Lir’s cell was at the end of a short, narrow hallway. There was a window at eye level with a hatch that could only be opened from the outside. Just inside, Lir likely lay on his cot. While his wound had nearly healed, his recovery had been complicated by his withdrawal. The healers reported that he would remain weak for many moons to come.

Without meaning to, Caledonia reached for the old scar on her belly. Her fingers curled into the fabric of her shirt and for a moment she imagined that Lir had been right all along. Their lives had been connected from the moment they’d met on that beach. Without her, he’d never have risen to power. Without him, she’d never have had to take it.

That wasn’t right. But that plaguing thought was exactly the reason she’d come.

Caledonia reached to unlatch the window, then stopped. What good would it do to announce her presence? She should just go inside. She raised the key.

Her breath came more quickly. Not from fear, but from anticipation. What part of herself would she find in his star-pale eyes? Who would she be when she entered that room?

Who would she be after?

The key slid into the lock with a soft metallic kiss. In the back of her mind, the question spun, sending invasive winds through her thoughts.

You are a reflection of him, they hissed.

She closed her eyes and paused with the key in the door. A fine sweat coated her palm. She felt as she always did on the brink of battle, when her senses were as vast as the ocean itself. Only now she had no one to fight.

You are the person he made you, the winds moaned.

But that wasn’t right. That had never been right. Caledonia was the person she’d become because of herself, because of Pisces, because of every girl who’d ever joined the crew of the Mors Navis, because of Oran and Sledge and the rest of the Blades. She was the person she was in spite of Lir. He’d stolen pieces of her against her will. She had nothing to gain from him. She never had. But if she walked through this door, she’d give him one final victory.

Caledonia pulled the key from the lock, then she turned and left the prison.

Lir had been the focus of her story for too long. His door was shut. And Caledonia had so many more to open.

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE