When I woke up, I expected to be back in the school library with some grouchy teacher quizzing me on why I had fallen asleep at school and missed my afternoon classes. Instead, I woke up in the blueness of Tremor’s room with strong hands gripping my waist.

“Tremor?” I asked. My voice was ragged and uneasy.

“No, sweetie. I’m not your husband.”

In the blue light, I could see Murmur maneuvering the blankets behind me.

I jumped out of the bed as fast as I could and sprinted toward the staircase. “How did you get in here?”

“The big door with the chains isn’t the only portal to Hell,” he said evenly. “Tremor just didn’t think I’d be crazy enough to take the other route.”

“Which is?”

“An iron pole that runs down a shaft from the top tower. See?” he said, pointing to what I had dismissed as a bathroom door. “It stops there.”

“Are you crazy? From the top that must be six levels high. What if you fell?”

Murmur scoffed. “Tremor takes it all the time. You really must not think I’m as good as my brother.”

“Well, he doesn’t freak the hell out of me by jumping on me in the middle of the night.”

“He doesn’t? His loss, I’m sure.” Murmur gave me a dirty look before prowling over to my trunk and pulling out one of my coats.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“I’m here to show you why I’m better than he is. You seem to have deluded yourself into believing he’s the pick of the litter and I’m here to show you why he isn’t. Now, are you going to come with me, or am I going to have to make you?”

I shuddered and started at a dead run up the stairs. “I’m not going anywhere with you!”

I thought I had a good head start, but Murmur was fast like a demon and I didn’t even make it up the first turn of the steps before he had my hair in a death grip and he was hauling me back down the stairs like a mangy kitten.

“Put that coat on,” he ordered, throwing me to the floor.

I tried to make another break for it, but he caught me and threw me to the floor painfully.

“It’s for your own good,” he said heartlessly. “It’s going to be cold out there.”

I glared at him before I picked up the coat and tossed it over my shoulders. He waited while I did up all the buttons.

“Put on some shoes too.”

When I was dressed to his satisfaction. He went up to the first gate and pulled out his royal key ring. I was surprised when his key worked. Cruelly, he yanked me by my hair all the way down toward the second gate. 

“Tremor’s not what you think he is,” Murmur hissed angrily as he dragged me up the passage that led above sea level. There was plenty of time for him to say whatever he wanted, right in my ear. “He’s a monster,” Murmur spat. “He’s a wicked creature of the sea. He's the leader of an army of capricorns and whenever the lunatics on the other side of the water make a plan to try to invade us, his capricorns stop them from landing here by drowning them, or worse—eating them. No doubt he’s fed you some pitiful story about how he’s the poor disinherited prince who no one ever cared about. He's feasted on human flesh. You would dishonor me and take that monster to be your husband? Foolish girl!”

To all that, I couldn’t even answer. All I could do was yelp and bawl as he lurched my head around for his pleasure. Once we were through the second gate, he took my wrists and bound them behind my back. It was still night time and the gloom and spray of the sea were so penetrating, it felt like it was crawling under my hair. 

“That way,” he muttered, pushing me toward the water. 

It was a minute before I saw it, but there was a small sailboat tied there. Murmur shoved me on board, pushing my face painfully on the deck of the boat. I couldn’t get myself up for a minute and he used that minute to board and untie the rope. Finally, I was sitting at the prow of the boat, spitting out strands of my blonde curly hair while Murmur unfurled the sail.

I looked up into the sky. It was the same sky that hung overhead when I went down the river. Something about the two situations was the same. Maybe I would be in Evander's world for days before finally waking up.

Well, one thing was clear. Murmur was trying to scare me. There was just one problem. There was nothing he could do to make me change my mind about Tremor. Tremor was like Evander, but better. He was Evander without the walls of reservation. It didn’t matter what Murmur did. I wouldn’t give up on Tremor.