Page 189 of In Violent Waves

Her arms were trapped to her sides, so even if she had wanted to, she couldn’t have held him back, and she had wanted to.

He let go a fraction and looked down at her. And that’s when she saw it.

The haunting horrors that weighed on him even now. He felt the same things she had.

“Walk with me,” Lyra breathed.

Wilder tilted his head and then looked out the window to the end of the hall.

“Don’t you need sleep?”

Lyra shook her head.

“I actually think I want to be close to the sea.”

Wilder nodded and grabbed her hand in his. Interlacing their fingers together felt natural, normal even. He led her down and out of the castle, which sat precariously on a cliff that overlooked the vast sea.

There were stairs carved down the cliff face. They took the steps one at a time. Mists from the tide had slicked the shale steps and made the descent treacherous.

Wilder didn’t let go of her for a second. When they reached the sandy bottom, Lyra inhaled, savoring the brine in the air.

The line between the sea and the land felt like the words of a sentence separated from one page of a book to the next; still the same sentence, but a great leap of space.

She walked closer to the shore, following the path that the water took to crawl closer. It was as if it were reaching for her. One wild thing recognizing another.

After a few hundred feet, she finally stopped and sat on the sand. The sky was the kind of clear blue she had always hoped it would be—the same shade as Wilder’s eyes. He sat beside her, and she leaned into his side.

They lounged together all morning while the sun rose. He didn’t prompt her to speak. He sat with her, making sure she had all the time and space she needed. The freckles on her nose had darkened, and a flush sat high on her cheeks.

Wilder looked darker, too. A deep olive tone was now apparent on his skin, and if she looked closely, she could see that his hair wasn’t purely dark. It was like a raven’s wing with a gleaming blue tone that highlighted his eyes. As beautiful as the sky.

He interlaced their fingers together again, and she sighed.

“I see you,” he said against her head. “I see all of you, and I am not disgusted by the parts you try to hide.”

Lyra gazed into his eyes.

“I see you too.”

He kissed her then, slow and thoroughly. It was a claiming, tying them together irrevocably. He tasted of freedom and the deepest, clearest waters. He felt like hers.

Wilder’s lips were soft and gentle as he wrapped a hand in her hair and tugged her to him. They broke apart and grinned at each other. He understood her, saw her, and accepted her. She had never felt like this before.

“I think I love you,” she whispered.

A breath slipped through his lips before he said, “I know I love you.”

The waves stopped crashing against the shore.

She slowly turned from Wilder’s gaze and stared at the ocean. Something wasn’t right. A prickle itched her palms, and a weight dropped in her stomach.

Wilder must have felt the change, too, because he rose to his feet.

A light started glowing past the incoming waves that had flattened and stilled.

“What is that?” Lyra asked, clambering to her feet beside him.

Wilder took a step closer to the water, but Lyra gripped his hand, halting him.