Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 42
Mayah and Zev are on the verge of being intimate for the first time when a servant knocks with an urgent message about King Varad. Zev reluctantly pulls himself away and tells Mayah to wait for him. After nearly forty minutes alone, Mayah gives up waiting and draws herself a bath.
When Zev finally returns, he’s dressed for battle. He tells Mayah he has to leave for the border right away because another Rebellion attack is expected and that he’s already an hour late. Zev explains that his brother will ride out with him to raise the soldiers’ spirits, while his father stays behind at the palace. He warns Mayah to steer clear of the king while he’s gone.
Before he leaves, Zev promises that he and Mayah will travel to Tundrayn together when he returns so she can see her father. He quietly admits he hopes her people will warm up to him once they see she’s happy. They share one last kiss, and then Zev slips away without a parting word.
Alone for the first time in months, Mayah floats in the cooling bathwater until she finally sits up and raises her hand. The water responds, rising and twisting at her command, forming streams, a flat sheet, then sharp frozen icicles. Mayah realizes how much she’s missed her waterwielding.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 43
Mayah has a rare dual ability in waterwielding and healing, which her father has kept hidden since she was a teenager. She has been suppressing her waterwielding for months while living under close watch at the palace after her marriage to Zev.
When Mayah finally gets a window of time alone, she slips through a secret entrance hidden in their shared chambers and makes her way into the tunnel system beneath the palace. Following the pull of water, she finds a large underground cavern with a shallow stream cutting through it. Her father once told her to find water and follow it outside, so she starts sending waves down the stream and waiting to see if anyone responds from the other end.
After more than an hour of silence, Mayah is nearly ready to give up. Then a wave comes surging back toward her. She hears boots splashing through the tunnel before she sees him, a figure with broad shoulders and long braids running toward her through the dark. When he gets close enough, she recognizes his eyes.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 44
Mayah slips into the tunnels to meet Daak, who shakes with relief when he finds her alive and unharmed. Daak immediately wants to know whether Zev has hurt her or forced himself on her, and Mayah lies, telling him no. They run through the assassination plan together. Mayah is organizing the Equinox Festival, where she intends to lace the drinks with toxinnia and wipe out the noble and royal families in one move, leaving the throne open for her to take.
Daak kisses Mayah, but she feels nothing. She makes an excuse and leaves.
Over the next two days, Mayah returns to finalize details and go over maps and backup routes out of the palace. She keeps noticing that something in her has shifted. Mayah still cares about Daak, but the romantic pull is gone, and being close to him feels off in a way she cannot quite shake.
During one of their meetings, Daak mentions that Arbinj sent three times the agreed amount of food in their latest shipment, which Mayah finds odd but sets aside. She asks about her father and learns he never wrote back to any of her letters. The silence stings. They move on to warmer ground, swapping memories from the early days of their friendship, and Daak tells her to hold on just a little longer.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 45
Mayah makes her way to the infirmary with her guards, Gregoran and Freynk, at her side. Gregoran checks in on her, mentioning that Prince Zevayr asked them to keep a closer eye on her while he’s gone and that she seems sad. Mayah brushes off his concern, but the comment hits her harder than she lets on.
Once inside, Mayah searches through the cabinets until she finds a bottle of wormbark oil, a universal antidote to any poison. Her plan is simple. If Zev drinks the zinfadelan before she can warn him or explain herself, she’ll be ready. Mayah also resolves that she needs to find a way to convince him to side with her. She’s certain he’ll forgive her once he understands. Just as Mayah grabs the bottle, she hears someone behind her and turns to find King Varad standing there.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 46
King Varad pays Mayah an unexpected visit, dismisses her guards, and takes her on a walk through a portrait gallery. Along the way, he gives Mayah a version of her grandmother Turmah’s story that contradicts everything she grew up believing.
