“You said you would keep her safe,” he said. Archer strode toward the stairs. Currents pressed against his shoulders, forcing him back even as he struggled forward.
“I did.”
He put his foot on the first stair. His gaze found the throne and unease settled in his chest. “You promised.”
“The situation has changed, Archer. Would you subject her to being the only one left?”
His feet moved without permission. Ascending the stairs felt as though something else were controlling his body. As though he wasn’t himself at all. “She won’t be the last one left. She’ll be with me and her own people.”
“But could she ever forgive you? Do you want to live with this guilt for the rest of your life, or do you want to let it go?”
He reached the top of the stairs and stood before the throne. It glowed with the power of the elemental, running through the cracks and filling them with sapphire. Every inch of the throne was perfect.
Just like her.
“I won’t take the throne unless I know she’ll be safe,” he said.
And he wouldn’t. He couldn’t do anything to hurt her, no matter that this would shatter everything she knew. Her world would die. Her father would die. Everything she loved would change, and if that meant he lost her heart before he ever heard her say the words... then so be it.
At least she would be alive. As selfish as it was, Archer didn’t think he could continue on without her. Even if that meant knowing she hated him.
The elemental sighed, but relented. “If your price is her safety, then I will pay it. You will regret asking for this though.”
“Will I?” Archer’s lips twisted into a smirk. “Are you an expert on human interaction now?”
The glow of the throne burst into a thousand burning beams. He lifted an arm and covered his eyes from the painful shine.
The elemental’s voice in his mind cracked until the ground shook. “Make your choice, King of the Sea. Take the throne or lose everything.”
He dropped his arm and stared at the magic until his eyes saw only white. “Either way I lose everything, don’t I?”
Archer turned his back to the light and let the currents drive him back into the throne.
22
“Throw me that rope, honey!” Dad shouted, his voice carrying over the storm stretching across the horizon. “We have to get going!”
They’d packed everything they could think of. An extra set of clothing, food, water, and whatever equipment her dad had in the garage. She didn’t know why they might need a hammer, but he insisted on bringing everything important. Just in case.
Ever prepared, her father.
He knew how to control the skiff. Or at least, she assumed he did considering all the words he kept throwing around. And orders. Good lord, he ordered her around like he was suddenly a ship captain.
Still, she raced to the other end of the twenty-foot boat and threw him the rope. “Are we ready?”
Something inside her said there wasn’t much time. In fact, there was no time at all. They needed to get going now if they planned on saving Archer.
And everyone else.
“Almost!”
“Dad, could you maybe hurry?” They’d already wasted too much time packing.
Tide and Ebb had made it appear that there was just no time at all. They’d already admitted defeat and sank beneath the waves to spend their last moments with each other. Just as they had tried to offer her.
Her father didn’t feel the same sense of urgency. He took his sweet time making sure everything on the boat was situated and then racing back to the house for one last thing.
“Okay. Ready, sweetheart.” He shaded his eyes with his hand, preventing the rain from impeding his vision. “Now, where are we going?”
River didn’t have the faintest idea where to go. She didn’t even know where Archer was. She supposed she could ask the ocean but...
A rumble rocked through the ocean. Waves lifted and sent the boat hurtling back to the sand.
“Hang on!” Dad shouted. He reached for the engine, fired it up within seconds, and then they shot away from the shore.
Waves battered against the sides and crashed down from above. River held onto the side for dear life but it wasn’t the ocean that frightened her anymore. It was the sound. The cheering of hundreds of creatures, but maybe it wasn’t cheering at all. It was his name. Repeated over and over again.
“River?” Dad’s voice floated through the air and above the raging of the ocean. “What’s going on?”
She opened her eyes and met her father’s gaze with horror in her own. “He took the throne.”
The creatures of the ocean cheered for the true King of the Sea. They cheered for the man who would save them all and wipe the earth clean of all that could harm them.
“We’re too late,” she whispered. The wind took her words and dashed them back against the cliffs behind them. “We’re too late.”
Her father locked the engine in place so they would continue shooting out to sea. Then, he scrambled to the front of the boat where she remained curled into a ball. He lifted her into his arms and said in her ear, “Nothing is ever too late, my dearest girl. We still have a few tricks up our sleeve.”
“What?”
Dad reached into his pocket and pulled out a conch shell. She’d never seen it before. Rainbow iridescence shimmered on its sides even in the dim light of the storm. The waves rose even higher around them as her father put the conch shell to his lips.
He blew into it and the haunting call was louder than the storm. It raced through the ocean, spearing into the waves in a shower of blue magic sparks.
“Dad?” River shouted against the wind. “What are you doing?”
The water changed all around the boat, suddenly appearing as though it were boiling. Or maybe as if something was ascending.
River watched in fear only to see webbed hands grasp the edge of the boat. Hands like hers. Hands that made so many humans uncomfortable but were beautiful to the fae.
