The Merman King

by Michelle M. Pillow

  Lucius couldn’t finish the thought, couldn’t allow his hope to take him there. “I should let your rest, as the healer instructed. Anything you require, simply ask and I will do my best.”

  Chapter Seven

  Olivette felt the pull of the merman king. It was a cosmic force, calling her body closer to his. She ached to make contact. When she looked at him, a weakness filled her. At first she thought it was because she’d been sick, but this was unlike any illness she’d ever had. It manifested inside her head, a dull ache that radiated down her spine and grew worse the farther away he moved. The less they touched, the shakier she became.

  When he tried to step out of the room, she felt as if her lungs were on fire, drowning yet again.

  “Please, stay,” she gasped, needing him to come back.

  He arched a brow and reentered.

  “So, no girlfriend?” She gave a small smile. “No lover?”

  “Not at the present time,” he answered.

  The brightness of his eyes struck her yet again. They were the color of the Caribbean water. She imagined him to be the eye of the storm, and if he pulled away from her, that is when the turbulence started.

  Olivette stood. “Then I don’t understand.”

  “Understand?”

  He appeared confused, but how could that be? She’d sent out all the signals. She’d touched his arm, leaned close, puckered her lips. She’d been unable to stop herself. She needed to be close to him.

  Olivette reached for his hand and pulled it away from where he shielded his erection from her. The headache subsided as the heat radiated from his body. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She drew his hand so that it looped with hers behind her back as she stepped closer. Her lungs no longer burned and the trembling stopped, but she still felt weak.

  “I don’t understand how you can’t feel this,” she whispered, soaking in his nearness. “It started when we were in the ocean, and you breathed for me. You held my life inside you and kept me safe. I dreamed of the rain and you were there, shielding me from it, keeping me warm. And today, when you walked into the room, I felt better.”

  “Althea has many talents,” he explained.

  “No.” She shook her head in denial, looking up at him. Her body pressed fully against his chest and she held his hand behind her back. “It wasn’t Althea. She helped, but it was you.”

  “I…am…” He tried to speak, but it was as if the words were trapped in his throat.

  Olivette felt his desire for her and it amplified her own. Her emotions surged, crushing any logic that might try to override what her body wanted. She lifted on her toes, wanting to breathe in his life force, wanting that adrenaline, the excitement and fear she’d felt on the dive down. She wanted to live. That was the force calling her to be next to him—life.

  Her lips parted as she pressed her mouth to his. At first, it was not with the intent of seducing him into a kiss, but as flesh touched flesh, she moved her lips and breathed deeply.

  He gasped, and she pulled back to study his face.

  The harsh pants of air between them punctuated the silence. She leaned forward again, more insistently. Their lips moved awkwardly before finding a rhythm.

  Olivette let go of the hand she held behind her back. He pressed into her, compelling her to move closer. She ran her fingers through his hair. Tiny shocks of electricity zapped wherever they touched. She moaned, needing more. Releasing her hold on him, she reached to pull her gown over her head and tossed it aside.

  Lucius’ eyes pierced hers with a predatory grace and he took a step forward, then another. She kept her gaze locked on his. Olivette let him walk her back to the bed. He pulled his shirt from his chest and threw it aside. It landed on one of the tall vases. Her heel hit the platform, and he reached for her naked waist to lift her onto it. As he stepped up to join her, his body pressed hard against hers.

  This time when they kissed, their lips moved in perfect unison. Lucius pressed forward so that she lay on the bed. Everything about him seemed to consume her—his heat, his scent, the electric brush of his flesh. When he touched her, his hands sent a vibration over her that tickled her nerves to awareness.

  She tugged the pants from his hips. The length of his arousal brushed her thigh. His hands seemed to explore everywhere at once, roaming up and down her chest and hips, only to cup her face as he deepened the kiss.

  Olivette spread her legs, wanting more. She rocked against him. “Please.”

  The sound of her voice seemed to bring him from a trance. He stopped moving. “I shouldn’t be…”

  “You should be,” she argued, arching her hips. If he left her now, she felt as if she might wither into nothingness.

  The pain had completely dissipated. Pleasure filled her. He drew himself along her opening, so close, but still so hesitant to complete what they’d started.

  Mindlessly, she thrust up. He glided inside her, joining their bodies.

  She gasped, smiling at the pure ecstasy of the moment. Vitality hummed through her like a drug as they moved in unison.

  Their eyes met and locked. Release came in an intense wave, washing over both of them at the same time. She trembled all the way down to her toes. A vibrant energy coursed over her and made her feel invincible. She gasped for breath at the sheer power of it.

  Lucius stared down at her as if he too was amazed by what had happened. He studied her face as if she were fine art in a gallery.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but a loud, insistent knock interrupted his words.

  “It’s all right,” she said when he glanced apologetically toward the opened bedroom door and back again. The knock came from somewhere else in the house. “A king’s duty is never done.”

  “Don’t leave,” he instructed with a quick kiss on her lips.

  She gave a small laugh. Even if she had somewhere to go, her body was so relaxed she doubted she could move.

