The Deepest Blue(90)

“We’ll be together again,” Mayara told him, and kissed him.

Then there was no more time. He had a thousand things he wanted to say, but he thought she knew them all. She knew that he would come after her and wanted to save her and that he didn’t want to be parted from her. He’d go with her, if he could. But Queen Asana had asked him to save her parents, and he couldn’t defy a dying queen.

He shepherded the queen’s father and mother toward the whale spirit. They splashed through the eerily calm water. Boosting the queen’s mother onto the whale’s back, he looked back at the beach. Only a few yards away, a wall of wind tore through the sand, obscuring everything beyond it, buying them all time. He had to hope that Queen Asana lived until they reached the village. They’d all die if she lost control of the spirits too soon.

So they had to be quick.

He climbed onto the back of the whale, trying not to think, trying not to doubt, trying not to mourn, trying not to fear. He braced Asana’s parents. “Ready?”

“I don’t want to leave her,” her mother said. “I need to be with her!”

“She wants to know you’re safe,” Kelo said. “That’s what she needs.”

“But she—”

Kelo cut her off. “You can give her this gift. Ease her sorrow.” His words sank in, and he saw the queen’s mother deflate. Her father cradled his wife’s shoulders. A moment later, it didn’t matter what they felt or thought or wanted, because the whale was shooting through the water.

Kelo felt spray in his face, tasted the sea. It tasted like tears.

He never dreamed he would leave Mayara so soon after he found her. But he’d also never imagined he’d be complicit in torture or that he’d be willing to drug children. If he didn’t help save the queen’s family after all he’d done, then he wasn’t worthy of being with Mayara.

This, then, is the line I won’t cross.

Clinging to the back of the whale spirit, he rode with the queen’s parents along the shore of Olaku toward his village, while the night darkened and the wind howled as if it knew what was coming. Maybe it does. The spirits must be able to sense the queen’s impending death—they were linked in a way he couldn’t begin to comprehend. Once she died, they’d be free of all commands, free to kill the hated humans, free to behave like wild spirits with no one to stop their destruction, until the new queen took control.

Almost there, he thought.

He saw his village up ahead. The beach with the boats, the white houses nestled into the cove. . . . He felt the whale spirit buck beneath them. The queen was losing control.

“Swim,” he ordered.

He helped Asana’s parents slide off the whale spirit. Pacing them, he shouted encouragement as they swam through the churning sea. When Asana’s father slowed, Kelo doubled back and hooked a hand under his armpit. He kicked sideways, pulling her father through the water.

Waves broke over them, and he sucked in air. He kept his eyes focused on the shore ahead. Around him, he heard shrieking cries, spirits calling to spirits. Something smooth brushed past his leg.

And then his knee scraped against the pebbly shore. He pulled Asana’s father to his feet. Her mother was already crawling out of the surf.

Bells were ringing in the village, and he saw his friends and neighbors running for the caves. Drawing Asana’s parents with him, he urged them onward. “Quickly!”

They clung to him as they stumbled away from the shore. Behind them, Kelo heard the waves crash like thunder, and cold water slapped his back. He didn’t turn around.

Crack.

A tree crashed across the path that led up to the caves. Asana’s mother screamed as debris struck them.

He risked a look back at the sea.

The spirits looked as if they were fighting themselves, writhing and churning in the water. She’s fighting them for control, he thought.

They had, at most, minutes.

There wasn’t time to find a way around the tree.

Instead he led them up another path, one he knew so well he could have done it blindfolded. They climbed the path up above the village to his studio. It was still draped in charms, exactly as he’d left it when he’d begun his journey.

He pushed through the door and shepherded Asana’s parents inside. He secured the door behind them with a stone that he rolled in front of it. Running to the windows, he slammed the shutters closed. They were still damaged from the last spirit storm, but he thought maybe they’d hold one more time.

Gathering up charms that still lay scattered around the floor, he began draping them around the interior perimeter of his studio. Without speaking, Asana’s parents joined him, stuffing charms into cracks and hanging them over the shuttered windows.

Outside, the spirits of Belene went wild as the queen died.

MAYARA WATCHED KELO DISAPPEAR ACROSS THE WAVES AND HAD the terrible feeling that she wasn’t going to see him again. He came to save me. With the queen, somehow. That felt as wondrous as a sunrise after a storm. She wished she could have asked him how he’d left home, how her parents were, how he felt about her choice. She wanted to tell him about Elorna and the Island of Testing and everything she’d felt and done and seen. . . .

But he was lost in the frothing blueness of the churning sea.

I should have gone with him.

But the choice was made.