Aqua Coral's Arc

Chapter 9 of 16

Seph stayed. He slept in a chamber down the hall from Aqua's, and he watched. He watched at breakfast, at the gate, in the long stone corridors. He wanted to know Alden, and knowing meant never looking away. So Aqua and Alden learned to steal their hours. They met at dawn in the rooftop garden while Seph still slept. They met at night, after her brother's door clicked shut. Aqua kept her scales tuned to the halls, reading each footfall through the water in the fountains, timing her steps to the gaps between his rounds. One morning she reached the garden before sunrise. Alden stood by the low wall, blue cloak still, blonde hair loose. He did not smile much. He never did. But he turned when she came, and something in his face eased. "I counted the hours," he said. "Since last night. Nine." "Nine," Aqua said. She laughed, low, so the sound would not carry. "We hide like thieves in your own castle." "I don't like it." Alden's voice stayed level. "I want the whole day with you. Not scraps." She wanted the same. But every stolen hour left her tired, and every near-miss with Seph left her sick with fear. She could not live this way. She made her choice standing there in the gray light. "Then I'll stop hiding," Aqua said. That evening she went to Seph's door and knocked. He opened it, alert, his scaled forearm dark and calm. She had feared those scales for weeks. Danger lit them. Now she trusted their stillness. "I've been sneaking around you," Aqua said. "Meeting Alden in the dark. I'm done. I love him. I mean to spend my hours with him openly, and I won't ask your leave for it." Seph's jaw tightened. He looked past her, down the hall, toward the king's tower. Then he looked back at his sister, at how she stood square, not shrinking. "You stopped hiding it," he said. "You just told me straight." "Yes." "Good." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I hate what I saw the last three mornings. You slipping past my door like you'd done something wrong. You did nothing wrong." He let out a breath. "I came to watch him. Not to jail you." Aqua's shoulders dropped. "So you won't stand between us." "No." Seph almost smiled. "But I'm still watching him. That doesn't end." The next morning Aqua walked to the garden in full daylight. She did not time the guards. She did not read the halls for footsteps. Alden waited by the wall, and when he saw her come open and unhurried, he crossed the whole distance to meet her. "No more scraps," she said. "No more," Alden agreed. The hiding was over. But Seph would stay in the castle a little while longer, sharing every meal, weighing the king by daylight, and Aqua knew her brother's judgment was not yet finished.