  Lucius pulled his tunic shirt over his head as he walked from the bedroom. Muffled voices drifted in. Curious, she sat up to listen.

  “Body…by the…Olym…”

  Olivette pulled the thin yellow covers with her and wrapped it like a dress as she crept toward the doorway.

  A man was speaking, “Aye, we’re sure. Lady Maia is dead.”

  “Dead?” Lucius’ voice sounded strained. “But that is not possible. What happened? Did the guard worm attack her in the water like it did Pirene?”

  The man didn’t readily answer.

  “Rigel, speak. What happened to Maia?” the king demanded.

  “She was found outside the palace gate. They left her,” Rigel answered.

  “Maia…I can’t believe—”

  “There is more,” Rigel interrupted. “She was not whole.”

  “You mean…?”

  “Yes. They cut her into pieces and left her in two baskets. They made sure she could never recover from her wounds.”

  Olivette covered her mouth to keep sound from escaping. She didn’t wish to be discovered eavesdropping.

  Lucius’ former lover was dead? The Olympian who did horrible things to humans? Wasn’t that a good thing?

  “This is distressing news.” Lucius’ voice lowered, and she had to slide across to the other side of the doorway to hear him.

  “What do you think it means?” Rigel asked. “Do you think the Olympians want back into the fold and they are giving us a peace offering?”

  “No. I think this is their way of letting me know there is a new queen in the ocean. Lotis is making a point. She wants us to know she has the stomach for war. It’s a challenge, a threat.”

  Olivette leaned forward to get a peek at the two men. Lucius swore as he slapped his hand against a marble wall.

  Rigel didn’t flinch as he watched the king. The man had dark hair and was smaller in build, but like all the men she’d seen since arriving, he appeared healthy. “Then it is as Lady Victoria discovered from her time with them. Lotis planned to overthrow Queen Maia and is
taking over the Olympian cult.”

  “Where is she now?”

  Rigel’s eyes found Olivette and his lips pressed together, not answering. He didn’t speak, but his body moved as if he did.

  The king acted in turn before glancing in her direction. She didn’t bother to hide.

  They carried on in their strange fashion for a moment before the king nodded to his friend in agreement. He touched him lightly on the shoulder. “Very well, I will meet your brother by the back entrance.”

  “Maia is dead?” Olivette came from her poorly chosen hiding spot.

  “There is nothing for you to be concerned about.” Lucius moved past her to grab his pants from the bed. He slipped them on. “You are safe in the palace, and there is no safer place here than in my home.”

  His eyes didn’t meet hers except to glance in her direction a few times as if gauging where she was in the room. When he made his way toward the door, she said, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

  The words hardly seemed adequate, they never did, but it’s what people said to show they cared.

  Lucius gestured toward several trays of food. “Please, eat.” And with that, he was gone.

  Chapter Eight

  Lucius turned away from the sight of his ex-lover. It had been years since he’d spared her a kind thought, but seeing her at such an end still affected him. She was an evil sea witch, who on some level probably deserved what happened to her. Still, Lucius would never have ordered such a brutal execution.

  A sick feeling built inside of him, like this might be the beginning of the end of his world. Maia had been next to him when they were cast down. Her dark hair pulling away from her head was one of the few things he remembered in detail from that night. He’d held her hand for much of that first swim. Hers was the first words he’d heard clearly in his head, a single voice in a sea of screaming chaos.

  Even then, he did not love her. They were joined by something much baser—fear and determination. He did not want to be alone. She wanted to be queen.

  “Bury her,” Lucius ordered. It had been so long since he’d seen a corpse, and then it had been people they’d tried to save from the top. When that happened, they brought the bodies back to the top in hopes that their families may find and bury their dead. “Quietly. We don’t need to cause a panic and a pyre will be too obvious.”

  “She was set on display,” Brutus stated. “The palace guards saw her, as well as workers coming to the palace from the village. I’m not sure this can be contained.”

  “And no one noticed the mermaids approaching?” the king questioned. “How did a cart simply appear before the palace with no one stopping it?”

  “Electra,” Brutus stated. “The temptress lulled the guards around to the side of the castle and left them tied. When we discovered the body, we sent scouts to check the palace and found them.”

  No more explanation was needed.

  Electra had been a lovely singer in her mortality, entrancing people to tears with her gift. In immortality, that gift took a dangerous turn. Simply singing a person’s name would cause them to lose all will but the one she gave them.

  “Electra,” the king said after a long pause. “Of course.”

  He again looked at Maia, forcing himself to see her even as the dread and nausea rose in his throat. It was not lost on him that the moment he’d taken a new lover, his old one was discovered dead. What message from the gods was this? A consequence? As much as he wanted to believe that Poseidon forgot about his lost sea children, Lucius had made that mistake before and they’d been cast down.

  Was Olivette his path to redemption? Or was she a temptation he must resist? Was this a test to see if he had learned his lesson, if his royal vanity to satisfy his own needs, to be the hero to his people, had changed?