In King Varad’s telling, Turmah loved her Arbinji husband and chose to cut off her own hand to save his life, rather than having it taken from her by force. Varad also reveals a painting of Mayah and Zev on their wedding day, has her sit on the throne, and brings her out to the garden afterward for a more direct conversation.
In the garden, King Varad admits he originally planned to hold Mayah hostage to force her father’s cooperation, but Zev falling in love with her threw everything off. Varad tells Mayah plainly that Zev loves her, that Zev wants to end the long war between their kingdoms, and that Varad is thinking of naming Zev his heir instead of Faramir, who he acknowledges has become cruel and unfit to rule.
Mayah listens without giving anything away. After Varad leaves, she stays behind alone, wanting desperately to believe what Varad said about Zev but unable to move past what Varad has done to her family.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 47
Mayah has been internally unraveling since Zev left a week ago, but she hides it well. While meeting with Farzina about preparations for the upcoming Festival, Mayah keeps up appearances and moves through the day on autopilot.
That night, Mayah goes to meet Daak in the tunnels. Daak gives her a pastry, checks in on her after the previous night’s storm, and tells her he misses her. When Mayah tries to leave, Daak stops her, confesses his love, and kisses her. Mayah doesn’t pull away. She lets it happen, though she already knows privately it’s the last time. Her feelings have shifted, and she’s saying goodbye even if Daak isn’t.
Then Daak convulses without warning and collapses. Mayah looks up to find her husband standing in his place, and she’s never been more afraid.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 48
Mayah finds Daak dead and breaks down beside him, cradling his body and blaming herself for his death. Zev stands there, radiating fury, and after a charged moment, Mayah attacks him with her water power, sending him crashing into the wall.
Zev recovers quickly and turns his full wrath on Mayah. She launches a second water strike, but Zev sees it coming and dodges. Then he summons a storm inside the underground cavern, filling the space with thunder, lightning, and darkness. Mayah is overwhelmed and slides into a panic, losing the ability to breathe or see clearly.
Through the storm, Zev walks toward Mayah and throws her deceptions in her face before Mayah loses consciousness.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 49
Mayah wakes up chained inside a moving carriage, still haunted by a dream of Daak accusing her of killing him. She quickly gets her bearings and realizes Zev is sitting across from her, cold and furious. When Mayah tries to reach for her waterwielder abilities, nothing happens.
Zev interrogates Mayah about why she came to Arbinj. Mayah resists, but Zev soon reveals he already knows more than she expected. He found the toxinnia barrels in the tunnels and discovered the wormbark oil in his chambers. Zev demands to know who the wormbark oil was for. Mayah finally cracks and tells him it was meant for him, but Zev refuses to believe her.
Sensing an opening, Mayah goes on the offensive and points out that Zev seems more hurt by her personal betrayal than by the fact that she plotted to kill his family. The observation lands. Zev is enraged but doesn’t strike her. He tells Mayah he’s taking her to the border and hasn’t decided whether he’ll kill her yet. Mayah asks what he did with Daak’s body, and before Zev can answer, the carriage stops.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 50
Mayah wakes up to find Zev, who looks every bit the Dark Commander he is, right over her. Zev swaps out her cuffs for iron bracelets, binds her wrists with rope, and hauls her out of the carriage into the woods. When Mayah tries to speak up, Zev shoves her against a tree and tells her flatly that he’ll kill her if she tests him.
Eventually, Mayah and Zev reach a small camp where six Arbinji soldiers wait around a fire. One of them is Sulon, Zev’s second-in-command, and the two clearly have history. Zev forces Mayah to sit while he and Sulon step away to talk privately. For the rest of the evening, Sulon finds ways to touch Mayah whenever Zev isn’t looking.
Later, when the men eat, Zev tries to hand-feed Mayah dried meat, but she refuses to eat unless her hands are freed. Zev won’t budge. A soldier offers her water instead, but Zev cuts him off and gives it to her himself. Once Mayah has her fill, Zev moves her away from the fire and leaves her on the ground against a tree for the night.
