“We don’t do human emotions.”
“Like?” He knew what Tide was getting at, but forcing his friend to say the words was far too amusing.
“We don’t fall in love! You know that’s the way of things. When you live as long as we do, it’s a lot harder to find someone to spend eternity with. And you only met the girl a few times. To feel like this is unprecedented and hard to believe.”
There it was. The words he knew were on every Water Court faerie’s lips.
“I know,” he replied, sitting up on his elbows. “I feel the same way. I can’t believe she’s wiggled under my skin so deeply, but I can’t get her out of my head. Whatever emotion this is, if it’s love or obsession, I don’t care. I need her, Tide. Like I need the waves.”
His dearest of friends heaved a dramatic sigh. “Then what do you propose we do?”
“Make her need me too,” he declared. “Unleash the sea upon her and bring her back to me. I don’t care what it takes.” And with that, the King of the Sea got off the bed.
14
“Are you okay for a bit?” Dad asked as they walked through town. “I have an appointment with a new investor, but that’s all for the day.”
After she finally admitted everything that had been going on, they’d gotten even closer. Two weeks since she’d seen the faeries, and River was lucky enough to say her relationship with her father had changed for the better.
They could talk about things they never had been able to before. He told her stories about her mother. She asked him questions about what he knew of faeries. And together, they grew and took huge steps forward to trusting each other again.
She had brought up the idea of moving out, but they both agreed it wasn’t worth it in the long run. She still needed to figure out what she wanted in life. And her father was happy to have her without the barrier of secrets holding them both back.
Thankfully, she had someone in her life who wanted to support her no matter what.
River grinned and waved him off. “Go work, Dad. I’m going to poke around some shops.”
“Stop and get me a coffee, would you?” He rubbed his eyes and yawned. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”
“Sure thing, Dad.”
They parted ways, and she felt a grin stretch across her lips.
Life was easier without faeries messing with it. Now that she knew she wasn’t human, River also realized it was okay to stand out so much. She didn’t care when people stared at her. It didn’t matter that they whispered behind their normal hands about how odd she was. Compared to them, River was different.
And she was learning how to be okay with that.
Whistling as she strode down the street, River decided to get the coffees first. She could drop them off with her father and then have the afternoon to herself. Maybe she’d even pick up a new book at the store and read about something other than faeries.
What was the exact opposite of a faerie? Werewolves?
Maybe just a mundane human romance. Contemporary. Something with a little spice so she could stay up all night reading. That sounded better than any old fairytale.
Down the street she went, only to pass by a brand new sign pointing down the cliff side town and to the ocean. The neon blue blinked obnoxiously bright even in the daylight. “Into the Blue,” it said.
“Strange,” she muttered under her breath. There wasn’t a store down there. No one could build so close to the ocean.
When had that sign gotten there?
An uneasy feeling made her stomach churn. The faeries didn’t care about her anymore, right? She’d asked him to leave her alone, and he hadn’t responded. He was leaving her alone.
Except, she wasn’t certain he actually would leave her alone. No matter how much she asked him to.
River couldn’t put aside the feeling someone was watching her after she saw the sign. And even though she looked up and down the street, she only saw familiar faces. Which meant the faeries were either still in the ocean where they belonged, or they were hiding from her.
“You’re being paranoid,” she muttered as she stepped into the coffee shop.
No faeries were following her. She was just one half-breed in a huge world, and she hadn’t gone back to the ocean. She must be off their radar. Or at least off their hit list.
Hopefully her mother hadn’t come back on land to hunt down her embarrassment of a daughter.
She stepped to the front of the line and ordered a black coffee, tall, and a latte for herself. The guy behind the counter was the first unfamiliar person she’d seen all day, but a lot of college students came here for the summer to work. He grinned at her and told her that her order would be right up.
Except, he gave her the coffee in a travel cup and her latte in a regular tea cup.
River handed the latter back to him. “Sorry, I’m not staying. I need them both to go.”
“It’s a beautiful day!” he replied, that grin still plastered on his face. “Why don’t you have a seat in the window and relax?”
Strange. He was almost pushy in tone, and she didn’t want to sit in the window. She wanted to deliver her dad’s coffee and then go to the bookstore.
Oddly enough, a blue tether appeared between the two of them. It glowed brightly in her mind’s eyes, but she had a feeling it wasn’t there. Just a sign that magic was afoot.
Since when had she been able to see magic?
Her hand reached forward of its own accord and grabbed the teacup. “I’d love to have a seat,” she found herself saying. “Thank you.”
River got all the way to the seat at the window before she remembered she hadn’t wanted to sit down. Fear now made her hands sweaty. The latte cup rattled on its saucer until she set it down on the table.
Why wasn’t she walking out the door? What had he done to her?
She glanced over her shoulder at the man who was working there, but he’d already moved onto the next customer like nothing had happened.
Shakily sitting down at the table, she stared down at the latte. Had he poisoned it? Was that how her mother would kill her?
