Kingdom of Salt and Sirens

by J. A. Armitage

  If she could just wake Yuval, he was sure to have a spell that could help them. A spell.

  Magic.

  Her eyes snapped down to the shell around her neck. It had his magic. How much? Could she also harness it? She didn’t know how anything worked here, but if there was a chance she could wake him with it, she had to believe in the possibility.

  Closing her eyes, a sting already eating away at her fins, she focused on the tingling brush of electric blue. How could she use it? How could she reach him?

  She pictured him before her, as he should be, not as a crumbling carcass, then she reached through the strand that connected him to the shell.

  When she opened her eyes, the dim confines of the plant were gone. She was in Ocea.

  And it was dying.

  13

  Wanted

  Black veins crawled over the town, stretching from the roots above. Merfolk screamed and ran or swam from where the land was darkest. Buildings crumbled, and Asaria jolted to look away when some rocks crushed a child.

  None of this was real, but that didn’t make it easier to see.

  Taking a deep breath, Asaria scanned the water for Yuval. Every second she spent here may not be equivalent in the real world, so every moment could be their last. Looking down, she had her tail and her shell necklace, so she tapped it twice and whispered his name, hoping against hope it would work.

  Moments passed, and she continued to scan the darkening water.

  “It’s you.” Yuval’s voice flowed behind her.

  Heart lightening, Asaria turned, meeting his gaze, but his lips were parted in awe, not unlike the first time they’d met. She had a tail this time, though. He couldn’t be shocked by her humanity.

  His eyes darted behind her, and pain consumed his expression. “Come on. Hurry.” He snatched her hand and dragged her away from the town.

  Flicking her tail to follow him, she let words tumble from her lips. “Yuval, you’re in a dream. None of this is real, but I really need us to wake up.”

  A sternness hardened his gaze. “What?”

  “This is a dream.” Did he believe her? She searched his eyes and tried not to listen to the screams behind her. They weren’t real. None of this was real.

  His eyes narrowed. “How are you here? It failed. I failed.” Yuval’s eyes closed, and his gills opened on a swallow. “Am I hallucinating? You were human.”

  “Yuval, you aren’t making any sense.” Asaria wanted to pull her hand free of his, but she was scared to lose him if she did. His world was crumbling a lot faster than hers had been. Maybe because he’d been trapped longer? Maybe because his fears far outranked hers. Hers were selfish. His contained a worry for his people. The people he was duty-bound to protect.

  He shook his head. “I need to keep you safe.”

  He didn’t remember her. Just like she hadn’t remembered Ocea. But why, if he didn’t remember, did he seem to know her in some capacity? Why did he need to keep her safe when there were hundreds behind her screaming for their lives?

  What would be his purple moon?

  He began pulling her along again, but she swam against him. “Yuval, you don’t understand. Listen to me. We met while I was swimming. You saved me when Wyre dragged me into the ocean. I—”

  “Don’t mention that name!” he yelled, and she jolted. Regret immediately crossed his expression, and his eyes widened before pain filled them again. He closed in, his body a breath away. He cupped her cheek with a hand, pressing his forehead against hers. “Please . . . I don’t know how you’re here, but I’m not going to lose you, not to him.”

  “But . . . you don’t know me?”

  The softest smile curved his lips, and she recognized the tears in his eyes even though they were underwater. “I’ve always known you.” His thumb slipped across her cheek, so tender it made her breath hold. “Always.”

  Her heart thudded as she stared into his eyes. Deep sorrow reflected back at her, loneliness at its core. What could have caused it? And was it merely his fears being realized or the truth being strengthened?

  A strand of her pink hair floated into her vision, and she glanced away from his eyes at it. Pink. Like a water lily. Gasping, she squeezed his hand. “Wai lily. Wai lily, Yuval. Remember?”

  He blinked, brows lowering. Light sparked, and she remembered the muddle of thoughts that came when she’d remembered. The same fog lifted in his gaze slowly, but it did lift. His hand stilled on her cheek, then he threw himself back. “. . . wai lily? How? What?” His eyes took in the scene anew, shock overtaking despair.

