Page 64 of Echoes of the Tide

Laura’s eyes filled with tears. “Don’t.”

There was so much in that word. Her sister begging her to stay, yes, but also the fear of what she would do on her own.

“You’re going to be fine,” she whispered. “I’m going to make sure you’re fine.”

“You can’t promise that. Ace?—”

Again, the name that her sister never called her. No matter how many times she had corrected Laura, her sister never called her by her chosen name. She was the only one who still called her Maura.

Then she was yanked out of the dream, watching her sister fall onto her knees and tears streak down her cheeks. Just like it had really happened. Because people had barged into the garden, guards who stepped on her sister’s plants and knocked over two standing planters as they dragged her out.

Even saying goodbye, all she’d done was destroy. From her sister’s garden to her sister’s life. She just wasn’t any good if she was there. The best she could offer Laura was help from afar, and that was exactly what she’d done.

She lunged upright, awake as though she’d blinked her eyes and now she was back. Back in the control center, draped over a warm man who had wrapped his arms around her in her sleep and now released her, letting her sit straight up and breathe through the memory.

“Ace?” he said again, and this time she recognized the voice. He’d been trying to get her to come out of the dream for a while, she guessed.

Brushing her fingers through her hair, she released a shaky breath. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m awake now.”

Maketes shifted her on his lap, turning her to look at him. And then he wiped away the tears on her cheeks with his thumbs. Carefully. As though he was afraid she was very breakable right now.

Maybe he was right. She felt like a single kind touch might shatter her into a thousand pieces.

Closing her eyes, she leaned into his touch.

“Bad dreams?” he asked. It was the most real question she’d ever heard from him. Not like he was pretending or annoying her or doing anything at all other than being here in the dark with her.

Breathing in the seawater scent of him, she sighed, “Terrible dream.”

“I can banish it with you, if you’d like.”

“How do I do that?”

His thumb moved along her cheek again, so gentle that it made her feel fragile in his grip. “You share the dream, kefi. You tell me what it means, where it came from, and then I take it into the sea. The next time I am in the abyss, I will leave it there for you.”

Ace opened her eyes, smiling at him even though it hurt to do so. “I don’t think I want to talk about it.”

“Then that’s all right too.” He tried to smile, but she could see the pain in his eyes. “You don’t have to share anything you don’t want to.”

Damn it, those tears burned her eyes again. She couldn’t be weak like this. This was why she’d never gotten attached to anyone. If she was weak, then she would cry, and nothing wouldget done. She had to bury it all deep inside herself, even if it meant that she constantly had stomach aches and felt like her chest was on fire.

“No,” he murmured, using both hands to frame her face and make her look at him. “We do not hide from hard feelings. You are brave. A courageous woman who pet a shark, rode a whale, and who touches one of my kind without fear. Memories have no power over you.”

“What if they do?” she replied. “What if they are all I can see? My own failure. My own wish to keep my sister safe and yet all I have ever done is put her in harm’s way?”

“That is how your mind wishes to remember your last moments with her. But you need to tell it you did everything you could to keep her safe. And you still fight to keep her safe. That is honorable.”

Nodding, she tried to let the words sink in. Honorable. Brave. She was more than just the thief that the world threw away. She was Ace, the destroyer of Alpha and... lover of an undine. If she could let herself believe that.

Nodding, she framed his face with her hands as well. Dropping her head until their foreheads touched, she let her eyes drift shut. “I don’t know what god smiled upon me when they sent you to my side, but I am grateful for it.”

“I am the lucky one, kefi.”

“No, I don’t think you understand. You’ve been so kind to me. You’ve worked to make me a stronger person in such a short amount of time and I don’t know what I give back, or what I even could. I owe you so much more than just my life, Maketes.”

His breath fanned over her collarbone, and he dragged her closer to his hearts. “No. You owe me nothing.”

“You make me feel seen,” she said, then kissed his shoulder as she let him coax her back down. “I don’t think you realize how long I’ve felt invisible. No one ever saw me. No ever cared to.”

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