“This.” I laugh a watery laugh. “This is why I fell in love with you.”

“Self-aggrandizing speeches?” His smirk is reluctant.

“No. Your sense of justice. The way you stay true to what you believe is right. I don’t think anyone can be right all the time, but you.” I tilt my face and kiss his palm. “You come the closest to anyone I’ve ever met. You think about other people before yourself. Always. You’ve always put others first, me first, and I—”

I glance up at him.

“If this is what you want for yourself, then you should have it. I don’t know what a Cavanos without a king looks like, but…I’ll help you. I’ll help you figure it out. Until the very end.”

His kiss is slow, hot and lingering against the cold sea air. There’s an edge to it, like a razor buried deep and begging to press into skin, and the soft sound that escapes my lips doesn’t sound like me. It sounds like someone sweeter. His hands find my waist, pulling me flush into him, and that’s when I know—all of him. I want all of him, no matter what that means, no matter the trembling in my body, no matter how or when or why. I want to touch him, every inch of him, and my fingers snake in his belt, under his shirt, feeling all the hard contours I’ve only seen up until now, only been tempted with—

“Well would you lookit that.”

The voice is a bucket of close, freezing water, and Lucien and I practically leap away from each other. The watchman stands at the railing beside us, puffing on his pipe and pointing beyond our shoulders, down. He flashes a toothless grin up at us with a single word.

“Moon jellies.”

Both our faces on fire, we peer over the railing. But all my fiery embarrassment sheds the moment I see the ocean—or rather, the sight beneath the ocean. Lights. Thousands upon thousands of flickering lights, flashing between red-blue to pink-green to yellow-orange and back again like perfectly circular rainbows. Some of them float closer to the surface, bobbing with gelatinous ease along the gentle waves, their tentacles drifting behind them like banners of the finest Avellish lace. The whole sea a dark emerald, but aglow with rainbow light.

“I’ve—I’ve read about them,” I whisper, grinning over at Lucien. “But I’ve never seen them!”

His laugh rings as he snakes his hand into mine. “Me neither.”

“Huh.” The watchman puffs his pipe. “It’s good luck, you know. ’Specially for lovers.”

“Oh?” Lucien’s eyebrow quirks.

“Ach, the usual. Together forever in bliss, etcetera etcetera.”