  She wasted no time. “We’re stuck in a flower monster in the bottom of a pit. We need to wake up so you can magic us out.”

  He stopped scanning the world and looked back at her. “Flower monster?” His eyes closed, then he glanced away with realization. “I failed again . . .” he whispered. Bringing her hand to his lips, he met her eyes directly. Her gaze skittered away, but he said, “Close your eyes. I’ll get us out of this.”

  Relief filling her, Asaria did as he said, and after a few moments, the burn of acid returned.

  Her eyes snapped open in the darkness a second before electric blue sparked in the air. Yuval’s eyes remained closed, but his hair floated, the glow magical even across his decaying face. With a blink, pressure fled him, and the petals trapping them sliced open.

  Asaria gasped when the constricting tongue around her went slack. Flicking her tail, she rose into the open water, hissing at the sting along her fins. When the pain died again, a smile brightened her face, and she spun. “I can’t believe we won! Yuval! Can you believe it?”

  Eyes wide, she turned to him in time to see the blue glow fade and his body drop. Darkness covered them again. Her excitement broke. Flipping her fins, she dove for him and settled herself on the ground near where she thought he’d fallen. “Yuval?” she whispered. “Are you all right?”

  What if she had been too late?

  She swallowed, her eyes searching the darkness. She couldn’t see anything. Twisting, she readied to return to the path and get another light, but Yuval caught her hand, a sticky residue against her skin.

  He held tight, keeping her there. “I’ll be okay in a moment.” Though she couldn’t see him, his gentle smile appeared perfectly in her mind. “You’re incredible, wai lily. You saved us both.”

  Asaria’s heart swelled, and she cupped his hand in both of hers. For the first time in a long time, she felt needed, important. Wyre may have cursed her, but he hadn’t been wrong.

  Slowly, she was becoming the person she had always wanted to be. Someone strong. Someone appreciated.

  Someone wanted.

  14

  Always

  Asaria turned a new shell over in her hands and stared at the ceiling of the cave from where she lay on hard stone. Yuval had healed, just like he’d said, and they’d eaten their fill of moon drops before they had, literally, carved a path through the chamber of mer-eating flowers.

  Fighting beside Yuval was fluid, like they’d always been meant to work together. And battling itself? The thrill compared to catching air on her board; a moment of failure could result in a wipe-out, but when she dared to trust herself, she could fly.

  Her lips tipped in a shy smile. So much had happened since the curse.

  Asaria blinked, lowering the shell. Floating up, she turned around to face Yuval, who sat against the wall nearest her in a bed of glowing plants. The many colors shadowed him in a rainbow as he nodded in light slumber.

  “Yuval?” she whispered, as softly as she could.

  His eyes opened, a gentle smile following when surprise crossed her face. He hadn’t been kidding about his ability to sleep lightly. Guards in Ocea must have strict training regimes.

  “Yes, wai lily?” he asked.

  Heat coated her cheeks, and she settled back on her stomach, toying with the shell before her to give her an excuse to drop her gaze from his face. “Do you remember much of your nightmare? You said some
things that didn’t make sense, almost like you knew of me before we’d met.” I’ve always known you. Always.

  That line specifically sent chills down her spine. It had been filled with so much emotion, pain, and even regret. If the nightmare took them back to a point before they’d met, then how? And his talk of failure . . . She couldn’t shake the feeling he had done something. Something that somehow involved her.

  When he remained quiet, she braved a glance. His arms folded, he kept his eyes on some distant coral and took slow breaths. “Sorry,” he said at last. “I don’t really remember it. If anything seemed off, though, it was likely just part of the ploy.”

  Her fingers tightened on the shell, and she swallowed. The lie slipped from him so easily she would have believed it if guilt didn’t shine in his averted eyes. She wouldn’t press him. Partly because she wasn’t brave enough to, and partly because she believed he’d allow her the same courtesy.

