Page 24 of The Dark Sea Calls

Rainn called out my name, his voice closer than I wanted it to be as my legs pumped, and I sped further away from the willow and the safety of the Siren stronghold.

No one was coming to save me. No one.

I kept running.

“Maeve! Wait!” Rainn called out, breathless.

“Rot in Seven Hells!” I screeched.

His footsteps grew closer, his fingertips a whisper at my back as we ran.

His hand closed around my bicep, and my feet lifted from the sand as I was tugged back, still trying to run as my body tilted to the sky and we tumbled to the ground. The sand sprayed out, and we landed in a heap, Rainn’s larger male body on top of mine. He looked up, blinking rapidly, and flicked his silver hair out of his eyes. His face was close enough to mine that when he exhaled a breath, it soon became mine. The bridge of his nose was marred with freckles, shimmering in the moonlight.

The world stopped; his lips were close enough to kiss. The hazy memory of his touch and the scent of his skin stole my will to run before I remembered who he was and how much was at risk.

I pushed Rainn away, grabbing my fallen blanket in the sand. Rainn fisted the fabric, dragging it towards him, trying to use the blanket as a leash. I snatched my hand back, biting my lip as I watched Rainn cradle the blanket in his hands.

“Maeve…” Rainn stepped forward.

I stepped back.

“I’m not going to hurt you. I’d never hurt you,” he whispered.

“I can list everything you and the other princelings did to me, and none of them are good,” I bit back, narrowing my eyes.

“None of them?” Rainn joked.

I sucked my teeth and crossed my arms over my chest, feeling exposed. “You need to leave.”

“Do I?” He replied lazily.

“You do.”

“What if I don’t want to leave?” He quipped.

I bit back my frustration. “How did you even find me? The lake is a fortnight’s walk.”

“I have my ways.” Rainn’s blue eyes flashed.

“The Sirens are allied to the Undine. If they find you, they may kill you,” I warned. “The Siren Queen isn’t to be trifled with.”

“Scary,” he taunted.

“I’ll show you scary,” I muttered. “Give the blanket back and go back to the others. I don’t care if you have to lie and tell them I’m dead. I don’t want even one of you to darken my door again.”

Rainn’s brow furrowed. “That might be a wee bit difficult, Maeve,” he warned. “As I came all this way on my own, with nothing to show for it but a bruised ego.” Rainn stepped forward again, but something in his eyes told me it would be a horrible idea if I moved away. “You don’t have to come back to the lake. Belisama knows that Cormac might murder you if you do, but I needed to know you were safe. You might not think much of me but know that since you left my sight, I’ve thought nothing but how you might be foam, and I couldn’t even remember the last words I spoke to you.”

I looked down at my hands. They were shaking. His flowery words made me feel like my skin was about to lift clean off my body, and my heart would take flight, but I couldn’t forget the feeling of the iron in Tarsainn’s dungeon poisoning me.

I couldn’t forget the moment that Cormac had declared that we were to be married without even considering that I would have an opinion about it—as if I were a chair or table. Something unnoticed.

“Well, you’ve seen me now,” I smiled without showing my teeth. “You can be on your way.”

“Don’t you want to know what has happened since you left?”

“I’d wager that my uncle has been insufferable as always. Throwing Undine at the front line as if their lives were plentiful wine. Perhaps, Cormac has decided I’m a traitor for killing his mother, and he will meet my uncle on the battlefield. I don’t know. I wouldn’t think that Cormac would be the fighting type. He much prefers to ambush and slaughter innocents.”

“Like your uncle then,” Rainn pointed out, his tone flat. “Many younglings have lost their lives to the whims of the kings of the lake.”

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