Opening my eyes, I approached where Seppo and Rose were with Soren at my side. Diaval had arrived before us, her eyes flickering around the shore in the way they did when she couldn’t lower her defenses and when magic was brewing beneath her fingertips. Hopefully, there’d be no reason for her to use it.

“Nephew,” Lydian said in greeting toward Soren. His yellow hair was matted and tangled, full of seaweed and brine, his nails had grown jaggedly long, and his face and once-smooth skin were weathered by the harsh sand and winds. His body was bruised from where the water beat him, and there were thick dark rings around his neck as if something or someone had tried to choke the life out of him multiple times. His clothes—the very same clothes he died in—were torn and soaked and bloody, and yet he still had that look on his face like he was king of it all.

“We have to hurry,” Rose said, his eyes taking on a bit of a sheen. “I’m trying to watch to see if Hel knows where we are—if she knows we survived, but I’m not really good at concentrating with this seer ability yet. So, let’s get in and get out as fast as we can.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, hearing the others also agree.

Soren trudged over to Lydian and crossed his arms, staring down at his uncle for a long moment.

“Are you going to scold me?” Lydian said, a slick smirk on his face.

Soren drove his boot into his uncle’s ribs. Once, and then again, and then again twice more until Lydian was left curled to one side as much as his bonds would allow and breathing heavily.

“You know it’ll take longer to escape if you break my ribs,” he said.

“I don’t particularly care,” Soren replied, driving his boot into the soft flesh of his uncle’s stomach, causing him to cough. “I don’t know when the next time I’ll have an opportunity like this again, and I figured I better make the best of it.”

He bent down and punched Lydian in the jaw hard enough that the goblin spat two teeth out. “You punch like your mother,” he said, then his eyes landed on Rosamund’s. “I wonder if you punch like yours.”

Rose turned sharply, but before he could land a blow on him, Seppo pulled him back. “It’s not worth it,” he said.

“What he did to her—” Rose began but was interrupted.

“If I was punished by you five for what I did to everyone’s loved ones, I would remain chained to this rock forever while you beat me into a bloody pulp,” Lydian said.

“That can be arranged,” Soren muttered.

“No,” I sighed. “It can’t. We need to get him and get out.”