  It didn’t hurt any less.

  She had come to trust him and consider him a friend in the time they’d spent together, and she spent so much time tied up in her own lies that hearing them from others stung.

  “Oh, okay.” In the action of turning back around, she caught his gaze, ignored it, and settled the shell against her chest.

  His face poked over her head, and her eyes widened. “Wai lily, I . . .” he began, his eyes averting again. “I’m sorry.”

  Clenching the shell, she watched his face. “For what?”

  “You know.” His fingers touched her hair, gentle motions following. “But the truth is hard to say.”

  “I get that. Everything’s hard for me to say.” So often she felt as though she had no voice of her own. Or simply no one cared to listen to it.

  He smiled, and the expression warmed her to her fins. Rolling, he laid beside her, facing the opposite way so only their heads were near. “I will tell you everything eventually. But the situation is difficult for your kind to understand.”

  “My kind? You mean humans?”

  “Humans often find the inexplicable hard to grasp.”

  She thought for a moment, running her thumbs against the shell’s ridges. “It’s not inexplicable though, is it?”

  He laughed. “No, not really.”

  “Well, Yuval, you make less and less sense by the minute . . . but I think I understand. Or at least I want to, when you think I’m ready.” She turned to look at his profile. “Even after this curse is behind us, I’d like to be a part of this world. If I can be.”

  He faced her as well, his white skin so close she could have felt his breath across her cheeks on land. “You’re always welcome, wai lily. Ocea has always been a part of you, hasn’t it? You’ve always felt it calling you home.”

  “How did you . . .”

  His smiling eyes promised secrets, but his lips remained closed, even as they gently touched her cheek then faded away. When she turned again, he was settling back at the wall in his glowing bed, head nodding forward toward sleep.

  15

  Innocent

  Heat wrapped around Asaria in a constricting hold, and she let out a breath, bracing against the current of warmth. Two days since they’d faced their nightmares, light gradually filtered into the cave. With every stroke, the colored plants dimmed and died, allowing the sun to take their place.

  At the mouth of the cave, Asaria held her arm above her head and squinted into the bright water. Rocky mountains shot out of the earth and dotted the plain as far as she could see. Dark patches floated overhead, too bleak to be clouds, and scraggly fingers descended through the clear ocean.

  “Islands,” Yuval murmured, “and roots, but keep your distance.”

  “A volcanic minefield and more sentient plants?” Asaria gripped her shell weapon, excitement and fear melding until she didn’t know what was what.

  Knowing eyes locked on her weapon, Yuval smiled. “Not quite. I promise the roots are harmless, but we do need to stay close to the ground where it’s cooler and safer. Until we reach the end.” He peered into the distance where a jagged edge cut through the water and formed a dark triangle. “There’s an opening at the top of that mountain that leads down into another labyrinth.”

  This was it then? The end of their journey? Asaria swallowed and glanced down at her tail. She missed the brush of the wind mixing in an ocean spray, but would she be ready to give up the calm escape she had grown used to here, even amidst danger?

  Asaria blinked and glanced back into the cavern tunnel. Countless paths had lain within, yet she couldn’t remember backtracking once. Now they were heading toward another labyrinth like it and yet Yuval appeared unfazed?

  “You seem to know a lot about this trip for only having been where we’re heading once long ago.”

  Folding his arms, he raised a brow. “I didn’t remember the flowers.”

  She mimicked his stance as best she could without legs. Brow quirked, she said, “You remembered the way through the maze, and that seems a little more tricky.”

  His eyes gleamed with humor. “Are you implying anything in particular, wai lily?”

  Eyes wide, her back straightened. “It’s just . . . strange. A lot of things have been, but I’ve been trying to piece it all together without a magical guidebook. I don’t know what’s possible and what isn’t.” Her stance sagged, and she rubbed her arm. “I understand I’m an outsider and you have a right to your secrets, but if they do involve me, may I at least have a hint?”

