Eli and I had a quick, whispered conversation in the hallway after Charlotte had gone.

"I'm coming with you. All the way there," he said, and it wasn't a question.

"I told you that already." I folded my arms over my chest, raising a brow at him. "I don't see what we're fighting about."

He had the grace to look embarrassed, and his expression softened. "I'm sorry. I just mean, I have a tendency to get left behind."

I flinched. He might as well have said I had a tendency to leave people behind. "Well, it's not going to happen this time. I told the king and queen we need you to take us there. That you're the only one who remembers the way there." I blinked at him when a wide smile spread over his face. "What?"

"Do you really not remember, or are you lying so I can come?"

I felt heat rush to my ears, and I was thankful I'd let my hair remain loose around my shoulders today. It would be the ultimate humiliation to be caught blushing like a school girl. "I was sort of in a rush to leave when we escaped," I said, and kept my voice as even as I could. "I don't trust myself to direct an entire army there."

Eli looked like he was biting back a smile. "Okay then."

Part of me wanted to smack the stupid grin off his face. Had he stepped closer to me? Suddenly he seemed very near. Close enough to see that that the top button on his shirt had come undone. To catch a glimpse of the tanned skin beneath it.

Close enough to reach out and grab his shirt collar, if I wanted to.

Not that I wanted to.

Downstairs the clank of plates and the drumming of heavy footsteps jerked me out of my thoughts. The noise had increased, which meant the army was getting ready to move out.

I cleared my throat and met Eli's dark eyes. "Are you ready to lead an army?"

He grinned. "You make it sound way cooler than it actually is."

I turned for the stairs. "It's cool. But when the fighting comes, you stay with me. You stay behind me. You're not a fighter."

"Neither are you."

"Yeah." I paused halfway down the staircase, tossing him a smirk over my shoulder. "But I can still kick your ass, and I'm not even a soldier."

We moved out a half hour later. Eli and I were in the front, with Eli pointing the way forward every so often, scanning the skyline with a frown creasing his brow.

At first I was struck by a wild fear that he wouldn't actually remember the way back. I would look like a fool in front of the king and queen and we would never find the island and Fiske.

But I should have trusted him, because Eli lead us straight and true for the next two days. Eventually I started to recognize things here and there, the forest became familiar. As if, in the midst of my anxiety, certain features of the landscape had imprinted on my unconscious mind. There was the big rock that Eli and I had rested beside, eating the last of the seaweed that King Aegir had provided. And a little while after that, the bent tree that looked like a chair.

We were getting closer to the sea.

A knot had been growing in my stomach for the last hour. I kept imagining us getting to the water and then not being able to go any further. The way I'd described it to the king and queen, I'd made it seem like I could simply summon King Aegir, and the sea god would show up and do my bidding.

That had sounded great back in the palace. But for all I knew I would call on King Aegir and he would laugh at me. Maybe his good temper and invitation to come live with him had merely been a mood he was in. Weren't the gods famous for their moods?

Or worse, I would call on the sea god and he wouldn't show up at all. He would make me look like a liar. Like I'd gone insane and made up a story about meeting a god.

So many things could go wrong.

Eli seemed to pick up on my nervousness, because he looked over and gave me a reassuring smile. I forced myself to return the expression, heart lifting a little. At least he could vouch for me. Even though meeting King Aegir seemed like some kind of hazy dream, he'd been there with me.

Someone from behind gave a shout, and I jerked upright in the saddle.

We were cresting the hill now, and the ocean had come into sight. A wide and glittering expanse of water. Cold bloomed in my stomach, stretching icy tendrils through my limbs. I hunched my shoulders, hoping my nervousness didn't show on my face too much. I already got the feeling that some of the soldiers thought this was a joke. To be lead into battle by a servant and a half human.

Another ten minutes and then we were there, at the ocean's edge. In the distance I could just barely make out the faint, gray shape of an island. Still, small or not, the sight of it set cold rocketing through my veins.

I pulled my horse up short and stared at the island, shivering a little. Beside me, Eli did the same, climbing down off his horse to offer me a hand.