A dark head rose from the water and her mother blinked seawater from her eyes. The ocean tried to buck her off the boat, but her mother was strong. Aquaria held onto the edge with ease, eyes filled with anger and something like sadness.
“Aquaria,” Dad said, his words softer than she’d ever heard before.
“Hugo,” she replied. “You used the shell.”
“I did.” He held it out for her to take. “After all these years.”
River expected her mother to throw the shell away and attack them. That’s what she had done when she’d seen River. Instead, her mother grasped the shell with delicate hands and then pressed her lips against it. “I didn’t think you’d keep it.”
Though River wished she could give them the time, they didn’t have much left. “The world is ending, Dad,” she snapped. “What can she do to help us?”
Her father sighed and reached for both of their hands. He held River’s in his left, and her mother’s in his right. “Aquaria, you always worried this was how our daughter’s life would end. We need your help.”
“I left the two of you to keep you safe from the sea,” her mother snarled. “You let her come back. You knew this would happen.”
“What?” River interrupted. “What are you two talking about? It’s almost like you knew Archer and I would-”
Her mother silenced her with a look. “I did. The moment you were born I felt the sea open its arms to you, and I knew the King would claim you. I knew what that kind of love did to a faerie like me, and I knew it would drive him mad with wanting. You were never supposed to come back.”
So that was the reasoning behind everything. Her mother wanted to keep her safe, but in having to give her up, had lost what little goodness that made her human.
“No,” River said, her eyes filling with tears. “That makes no excuse for your behavior. You were a terrible mother then and you are still now.”
Dad squeezed her hand in wa
rning, but it was Aquaria who replied. “I am a terrible mother. I never wanted to be one until I met your father. And even then, I left you to him. He’s the better parent. But now I will help you stop the king before he destroys everything.”
River wanted to throw the words back in her mother’s face. She’d stop Archer without this woman’s help.
Except, the ocean groaned. The deep sound made them all turn. Far off the shore, the waves boiled. Something rose from deep in the depths, like her mother had, but so much larger. A stone giant holding a throne upon which a watery figure sat.
Her mother gasped. “We don’t have time for arguments. We must attack while we still can.”
Attack? River wasn’t going to attack him. She couldn’t harm a single hair on Archer’s head, no matter if that was the only way to stop him. She couldn’t kill the only man she’d ever loved.
She turned back to her father who watched the figure with a horrified expression on his face. Though he’d fallen in love with a faerie, he’d seen little of their world. Until now.
“Dad?” River said. She tugged on his hand and forced him to look at her. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head, drops of water flying from the strands of his hair in all directions. “I don’t know.”
“I know it’s all crazy but we can’t let him do whatever he’s planning.” She didn’t know what plan the elemental had come up with, but she could only imagine it was destructive.
Wasn’t that what Tide had said? The elemental wanted to wipe humanity from the face of the earth.
Tsunamis would appear at the wave of his hand. Boats would be devoured in the wake of his hatred and the water levels would rise to swallow up entire cities. They didn’t have time for fear or worry. She needed to do something now.
Which, unfortunately, required asking her mother for help. If Dad thought Aquaria had some kind of plan to save them all, then River had to entertain the idea.
Because she was fresh out of plans.
Leaning over the edge and a little too close to her mother’s face, she asked, “What do you think we should do then?”
Aquaria lifted a single, dark brow. “Isn’t it obvious, daughter of mine?”
“I thought you said I was no daughter of yours.”
Aquaria’s face crumpled into an expression of pure torment. “I regret saying many things in my life, and that is the greatest of them. You startled me when you returned to the sea, and I was afraid for your life. If my men weren’t so well trained, they would have killed you before asking questions. Before the king could save you.”
River wanted to believe her. She wanted to mend the broken pieces of her family and see what she could do, but they didn’t have time. Not when the world was at stake and she didn’t believe a word the viper clinging to the side of their boat said.
“I don’t care,” she snarled. “Just tell me how to save Archer.”
“Save him?” Aquaria shook her head. “He’s accepted the throne. That’s not Archer anymore. The elemental is in charge of their body and mind. You cannot save him. You have to kill him.”
The words struck straight into her stomach and sent vomit rising in her throat. River turned to the side just in time. Puke coated her mouth in acid. Her throat ached. The mere thought of killing him made her want to gouge out her own eyes.
Kill Archer?
His death would mean never seeing him laugh at one of her jokes. It meant never experiencing the beauty of the ocean with him tugging her all over existence. Never feeling his fingers trace the ridges of her ribs as they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
Nothing was fair about this situation. She should have had many years with a faerie king who loved her. And she knew he loved her, even though they’d never said the words.
She felt the emotion every time he grinned at her. Every time he reached out and touched her without realizing he was doing it. His body spoke without his tongue moving.
That was her Archer. The man she wanted to save and the man her mother claimed no longer existed.
A small grain of hope opened like a clam in her chest. The hope was a pearl she clutched close to her heart.
