Prologue

PROLOGUE

CASSANDRA

" W hy? Why didn't you stop him?" I scream at the man standing in front of me. The Sea God, the one who could have stopped all this with a wave of his hand. The thoughts of what just happened fly through my mind. I have no idea if the rest of them escaped. My family, my pirates, and everyone I have ever cared about could be stuck in that castle.

"Even gods cannot stop their children. Only guide them and hope," he says, folding his hands. You wouldn't think he was a powerful god from his torn clothes and scraggy beard. I wouldn't have thought he was anything but an old man, if I hadn't seen him save me.

"You gave him those powers! You let him keep that crown!" I shout, stepping closer as my own powers call for me to use them. I glance up at the top of the cave, seeing the water swirling and the sky just visible above. We are in the middle of the Storm Sea, the sea he saved me from when no one else could.

"I also gave you your powers. I also saved your life and brought you here," he responds.

"You want a deal? A deal between us?" I ask. I think back to every night for months that he has whispered the same thing to me, the same promise of a future after everything.

"Yes. It is the only way to save those you love," he says, a sharp pain shooting through my heart at the thought of my pirates, my chosen.

"Tell me the riddle once more, the deal you told me once," I request, knowing I need to hear it again before agreeing to it.

"A deal is sought after, a deal will be made.

The price is clear, the truth will not be forbidding.

The true heir of both water and land must take the throne.

The fire-touched king must fall at the hands of the water-touched pirate.

Changed ones must never have the throne and only a changed one can give the crown to the new queen.

The crown needed to win, can only be found where life lives within water.

Only ice will bring the map, if she does not fall .

If the deal is not agreed, then the sea will never be saved." He says each word with power. The words surround my memory and I know there are a lot of demands in that riddle. If I even get one wrong, then I could lose everything. They say the Sea God is the master of tricks, as well as the sea.

"This is the only way," he tells me gently as I walk over to him.

"Call my dragon here, let her take me away, and I will agree to this deal," I tell him, knowing that the only way I'm getting out of this cave is with help. My pirates can't help me now, but I need to save them. I need to save the sea.

"The deal is made," the Sea God says, his gold hair lifting like there is a breeze. Then, my dragon's roar sounds through the cave.