Page 65 of Tempest

“Everyone is better at adapting than he is,” she said wryly. “No, that’s not true. He’s gotten better, actually, alotbetter. You’re good for him.”

“I think that’s becauseyouwere good for him,” Levi said. “But if we stayed together… he would be embarking on a sort of eternity that not even my siblings have to face. Can you imagine what it would mean to live forever, entirely alone?”

“But he wouldn’t be alone.” Sophie’s voice was wistful. “I wish… well, not that I’m not glad to be here and not in Staria, but… my fathers… it would have been nice. To have them with me for at least a little longer.”

“Yes. You know the pain of losing people you love too soon, and it will always feel like that, to Iason. And yet, at my side, he would endure until there’s no one left to love at all.”

“Well, he’d love you,” Sophie pointed out. “And you’d be there, so it’s not the same.”

It was not easy to explain just how vast eternity was to a girl Sophie’s age—even a girl with a personality as deep as the sea, who attacked life like a wave breaking on a shore. But every bonfire ran out of the fuel it needed to keep burning, and while Sophie would be long-lived, he hoped she finally went to the river before she burned out enough to lose her pure, joyful spirit.

He’d love you.

Did he? Iason wasn’t an easy man to read or understand, but he’d definitely decided he liked Levi’s cock, so if they were bound for eternity, that was a start.

How did his siblings navigate any of this? He’d have to ask Arwyn. Desire was his realm, and he didn’t doubt Arwyn would find Sophie a kindred spirit. She tended to go after what she wanted with the sort of zeal he appreciated.

But for now, he could see the rocky archway where the sirens were. “Remember, when we go down, just breathe normally,” he told her. “If you try to hold your breath, you’ll choke on water when you do breathe. It won’t kill you, but it’s unpleasant. As long as you’re touching me, you won’t drown. Do you want to practice?”

Sophie considered it, then shook her head. “Nope. If I think about it too much, I bet I’ll hold my breath. And I don’t want to meetactual sirenscoughing like some kind of, um, land… person.”

Levi flashed a grin at her. “Of course not. And trust me, they’ll be just as fascinated by you as you are by them. I don’t let them meet people, much.” He should rescind that, come to think of it. If his sirens wanted to walk on land for a time, perhaps it wasn’t so bad to allow it.

“People can be pretty terrible,” Sophie agreed. “But also pretty great.” This, from a girl who’d only been alive about the same amount of time as Levi’s last nap, yet who’d experienced so much pain, betrayal, and loss in that short amount of time.

People were perhaps more complex than Levi might have thought. Some of them, anyway. He’d grown so used to seeing them as one more creature that lived and died with his tides, no more meaningful than a school of fish or a moderately intelligent dolphin. But he’d spent so much time in the water, he’d forgotten how much happened due to humans and what they got up to on land. Maybe this change in his own personal tides was somehow related to whatever was going on in the immortal world: Pallas crossing the river, a new god ascending, Ares stirring in their tomb in the desert. His companions and their bonds—his own, with Iason. Sophie, who was, in some way, a brand-new creation, changed by the bond between a god and wizard.

The tides changed regardless of what anyone thought about it, so Levi put that aside, pointing out a pod of dolphins in the distance.

“Wow,” Sophie said, pushing herself up a bit with her hands on his shoulders. “This is amazing. I’ve never been this far out in the water before. I wish I could tell Daphne and Paris. Whydidyou make sirens, anyway?”

“A bet with the former god of art. She didn’t think I could make something beautiful, and I disagreed.”

“Did you win?”

Levi considered this. “I’m still here, and so are my sirens. She’s not. So I suppose I did.”

“I, uh, don’t know if that’s how you—oh!” Sophie gasped. “Is that a ship’s mast?”

“Yes, the sirens are studying a shipwreck. See that flash in the water, there? That’s one of them.” Levi could tell the ocean depth was changing, the water going clearer as they reached a sudden shallow shelf that had brought disaster to the ship. “Are you ready?”

Sophie nodded, and he heard her take a breath—and then let it out, laughing softly. “Sorry. Right. Breathe normally.”

Levi patted her hand and dove without warning, thinking it would be easier for her to acclimate if she justhadto and didn’t have time to overthink. It worked, for the most part; he felt her go tense, as any human would when realizing they could breathe underwater, but he pointed to an octopus sleeping under a rock to distract her. It worked, and when Meleah, the siren, appeared, Sophie didn’t inhale water, even a little.

Given how lovely Meleah was, he wouldn’t have blamed her. Meleah and the others were from a chorus of sirens who lived in the southern seas near Diabolos, so they resembled the tropical oceanic wildlife more than those who called the cooler waters near Mislia home. She had bright blue hair shot through with orange and yellow, an opalescent tail shimmering with pale rainbow hues, and eyes the color of pure turquoise with slitted pupils like a cat’s. She flashed a smile full of sharp silver teeth and waved at Levi.

“Sea-Father,” she said, in the language of sirens. “You honor our chorus with your visit.”

“Thank you for welcoming me,” Levi said. “This is Sophie, the mortal I spoke to you about.”

Sophie couldn’t speak underwater, but when Levi glanced over his shoulder at her, she smiled and waved at the siren, who waved back.

“It’s rare you give your favor to a mortal,” Meleah said. “Much less bring them to us.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Levi said. “Her father will want her back.” Iason could sputter about the term all he wanted, but that’s what he was to Sophie. They both thought of him that way, so they might as well admit it. “But she would like to learn about the sea. I can’t think of anyone better to help me teach her what she wants to know.”

“Let’s go to the cave, up from the secret spring,” Meleah said, looking pleased at the compliment. “I will speak to her there, in her language.” She swam off, and Levi followed, Sophie still holding tight to his shoulders. They passed the hull of the old ship, where three more sirens waved as they passed and a fourth startled so much at the sight of Levi with Sophie on his back, he nearly swam into a low-hanging beam covered in coral.

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