Page 3 of In Rising Tides

Worse than that, though, was that Lyra wielded her magic in front of thenewKing of Atlantis.

Wilder took Ridge’s offered hand, allowing his friend to pull him up and look each of them in the eye.

“Lyra used her magic to save me.”

All the work they had done to teach her how to wield her power, and she’d chosen his life over her own. And Drystan had watched her do it.

Maelys inhaled through her nose. “She wielded? And lived?”

He nodded. “It was unlike anything I have ever seen before.”

She’d been so strong, so otherworldly, like a goddess emerging from the sea. If Wilder didn’t get her back, she would surely see death or a fate much worse for that power. There would be no telling what horrors Drystan would inflict upon her to harness her magic.

Her own father tried to pry it from her chest.

“We must save her. They will kill her.”

“What do you have in mind?” Ridge asked, a line cleaving his brows in two.

The wheels of his mind spun behind his dark eyes, battle strategies and war decrees all playing out across his otherwise stoic face.

“We need to return to the Wilds,” Wilder said. “The High King must declare war on Atlantis.”

Wilder would wage war against Atlantis for her. He would fight the very gods themselves if it meant repaying her for saving him.

Otto’s eyes swirled like silver smoke. His face went slack, but his hands trembled.

“Your father will not agree to it.”

Wilder hung his head.

Of course, his father would not. That would have been too easy.

But without a formal decree, he could do nothing. He would need ships to reach Atlantis or an agreed-upon decree to even speak to a delegate of the merfolk.

“Would the council?” Maelys asked.

Otto shook his head.

Wilder looked out across the ocean, scanning the endless horizon. She might as well be in another world for his inability to reach her.

But he would not let his lack of knowledge keep them apart. With the right power, there would be an influx of knowledge.

The breeze died as Wilder’s magic thrummed in his veins, waiting to answer his command.

The High King exerted immense control to bind Lyra to a bargain based on magical balance and sacrifice. Only a king could save her now.

No king would wage war for love.

No council would agree to launch a thousand ships.

Buthewould.

“Then …” he exhaled. It did nothing to lighten the pressure building in his chest. “I will become King of the Wilds.”

There was only pain, unrelenting pain.

The fleeting euphoria that followed the use of her magic couldn’t come close to soothing the sorrow shredding her soul.