The Sea King (Lords & Ladies of the Sea Book 2) by Hunt Mariella

Author:Hunt, Mariella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-12-08T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

THE STORM DID not ebb as the hours crept by; instead, the crashing sounds of thunder finally caught up to the lightning.

Meredith stared out of the window at the downpour. She could not explain it, but something about the roiling clouds beckoned to her. It was as if the climate had created a special song just for her. It was like a friend tapping at her shoulder in the hopes of catching her attention.

Meredith did not trouble herself with wondering how a storm could be speaking to her; it was of no consequence. What mattered was the wholeness that she felt during the downpour. She could pretend that she still had scales on her back. They gleamed the color of moonlight on a clear night. They promised her that they would never be gone. They were in her soul as much as they had been on her skin.

She stood at the window, lost in this pleasant thought, when an idea struck her. The journal.

Mrs. Bradley’s mention of poor Agnes stirred in Meredith’s memory the last time she had seen her. After Grumbacher had agreed to release her, Meredith had gone into her room to change into her traveling clothes. Moments later, Agnes knocked at the door, holding a waterlogged journal in her hands. Though she had not been able to speak and explain the significance of the object, her sorrowful face made it clear that its contents were important.

Meredith hadn’t had a chance to read the journal, since she and Gideon had been in constant movement. Now that she had a moment to herself, there would be no better time to discover what it was that made the object so important.

Crossing the room to her bag, she opened it and retrieved the journal, which she had wrapped in a silken scarf. She sat at the edge of the bed where the light of the lamp would be strongest, unwrapping the book with great care. The journal smelled of spilled ink, stale seawater, and something that Meredith could only describe as magic.

She smiled in spite of herself. Magic. There was no such thing as magic; there could not be. Grumbacher had used medicine, not spell-books, to remove the scales from her skin. Yet the journal had an otherness to it; she held it in her hands and could not deny that it pulsed with promise. It was in movement not unlike what she imagined the waves of the sea felt like when touching human skin.

Meredith lifted the cover. In neat, elegant handwriting, a surname had been printed on the front page: Sumner.

“Sumner.” For some reason, she felt the need to whisper it again, enjoying the shape of it in her mouth. It sounded like a nursery rhyme. Sumner. Summoner. A magical name, if ever she had read one.

Swallowing, she pushed the bizarre emotion that flooded her soul out of her mind as the name Sumner wafted through her. It was not longing, for a person must have hope in order to feel such a thing.

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