Page 65 of Hymn of Breath and Bone

She was angry, and I couldn’t really blame her. I was fucking furious.

“We are almost there, Princess,” Vitulus announced, entering the cabin as he had done the last three days to bring me food and water. I hadn’t been able to stomach any food, whether due to the iron or the seasickness or the separation from my mate, I wasn’t sure. “You should try to drink. Perhaps make yourself…presentable.”

I glared up at him, aware that my tangled hair and sweaty, worn clothing were not usually how I would present myself to my father.

“Will you give the same advice to my mate?” I snapped, noting his flinch every time I used the term for Caspian.

“You must let this go,” Vitulus begged, crouching down next to me where I was huddled on the floor over a bucket. “You must try to remember who youare, Marina.”

I sighed. It had been like this every day since the Stormcrow’s visit. “I remember perfectly well, Vitulus. I am a princess, daughter of Nereus and Silene, and heir to the selkie throne.” Vitulus blinked, his eyes going wide in what I knew to be hope. “I amalsoCaspian’s mate, Siren Queen, and daughter of both sea and sky. And unless you plan to finally believe me, I’ll ask you to keep your advice on my appearance to yourself.”

Vitulus frowned, disappointed as he had been every other day.

“What do you mean, ‘daughter of both sea and sky’?”

“There’s no point in telling you, since you won’t believe me.” I held out a hand, trying to act like I could get up on my own if I wanted to. Based on how shaky my legs felt, it was a lie. “Help me up.”

Vitulus obliged, catching me around the waist as I stumbled to my feet. I pushed out of his arms, his touch foreign and wrong.

“Let me see him,” I demanded, as I had done each day we had been at sea.

“You will see him when we leave the ship,” Vitulus replied, voice steely.

“And will you unshackle me?”

“Will you attempt to drown anyone?”

My silence was answer enough, and Vitulus sighed as he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Seas, what am I going to tell your father?”

“Marina!”

The voice that boomed my name from a distance was not Caspian’s, and a curl of dread writhed in my gut. I needed to make my father believe me. Really hear me. And I had no idea how to do it.

“Wait,” I said, tugging Vitulus back as he tried to lead me forward. “I need my medicine.”

“Medicine?”

“For my lungs.” I had taken Mira’s concoction faithfully, despite being a prisoner in my own quarters, determined to face my father with a clear mind and sound body. There was enough for perhaps three more days, and I prayed my lungs would remain clear until I could reach the healer again.

Vitulus frowned as I retrieved the brown bottle from the bathing chamber, taking the glass vial from me and holding it up to the light.

“You have taken this every day?” he asked, studying the liquid inside suspiciously.

“It’s why I’ve been able to breathe,” I explained, irritated that this too was something Vitulus couldn’t believe. “I told you, the sirens are not our enemy. The healer—her name is Mira—made this to help me.”

“And you did not think that perhaps this is how they are controlling you?” he snapped, throwing the bottle to the floor. It shattered into a thousand pieces, glass flying across the floor in all directions as the preciousmedicine spilled into the deck. “They could be poisoning you with their medicine, Marina.”

I was too stunned to reply, watching the one thing that had given me respite trickle away. I let Vitulus drag me from the cabin. Furious tears burned in the corners of my eyes as I felt a tug in response to my despair.

A cold rain fell from the sky, drenching me instantly as I emerged from the cabin, and thunder rumbled ominously overhead.

The ship had been docked against an ancient stone jetty I’d seen only from the tallest towers of the keep, in a little cove where deep waters meant the ship wouldn’t go aground. The same cove, I noted with irony, where the statue of the siren had been hidden away in a sea cave. It seemed so long ago that I’d taken that illicit swim.

Perhaps it was a sign from Undine and Melusine, I thought, that I’d been drawn to that statue the night before I met my mate.

At the base of the gangplank, standing with my mother and several guards, was my father.

“Marina!” This time it was Caspian’s voice shouting my name frantically, and I felt his panic rise as he was dragged out of the hold, bruised and bloodied. His amber eyes met mine, saw the tears, and narrowed. “What did he do to you?”