Aqua Coral's Arc

Chapter 10 of 16

For three days Seph shared every meal and weighed the king in daylight. Then, at breakfast, he set down his cup and told them he was done. He had watched enough. He had decided. Seph pushed back his chair. His scaled forearm lay flat and calm on the table. "I came to know you," he said to Alden. "I know you now. You give my sister a key that locks from her side. You wait for her to walk to you. You never take." He looked at Aqua, and his mouth eased. "I'm going home. Back to my store. I've been gone a week too long, and the shelves won't stock themselves." Aqua's chest tightened. "You're leaving." "In a week," Seph said. "Long enough to say it right." He stood and gripped her shoulder. "You don't need me guarding your door anymore. That's the whole point." He gave Alden a short nod, the first he had ever offered, and left the hall. The door clicked shut. Aqua sat still. For weeks she had timed her steps to Seph's rounds, read the halls for his footfalls, stolen her hours in the dark. Now the guarding was over. No schedule. No brother down the corridor counting her comings and goings. She felt the fear drain out of her, and under it, something lighter. Alden set down his fork. "He's gone," he said. "Nobody's watching the halls." "Nobody," Aqua said. She laughed, low and free, the way she used to laugh only before dawn. Alden rose and held out his hand. "Then come with me. All day. No scraps." She took it. He led her up through his tower, past the guest chambers, to the door of his own room. He had never brought her here. He pushed it open. The chamber was wide and quiet. A four-poster bed stood at its heart, carved with waves, hung with royal blue. Tall windows let the morning in. Aqua stepped inside and the door closed behind her, and no footstep in the hall made her flinch. "I counted the hours," Alden said. "Every one, since you came. I stopped counting last night." "Why?" "Because I don't have to wait for the next one." He touched the scales on her cheek, the way he always did, without pause. She did not pull back. They lay together on the wide bed. He held her against his chest, one arm firm across her back. Aqua listened to his heartbeat and let her own slow to match it. She had crossed the sea to find this man. She had given up her shop, argued with her brother, hidden in the dark. Now the hiding was done, and Seph trusted her, and the room was theirs. "Stay," Alden said. "I'm staying," Aqua said. And for the first time, no part of her was listening for the door.