Chapter 32

Rose

M y finger traced through the sand of the beach near the King cul-de-sac, absentmindedly tracing a large heart before moving to write my, Will's, and Milo's initials inside of it. I'd come out here to sit in the water, hoping some time in the sea would help my mood, and I sat with my back to the large stone Milo had taken me against the day of my return. My thoughts were all jumbled together, one coagulated mess of problems and loose ends as waves lapped at my feet.

I was too new to be able to do anything myself. I didn't have the knowledge of how to use my powers apart from making crabs out of sand, drying myself off, or healing minor wounds, and it wasn't natural for me to reach for them when I didn't even know what they were or what I was capable of. Even if I did know, I couldn't be sure how the talisman's influence would warp or change things—we hadn't even broached that subject yet in my lessons with Will.

Asking Tisa was out of the question. According to her agreement with the death Gods, she couldn't interfere when it came to killing our Marks. Beyond that, though, it didn't feel right asking. It wasn't her fight, and it would likely set a dangerous precedent if she did intervene to help me, even if her "gift of clarity" was splitting hairs when it came to helping but not at the same time.

The other Otherkind were clearly not going to help. They were content to keep to themselves and pretend as if what had happened to Nora wasn't preventable. As if they weren't partially responsible for its destruction.

That's what got me the most. They were unwilling to accept or even acknowledge that all this could have been prevented if they'd stood up and dealt with Joseph when he started all this upon his arrival six years ago. They should've done something the moment he influenced everyone to vote for him as mayor. That alone was signal enough he was using his powers in a way that would potentially expose them to humans. But they didn't. They were content to let him be.

Although…

If he'd gone around and put his influence in their minds from the beginning…

My hands shook as they curled into fists. He'd probably made it so they'd look away and ignore what he'd done. Because of fucking course he had. It was the only thing that made all of this make sense. In any other scenario, he would've been swiftly dealt with, but he'd ensured that no one would stop him before he even got started.

My power surged within me in response to my anger, and the heavens darkened further. Above me, blurry arcs of lightning lit the sky. But my anger had nowhere to go. I had no idea how to use it. The only person who could teach me how to take Joseph on was Will, but I couldn't ask him to do that. I couldn't make him relive his trauma—the image popping up in my mind of Will without his mind was enough to understand why.

What can I do? I'm supposedly this powerful creature, yet I'm powerless to do anything about this, I thought bitterly. There's already so much distrust between us because of him .

A gentle brush against my aura coaxed me from my thoughts, and when I turned, I saw Milo walking toward me. My disquiet eased enough that the hooks of my anger and uncertainty detached from my thoughts as he knelt next to me, looking at the heart I'd drawn in the sand. My cheeks exploded with heat as a pleased grin split his face. Then his lips were on mine, kissing the life out of me.

When he pulled away, I was dazed, all my woes and embarrassment forgotten. He chuckled at me, pleased. "Violet's on the phone. Are you up for a call?" he asked, brushing a strand of my hair out of my face.

"Oh, yeah. I can talk," I replied, taking his free hand and nuzzling it.

"Okay, good, because I think she might come through the phone and whack me upside the head if you couldn't."

I snorted. "That sounds about right."

"Hey, I don't mess with fierce aunties. I'd like to keep my skin attached to my body." Still, he smirked before saying, "I'll leave you to it, then. But first…"

He angled his phone and took a picture of my heart, no doubt sending it straight to Will. When I snatched his phone from his hand, trying to stop him, I saw he'd not only sent it to Will but to the newly expanded family group chat as well with the caption I think she likes me . I gasped in horror, and Milo scampered off, narrowly escaping the swipe of my claws.

"You're the worst, Milo Finnegan!" I shouted at him as he left.

"But you love me!" he replied over his shoulder.

And if that wasn't enough, I saw the speaker icon lit up at the top of his phone and could hear Vi laughing her ass off at me when I turned up the volume. Apparently, she, too, had seen the picture. I groaned, planting my forehead on my knees.

"Trouble in paradise?" she asked when she could speak through her laughter.

"He's going to get it when I get back to the house."

"Sure, sure," she said, not even bothering to hide her amusement.

"If you sing the kissing song, you're going to get it, too, Violet Imogen Sutton!" I snarled in jest… mostly…

"Alright. I'll sing it in my head, then."

"All of you are actually the worst," I grumbled, twisting my hand to make my crab army dance.

