Page 62 of In Rising Tides

Lyra pondered all the ways she needed to carefully explain what had happened on land while simultaneously getting information from Marina about what was going on in Atlantis.

Time passed slowly, like an anchor dragged along the seabed. Lyra had almost given up completely on the guards following her request before the door cracked open and Marina slipped through.

Lyra was out of her seat in an instant.

Marina’s shoulders were drooped, and a frown tugged on her lips, but she appeared otherwise uninjured. Her midnight-black hair was piled up with pearls placed carefully throughout her tiny braids.

The black of her scales glittered in the dim light, and Lyra was struck mute by the otherworldliness Marina exuded.

She had always been beautiful, but in Lyra’s absence, Marina had bloomed.

The pang between her ribs made Lyra realize just how much she’d missed seeing a familiar face.

“I’m so happy to see you,” she breathed, pulling Marina in for a hug.

Marina was a statue as Lyra wrapped her arms around her and squeezed.

Lyra pulled away and peered at a horrified Marina. Her lips parted and her eyes wide.

They had never hugged, not once, in all the time they had known each other. Lyra had never displayed any sort of affection before.

“What has gotten into you?” Marina hissed, slamming the door closed behind her to hinder the prying eyes of the sentries outside.

“Nothing.” Lyra shrugged. “I was just happy to see you, is all.”

Marina frowned. “Happy? To see me?”

Lyra huffed a breath and sat on the edge of her bed, stretching out her fins before her. “I was so worried that you had been hurt during the Tithe.” She talked rapidly, gesturing wildly with her arms. “Then I was worried that you would think I ran away.”

Marina crossed her arms over her chest. The burgundy kylix she wore was encrusted with rubies and silver pearls, and it made her dark skin glow as if lit from within.

“I assumed something terrible must have happened to you, but Seraphina would tell anyone who would listen that you were a coward.”

Of course she had.

Lyra held her breath as Marina continued.

“I, on the other hand …” she struggled for words and awkwardly placed a hand on Lyra’s shoulder. “I am glad you have returned.”

Lyra grinned at Marina’s hand before looking at her. “What happened while I was gone?”

Marina floated across the expanse of Lyra’s room before taking a seat at her vanity with a huff. The tips of her fins were veined with silver, and it was such a beautiful contrast to the gleaming onyx scales.

“I think you should go first,” Marina replied, leveling Lyra with a look that brokered no room for argument.

Lyra nodded, knowing that her side of the story would be more interesting than the monotony that came from living beneath the waves.

Life above was a marvel to most sea folk.

So she launched into her tale with gusto. From the night of her kidnapping to training, the tour of the kingdom, Ostara, and meeting her mother.

She strategically left key details out, like the intimacy between her and Wilder, her magic, killing Igneous, and the friends she had made there. But those were all things that would stay hers.

Marina was stunned by each new revelation, gasping and clutching at the strands of necklaces that wrapped around her throat.

“That was not what we were told …” Marina said with a shake of her head after Lyra finally finished.

The globes around Lyra’s room flared to life, the glowing luminescence brightening the dark space with blue-and-white lights.