Mayah falls asleep watching the camp and wakes to find Sulon crouched over her in the dark, his hands already on her.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 51
Sulon corners Mayah and tears open her tunic. Mayah knees him and spits in his face, and Sulon beats her for it, knocking her to the ground and drawing blood. He hauls her back up, wraps his hand around her throat, and squeezes until her vision goes dark and her legs give out. When Mayah lunges at him the moment she can breathe again, roots erupt from the ground and lock around her wrists and ankles, leaving her completely at his mercy as Sulon reaches for his belt.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 52
Mayah is restrained and being assaulted by Sulon when Zev arrives in a rage and uses his power to kill all six men. Zev drops to his knees beside Mayah and tries to reach her, but she recoils and screams at him for leaving her bound and helpless with the soldiers. He cuts Mayah free from the roots and ropes.
Still desperate to shed the iron cuffs while saying she can still feel Sulon’s hands on her, Mayah grabs Zev’s dagger and tries to pry them off herself, accidentally gashing her arm open. Zev knocks the blade away, unlocks the cuffs with a key, and frantically tells Mayah to use her healing power before she loses too much blood.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 53
Mayah’s power comes back the moment the iron drops, but she’s already badly wounded and fading. Zev urges Mayah to heal herself, but even without the iron in her system, she can’t pull it off alone. Zev presses his hands to her neck and pushes his own power into her, and the boost is just enough for Mayah to try. She starts healing the gash on her wrist, but her power gives out halfway through, and the wound stays open.
Zev channels more power into Mayah a second time, and this time it holds. Mayah heals every wound. Then she looks up at Zev and attacks.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 54
Mayah deliberately cut her own wrist and faked an inability to heal herself, gambling that Zev wouldn’t let her bleed out. The gamble paid off. Zev transferred his power to Mayah, and she turned it against him immediately, driving him to the ground with wave after wave of water.
When rain started falling but brought no thunder or lightning, Mayah understood just how much of himself Zev had given her.
Mayah trapped Zev’s legs in ice and surrounded his head in a suspended sphere of water. She expected him to fight. Instead, Zev went still, his face calm and almost accepting, no hatred in his eyes at all. He wasn’t trying to save himself.
When Mayah dropped the water, Zev doubled over, choking. Mayah stood frozen, knowing she should finish it, finding she couldn’t. When Zev finally looked up at her, his eyes had gone cold with rage. He told Mayah to run.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 55
Mayah runs through the forest, trying to get away from Zev before an aphrodisiac in her system overwhelms her will to flee. She knows that once it takes full hold, she won’t be able to stop herself from going back to Zev, so distance is everything.
The storm breaking around Mayah signals that Zev is already free of whatever was holding him and gaining on her fast.
Mayah glances back to gauge how close Zev is, turns forward again, and runs straight into someone blocking her path. It isn’t Zev. Mayah looks up and finds herself staring into a pair of blue eyes she knows well. It’s Daak.
Between Tides & Thunder Chapter 56
Mayah stumbles across Sorka, a general she recognizes, and tells him that Zev is right behind her. Sorka leads Mayah to a hidden camp where a dozen warriors are already waiting, and he sets Zev up for an ambush.
When Zev walks into the trap, he doesn’t fight back at all. Zev lets himself be taken, shackled in heavy iron chains, and meets Sorka’s introduction with cold indifference.
Meanwhile, Mayah struggles with the effects of power sharing and asks to be put in a private tent. Sorka sees her torn clothing and her state, puts the wrong pieces together, and turns his fury on Zev. Zev, well aware of what Mayah is going through, warns the camp that a small guard won’t be enough to keep her away from him. One of the warriors hits Zev for it. Sorka raises the guard to eight.
Alone in the tent with Vykiss, a young woman assigned to look after her, Mayah is barely holding it together. Mayah asks Vykiss to bring her valerian root, hoping it’ll take the edge off what she’s feeling.