Aqua Coral's Arc

Chapter 4 of 16

A servant led Aqua up a winding stair to a chamber built for a guest. Blue and white banners hung along the wall. A tall window looked out over the towers. Alden stood in the doorway, hands folded. "This room is yours," he said. "Stay as long as you want." Aqua touched the cool stone sill and felt the pull of the sea somewhere far below. For the first time in three years, she was not chasing him. She was here. Seph stepped in behind her. His forearm scales glowed pale blue. He looked at the soft bed and the locked-in window and shook his head. "One door," he said. "One way out." He crossed to the window and tested the latch. It held. "You sleep here, I sleep here. On the floor." "Seph." Aqua kept her voice low. "There's a room for you down the hall." "No." The word came flat and final. "Someone wants to hurt you. I have his name. I have his place. I came to reach him before he reaches you." He faced Alden. "And I don't leave her in a stranger's tower." Alden did not argue. He stood in the doorway and took the anger without flinching. "You think I'll trap her," he said. "You're right to think it. I can't prove I won't." He set a heavy iron key on the table by the bed. "The door locks from your side. Not mine." Seph picked up the key. He turned it in his fingers. His scales stayed lit. "A key doesn't stop a king," he said. Aqua stepped between them. She put her hand on her brother's arm, over the glowing scales. She felt them buzz under her palm, the way they always did when he feared for her. "You've kept me safe my whole life," she said. "But you can't stay in this room. You have a man to find. You said it yourself. If you sit on my floor, he keeps hunting, and neither of us is safe." Seph's jaw worked. The truth landed. He could guard the door, or he could end the threat. He could not do both. "You'd send me off," he said, quieter now. "I'd send you to finish it." Aqua pressed the key back into his hand and closed his fingers around it. "Take this. Lock me in tonight. Then go. Find him. Come back when it's done." Seph stood still a long moment. His scales dimmed, one shade, then dark. He looked at Alden, then at his sister. "I go at first light," he said. "You lock this door every night I'm gone." "I will." He left before dawn. Aqua watched from the tall window as her brother crossed the ground below and passed through the gate. The tower felt larger without him. She was alone now, a guest in the king's house, with no one between her and Alden but a door she held the key to.