The eidolon watched him with the bored curiosity of someone who had been offered puzzles as entertainment for an age.
Her eyes, bright as flaring coals, dropped to the faint artifact he kept hidden beneath his tunic; the thing that ticked against his sternum and had been the first tether between them.
"A trinket," she pronounced, as if tasting the word for the first time.
Her voice folded around it like a connoisseur tasting spoiled wine.
"Such pretty things mortals pin to their chests. How did you manage to chain yourself to such to it so willingly?"
Caedrion's fist tightened beneath his shirt. It was no choice of his.
The artifact had been used to kidnap him and transport him beneath the shivering sea.
It was a ticking time bomb. One that would end in his return to Submareth with or without his consent.
Thalassaria let Caedrion return home for six months, but only if she were allowed to bind him to her.