"And yet you still love us," she retorted, but I could imagine how her face was crinkled in laughter. But then, when she spoke again, she sobered, her words serious. "I heard you had a meeting with the Otherkind leaders. How did it go?"

My crabs ceased their dancing and started to fight each other to the death.

"The meeting went fucking terribly," I said, forcing myself to relax. Though they were not even alive, the violence of the crabs' attacks made me sick to my stomach. "Selena wanted nothing to do with us and didn't care about what we'd found, and the other two didn't have the authority to do anything to help, either."

Vi sighed, the sound soft and comforting despite its unease. "I'm not surprised. There's probably a fair few bruised egos there to contend with. No one with power likes to admit when they've had something done to them behind their backs." A chair scraped across stone on her end of the phone. "Did anything good come of the meeting?"

"Not really? Calixto did say he was going to try to contact his father but not to hold my breath. Tomas has been unreachable since he left Charlotte," I replied, swiping my hand over my crabby children and making them disappear back into the wet sand. Most of them were missing limbs and full chunks of their bodies.

"I'm sorry, Rose. It's not supposed to be like this." Her words were sorrowful.

"No, it's not. It's not fair that it's this way, and I can't do anything to change it." I set the phone in my lap so I could flex my hands to keep my claws from coming out. "I don't even think they're going to try to look for any information to help me, either. I feel so helpless."

"I've been trying to look here in the library for anything that could be remotely helpful, but there's nothing I can find. You might have to look for opinions outside the Isles to find the answers you seek," she said, each word carefully chosen.

There it was again, that agitating feeling, the reminder that I would have to leave my home to get what I needed to defeat Joseph. I hated it as much as I was resigned to it. That was, after all, what was supposed to have happened in the first place, before the hunter threw all my plans out the window. Besides, it's not like I have a home of my own anymore. It burned with the rest of Nora.

"There's nothing I can find in my archives, either," said a voice, pulling me from my sullen thoughts. When I looked up, I saw it was Declan coming to sit down next to me, though far enough away that he didn't sit on my embarrassing artistic masterpiece. "And none of my contacts have any information, either."

I crumbled a little on the inside, helplessness swelling within me until I could hardly breathe around it. What was I going to do now? What hope was there?

"We'll keep looking," Vi said over the din of my thoughts. "There are other libraries and more books to check. I'm sure we'll find something."

"She's right." Declan nodded. "We're not going to let this continue forever."

I wanted so much to believe them. I really did. But I knew Joseph, and I knew my own luck. If worse things could happen, they were going to, and there was nothing I could do at present to stop it.

Vi, Declan, and I talked for a few minutes more before my aunt had to go. She said her goodbyes and told me she loved me before ending the call. I hated how much it hurt to let her go, but as with all things, it really had been only a matter of time before I had to leave the nest anyway. I mean, who lives with their aunt forever?

Declan drew me out of my thoughts when he shifted next to me. His expression was pensive, and when he spoke, I was surprised at what he had to say.

"If you're feeling up to it, I can take you to the Heart of Mariana," he said gently, as if I wasn't going to jump at the prospect.

"Really?" I asked, sitting up straighter, surprised.

"Yes, really. I've been doing some thinking, especially now that I know what Joseph's been up to, and I really ought to have taken you the moment I heard you were Violet's successor for being Keeper. But I think the influence was making it so I distrusted you, though I wasn't sure why. You've done nothing to warrant such hesitation."

"Are you certain, though?" I had to ask. I had to know, especially seeing how agitated the red spot was in trying to manipulate him.

"More than certain. It's your birthright, and unlike Selena, I think having both you and Violet connected to the Hearts is one of the best ways to fortify them from Joseph, should the worst come to pass."

I chewed on my lip, debating whether I should say what I wanted to. "I think you should plan for the worst to happen regardless. We can't be too careful. I mean, look at what he was able to do by himself. Now that he has an army of merfolk doing his bidding, it's going to be so much easier for him to do what he wants, especially if that stain of his aura does what I think it does."

"You're right. I'm going to be discussing this with Milo and the other clans here on the island, to gauge their reactions and prepare accordingly." Declan was solemn as he said this, his eyes on the horizon. "We will not abandon our homes lightly, but I would rather us be alive and have to leave than dead."

I reached over and put a hand on his forearm. "I'm sorry this is happening."

He smiled gently. "Sweet girl, this is hardly your fault. It's ours for not dealing with him when he started making problems for us years ago. There's no reason it should've gotten this far." His gaze was distant for a moment before he blinked, coming back to reality. "You ready to meet Mariana's Heart?"

