Chapter 19: Deep Water

I ran across the flats with half the town behind me.

The mud pulled at my bare feet and I did not care.

Kyros ran at my side, and the cold wind from the land pushed against us the whole way.

The reef was a long black wall.

At the end of it the ground fell away into the trench, the one place in the bay the fishermen never anchored.

Ligeia stood in water to her hips at the lip of it.

It was the only water for a hundred yards, a round dark pool forty feet across, and she held it still with one raised hand.

Zoe stood in front of her, up to her chest.

Ligeia's other hand rested on my daughter's wet curls.

It looked almost kind.

Behind us, on the quay, two hundred people watched in silence.

I knew they could see every bit of it, even from that far.

"There she is," said Ligeia, as pleasantly as ever. "The queen, in her bare feet. You look much better with mud on you."

"Let her go."

"Of course. That was always the plan."

"Mama," said Zoe. Her voice was small and steady. "She said you wouldn't come."

"I came."

"I know. I told her you would."

Ligeia smiled down at the top of her head.

"I went to fetch her gently. She was in the yard, listening to the sea. She wanted to see what I held.

I only showed her."

"That's a lie," said Zoe. "You said you'd tell me my real name."

"And I did."

"You said it was a secret and I couldn't tell Mama."

"Quiet, darling."

The hand on Zoe's hair tightened.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Left My Daughter With His Ex, So I Left the Sea King from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.