Page 106 of In Rising Tides

“Then let’s go home,” Wilder nodded east, towards the summer cottage, towards the sea.

Otto smiled, and Wilder clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Next time,words, not your fist.”

There was laughter bubbling up all around them at Wilder’s jest, and Otto smiled, placing a hand on his chest. “As you wish.”

The forest slumberedas they traveled through it. The horses didn’t whinny. Their ears remained still and did not twitch.

Otto and Ridge whispered back and forth, Ridge’s hands gesturing wildly as he veered around a small hawthorn tree.

“Do you trust him?” Maelys whispered, throwing glances at Ridge and Otto.

“I do,” Wilder nodded. “It hadn’t made sense in the first place.”

Maelys frowned. “He should have told us.”

“He didn’t know. That was partially my doing anyway for not making a plan.”

The small lines around Maelys’ eyes tightened as she narrowed her gaze. “We’ve never made plans before, and it hadn’t mattered.”

“We weren’t dealing with a kingdom outside of our control before either. The moving pieces of this go outside the normal bounds. Otto is being tested in ways we’ve never required of him before.”

White spread across Maelys’ knuckles as she gripped her reins tighter. “Why do you keep making excuses for him?”

“What do you want from me?” he spat. “You wanted him to act before, and now that he has, it’s not good enough for you?”

“Why couldn’t he have saved her?” Her face was drained of all color; it was like staring at a specter when he glanced at her.

The anger and hurt in her voice were so woven together that not even an expert weaver could have untangled them. It became clearer to him now where her hurt stemmed from.

Maelys had felt betrayed before it came to blows. She blamed Otto for not saving them on the beach as much as she blamed him for not telling them about the king’s hand in it all.

“If he could have saved Lyra, I am sure he would have,” Wilder said, a shade softer. “You should discuss it with him instead of harboring this hatred.”

Maelys didn’t reply, but by the clenching of her jaw and her still-white knuckles, he knew plenty about how she felt.

“I feel betrayed. I-I don’t know if I can?—”

Wilder blinked. “I’m not asking you to.”

Maelys whipped her head toward him. “You don’t care how I feel?”

Wilder’s brows pulled together. “I didn’t say that. You’re entitled to feel how you like. I understand Otto’s motives and his decisions. If he said he did what he did to save Lyra, I find that more than worth my time in a cell.”

She snorted and wiped at her eyes. “We almost lost you.”

Wilder nodded. “Yes, but Lyra is still alive because ofhisactions.”

He found it difficult to say her name aloud. To feel it on his tongue. A flash of auburn hair burned behind his eyes, and he squeezed them shut. “She is still alive. I don’t care what he did to me if it was in service to her.”

Maelys chewed on her bottom lip, but remained silent.

Wilder reached a hand out and pushed lightly against her arm. “I will make sure he makes it up to you.”

Maelys rolled her eyes and adjusted her seat.

The forest gave way to a rocky path stretching along slate-gray cliffs. He had been so wrapped up in their conversation he hadn’t even noticed the tang of salt in the air.

It didn’t sting as much as he had assumed it would. No, it was nice, like coming home—to her.