"Yes, please," I said, trying not to sound too excited.

He patted my hand, then stood up, helping me to my feet as well. I barely remembered to shove Milo's phone into the pocket of my dress before it tumbled onto the sand. Wiping off my backside, I stepped over my sandy heart to follow Declan as he led me toward the docks, where my boat and all of theirs were moored. He bypassed them and walked toward the other beach, where the majority of the seals roosted.

The storm clouds were so dark, it nearly looked like night though it was still only mid-afternoon. As we kept walking, recognition as to where we were sparked in my mind. The rock formations, the seals… it coalesced as a singular memory that had me stopping in my tracks, my breath frozen in my lungs.

This was the beach where I'd left Milo and Will standing.

Almost as if it were happening right here and now, that night overlaid my vision, bright arcs of lightning flashing above us. The bodies of the slain and maimed seals, blood running in rivulets down the beach and staining the sand, the hunters… their bodies after I'd killed them… Milo and Will staring at me, their emotions naked on their faces.

My heart seized in my chest.

"Rose, please. I'll help you. Just give me a moment to…"

Milo's voice trailed off as I took another unwilling step back. Lunging forward again, he tried to get to me, but Will held him back, nodding at me, giving me permission to go. My feet kept bringing me backward, and Milo's eyes switched to that beautiful cinnamon brown I loved as he roared.

"Let me go, you finned fuck!" he screamed as he tried to shove out of Will's arms. His features sharpened as his humanity bled away, his selkie coming out in full force.

"I can't. You have to let her go."

My vision blurred as I watched him trying to fight out of Will's grasp but failing.

"Rose! I love you!" he screamed, his heart breaking before my eyes. "Don't leave me! I love you!"

"Rose?"

Hands on my shoulders shook me out of my flashback. I blinked to see Declan in front of me, not my mates. No more was the blood and gore of that moment; only the stain on my memory of what had happened remained. I could even feel the ghostly claw of my Call within me, squeezing my spine just as it had before. Bile rose up my throat, and I shook, the horror of that night as fresh and clear as if it had just happened.

"This is… this is the beach where…" I couldn't even make myself say the words. I looked down at my hands—now curled into claws—as if I thought the hunters' blood might still be there. They were clean, though they ought not to have been.

Declan's eyes shifted to cinnamon, a compassion I wasn't sure I deserved warming them. "I know, sweetheart. But this is not that day. The hunters are dead and gone. You're safe."

"But… I died and then left them. I left my mates here and didn't look back," I whispered, horrified with myself all over again.

I hadn't let myself think of that night at all since I'd destroyed my Call. Nor had I reckoned with what I'd been forced to do, and the longer I stood there, the more it wanted to rise up and overtake me. To drown me in my guilt. My eyes sought out Declan's, desperate for help to ground myself.

"I know. You had no choice in that. All that matters is that you're alive and here now." Declan's big hands gripped my shoulders, giving them a gentle squeeze. "Breathe with me for a moment, just like Aeden taught you."

He walked me through several rounds of measured breathing, counting out each inhale, hold, and exhale until the vise grip of the flashback eased. It was still there, likely never to leave me, but it was manageable for the moment. For how long I can hold back the tide of my feelings, though, I don't know.

"Thank you," I said after a long moment. "And I'm sorry."

"There's no need to apologize, Rose. You've been through so much. The fact that you're still standing is absolutely a miracle," he replied, his hands falling from my shoulders. "You ready to go?"

I took a breath, then nodded. I wanted to do this. I needed to.

Declan gave me one last, gentle smile before he turned to continue in the direction of the Heart. He made his way up the beach, and this time, I kept my gaze glued to his back, focusing on keeping my breathing steady as we continued forward.

He led us up the beach and toward the bottom-most part of the rock face above us. As we got closer, I sensed the barest whisper of a song, similar to the one that echoed through the caves in Nora but deeper. A lovely alto compared to Nora's soaring soprano. It sang through me, beckoning me forward and inviting me to come closer. A spark of recognition came to me, remembering what Nora's Heart had told me.

Lastly, to the south, is my youngest sister, encased in ancient, red rock weathered and tempered by brutal storms. Her place in the world can only be accessed by those who already know where she is.

I sped up and passed Declan, my mind zeroing in on the task at hand. It was clear to me where I needed to go, and I had no need for a guide. The Heart knew where she was, and she was guiding me where I needed to go with the cadence of her song. I vaguely heard Declan chuckle, but he didn't stop me as I plowed forward.