  “What makes you think they involve you?”

  The lack of hesitation and chill in his reply made Asaria’s heart jump.

  You don’t like crowds because you think everyone’s eyes are on you? Acacia’s bitter tone from years past rattled around inside Asaria’s head. That’s a new level of egocentric, and trust me, you have nothing to worry about.

  Everything she had contemplated the past few days cracked and crumbled. Had she twisted it all around her? What right did she have?

  Yuval’s hand clamped against her shoulder, and her gaze shot up to meet his. “I’m sorry. You aren’t wrong.” The words spilled softly.

  Her lips parted. “. . . what?”

  “Some secrets involve you.” Smiling, he turned and tilted his head back in thought. “So . . . a hint then?”

  Asaria watched his back; the way his muscles tensed, the subtle shake as he exhaled; and guilt twisted in her stomach.

  He continued, “How about this: nothing is ever as it seems. And as an added bonus: most anything is possible.” Looking over his shoulder, he caught her eye and smiled. “Both statements are true in both worlds, Asaria.” When she eased, he faced forward again. “We should get started while we have daylight.”

  Nodding, Asaria followed Yuval, steadied her breaths, and let her mind wander in the quiet. If anything was possible, she was nowhere closer to knowing anything more about how she fit into this story. One point she couldn’t stop thinking about, though . . .

  What if she hadn’t been in the wrong place at the wrong time with Wyre? What if the squid man had sought her out specifically?

  Still gliding forward, she glanced back at the sheer rock wall that towered and protruded above the surface of the water. Where was Wyre now? Had Seora and the rest of the guards already captured him and put him to death?

  Somehow she knew that wasn’t the case. She couldn’t help feeling he was still around, just out of sight, clinging to the corners and watching.

  ↜❀↝

  The world gleamed a rust red, veins of throbbing light cutting designs over the ashen ground and volcanic rock. Asaria stared at one such vein and traced it with her eyes while lying beside it and clutching her shell against her chest. Dread crawled up her neck to settle in the back of her mind.

  After all of this, she’d never be the same. She couldn’t go back to her world and her home and accept the life her parents wanted for her. She couldn’t be expected to return to her desk job or wait until her parents told her to take over the business. S
he just couldn’t.

  “Everything all right?” Yuval asked.

  Asaria looked toward where he sat with his arms folded, then swallowed. “Yes. Just thinking about home.”

  Sorrow filtered into his gaze before his eyes focused away from her. “Do you miss it?”

  “Just surfing,” she whispered.

  “And . . .” Yuval’s voice drifted as his lips pursed. When he spoke again, his eyes had closed. “What about your family?”

  Asaria’s chest pinched. Her family? She certainly didn’t miss feeling used or less-than, unwanted or convenient. “I don’t miss them. I rarely saw them or heard from them, actually. Hard to miss what wasn’t there.” Bitterness saturated her tone, and she hadn’t tried to hide it.

  When she glanced back at Yuval, his eyes were wide on her, the pale blue heated in the rust glow of the world. “I don’t understand.” His folded arms eased, fingers flexing. “Family isn’t like that.”

  “Maybe yours isn’t.” Asaria tempered her tone in light of the hopelessness in his, but the words didn’t stop. “My parents want me to take over the family business and be the head of Layre Stationary and Co. so my older sister is able to live the life she decided she wanted.” Taking a deep breath, Asaria closed her eyes. “I was a mistake. My parents only wanted one child, so when I came along, their perfect pictures ended up flawed.” Her fingers gripped the shell while she fought to slow her breathing and keep her tone even. “I was an inconvenience until my sister’s senior year of high school. She decided to be a doctor, not a CEO. And lucky for her, I was around to pick up the pieces she didn’t want. Just like I always have.”

  Fingers brushed through her hair, drawing the strands away from her face, and she opened her eyes. “Wai lily . . . I had no idea.” Pain twisted Yuval’s expression as he cupped her cheek. “I wish I had found you sooner.”