Or was it some kind of potion that would make her do whatever he wanted? Maybe this was Archer’s way of forcing her to talk to him, or at least go back to the sea.
But when she stared too long into the latte, it wasn’t any poison she saw at all. It was the ocean inside her teacup.
Waves crested on the foamy top, tiny dolphins broke through the waves and flew up into the air. It was stunning but everything she was avoiding right now.
And there, in the deepest depths of the cup, somehow she knew he was staring back at her. Archer. This was just another way to get into her head.
Why couldn’t he just let her go? She didn’t want to see the ocean anymore because it made her damn heart hurt.
With a disgusted noise, she stood up from the table and left the cafe. Latte or not, she couldn’t stand to be in that room anymore. Not knowing faeries were about, casting spells, and trying to tempt her back to the waves.
Maybe it made her even more angry because she was tempted. River wanted to go back to the ocean and dip her toes into the salt water. She wanted to see the seals and watch the fish swim by her head. Two weeks wasn’t enough to forget the way she’d felt in the place her soul desired most.
She stomped down the street toward her father’s practice, so livid it made her want to throw his coffee. This wasn’t normal! She shouldn’t be plagued by creatures who weren’t supposed to exist!
Sighing, she opened the door and stalked to her father’s office. She plunked the coffee down on his table and announced, “I’m going home.”
He looked up at her, glasses perched on his nose. “Why? What happened?”
“Faeries,” she muttered, low so no one else would overhear them.
Dad took off his glasses, set them on his desk, and looked her up and down. “Care to explain?”
“Not really,” she grumbled. She should explain so he knew what was go
ing on, but she was so mad! River didn’t have the words. “I just want to go home. They won’t follow me back there.”
“All right,” he replied, although hesitant in his response. “Call me when you’re safe?”
“I will.”
Not that the faeries would do anything, anyway. They weren’t trying to force her to do anything. They wanted her to choose the sea over the land.
A part of her wanted to stomp out into the street and shout at them. How dare they try to cajole her? The siren song had worked once, but she refused to let it work again.
Been there, done that, had her heart broken. Why would she ever do anything else they wanted her to do?
Thankfully, the town wasn’t too far from the house. She could walk home if she kept a good pace, and she intended to speed walk the whole way.
Another unfamiliar man waved at her from across the street. “As if,” she muttered. Not a chance in hell was she going to wave back at a stranger. Not now that she knew the faeries were trying to force her hand.
She was a strong woman. Just like her father.
When humans fell in love with a faerie, they fell hard. Just like her dad said. But when they learned how to stand on their own two feet, they didn’t suffer the attention of fools.
So, she put her nose in the air and kept walking. All the way back to her house where she forced her breathing to slow. These faeries would be the death of her.
Something deep inside her wanted to answer their call. She wanted to run down the stairs and across the sand. Throw herself into the waiting arms of the faerie king and let him whisk her away into a magical realm where mermaids existed.
But that wasn’t the real world.
River tunneled her fingers through her hair and stepped away from the door. She had to distract herself. The pool would be safe enough for her to dunk underneath the surface and weather this storm. Once her father got home, it would be easier. She couldn’t take him away from work every time the faeries were bothering her. He’d never work again.
Stripping her shirt up over her head, she shimmied out of her pants. The pool. The pool would be her sanctuary for a few hours.
She stopped, frozen in place as she stared at the waters that had given her solace for so many years.
Kelp covered the bottom along with a hundred sand dollars and starfish. They roamed along the edges of the pool that now appeared to be the bottom of the ocean.
River rubbed her eyes, certain this was a trick of the mind. But no, they were still there.
This wasn’t like the latte cup. There were actually living creatures in her pool, permeating the air with salt and brine.
She let out a growl that was decidedly inhuman. Opening her arms wide, she tilted back her head and let out a scream of frustration. If the neighbors heard, let them. They’d come running and at least that would be a distraction from the song clambering in her head.
“I won’t go back,” she snarled at the pool. “Even if he sends an army to drag me back beneath the waves.”
An unfamiliar voice chuckled in response. “Don’t tempt fate, half-breed. He might do just that.”
She covered her chest with her hands and bolted toward the house. She didn’t look to see who had spoken. Whatever faerie thought they could break onto her property was about to see how serious she was. She’d placed a bat next to the door just for this opportunity.
The door slid shut on its own, slamming before she could escape. She jangled the handle, but it didn’t move. Locked from the inside.
Teeth bared, she spun around and pressed her back against the glass. A creature stood on the opposite side of the gate, just at the top of her stairs.
His skin was pale green, his hair made of kelp, and his eyes so vividly blue they were painful to look at. He leaned his veiny forearms against the top of her gate. “Hello.”
“Oh, you’re pretending to be nice?” she replied with a gulp. “You’re breaking and entering, faerie.”
“No, I’m not.” He patted the white painted gate. “I’m still on my side. You’re still on your side. No rules broken.”
