The underwater kingdom had its own flourishing entertainment sector, complete with bars, exclusive clubs, and what she supposed were their equivalent to Michelin-rated restaurants. Atlantis had its own diners and dives, and it also had places that received glowing recommendations.
Wearing yet another garment from her mother’s closet, Kai strode down an Atlantian street with Amerin at her side and a small retinue of Myrmidons trailing behind them. The teal silk hugged her curves, and its measurements hadn’t needed to be taken in much to fit her. Beneath it, she wore sharkskin leggings, heeding Manu’s advice and taking a lesson from one of her favorite television show heroines—always be prepared to run. And no woman could be expected to run with her ass cheeks hanging in the open for everyone to see. The dress enhanced what little cleavage she had with its fitted bodice, but it flared at the hips and split up the thigh on each side for maximum flexibility.
Since coming to Atlantis, she’d learned she and her mother shared the same shoe size—off by a centimeter, but close enough for Kai to raid the late queen’s closet and adopt some of her fashions. Dressing like Ianthe made her feel closer to the woman she could no longer remember.
“I can’t believe how busy it is in the city at night.” Kai craned her neck, glancing up at the tall buildings glittering with dark blue lights. The lanterns glowed silver at this hour, no longer the warm yellow they emitted during morning and afternoon. Supposedly, light across the underwater kingdom had been a gift from the children of Hyperion and Theia to Thalassa, as real as the sun in the sky over the surface world.
While she didn’t miss blue, cloud-speckled days or midnight stars, she wondered about life without a transition between points of the year. Sure, Texas only had two real seasons—sweltering heat or cold, cold rain—but she’d been able to watch golden leaves drop from oak boughs and grass go brown and dry in winter. Here, she didn’t suspect anything would change.
Millions of humans lived in tropical or chilly climates without seasons. People in the islands thrive without discernible differences in temperature all the time, she told herself as they passed beneath a wisteria with branches hanging above one of the sidewalks. Atlantis had sidewalks. She liked that about the place, how much it resembled and differed from a surface city.
Even the traffic reminded her of Houston’s afternoon gridlock. Atlantian citizens drove skippers—land-adapted coral gliders—down the city streets and residential lanes. In lieu of gasoline, magical stones powered them. A magical society made for a very green society, apparently.
If only the humans had access to such designs, though she suspected they would view the contraptions with suspicion and shun them, instead preferring their oil.
Still, she enjoyed walking the city on foot with her new friend. They ambled along at a sedate pace, arm in arm. Citizens didn’t trouble her. One thing she’d learned was that Atlantis treated their royalty differently, approaching only when invited. For them, it was a matter of deep, profound respect. In the two months since she’d come to the kingdom, she’d made five public appearances, attended numerous dinners with her peers, and even given a speech to the military regarding her time spent on the surface in the service of the United States.
“How much farther until we reach the playhouse?” Kai asked Amerin.
“Not much longer. If you’re tired, we can wait and summon a carriage—”
“No. It’s been an enjoyable walk.”
Though she had to wonder about the Myrmidon convoy marching behind her in plain sight, with yet more hidden from view. For some reason, her uncle thought it necessary for an armed escort to travel with her. They’d been hand-picked by Manu and Cosmas, each man chosen for his loyalty to her.
Loyalty. A shiver tickled across her shoulders and sent ice cubes down her spine.
It wasn’t until they reached the Rose Shell Playhouse that the warmth returned to her limbs. It rose above them, a gorgeous structure built from multiple pink conch shells.
She and Amerin took seats in her uncle’s private box, where they were served crab-cakes made with sweet algae flour, stuffed prawns, and other finger foods. Though the story was told in Atlantian, she found herself understanding more than mere snatches of conversation. Entire lines of dialogue made sense to her.
Afterward, she met with the cast backstage, at the request of the playhouse management. She never saw anyone glow so brightly or flush with pleasure for having met her. The men bowed, absolute gentlemen. The women gave her gifts, though after their performance, she thought she owed them trinkets of appreciation.
She’d have to send them something as a token of thanks.
“It was an amazing performance. I truly enjoyed every minute.”
As they were leaving, Kai leaned into Amerin and hugged her. “Thank you for suggesting this.”
“I’m glad I did. Are you ready for dinner? I don’t know about you, Your Highness, but those little snacks did nothing for my appetite. I am starved.”
“You’re not the only one. Trust me. I’m hungry enough to eat a whale.”
“I know the best place for that.”
Kai stared at her. “Of course you do.”
Amerin only grinned. “Trust me?”
Trusting Amerin was a good thing. Two hours later, Kai wandered out of an upscale Atlantian restaurant with a belly full of shark steak and the most delicious wine to ever touch her lips. According to their server, the vintage had been imported from Italy and infused with flowers grown only in Atlantian gardens. The end result: ambrosia.
“I’m confused about something,” Kai muttered during their stroll down the sidewalk She thought back to the six types of oyster they sampled, from raw to baked and stuffed with cheese.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
“There are no cows here. How were those stuffed with cheese? Does Atlantis import it from the surface?”
