Page 87 of Seaborn and the Seven Seas

Then the pure stone in my pocket hummed. Low. Mournful. Impossible to ignore.

I froze. So did he.

What a way to kill the mood, but I was glad it had. Nothing good could come out of whatever would have been us.

Theron pulled back sharply, raking a hand through his hair, eyes cutting to every corner of the room—alert, scanning, all heat replaced by icy chills.

“You hear that too?” I asked, still catching my breath.

I reached into my pocket and drew out the stones. The hum continued, quiet and insistent.

“What do you know about the gods?” I needed answers now.

He was quiet for a long moment. Whatever remained on his face was harder to read. He sat next to me, feet on the ground.

“There were seven gods,” he said finally. “The Seelie queen killed them during a dinner party set in the cavern where you took the stones, well at least she thought she did. She delayed the earth god’s death that day because he was her lover.”

He told me everything I already learned from the drawings. But a question I’d never thought of popped in my mind when he said her lover.

“Who is her son’s father?”

“God of earth.”

“Her sons are half deity?”

He nodded, pushed back his hair. “But their powers were stripped of divinity by their mother.” He glanced at the stone on my palm.

“Can the gods be reborn somehow?” I asked, the thought sounding possible in my mind but ridiculous out loud. “Can we do... I don’t know... anything to restore them, so they can defeat the queen and set things right?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

“How?”

“There are alchemists.” He shifted, elbows on his knees. “Deep in the forest. They’ve studied the old magic for generations. If answers exist, they’ll have them.”

The forest. I thought of Nam and her sister.

“I want to go with you,” I said.

“No.”

“Theron—”

“It’s too dangerous.” His voice was final. “There are wild animals. Bandits. The queen’s soldiers will move through the same forest. It’s not a journey for—”

“We’re all going after the children are safe.” I held his gaze. “There’s no time to argue about this.”

His features softened. Not quite surrender.

“Fine.” He exhaled. “Selene takes the children to safety. You stay close and do exactly as I say.”

“We go with my friends,” I said. “That’s the only version of this I’m agreeing to.”

He looked at me while biting his lower lip. Damn it. Did he have to do that when he’d kissed me not too long ago.

“Together,” he said, his gaze lowering to my legs.

If he didn’t stop smirking, stop his eyes darkening, I was going to beg him to do the things he’d done earlier. And this time I might just rip off his clothes and mine.