It was sweet of him. I'd been riding since I was a child, but still, I accepted his hand. Besides, with how nervous I was feeling, it wouldn't shock me if my knees gave out as soon as I hit the ground.

Eli held onto my hand a second longer than he needed to.

Then the rest of the army was riding up beside us, dismounting in a cacophony of jingling tack and stamping hoofbeats, and Eli dropped my hand, his face going red.

Queen Megan was at the front when I turned around, and I wondered how long she'd been standing there. Had she seen my strange moment with Eli? Something about the small smile tugging the corner of her mouth told me she had.

"Vee, how are you feeling about calling your sea god?"

Hearing my nickname coming from the queen's lips was enough to make my knees feel watery. Chalk it up to one more thing I never saw happening in my life.

Coming from anyone else, the question about the sea god would have sounded sarcastic, as if they thought I was insane. But there wasn't even the slightest undertone of sarcasm in the queen's voice. She really thought I could call the god of the sea and he would come help us.

Gods, I hoped she was right.

"It may take me a while." My mouth was dry and sour tasting. "I'm not totally sure how this works."
King Aegir had said to call him if I needed him, hadn't he? So many of the memories surrounding our escape had gone hazy, as if my mind was trying to block it out. It almost seemed like a dream now.

"Take the time you need," Queen Megan said gently, and she gave her soldiers a warning look over her shoulder. The soldiers grumbled here and there, but they pressed back. Clearly the queen was warning them not to look over my shoulder.

At least I wouldn't have a bunch of leering guards snickering behind their hands at me while I tried to do this.

Hunkering down, I placed my palms flat on the water, shutting my eyes. The water felt cool as it lapped between my fingers, over the backs of my hands. It splashed up my forearms, dotting my skin with liquid kisses.

An indescribable calmness washed over me with each wave. Being so near to the water again felt right. It was as if I'd been walking around for days with a part of me missing, a hollow place in the center of my gut, and never even realized it. Now that I was touching the ocean it had filled me again. This was how it was supposed to feel. Like the water was part of me.

There was a quiet crunching noise from somewhere behind me, pebbles shifting under someone's boot. It jerked me back to the present, though I kept my eyes shut. I had a job to do.

Slowly, I stretched my senses out, spreading myself across the water.

I became aware of the tides lapping at the shore first, the crash of white spray as each wave burst into its end, then the swell of the next. A pattern that never died out.

After that, I stretched further. To the deep currents that crossed one another. And stretching down into the depths, the silver fish that darted by in quick little glimmers of light and motion. The ponderous movement of a hammerhead shark, doing little more than floating in place.

Remembering what stretching too far had done to me before, I made myself more selective, retracting some of my senses to concentrate on one area at a time. I would have to find someone to pass the message along, since I doubted I would be able to reach down far enough to get the big man himself.

There, something directly in front of me.

I was the ocean now—or at least, some small piece of it—streaming around the form of something in the water, something large. The tail, the hands, the sleek upper body. I drew back momentarily, my lips curling in disgust.

My last brush with a mermaid had been incredibly unpleasant.

But it had to be done.

Tentatively I reached out again, and this time I spoke in my mind as loudly as I could.

Can you hear me?

In the current the mermaid went still.

Could she hear me, or was that a coincidence? There was no noise on the other end, none of the familiar voices of the mermaids. Not that I really wanted to hear them, but this was important. I reached out again, nudging the water around her.

Hello?

Still nothing. Maybe she—

You're still shouting.

Cassa.

Damn it. I really hated her.

You're not my favorite either, Jotun.

Right. She could do that. Read my mind.

Look, Cassa, I need your help.

A snort of laughter followed this. And why should I help you? Wait, are you going to bring me your pretty little boyfriend now?

My lips curled in a snarl. No. You're going to help me because if you don't, I'm going to swim all the way out there and turn you into sushi.

You have such a way with words, you Jotun. She sounded amused now.

What if your king finds out you didn't help me, Cassa? What then?

Silence, with a definite sullen feel to it.

What do you want, Jotun?