Page 34 of The Hunted

Surely.

Her fast pace cutting through the water had her guards trailing far behind, but the men didn’t seem to mind. They likely assumed the women would head to Poe’s grotto at the islands, because that’s what Arelle thought, too.

It was the direction Poe went, after all.

The problem was her sister didn’t stop at the islands. At first, Arelle thought Poe was just burning off some energy. Maybe she was even taking a moment to truly be alone. Or perhaps she felt her grotto was too tied to her mate; everything inside had been his just as much as it had been hers, after all.

However, Arelle quickly realized that her sister wasn’t even just swimming along the safe boundary lines of Atlas Islands. She kept going. Past the islands, out into the raging sea where a school of blue fish scattered at the oncoming mermaid, and straight toward the forbidden.

“Princess Poe!”

It was only the distant shout of the guards trailing Arelle that reminded her they were still behind the two sisters. Their decision to keep a distance had not been to their benefit because she knew the men had been ordered to forcibly bring back anyone if they went past the boundaries the king set forth for his people. If they didn’t have permission to go beyond the islands, then they could expect punishment for breaking the rules.

With the men so far behind her—Arelle checked again, seeing that they had picked up their speed a bit—it gave her the chance to still follow her sister. One of their duties was to ensure the women never went beyond the boundaries, and if either Arelle or Poe did, to bring them back. She doubted they would go so far beyond it that it threatened even their own lives.

It took her a second.

She hesitated on the decision …

If only because they all knew the landwalkers were still hunting them day in and day out. Not to mention, the punishments she had witnessed others in their colony suffer through for disobeying the king were enough to make her want to be careful. Not that her confinement had been particularly easy to get through when their kind was always happier and stronger when they stuck together.

“Princess Arelle—return to the colony immediately!”

She didn’t bother to even answer the call at her back. Instead, she followed after her sister, cutting through the water as fast as she could go without thinking about what would happen when they returned to the colony. The guards would only follow so far, and they were already so far behind she didn’t think they would catch up before they lost them entirely.

Besides, there was nothing her sister could do alone out in the sea. At least, Arelle might be able to convince her sister to come back and then perhaps they could plan something. But even that was all left up to chance.

She didn’t even think the Gods were helping them now.

Arelle continued following her sister farther beyond the islands until she could no longer hear the shouts of the guards behind her, and the sea floor became shallower than it was by the islands. Although, it was still deep enough for a ship. Another bad sign.

Poe slowed enough for Arelle to catch up.

“We have to go back,” she said, coming up behind a trembling Poe.

“I can’t.”

“Poe—”

She reached out to touch her sister’s arm, wanting to at least give her some sense of comfort. The two didn’t have to be as close as they once were for Arelle to recognize Poe’s pain and appreciate it for what it was.

“Don’t,” her sister mumbled, spinning in the water away from her reach. “Just don’t … they don’t care, Arelle, because it’s not their mate. But if it were … if it were, they’d want to move the land and seas to get their mate back, too.”

“I know. I do know that, Poe.”

The bonds were like that.

Unforgiving.

Final.

It’s what scared her the most.

“It’s been two weeks,” Poe hissed, “and he doesn’t call for me as much as he used to, Arelle.”

She frowned at that. “I don’t understand.”

“No, because you’re not mated.”