  “My king?” Brutus said, his tone indicating he’d been trying to get Lucius’ attention. “It has been a long time since we had a Merr death on land, but are you sure we should not follow the old rituals? If she arrives in Hades’ kingdom without at least a basic funeral, this could displease the gods, especially his brothers Poseidon and Zeus. It might indicate we have stopped respecting them again.”

  “Her followers left her here. There are no relatives to tend her.” Lucius knew Brutus was right. If the gods were watching, not performing the funeral would be a mistake. “I hate to ask, especially with Maia in this state, but do you think the hunters’ wives will take on the role of her family and help see her safely to the Underworld? I don’t know what other females to ask. Althea won’t touch the dead.”

  “I will speak to them. I am sure they will assist in any way they can,” Brutus said. “Do we even remember how to do this properly?”

  Lucius gave a small laugh.

  “What?” Brutus glanced around, trying to see what amused the king.

  “Ask Aidan. If anyone would know, it would be him.” Lucius took a sheet and drew it over the body. A strand of Maia’s hair poked out from beneath.

  “Of course. The one man in Ataran who was not here when we were cast down.” Brutus gestured that he thought Lucius should leave. Loudly, he ordered, “Gaius, you’re to stay by this door and let no one enter. Vitus will have to make do without you.”

  “Aye, my lord,” Gaius agreed. He was newly promoted to guarding the surfacing area after one of the guards died in the ocean during an Olympian attack, but he was not new to the palace. He could be trusted.

  Lucius walked in silence next to Brutus through the hall. He’d come this way countless times before, but he looked around as if it were the first. His eyes followed the tiles, seeing the tiniest of irregularities in the pattern. They led to a mosaic of a mermaid under water. Black hair floated around her head. The green eyes weren’t quite right, but it could have been Maia. The green of her fins and tail matched the porcelain eyes.

  “I am glad to hear your ward is recovering,” Brutus said, also observing the mural.

  “I see you’ve spoken to Rigel.”

  “He mentioned it,” Brutus admitted. “He said you both looked…comfortable.”

  “I haven’t stood here to appreciate the details for years,” Lucius said, taking the conversation away from Olivette. He wasn’t sure what to think about what had happened between them. “I could name every mural and statue in every hallway, but I haven’t stopped to look at them for a very long time. What do you think this place looks like to the women when they arrive?”

  “My wife said it looks like a museum,” Brutus offered. Laurel hadn’t been in Atlantes long. “Beautiful and untouchable.”

  “Antiquated,” Lucius whispered. “We live for so long, things stop changing. Do you remember when we were building this palace, planning the city? There were so many questions and decisions. It gave us something to focus on. And when we finished, we planned the wall outside the palace. And when that was done, we made vases, and the giant mermaid statue in the middle of town. Then we built the hunters’ homes in the country.”

  “And a fine job we did,” Brutus agreed.

  “Why did we stop building and planning? We created such beauty, and then we stopped as if there was no more to do.”

  “What would you have us do? Make statues to leave around the bottom of the ocean for the fish?” Brutus touched the edge of the mermaid’s tail, tracing the design. “I suppose we had to stop at some point. We had to become complacent and just live. How else are we to get through an eternity? First, we fought for sanity, then we looked for answers, then we grew restless, and finally we accepted our fates.”

  “That is what concerns me. We have peace…” Lucius glanced toward where Maia’s body lay. “We mostly have peace. The Merr people have accepted this life. They know it, understand it. They don’t live in fear.”

  “You’re not worried because of Maia, are you?” Brutus leaned against the mural and turned his attention fully to the king.

  “I breathed the surface air, and it tingled but it didn’t hurt and it didn’t kill me. What hap
pens if we have the cure? What if we can float to the surface and live? What if we have a choice?” Lucius glanced down the palace hall, envisioning the valley below. So many people lived and worked there. “I am their king. It is my responsibility to protect them. That is all I know how to be. Up there, what will happen to our community?”

  What will happen to me? he thought. What am I if not their king?

  “Who knows what the gods will reveal,” Brutus said. “All I know is they have blessed me with a wife and I thank them every day for it, and I will do everything in my power to keep her safe.”

  Lucius thought of the woman he’d left in his home. The memory of her was imprinted on his body. He wanted her again, to feel his heart beat fast and the life pumping through his veins.

  Brutus patted him hard on the back, interrupting his thoughts. “I see the gods have blessed you as well, my king.”

  Chapter Nine

  “As promised, new garments.” King Lucius smiled as he handed a pile of clothing to Olivette.

  She wasn’t as quick to return the expression. This was not what she’d been expecting when he returned. The man just found out his old lover had been chopped into pieces and he was bringing her clothing?

  “I know it is not the full twenty I promised you, but there are more to come.”

  Olivette had a sinking feeling as she placed the garments on the couch to get a better look at them. Pinching a dress at the shoulders, she lifted it between them, holding it high enough to hide her stunned expression from his view. It was slutty Mrs. Claus, only in pale green with bird feathers around the hems instead of fuzzy white.

  She turned her attention to the rest of the pile and found…slutty blue, slutty orange, slutty purple…

  “Ah…” She tried to think of something to say.