Page 124 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

Soldiers dropped to their knees, heads bowed, one after the next rippling outward from the center like a tide going out. On the ships, cannons tilted down. Flags lowered.

I descended, and the body of water lowered with me, settling back into the sea without so much as a splash, as if it had never risen at all.

On the shore, the winged people, the Seaborn, and the human soldiers who had fought beside us found each other in the chaos—embracing, some laughing, some kneeling beside the fallen, hands pressed to wounds, voices calling names. Some wept over people who wouldn’t answer. Some simply held each other and didn’t let go.

Calroy’s arms closed around me the moment my feet touched the ground, pulling me against him, wings folding around us both.

“There’s my goddess.” His voice came rough against my hair. “I’m so proud of you.”

“We did it.” I held on for a moment, then pulled back. “We did it together.”

He kissed my lips, and we both turned to our friends.

Nam lay where I had left her. Jina knelt beside her, one hand pressed over her mouth, shoulders shaking. Minha crouched on her other side, jaw tight, her eyes pooling with tears.

Sohee and the others from the cavern gathered around Nam, weeping. We were the only family any of us had ever known, drawn together by grief this time.

I ran to them. And I was back in the cavern. My sisters around me, our arms around each other, holding on to each other in the dark the way we always had. Only this time Nam wasn’t there to tell us it would be all right. It was my turn.

I looked at their faces—Jina, Minha, Sohee, all of them—I would be their anchor as Nam had done for us.

We cried in each other’s arms until there was nothing left and then held on a little longer.

There was much to do. Kingdoms to rebuild. People to tend to. A world that needed to remember peace. But this… my sisters… for now, they came first.

They always had. They always would.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

We rode into the early morning to Caelum, the onyx walls that had once powered the Seelie queen were nothing but stone. Though they still absorbed a fraction of our energy, they caused no harm and did not lessen our power.

Selene met us at the courtyard near the throne. She had Calroy’s mother with her.

I recognized her dark hair, threaded through with silver, pinned up in a bun, an amethyst gemstone woven through the strands. She looked exactly as she had in that infirmary, except this time she wore a gown the same deep blue as her eyes, the color pooling like water at her feet, and she stood in the open air of a courtyard she had once served in, and nobody was going to tell the true queen what to do.

Calroy crossed to her and pulled her against him. She pressed her face into his chest, her hands fisted in his shirt, her body trembling as she sobbed.

I felt my own tears fall, beside me Jina, Minha, and Fraya the same.

When Calroy finally stepped back, his mother’s eyes found mine over his shoulder and smiled.

“Yeri,” she said, approaching me.

“Yes, My Queen.” I curtsied.

Her voice was gentle but firm. “You don’t call me that.” She took my hand in hers, her palms warm and calloused. “You call me Nira.”

My throat tightened. “Nira.”

She squeezed once and let go, then greeted Minha, Jina, and Fraya, thanking them for their bravery. Fraya and Minha had come first with Oscan’s help. He flew them here to capture Lucian and Pierre and tossed them in the dungeon.

Calroy walked through the castle with his mother on one side and me on the other, Selene and my friends following behind. The servants who remained after the war, those who had once served Nira the queen, lined the corridors as we passed, heads bowed, some of them weeping.

Nira carried herself with quiet dignity, despite being forced into smallness for years. She had refused to let it touch the part of herself that mattered. No pointed ears. No crown. Just a woman who had survived everything the queen had put her through and come out the other side still standing.

I admired that woman.

Nira touched each of their shoulders as she walked by. Not as a queen. As someone who had lived among them and knew every face. Then she greeted the soldiers, who did not fight for the Seelie queen. Some who had been prisoners. They lined the path to the throne room.