I stopped before the rockface, and there my confidence wavered for but a moment. Closing my eyes, I listened to the song, passing my hands just above the surface until they tingled—then I pushed forward. My hands sank into the stone, and once I was up to my wrists, ghostly hands yanked me in, impatient with my caution. My whole being was raked through just as it had been when I first entered the tunnels below Nora; everything that was me squeezed and condensed as if I was being threaded through the eye of a needle. The pain I expected this time, and I steeled myself against it. Even still, once on the other side, I needed a moment to catch my breath before I continued.

The symphony of this Heart guided me through another maze of pitch-dark tunnels meant to confuse those who weren't supposed to be there. The singing grew louder with every step I took until those deep notes reverberated in my bones. Soon, the darkness gave way to the barest hint of light, which grew as I approached until it enveloped me completely. With both hands in front of me, I didn't wait to touch the source of the singing light, needing to feel it for myself, needing to know it.

A vision of Mariana's history filled my mind, from its formation to its agreement with Thomas, then through all the Keepers before me. This one, however, added images of me—from when I'd borrowed the house to keep safe from Joseph to the night I was made.

Images of me as it knew me were tinged with affection, even the difficult ones. This Heart watched with equal parts melancholy and joy at my death at the hands of the hunters. Melancholy for the senseless loss of my life, but joy that I'd chosen to be remade into something so special. Joy I'd accepted what it had given me upon my transformation. When I was released from the vision, the orb of light stood before me as a woman I did not recognize, a piece of her heart missing as well. She squeezed my hands.

I am sorry, Rose, for the sorrow that has been wrought upon you on my island , she told me, true regret coloring her words. I can only hope that from here on out, you will know joy beyond measure here.

"I hope so, too." I squeezed her hands back. "I want us to move forward happily. Put all that behind us."

I want that as well. For all of us.

Turning my left hand over, she passed her fingers over my pulse, where the mark for Nora's key was. There was a slight tingling, a little deeper than Nora's had been, and when she pulled her fingers away, I expected to see a key just like before. Instead, there was a delicate chain connected to the key and an orb-like charm with a strange symbol on it dangling from the end.

It is the symbol of a long-dead but magic language, from a world outside this one. When things have calmed and returned to normal, I'd love to teach it to you, said the Heart.

I grinned. "I'd be honored to learn from you. And thank you for allowing me to be your Keeper. I'm very grateful."

As I am grateful for you. I know you will make us proud and lead us into a new era, just as the others before you. She smiled at me. Now, you should go to your males. They are anxious for your return, and you have been gone much longer than you think.

"You're probably right. I'll come back, I promise," I replied, not wanting to leave. There were so many questions I wanted to ask, so many things I wanted to learn, but I couldn't bear the thought of worrying my mates more than I already had.

I trust you will.

With one last smile and squeeze of hands, I turned away from Mariana's Heart to go back through the tunnels. The song returned the moment I stepped out of the chamber and guided me so I wouldn't get lost. The journey out felt much longer than the journey in, but I didn't mind. The music soothed something wounded and aching in my soul as I walked. When I reached the exit, I said my goodbye, then stepped out.

The weather had cleared while I was in there, and the sun was much lower in the sky than I thought it would be. I really must've been in there longer than I realized, I thought as I looked around for Declan. Just down the beach, I saw Will, Milo, and Declan tending the seals, checking over a few that had been injured when the hunters had come through here thinking they were selkies.

My heart softened as I heard Milo introducing Will to one of the seals—the big, ornery one that liked to snap at people—and talking him through how to deal with him when he was being a dick. I couldn't help but chuckle when the seal twisted around to try to bite Will when he reached out to pet him, as was the seal's habit, and Milo bapped him on the nose. The big guy wasn't the least bit chastised and instead waddled away with a snuff.

At hearing my amusement, Will and Milo's heads snapped up, and, spotting me coming toward them, huge grins brightened their features. My heart fluttered in my chest, the force of their joy at seeing me giving me butterflies. Grabbing Will's hand, Milo led them up to me. "Did you do what you needed to do?" he asked.

"I did." Holding out my wrist, I showed them the addition to my tattoo.

"Beautiful," said Will, pressing a kiss to the design, "I wonder what it will look like when you have all five."

If I am able to gain all five. Because at this rate, that didn't feel very likely.