Page 49 of Ballad of Sea and Sky

Maybe I’d hit my head harder than I thought when I crashed into the sea.

Marina’s breathing was just as ragged when I finally returned to her, the skin around her lips even more blue than it had been. I dropped to a crouch, feeling for her pulse. Thready, but present. She needed air.

Knowing she would give me hell if she woke up, I tilted her head back, closing my lips over hers and giving her two rescue breaths. My mother had taught me enough about healing that I knew how to breathe for someone, and I hoped it would keep her going long enough for me to get the steam into her.

She didn’t wake, and I cursed. Her skin was cool and pale, her freckles duller than usual and her teal hair matted with sand and seawater. I remember how it had looked splayed across my pillows on the Argo,when her lips had been full and her eyes bright with challenge.

Like a goddess. Like the sea personified.

“Don’t you die on me, Urchin,” I growled, hoping she could hear me in her unconsciousness as I lit a fire and stripped leaves into the steaming water. “I’m not done with you yet, and I don’t think you’re done with me either.”

Chapter 18

Ilosttrackoftime as I floated in and out of consciousness. Sleep meant that the pain of my lungs was gone, but there was a lingering terror that I might never wake that kept me bobbing on the edge of awareness rather than succumbing to painless darkness.

“Here,” a familiar male voice growled, low and concerned as I was moved around like a rag doll in someone’s arms. I felt heat on my face and a faintly pleasant, minty sort of smell. It was nice. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so terrible to die this way.

“Breathe, Princess,” the voice growled again as air was forced between my lips and into my lungs. I took a shuddering breath, the steam from the boiling water I was breathing clearing my airways enough for Caspian’s magic to flood my lungs.

It took me a few breaths to realize what was happening, the air being forced into my lungs rhythmically until it finally made sense.

He was using his magic to breathe for me.

I gasped, trying to wrench free of the arms that were holding me in my panic.

“Easy, Marina,” Caspian soothed, his arm firm across my back as he held me upright before a small, boiling pot of water. “You’re safe. Just breathe.”

“I can’t,” I tried to say, but the words came out as an inarticulate, wheezing croak rather than actual words.

Caspian seemed to understand my choking sound to be protest, because he chuckled low, shifting my weight to hold me higher. “Arguing is probably a good sign,” he mused, his chin resting lightly atop my head as he clutched me to his chest. “Breathe, Urchin.”

I scowled at the little pot, unable to do much more to protest my predicament. Truthfully, I couldn’t have held myself upright on my own, but no damsel in distress really wants tofeellike a damsel in distress.

For several long minutes, Caspian didn’t move. He held me as I struggled to breathe, the steaming herbs slowly loosening my lungs to the point that he stopped forcing air down my throat.

It was odd, being held so intimately by a male I barely knew, but I supposed being shipwrecked and nearly drowned and stranded together forced the bonds of familiarity as effectively as time.

Odd, but not unpleasant.

I became acutely aware of his hard muscle behind—his arms around me and thighs beneath me. I wondered what he was thinking, with our bodies so close. Did his thoughts stray to my soft edges against his hard ones, or were his thoughts purely those of duty and charity?

I shifted, a slight intake of breath answering my question as his hand squeezed my hip for just a moment.

Caspian cleared his throat, shifting me again. “Better?” he asked, the sound a rumble that made heat and chills flare in tandem down my spine.

I nodded, not trusting my voice.

Because of the breathing. No other reasons.

“You gave me a scare there, Urchin,” he said gently, lowering me to the ground and helping me sit upright against the wall. A faint breeze pushed the scented steam closer to me, and I frowned at the use of his small magic. From the deep circles under his eyes, I could tell that Caspian had expelled a lot of it in a short amount of time, likely while trying to find the medicinal herbs for my breathing. He raised a brow as if noticing my unspoken criticism, still crouched next to me. “Did you think I’d just let you die?”

“No,” I croaked, the words coming out more like a wheeze than any real sound. “You need…me…” I panted, every word a chore. “As a…hostage.” My retort was cut short by a bout of coughing, and Caspian tilted me forward to rub soothing circles on my back. I doubted they would help, but it felt—well—nice, so I didn’t stop him.

“How about you stop assuming everything I do is motivated by selfishness,” he replied, his gentle tone edged with ice, “and then you won’t feel the need to lash out at me verbally.”

I coughed, turning and raising a brow at him as if to ask,was it not selfishness?

Caspian sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “That face, Princess. Ofcourseit serves my goals if you’re alive, but that’s not why I did it.“ He gave me a piercing look, one that made my heart thump an extra beat. “I owed you my life. It was the least I could do.”