“We do import, but those particular oysters were prepared with Atlantian made cheese.”
“Huh? Weird. Then what do you…?” When Amerin grinned at her, a terrible realization dawned over Kai. “Tell me that wasn’t dolphin cheese.”
“Whale, to be exact.”
“I pity the mer tasked with milking whales. I don’t know whether to be horrified or fascinated.”
“Both. You can be both. Your expression right now is amazing.”
Someone to the rear of them snickered, indicating their escort had also heard.
Damn them.
Fortunately, the appetizers had been too delicious for the horror to linger with her for long.
“Whale milk and crazy discoveries aside, I have another very dumb question that I hope won’t offend you.”
“Nothing you ask could offend me,” Amerin assured her.
Kai hesitated. No matter how she tried to word her enquiry, it sounded rude. “I…wonder how you became so knowledgeable about high-class living when you’re a servant.”
“Oh. That’s easy. My family was paid extraordinarily well for offering me as a tribute to your parents. On top of that, I’m able to dine wherever I please and go anywhere I like on the royal coffers.” She beamed, cheeks dimpling again. “It isn’t a bad life. I enjoy it.”
Kai pursed her lips and gave it a thought. “I would agree that it isn’t a bad way to live, but you’ve never had experience with any other life.”
“I’m happy, my family wants for nothing, I have no needs, and I get to live in the company of a good woman who will in time become an even greater queen. What more could I possibly want?”
“Your every day revolves around my wants. What about your own?”
Amerin tilted her head. “I don’t understand.”
“Wouldn’t you like to take up a hobby? To…I don’t know, have a man? Do you have a man? Everyone is so concerned with me having one, but what about you?”
Amerin shrugged. “I have multiple hobbies. I knit. I paint. And I did have a lover for a time.”
“What happened?”
Sil
ence lingered between them for a while before Amerin answered. “He is also a servant, but his noble family wasn’t so free with his time. It didn’t work out, and we decided to end things.” She didn’t meet Kai’s gaze.
“Oh….” Gently, she took Amerin’s hand and squeezed. “Hey. You know if you ever need time away from me, I want you to take it. You’re not a slave.”
Though she’d read it had once existed in the history of Atlantis, the practice was long ago outlawed by her grandmother. Had that queen not ruled it criminal, Kai would have. Slavery had no place in any civilized society, though she wasn’t sure if the caste system was any better.
“You have never treated me as one, Your Highness, but I thank you just the same for keeping my happiness in your thoughts. Now please, may we speak of lighter things?”
“Sure. Where are we going now?”
“Interested in seeing a little Atlantian history instead of listening to Scholar Proteus?”
“Gods, yes. How much of a walk is it?”
“Not far. About five miles.”
They made it three city blocks west toward the historical district when the first shouts reached Kai’s ears. She paused and tried to pick out discernible words in the cacophonous din of a few dozen raised voices, but the rumble of four-wheeled coral skippers and the chatter of noisy pedestrians overpowered it. Amerin’s hand squeezed Kai’s tightly.
“What’s happening?”
“Nothing,” Amerin said, pulling her faster.
“It isn’t nothing if you’re trying to rush me down the damned street.” Kai pulled her hand free from Amerin’s grip and twisted around to see blocked traffic. At least a hundred mers marched down the road wielding signs.
The six Myrmidons trailing behind them moved in closer and tightened ranks, wielding their weapons.
Kai dragged her feet and refused to budge another foot. “What the hell is happening?” she asked the squad leader.
“A safety concern, Your Highness, but nothing requiring your attention.” Then he turned his head and spoke to one of his fellow mer in the Atlantian tongue, “We’ll take the most direct route to the palace. Reinforcements will arrive shortly to quash this should it turn dangerous.”
“I understood that!” she shouted.
Startled eyes turned to her. Someone had told them she didn’t understand the mer tongue, but she’d never heard it clearer. “Someone tell me what the fuck is happening, or I won’t budge.”
Five seconds later, it didn’t matter whether Amerin or her personal guard told her. Kai read a few signs for herself.
Down with the royal family. Down with the monarchy. Freedom for all.
End the royal line
Royal blood will be our freedom
Death to the leech class
We don’t need a queen, we want a VOTE
Each second of gazing into the angry crowd revealed a new horror. Her stomach churned with nausea when she picked out a crude drawing of people she presumed were her, Aegaeon, and Nammu hanging from their necks as sharks fed on their entrails.
Kai’s stomach clenched harder than stone, and bile flooded her mouth. The sour taste stayed with her no matter how many times she swallowed. “They hate me.” She’d never done anything to them, but the people loathed her so much they drew her death.
The Myrmidon who had addressed her first sighed. His name swam out of her hazy memory. Sergeant Heracles. “They’re only a few people, Your Highness. Ignore them.”
“Who are they?”
“The Atlantian Loyalist Party. They have…some unusual beliefs and desires for the kingdom. But enough of that. We must get you to safety.”
“Are they going to attack me?” Her voice cracked when it rose. The parade of mers would reach them soon, and every hateful, glowering face was fixed on her.
