I had never been on a sailboat before and I was surprised at the speed with which Murmur got us away from the shoreline. Even though I couldn’t stand the second prince, I was kind of impressed that he knew how to operate a boat that required more than firing an ignition switch. I had no idea what the different ropes did when you pulled them or loosened them or anything.

When we boarded the boat, the sky was black, but as we sped across the water, the sky brightened into a curious mixture of gray and yellow. Murmur took us into the shadow of the castle and furled the sails, so that instead of moving steadily in a straight line with the wind, he allowed the waves to knock us gently around the bay.

I should have been afraid. After what happened when I went down the river, I should have known that Evander’s dream world definitely had its dangers, but whenever I went back to reality, I sort of forgot the intensity of what happened the last time. The thing was, I didn’t think Murmur would do anything that would put me in my grave.

I even had the pluck to start talking to him on a friendly level. “How did you learn to sail? I thought you were so proud to be a castle brat, you wouldn’t know how to handle a boat.”

Murmur rolled his eyes and looked pained. “If you ever went to the capital yourself, you would see the King’s castle is built on the edge of a crystal lake. Every member of the court who has any style knows how to do at least this much. The capital city is beautiful. It’s a shame you’ll never see it.”

His voice was menacing, but I didn’t let it frighten me. Instead, I teased him. “Why not? Are you planning on drowning me, here and now?”

“Maybe,” he said. He took a black leather case out of his pocket and drew a golden blade out of it.

I gazed at him seriously. “Just throwing me over isn’t enough?”

“Turn around,” he said tolerantly. “I’ll cut your bonds.”

I accommodated him, but the second my hands were free, he took my right hand in a death grip and cut across my palm.

I screamed.

“Not so funny now?” he asked fiendishly as he forced me to the side of the boat and held my bleeding hand over the water. 

I saw the drops of my blood dissipate into the green water. Something under the surface swelled, like muscle straining from under the sea.

“Murmur, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I sputtered. “Provoking the capricorns can’t be a good idea. Have you seen their horns? Besides, if they can capsize an enemy ship, what makes you think they won’t topple this one? Especially if they smell blood and think they’ll get fed.”

“This ship is fine,” Murmur said arrogantly. “It was built by us, so it’s strong enough to withstand a few little capricorns, but you…”

Just then the tip of a horn came above the surface. It reminded me of a shark fin. My arm was still hanging over the edge of the boat. 

“Let go of me!” I screamed. I hit him over the head with my free hand, but my struggles were just as useless as they had been on the floor of Tremor’s bedroom. “They’re going to bite my arm off!”

“Say it!” he bellowed as he refused to be fazed by my blows.

“Say what?”

“Say you want to divorce Tremor.”

I gasped. “No. Even if this is just a book Evander wrote… No! Especially if this is just a book Evander wrote, I’m not going to betray him.”

“Really?” 

I looked into his eyes. It was weird. He should have paused and looked at me blankly when I said something about the outside world. Instead, he answered me rationally. What was going on?

Murmur turned his attention back to the sea. A nose came out of the water and a drop of my blood fell directly into its gray nostril. 

“No!” I screamed.

The thing leaped. 

Murmur pulled my arm into the safety of the boat at the last second as we both were sprayed by the beast breaching the water.

“Let’s try again,” Murmur said as he grabbed my waist and wrestled me back to the edge of the boat. 

“No!”

The boat rocked desperately on the heavy waves the capricorn made, but neither that nor my kicking and screaming changed the fact that a minute later I was forced back to the edge with my arm hanging over the side of the boat. Murmur hollered in my ear, “Say you want a divorce!”

I could see more horns over the edge of the boat. I counted them. Since each capricorn had two then there were at least five circling the craft. 

Tears streaked my cheeks and snot ran down my face, but I still struggled against his grip. It didn’t do any good. He held me still and didn’t budge. My jaw was tight as I braced against the pain. I didn’t think I could avoid what would happen next—which would be my arm getting torn from its socket.

“Say you want to marry me and I’ll take the boat back to shore,” he hissed so venomously in my ear it felt like he had stuck his tongue in.

I took a deep breath and screamed as loud as I could out to sea, “Tremor!”

Murmur covered my mouth, but it was too late. A deep sound like a whale’s song echoed so loudly through the water that it made the boat tremble.

“What have you done?” Murmur said, pulling me in.

I fell backward and held my bloody hand tightly. “Is he really a monster then? Was it him who answered me?”

“I don’t know, but I’ve got to turn this boat around.” Murmur got the boat pointed toward the castle and adjusted the sails. 

CRASH!

The boat reeled off to one side. A capricorn had rammed us and the side of the boat was splintered. No water came in yet, but I couldn’t believe the strength of the capricorn. We were almost knocked upside down.

“Murmur!” I screamed. “We’re not going to make it to shore. We’re going to die!”

His face was grim as he corrected his steering. He didn’t say anything, but in the next second we were hit again and both of us were reeling.

I saw him correct his balance. After a moment of deliberating, he was beside me. “You’re right. There’s no way that both of us can make it to shore.” His eyes were hateful as he said, “You should have married me.” He swiftly picked me up like a princess and dumped me over the side.