“How do I kill him?” she asked, the words burning her tongue. “He’s an elemental and more powerful than any faerie who has ever existed. What could possibly kill a faerie king?”
Her mother held up the conch shell and brought it down on the boat’s edge. It cracked like an egg and a small dagger fell at River’s feet. She picked it up.
The handle was encrusted with a thousand tiny gems. Deep blue and azure, it glowed in her hand. Magic.
“Strike the dagger into his heart,” her mother said, her voice cruel.
“Is killing him really the only way?” River asked.
“It won’t kill him. Like you said, nothing can kill a faerie king. But it will put him into a deep slumber from which he will never awaken.” Aquaria reached out and placed a hand on top of River’s, holding the dagger together. “I know you love him, but he is the sacrifice. To save the world, you must let him go. For all humanity’s sake.”
River’s vision blurred. She couldn’t see either of her parents. All she could see was Archer.
His smile. His hair that constantly fell out of any ties he put it in. The tattoos on his arm flexing as he rose above her, lips glistening with a grin that made her heart thunder in her chest.
Oh god, she loved him so much. And she’d never been able to tell him that.
Sniffing hard, she held the dagger against her heart. He wouldn’t want to live like this. He’d never wanted to see the humans die, but something must have snapped inside him. She didn’t know what it was, but she knew this wasn’t his choice.
He wouldn’t have taken the throne unless he absolutely had to. And she couldn’t let him live with that guilt for the rest of his life.
Nodding, she sniffed one last time and met her father’s worried gaze. “Can you get me as close as you can to the throne? No risks, Dad.”
“I can.” He climbed back to the engine.
River looked back to her mother. “What are you going to do?”
Aquaria cracked her neck to the side, then pointed behind her. “You’ll need a distraction to get close to him. The rest of my people will provide such a distraction.”
Nearly twenty heads lifted above the waves. Some of the faces she recognized as the soldiers who had held spears at her when she first saw her own people. They wanted to kill her then, what changed?
Brows furrowed, she leaned closer to her mother and asked in her ear, “Why are you helping us? What do you get out of all this?”
Aquaria reached out a single finger and touched River’s hand, forcing her grip to be tighter around the blade. “I know you think it impossible, daughter. But I loved your father once. And I owe him a great debt. If this is the payment he asks, then I will not question it.”
With that, she sank beneath the waves with her people. Disappearing into the churning sea, supposedly to help her daughter save the humans.
It made little sense. The thunder and lightning overhead grew worse. She could feel him drawing power from all the fae and the creatures of the sea.
Archer was about to do something none of them could stop. No one but her.
River maneuvered to the front of the boat and pointed to the throne. “Okay Dad! Let’s go!”
23
Even as her father turned the boat toward the throne and gunned the engine, she could see the undines racing through the water with them. Flashes of color and spurts of magic gave them the speed they needed.
River watched them crest through the waves, leaping into the air like dolphins before they turned away from the boat as one. An entire battalion of undines rushed away from the small skiff that was the last hope to save the world.
A distraction, her mother had said.
How were the undines going to distract the elemental? Archer wasn’t a fool, and neither was the creature who had given him power. Even no
w, she could see him seated upon the throne like an avenging god.
The watery form of the elemental made her shiver in fear. This wasn’t the man she knew, or even one she wanted to know. The stormy sky was visible through his chest. Power leaked out of him and sank into the throne that glowed with unnatural light.
Storage, perhaps? Maybe he was hosting all his magic in there and if she destroyed the throne, then she could free him from the elemental?
She was grasping at straws. The dagger burned her fingertips because she knew it wouldn’t kill him. Just lock him in a prison of his own mind for the rest of eternity.
Could she doom him to a life like that?
The boat rocked over a wave that nearly sent her over the edge. It seemed even the sea was fighting against her, trying to ensure she didn’t stop what was coming.
She couldn’t let everyone die. Not without at least trying to stop this, even if the sea itself wanted to fight her.
“River!” Dad shouted.
She glanced back to see him pointing to their left. The undines had gathered and her mother had risen to stand atop a wave.
Power rumbled through the water and gathered in her mother’s palm. Aquaria lifted it up like a beacon, capturing the elemental’s attention. “King of the Sea, I call to you! The undines will not stand by a ruler who claims a throne falsely!”
Thousands of heads crested through the waves. All the faeries of the ocean bobbed in the waters that suddenly stilled. The waves died down as the King of the Sea sat upon his throne and heard Aquaria’s words. The only sound left was her mother, the rain, and the engine.
The engine. It gave away their position, and River thought he would catch them. A single glance in their direction and he could sink their boat. Her father would drown, and River didn’t know what the elemental would do to her.
Dad apparently had the same thought. He cut the engine, and they glided silently through the water.
Aquaria cried out, “You are a false king! We swore ourselves to Archer, not to the elemental inside him.”
King of the Sea Page 17