Page 69 of A Sea So Cruel
Soren rushed over to them, a pack slung across his torso. Revna swam up behind him, keeping pace but looking far less winded than the orange-finned warrior.
“What’s wrong? What’s happened?” Asta asked.
Soren grinned. “Nothing is wrong, besides the fact that you lot were attempting to leave us behind.”
“Leave you behind?” Kaid shook his head. “You are intending to join us?”
“We are notintendingto do anything. Wearecoming with you,” Revna stated plainly. “You are our prince, who had been lost since his birth. We swear our allegiance and lives to you. We will accompany and protect you, from now until the currents retrieve our drifting corpses.”
“To you, and to Princess Asta,” Soren added.
Revna sighed, mumbling to herself. “Speak for yourself.”
Soren elbowed her in the side, though she did not flinch.
“Very well,” Kaid waved a hand. “Find some kelpies willing to offer you rides. If you can each find one, you can come.”
When the two siren warriors were offered rides from multiple kelpies, Kaid concluded that they were likely better off taking the warriors anyway. And so, they returned to Orntali.
Chapter 39
Asta had not been conscious the first time she had traveled between Orntali and Naltania and she was pleased to find that the trip would take under a day. It was a strange feeling, discovering an undersea kingdom had been so close to her home all this time. However, it made sense as to why Kaid and his father had settled in this half of the country.
Asta leaned down and stroked Thurs’s neck, the kelpie whinnying in response. The princess could not wait to tell Linnea everything she had discovered; everything she had done.
“Almost there now,” Soren announced to the group. Asta looked at Kaid who nodded his chin to her in response, flashing his rakish smile. She rolled her eyes.
If Asta were being honest, she had been avoiding Kaid since the rescue. Was she a fool for thinking he had meant everything he had said in the cave? He had not done anything to make her believe so since, but with his past behavior…
“Think any harder and bubbles will pour from your ears, blondie,” Kaid mocked.
Asta held up a particularly offensive finger and the siren prince chuckled.
Thurs began ascending and their surroundings changed, the sunlight shining brighter through the surface as the water became more and more shallow.
Home.
The kelpie’s head broke through the water, drawing in a deep breath through her large nostrils. Asta felt a sharp twinge in her chest before she had the urge to pull in a breath as well. The sea air coated her lungs, transitioning her back to her human form.
Thurs trotted up to the shore, her fish tail disappearing and her color returning to a dapple gray. The other kelpies surrounding them transformed just the same.
Asta wiggled her bare feet as they dangled from the mare. The muscles felt tight, but not sore. It might take her a few laps up and down the beach to adjust to her human figure again.
She jumped down and untied her pack from the horse, the hooved beast darting off down the beach the second she was free. Asta smiled, knowing that Thurs would always remain a free spirit—even though Asta was the leader of the Northern Sea kelpies.
As she watched the kelpies dash away, Asta heard anooffrom behind her. She turned to see Kaid clumsily dismountinghis steed. His sea legs must be worse because he was not only in siren form for many days, but also hardly allowed to leave a bed.
Asta ran over and caught Kaid by his forearm to help him balance.
“Amateurs,” Revna mumbled as she steadily marched toward the castle.
“Amateurs,” Kaid said in a mocking voice. “I haven’t known that one long but somehow, she is more irritating than you.”
Asta patted his chest. “Oh shut up. She grows on you.”
Kaid grabbed Asta’s hand that was resting on his forearm and slid it down toward his hand. Her heart skipped a beat. Was he really about to march into the castle—where he had previously been engaged to one princess— holding the other princess’s hand?
Asta’s hand slid over his cuff, a piece of the chain still dangling from his wrist. But as her hand passed over the iron, the latch unclasped and the contraption fell to the sand.
