Page 54 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

“The sea giveth and the sea taketh away,” Theia intoned. “No magic comes without a cost, little goddess. Mine was my eyes. What was yours?”

“When you were born,” Caspian murmured, taking my hands in his, “it took several minutes for you to breathe, yes?”

“Yes,” I frowned, meeting his amber gaze. “So?”

“So what if, in those minutes,” he said slowly, “the sea saved you, in exchange for granting her daughter life once more?”

“Your soul bound to Melusine’s,” Theia agreed, looking triumphant. “A little goddess.”

“But I have no memories other than those I have made,” I argued. “Wouldn’t I know if I were part goddess?”

Theia shrugged as if this were inconsequential, but Caspian replied, “You told me you can feel the sea. That she is like a friend to you. Perhaps that’s because she is notjusta friend. She’s—in some way—your mother.”

I sat with this notion, turning it over to examine in my mind. A distant brush of sea against my thoughts confirmed what part of me had already accepted.

“So what?” I asked. “I’m meant to reunite the isles somehow? That’s why she saved me?”

“I don’t know for certain, Urchin,” Caspian said gently, brushing a tear from my cheek that I hadn’t realized I’d let fall. “But since that was the task given to me by the kelpie, I think yes.”

“I’m ready to read the stones,” Theia interjected, sounding impatient. “I accept your payment.”

“You’re a piece of work, you know that?” Caspian spat.

“I prefer bitter, old hag,” she replied lightly, producing a small bag. Something clicked together inside it. “You know what comes next.”

“Three stones,” Caspian sighed, offering the explanation for my benefit. He squeezed my hand as he reached for the bag, a promise that we would continue the conversation when we were out of Theia’s odious presence. “No more, no less. I want to know who plots against us. How Marina and I will unite the Isles.”

“So greedy with your questions,” Theia murmured, accepting the stones that Caspian dropped into her upturned palm. They clinked together as she rolled them in her palm, the gnarled fingers of her other hand tracing raised symbols I’d never seen before. “The betrayal comes from someone close.” She placed a single stone before us on the table. “The crow doesn’t hunt alone.” A second stone joined the first. “The isles wither. The sameforce that tore the islands asunder will unite it.” She frowned, her thumb tracing the stone for markings. She hissed, dropping it as if it had burned her hand. “The gods wish me to say no more.”

I didn’t understand most of her message, but one thing became clear at least: someonehadhired the Stormcrow. And if Theia couldn’t tell us who, then I knew what we needed to do next.

“Brilliantly cryptic as always,” Caspian sighed, rising from his tiny stool. “Now you know where I get it from, Urchin.”

He offered me a hand and helped me rise.

“It is not my fault if you refuse tosee,” Theia snarled.

Caspian sighed, guiding me to the door. “Take care of yourself, Theia. I’ll return when I can.”

“It was nice to meet you,” I added.

Theia’s empty eye sockets snapped to mine. “Bring me home, girl.”

Chapter 20

Our walk back tothe ship was quiet, both of us engrossed in our own thoughts and worries about the meeting with Theia.

I kept turning over her cryptic predictions with the new knowledge that, somehow, the spirit of Melusine lived inside me.

It made sense, somehow. The sea had always felt like more of a friend to me than any selkie, even Sereia, and I had never heard anyothers speak of her the way I did. Even Sereia would give me funny looks when I spoke of her like a person, although she never explained them.

And if the sea and sky had blessed me with the spirit of their child and power over both domains, it made sense that something must be paid in the process. My lungs, it seemed, had been their price.

But if Caspian and I were somehow meant to unite the people of the Silent Isles, I had no idea how to do it other than by hoping our mating would bridge the gap. What force had been the one to tear it asunder in the first place? Why were the sea dragons and the kelpies so invested in our fates? And what did it mean that the isles were withering?

“You look like you’re ready to storm the ship and take no prisoners,” Caspian joked, catching me by the arm and pulling me from my thoughts just as we hit the dock. “Are you alright?”

“Just thinking,” I sighed, smiling reassuringly and adjusting the sea dragon scale on his pauldron. “What do you think Theia meant by what she said to me as we left? She wants to come back to the Isles?”