Page 9 of In Rising Tides

Using all her senses, she felt the current brush against her skin. It prickled her flesh, erupting in bumps that spanned her arms and chest. A sharper rot in the water made her want to plug her nose.

Lyra strained her ears, focusing past the horrid scent. She closed her eyes, and that’s when she heard it.

Far in the distance, there was singing. An ancient song she did not know the words to, but her heart thumped in line with it.

She listened intently, calming the roaring in her veins, and the singing became clear.

Become what your blood demands

A siren queen is home, come to claim her throne

Wilder stood before Queen Titania and her consort, Baelwyn, sand still clinging to his sodden clothes.

It was frigid. He locked his knees in place to keep from shivering as a heavy cloud of tension settled over the room like an impending storm on the horizon, but much, much closer.

Titania shifted forward on her crescent moon throne. The waning light dimmed the rainbow reflections from the stained glass windows.

Everything was muted without Lyra.

Titania’s piercing gaze had Wilder looking down at the floor.

His reflection stared back up at him in the polished marble. He hardly recognized himself.

Dark shadows were smudged beneath his eyes, making him appear deathly ill. His hair continued to drip saltwater onto the floor and blurred the crude mirror.

Wilder hadn’t yet told them Lyra had been taken, but due to her absence by his side, he knew they suspected something had happened.

Wilder cleared his throat, and it burned. The pain was nothing compared to the pain his words would elicit.

“Princess Lyra has been kidnapped.” His voice bounced off the marble archways and echoed off the stained-glass windows.

Somewhere behind him, a wine goblet slipped from fingertips.

The sound of shattering glass exploded against the marble floor.

Gasps swelled, and there was a flutter of dresses and the squeaking of boots as the gathered crowd reacted.

There was a numbness spreading through him, freezing his heart. Wilder squared his shoulders and stared up at the dais.

“King Auris isdead. There is a new King of the Seven Seas,” he said, filling them in on as much information as possible.

The queen sat rigidly, her knuckles turning as white as the surrounding stone. It was unusual for her to appear so ruffled.

“Who?” Titania spat, her eyes turning molten.

Her voice was void of emotion, but her eyes gleamed with rage.

She blinked, and everything he had seen vanished, like a curtain falling at the end of a play.

“Drystan,” Wilder answered.

He hung his head under the weight of his failure. Wilder would be blamed for this just as surely as the sun rises in the east.

“The sea has taken her,” Titania whispered, covering her mouth with her fingers.

Wilder nodded, at a loss for words to convey the depth of his regret. Those regrets now played in an endless loop across his mind.

If he had just brought his sword, or even a guard, this would not have happened.Lyra would still be here, beside him.