Was that some kind of faerie law as well? Yet another that didn’t apply to the king?
She pointed at her pool. “Then who did that?”
He flashed her a blinding grin. “Can’t say I know for certain. One of the Water Court, most definitely. Just not me.”
As if she would ever believe he had no idea who’d done this. He had an inkling, but maybe he’d kept himself out of the planning so he could get away with a veiled lie. She was so done with faeries and their minced words.
“Fine,” she said. “What do you want so I can go back inside?”
“The king wants you back in the ocean.”
River snorted, trying with all her might to appear unphased. “Really? I wouldn’t have guessed considering all the signs today. I’m not returning, thank you very much. You can tell him I said no.”
“Oh, I won’t be doing that.” He nudged the gate with his knee, clanking the wood and metal to get her attention. “Can I come in?”
“No.”
“I have information you might want to know.”
Somehow she doubted that. River knew when faeries were just trying to get her attention now. She’d at least learned that lesson. “If you have something you want me to hear, then you can tell me from where you are.”
He lifted a green brow. “I’d rather not shout sensitive information at you, especially when it’s about the king. At least come a little closer, girl. I don’t bite.”
She wasn’t so certain of that. His teeth looked very pointed.
She pushed herself away from the door, took a deep breath, and marched over to the faerie. When she was about ten feet away, she crossed her arms over her chest and said, “Well? Out with it.”
The faerie reached his hand over the gate for her to shake. “The name’s Tide.”
“Nice to meet you.” She didn’t shake his hand.
“You’ve got a chip on your shoulder, don’t you?” he said with a chuckle. But he took his hand back to his side of the gate. “You haven’t been raised with faeries, that much is clear. But you should have heard the rumors about the king.”
“I didn’t even know there was a king.”
“All right then, let me give you the sad truth of it.” He leaned against the gate until it pressed against his chest, turning the skin white as snow. “I’m part of a group who watches over the kings. You’ve seen the elemental inside him, I trust. When you were attacked by the undines, perhaps?”
The blue light had been someone else? She had thought that was what happened when Archer got mad... But she couldn’t deny there had been something else deep in his chest. Something horrific and startlingly powerful.
River nodded but kept her mouth shut.
Tide clucked his tongue. “Good, then you know he’s not what he seems. The elementals must be kept in check, and that has always been the duty of the faerie kings. When one fails to keep the elemental in check, bad things happen. Like plagues. Tsunamis. Asteroids hitting the earth and creating a mass extinction, you understand what I’m getting at?”
All the blood drained from her face. “You’re telling me he could end the world?”
“Yes, in the blink of an eye, actually. The elementals are all powerful and only held in check by the being who is their host. Archer has always controlled the elemental, water isn’t necessarily a hungry element on this planet. But he’s losing his grip.”
She lifted a shoulder. “Then find someone else to put the elemental in.”
Tide shook his head and the blue in his eyes flashed a little too bright. “See, the problem is we can’t do that. You can’t take the elemental out of the faerie any more than you could kill the king without his permission. You get it?”
“No.”
“Well, you don’t have to understand that part. All you need to know is that every king has another half, a balm to his madness if you will. And once they
can control the king, the crisis is averted.”
She eyed the crazed man at her gate and let out a scoff. “So you think I’m some kind of magical woman here to heal all his wounds and make sure he doesn’t destroy the planet?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly!”
“Yeah, you’re nuts. I’m not going to do that, and I’m definitely not going to believe you.” She couldn’t. What person in their right mind would?
Tide shrugged, that mad glint in his eyes making her nervous. “Doesn’t matter. I told the king you would be happy to meet him right here. So you’re coming with me whether or not you want to.”
She took a step back toward the house. “And how do you think you’re going to make me do that?”
The mad grin on his face spread too wide, revealing rows of shark teeth. “Magic.”
15
Archer paced the gilded halls of his palace. He ran his fingers over the textures of the sea, the coral, the sea glass embedded in the stones, the seashells with their swirling patterns.
He had to do something. Anything to keep his mind away from the things the elemental whispered in his ears.
“You can feel the world is dying,” it said. Its voice was thunderous in his head, too loud to ignore and yet too dangerous to truly listen to. “The seas are filled with their refuse and your people are boiling alive.”
The longer he listened to the voice, the more he could feel it. The ocean tightened around him, heating and brushing him with currents carrying the screams of the dying.
He knew the ocean was weak. He knew the humans didn’t know they were choking the seas, destroying clean water and killing thousands every day. But he’d also always trusted they would fix it. The ocean was just as important to them.
“No,” he muttered. “I can’t do anything about it. They feast from our waters. They travel upon them. They need the ocean to stay alive.”
“But are they intelligent enough to see that?” the elemental whispered.
And the words hurt. He didn’t know if the humans were intelligent enough. He liked to think they could recognize the rising sea levels and the melting glaciers as warning signs. That they would react when the time was right.
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