The water was cold and smelly and once again I was weighed down by my clothes. I got my head above water and tried to work my way out of my coat. Then I had an idea and dunked my head under the waves to scream with a full breath, “Tremor!” The bubbles spewed out of my mouth and then a blast of water went up my nose.

I got my head up and choked and sputtered before sucking in one final breath before I felt massive jaws tighten around my leg to drag me under. The pain was unreal and there were so many bubbles that even if I opened my eyes underwater I could scarcely see anything. In a break through the curtain of froth, I saw the black capricorn coming toward us—fast. I was about to become a cord in a game of tug-of-war. 

Then the black capricorn sang. The sound was so intense I had to cover my ears even though I was underwater and running out of breath quickly.

The capricorn biting me loosened its jaws, but once I was free, I couldn’t swim upwards easily. The leg that had been bitten was bleeding profusely. That leg was completely useless against the weight of my nightdress and coat. My arms and my useful leg weren’t holding up well.

The black capricorn swam underneath me and heaved me to the surface. It had to be Tremor. Once above water, I mounted his back and crawled to his shoulders, where I could hold onto his horns.

I sputtered for breath and then saw the scene ahead of me. Murmur’s boat was surrounded by horns. I had thought there were five before. They had more than doubled their numbers. Tremor saved me from them. 

Tremor gave one last look toward his brother before he left him to his fate and carried me to the rocky shore. Craning my neck to look behind me, I saw the ship’s mast tip and fall into the water. Once we made it to the cliffs where Murmur's boat had been docked, I dropped myself onto the rocks. In the distance, I could hear Murmur shouting curses and screaming for Tremor to come back for him. Tremor stayed in the water next to me, his nose just above the water. Then the ship seemed to crumble in on itself and shortly afterward, the noise stopped. 

I tried to feel sorrowful for Murmur, but I was not going to break my heart over the antagonist. Instead, I focused on myself. Hiking my nightgown up, I had a look at my leg. There were teeth marks in my thigh and in my calf. It was disturbing how much it bled. I felt faint.

A black hoof came out of the water and Tremor's two capricorn legs lifted the goat half of his body out of the water. He was huge, much larger than a horse. If my leg hadn't been mutilated, I would have done something to retreat, but I couldn't move at all. I gasped at the sight of him instead.

Then I saw his black hoof become a black hand that gripped the sand-colored rocks in front of me. He was shrinking. His head changed shape and he went from being a goat-face to the prince I knew. The skin on his abdomen was already tan and the color was spreading with speed over his whole body—except not on his arms for some reason. His arms remained black and slightly furry with one or two scales. That must be why he kept covering his arms with bandages, to cover the black. It was because it hinted that he wasn't completely human.

Standing on the rock in front of me, he tugged his slipping waistband tight and knelt at my feet to have a look at my wound.

“Looks bad,” he whispered tightly.

“Well, it’s not as bad as it looks,” I said, swooning. 

He caught me in his capricorn-skinned arms. “Come on. I’ll get you inside. You’re going to bleed to death.”

“Would you really let me bleed to death in your book, Evander?” I mumbled as he lifted me up and carried me to the castle.

“I would never let you bleed to death.”

“But it's okay if Murmur bleeds to death?” I questioned hazily.

He scoffed. “What was I supposed to do? He shouldn’t have spilled your blood into the water. Once that was done, there was nothing I could do for him. One of you was going to lose your life. I told the capricorn they could have Murmur instead.”

“That’s why there was no point going back?”

“Exactly. Capricorns are trained to eat humans. He knew that.”

I smiled, thinking about the perfect happily-ever-after. “Does this mean that you’ll be king now?”

I was smiling, but Tremor’s expression didn't change. “My father isn’t too old of a man. Forget the Queen. If she can’t mother another heir, he’ll just find a woman who can. He’s very resourceful, and I will never be king. Why? Don’t you want to be married to the perpetual crown prince?”

“Who needs a prince?”

His laugh was sarcastic. “What are you saying?”

“I’d like you even if you weren’t a prince,” I confessed dreamily. It was easier to say that kind of thing to Tremor than to Evander because I could say it without backlash or even embarrassment. “I like you so much.”

He didn’t look at me but instead kept his eyes fixed steadily ahead of him. “Even with these arms? Most of the time I can’t keep them the color of my skin.”

“It’s no worse than a tattoo.”

“Even if you’re ridiculed by Hilda or the Queen for being married to a man the size of a whale?”

I thought about the wedding dress the Queen sent me. I hadn’t even realized there was a double meaning behind it. “Spiteful hags,” I muttered. 

He opened the gate that led into the basement and his bedroom. Then he took me to the bed and sat me down. It wasn’t until that second that he really looked into my eyes. 

But I was a teenage girl and I couldn’t let him talk. I had to be the one to talk. “And you were the capricorn that saved me on the river, weren’t you?”

He nodded.

“I like you.”

Tremor looked at me evenly and said, “I trust you.” He kissed my mouth with parted lips and it was perfect—sweet, warm, salty, and lucky.

And then… I passed out.