“Not if we can help it,” Heracles said. When he nodded to his fellow Myrmidons, they fanned out in a protective circle around her and Amerin. Her handmaiden guided her down the road toward the intersection, steps hastening as Kai’s pulse drummed an urgent rhythm between her ears.
“This way,” Amerin said. “The glider is—”
An explosion burned the air behind them. Before Kai could take another step, one of her guards threw her to the ground.
Then the shooting began.
17
Never a Break
Elpis was due to arrive on his doorstep at half past the hour, completing a duty shift overseeing the instructors at the infirmary. Manu did not look forward to the conversation ahead of him. It would either end in bruises or tears. As he knew Elpis well, from over two decades of friendship, both were likely to be his.
Damn.
In the past, Manu had always fucked all of his problems away, but common sense told him his cock would only worsen the problem. He and Elpis did not belong together. Being phenomenal together in bed didn’t mean there was enough between them to dive into an actual relationship. He hadn’t taken joy in turning her down, but he didn’t do relationships. And he didn’t do them because he lacked the time as much as he lacked the motivation to have one.
Now that she was no longer furious with him, she wanted to talk, and he wondered if it would salvage their friendship. Months ago, when they’d tumbled into bed together after one night at the pub, he’d awakened the next morning without a care in the world, positive it had been just sex. Hot and wild and sweaty sex, but nothing of consequence.
When she invited him to dinner at her place, he thought nothing of it. It wasn’t until a month later when she presented him with new bracers that he realized something was amiss. They never gifted one another anything. He and Elpis were comrades who trained together and ran combat drills with each other, instructing her medics alongside his artillery units and Loto’s infantry. They were the friends who dragged each other home from the pub and slung the other into bed to sleep it off.
And then they’d somehow fallen into bed together.
Ruining a good friendship with his cock had been, in hindsight, an awful idea.
He dragged on a shirt and fastened it, appreciating a day when he could wear pants and leave the armor behind. Giving Kailani the next morning off from her training meant he was free to sleep in to recover from the night of drinking ahead of him, Loto, and about three other officers among their crew.
It would be nice to have a social life again.
The bell notified him of her arrival. When he opened the door, Elpis stood there in her Friday night best: sapphire blue leggings, scaled boots, and a fitted emerald bodice with a plunging neckline. He raised a brow. “You’re dressed for a night out.”
Cosmas stepped into view. “Because we’re all going out tonight. Loto and I have decided to stage an intervention. Sorry, but this has gone on long enough, the two of you avoiding one another like children. It was only a little sex.”
Thank you, Manu thought, though Elpis shot Cosmas such a dark, withering look, he rapidly backpedaled. He set his hand on the small of her back. “Worsened by Manu’s tendency to be an unfeeling blowhole, of course. But you were both good friends once. Good friends of mine. And I want to see my friends happily socializing with one another again.”
“It wasn’t my idea,” she muttered.
“If you and Loto are staging this so-called intervention, where is he?”
“Completing the usual load of chum at the barracks. He’ll be joining us in an hour, which means the both of you have less than an hour to make peace with past events.”
“And if we don’t?” Elpis challenged, hands on her hips, a brow raised.
“Then we drag the both of you out anyway, and the night becomes an immense load of awkward. I’m prepared. So is Loto. Test us if you dare. It behooves the both of you to remember we were all good pals once. Frankly, I feel like a human child caught in a custody battle. We want to enjoy the company of both of you at once again. Please.”
Manu rolled his eyes.
Cosmas shooed her inside and shut the front do
or, leaving them to stand just inside the entrance hall of Manu’s bachelor residence. He’d liked it for being less than five minutes from the palace and barracks, though it was only a single bedroom and bath, a cramped kitchen, and quarters too small to entertain more than three or four guests at a time.
“I suppose we don’t have a choice.”
“We don’t,” he agreed.
Elpis pushed out her lower lip and eyed him, apparently wanting to be anywhere but his living room.
“I’m sorry,” he started, swallowing his pride. “I’m sorry for hurting you. I wasn’t thinking that night, and it never occurred to me that you might feel more for me than I do for you.”
She didn’t speak, only studied him.
“But I’m not in a good place for a relationship. It was a rebound for both of us, El. You know that.”
When she remained silent, the gnawing in his gut intensified, twisting his intestines into knots. How the hell was he expected to knock back shots with her all night when she glowered at him like that?
“Militiades was a fool to let you go.”
“If he was a fool, what does that make you?”
Without missing a beat, he replied, “An asshole way too fucked up to be in a relationship right now.” So fucked up he was having fantasies about his future queen, and inappropriate dreams where he stripped the leggings off of her and—
Whoa. Wrong and grossly inappropriate time for his imagination to travel.
El cracked a grin. “I’ll agree with you on both counts. Is it Calanthe?”
The question took him by surprise. “What? No. Calanthe and I have been over for a long time.”
Her arms crossed against her chest again. “It was certainly Calanthe you were trying to drink out of your head that night. Are you sure you’re over her now? I mean, the woman did pack up and move to the other side of the world three days after you proposed marriage.”
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