Page 179 of In Violent Waves

“Is that—” she whispered.

“A lady of the sea,” the tree remarked.

Lyra halted, her gaze sweeping from the tree to Wilder. He held out his hand, and with equal astonishment, she took it.

“I am, er, sir?”

The tree laughed, and the leaves rustled. “I am not a male or female. I simply am.”

“My apologies,” she lamented, and shame colored her face.

“Do not fret. How could you have known?”

Lyra sighed and took a step closer. “May I?”

Wilder watched in wonder as the tree nodded as she approached, resting her brow upon its bark. For someone who had little knowledge of their customs, she certainly behaved in a way that was similar.

“Why have you come?”

Lyra tipped her head back to meet the wise eyes of the sentient wood.

“I was taken and agreed to a bargain.”

“And yet you are afraid.”

Lyra shifted, and Wilder could tell the words stung.

“I am unsure of how to uphold my bargain,” she uttered.

“You fear the desires in your heart.”

She didn’t have an answer for that, and Wilder felt he had become an unwanted outsider.

“Stay, Prince.”

Wilder nodded. Lyra sighed and worried her bottom lip.

“What if I am the monster they always said I was?”

“You will bear the burden. There is no other.”

Wilder watched as all the sun-kissed color drained from her face. Her freckles now stood out starkly.

“What is magic if not the bindings of our fragile realm? Elvethamian would cease to exist without magic. The gods will see to it.”

Elvethamian.

Only the wisest and oldest knew its true name.

Lyra closed her silver-lined eyes. A single tear dripped down her cheek.

“What if I fail?”

“See to it that you do not. Or in violent waves we all perish.”

He could see the anger flash across her face, a tinge of red to her cheeks, and then the clenching of her fists.

The tree’s branches swayed and jostled as it turned; long roots rose and fell as it walked away.