Saltbound and Bloodsworn (by Allison Franklin) novel Chapter 73

Chapter 73 Chapter Seventy-Three

“Follow me,” her mother said, as slagaped at the expansive refuge she’d found herself walking though.

“This is where you’ve been hiding?” Isla asked while she brushed her hands along some flowering vines hanging from a column of stone.

Her mother smiled and glanced around with pride. “Don’t be fooled. It’s taken some time to create. It was nothing more than falling water and stone when I

arrived.

“How long have you been here?” Isla asked as she followed her through a door into a smaller room with a large pool of water at its center.

“Six years,” she answered while preparing several bowls of tinctures, ointments, and herb mixtures from the collection seated upon a wooden table.

“Where were you before then?” Isla asked, staring down at the water rippling, though there seemed to be nothing to stir it.

“A cove outside of Mariseth,” her mother said.

Isla realized what that meant. She looked to her mother, who nodded her head for Isla to sit at the water’s edge with her. They sat down cross-legged beside

the pool.

“You’ve never left,” Isla said, her voice low to keep it from echoing around the chamber.

Her mother sprinkled the herb mixture over the water before meeting her eyes. “You are my daughter.”

“Then you must know what my first question will be,” Isla pressed.

“A question with multifaceted answers,” she said with a humorless chuckle. “What is it you were taught about the abilities of a TideBorn?”

Isla tried to remember. “We always called your kind the SaltBound. Like any fae, they hold the ability to manifest magic rather than siphon it from the elements like witches. More specifically, they hold the power of the ocean. They can manipulate it and harness its energy.”

Her mother chuckled again. “Our power is far greater than that, Isla. A Tide Born can control the currents, shape water, command the weather, calm the seas, wield water as a weapon… and not just the water of the ocean. Our people just happen to be born and reside by the sea. We are able to create magic by connecting with the energy already flowing through the water and interlacing our own with it. But there is so much more we can do with that energy,” she explained, dipping her hand into the water. Isla watched, mesmerized as the water curled around her hand, her wrist, her arm. As it moved, the tattoos

along her skin started to glow.

She reached over to Isla and touched one of the cuts on her cheek. Isla could feel the magic curling over her skin, healing the tender flesh.

“We can heal, cleanse curses, we can speak with the water…” Her lip curled up on the right side. “It’s how I knew your formidable mate and his group of heroes were trying to trespass on my sanctuary.” Her smile faltered. The water fell from Isla’s face, but her mother’s fingers lingered on her skin for another moment. “It’s how I knew you were with them.” A tear slid down Isla’s cheek, and she wondered if it was her emotions or the fae’s magic that forced it from

her eye. “TideBorn are one of the strongest of fae,” she continued, swiping the tear from Isla’s chin. “Water is never really destroyed. Clouds turn to rain, which seeps into the soil or fills the ponds and rivers. Heat turns it to fog, which rises back into the atmosphere. It nurtures us, becomes part of our soul

but it doesn’t stay with us forever. It stands witness to us, nature, the heavens. Our element is one that remembers.”

Her mother flicked her hand toward the pool. The moment Isla’s tear hit the water, it rippled out. Isla got to her feet in shock as the translucent blue shifted into color. The fae queen watched from her seated position as the color formed shapes until Isla was no longer looking down at vacant water but the fuzzy image of a sweet cottage in the middle of a charming wood.

“A babe born of fang and fae will be birthed under a blue moon,” her mother recited as a couple walked out of the cottage holding a baby swaddled in white

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Chapter 73 Chapter Seventy-Three

cloth. They smiled down at it and then at each other. “They feared our union from the moment we recognized each other,” she explained. “Fae are not the

nly ones who can manipulate the tide. The moon was the original God of water. The only thing more powerful than a water fae is one mated to the species ruled by the moon. The two powers… joined within one.”

“Is that…” Isla asked, looking over the edge of the pool as the image grew closer to the couple, revealing a small baby with silver-blonde hair and blue eyes filled with love as she gazed up at her parents.

“It’s you, Isla,” her mother confirmed, getting to her feet.

“What happened to us?” she asked.

Her mother turned away from the memory playing out and gathered her into a hug. “Her father will lose his blood by his own. Her mother will find solace in the falling of rocks,” she whispered as the memory started to blur and darken.

It was night now; torches lit up the area around the cabin. Her father emerged and shifted into a large silver wolf. He charged at the men wielding the torches, defending his home, his family. The memory shifted again, showing the inside of the cabin now lit with flames. Her mother hovered over her crying child. Tears fell from her eyes as she chanted. She used the water of her tears to create markings along Isla’s skin. The door to the cabin blew inward, and her mother shielded her child with her body. Isla watched the figure enter the cabin: Slade. Her mother raised her hand, her lips moving rapidly as she

begged.

“I struck a deal that night, a deal he couldn’t refuse. I knew Varun was dead; I felt the moment it happened as though it were my own heart pierced with the blade.” Her mother sat back, tears streaming down her face, mirroring the image displayed in the water until it rippled away and faded entirely. “Seas will turn to dust. Ash to snow. Forests of life to deliverers of darkness. When the world feels close to crumbling, her might will deliver the final blow, ending the world as the earthly know it.” Her mother wiped the wetness from Isla’s face before her own. “That is the prophecy bestowed upon you before you were even born, Isla. It is your fate to bring the world together again, and it is why I desired to show you this in private.”

“You do not trust Sylvan,” Isla said, not an accusation or a question, just a statement made with certainty.

“It is not that I do not trust the individual,” she pleaded for Isla to understand “There is much at stake here, Isla. Our people. They have been waiting a

long time to come out of hiding.”

“Will you take me to them?” Isla asked.

Her mother’s mouth snapped shut, and her eyes went wide. “I…”

“You do not trust me,” Isla said, again with certainty.

Her mother stepped away and rubbed her arms. “We do not know each other.”

“And whose fault is that?”

“Theirs!” she yelled, pointing toward the outside world. “I had to protect you. I had to lose everything in order to protect my people, you, the world!”

Isla scoffed. “We could have hidden away, together. You bound my wolf and my fae expecting… What, exactly? I do not know much about fae, but I know they are trained from a young age. I do not remember the power I just exhibited out there, but I can feel the remnants of it coursing through my veins and understand the most feared wolf on this continent couldn’t stop me until he forced me to submit through a mating bond. That kind of power should not be

within me. How am I meant to control it?”

“Yes, fae are taught from the moment they are born, and now you will have to train too. The power you displayed earlier today is not something you will be

able to harness again until you are ready. You only accessed it because of what I bestowed upon you to break the bindings. And it was only a fraction of

what you will be capable of.” She pointed toward the pool of water. “Visualizing memories? That is not something a normal TideBorn can do, Isla. I must use outside casts, herbs, and your magic to bring it to life, but you… You will be able to manifest memories with not but your own command. You will be

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Chapter 73 Chapter Seventy-Three

able to speak with water spirits, reveal hidden truths, expose glamor, glimpse far away places…”

“Why does that make me a threat?” Isla asked, desperately trying to understand.

“These abilities are ones only ever held by gods themselves. Your connection to the moon through your wolf and the power of your fae will allow you to use water in a way that has never been seen… That will never be understood. You are a threat because people will fear how far your magic will go and what

more you can do. You will be able to unearth the lies of a nation, wield water like a tool that could wipe out the masses, all while having a wolf with the

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