Page 9 of Sunken Empire

This is the moment in which the door opens and Zanthus walks in with Zephyr right on his heels.

"What in the name of Poseidon, Zale?" Zanthus barks. "You were supposed to be talking to her."

Zale smacks another quick kiss against my lips before he pulls away to smirk down at me. "I was trying to, but she keeps trying to run away."

"Why?" Zephyr asks him, then turns to me. "Where would you even go?"

My eyes fill with tears against my will. "Anywhere I'm not going to be sacrificed."

"What?" Zanthus demands, shock and rage warring for his dominant expression.

Zale's soft laugh on top of me turns to full-on belly rolls, which isn’t helped by Zephyr’s own snickers from across the room. The sound and vibration from Zale’s chest sucker punch me in the stomach. At this point, it makes me not care that I'm going to die.

To my disappointment, his laughter trickles off. "Oh, Rubi. If you would have let me finish, I would have told you. We had to give her our magic. She leeches it from us at an incredibly fast rate. The deal was the talismans in exchange for our magic. It has an out clause, though. There are rumors of a lost princess of the sea out there somewhere. If by some miracle we were able to find her, the witch could no longer draw our magic from us. A prophet, years after our father passed, had a vision. He said once we have learned humility and learned from our mistakes, the princess will make her presence known by magic, and she will restore us to our former glory."

I start shaking my head before he's even finished. "I’m not some lost princess, Zale. I'm just plain Jane Rubi."

His smile is sad. "We know this, Rubi. We've suspected since we pulled you through the dome of magic."

His words make me horribly sad. I know they’re true, but for once I wanted to be something to someone.

I take a deep breath and fight those feelings back down. "If this is true then why am I still here? You could have thrown me back out to be swallowed by the sea."

Zanthus' voice has me turning to face him. "When you were standing on that ship, before you went over, my magic called to something. It was so strong that it caused a waterspout right there beside the ship."

The words bring an image to life in my brain. I remember seeing it before I fell over.

Looking back at Zale, he says, "We want you to talk to the witch. Just to be sure."

My eyes fall on the sad yet hopeful faces of the three of them and I know that there is no way that I can tell them no.

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