the feel of him one last time. His arms slipped from around her too soon, and she felt the chill of the air against her skin and scales.

“Break the tithe and come home,” he said. She could see the resolve settle in his shoulders as he rocked back onto his haunches.“I’ll have everything ready for your return.I promise.”

She felt the absence mark her soul, a dark shadow that had wormed its way into her chest.

Lyra sat on her hip, stretching the length of her tail behind her as she faced the sea again.

“It’s not goodbye,” she whispered more to herself than to him. “I am always with you.”

“Remember,” he said, voice hard.

She looked over her shoulder at him, and it stole what little breath she had left.

His face was hard. Little lines marching across his forehead. But his eyes were a brilliant blue, like the clear sky above the sea.

“There’s not a place you could go that I will not find you.”

He pointed to his chest, where his heart beat behind muscle and bone. The anguish on his face nearly crumbled her strength.

Lyra smiled past the burn in her eyes and the vice around her chest. She dove headfirst into an oncoming wave.

Her scream was drowned out by the water as she forced herself to swim away from him, from home.

The water was ice cold against her raw throat as she screamed until her body trembled.

She forced herself to keep swimming deeper and deeper into dark, icy water.

This was Huron.

Lyra was on the border of their northeastern territory.