As if cued by the mention of them, the voices of the undead rose in a haunting symphony.
“Kill him.”
“Wring the life from his body.”
“Claim the throne.”
“It can all be yours.”
“Urrrrssseeellllaaa.”
The desire to administer that one fatal squeeze was intoxicating. My breath quickened at its seductive pull. Somehow through the fog of bloodlust, the goading of my sinister counsel gave me pause. That was my brother. They were talking about my brother. The same tow-headed child that held two of my fingers in his chubby fist as we watched our mother’s funeral procession swim by.
I hated him.
Loathed him for what he had done to me.
But … I couldn’t kill him.
Not yet.
My tentacle retracted, allowing Triton to eagerly gulp down a mouthful of water.
“You will die when I allow it,” I vowed to myself as much as to him. “First, I will see you writhe. I’ll watch you wriggle like a worm on a hook as you are stripped of everything just as I have been. Every morning when your lids flutter open after a fitful sleep, I want your first thought to be ‘Is today the day?’ Know that you are never safe. I have proved how easily I can wipe out any who guard you. They’ll be gone, and you’ll be nothing but a merman with a pointy stick and a big title. Until then, I will wait. Watching for the perfect opportunity … to sink you to the depths.”
Spinning in a fan of tentacles, fleeing Atlanticians scuttled out of my rampant path.
Swimming from the courtyard, I reeled passed the Kraken, my heart sinking in my chest. One hand brushed over his chilled flesh, saying a silent good-bye to the only friend I had in that square.
“Take me with you,” Calypso rasped, jerking me from my fleeting reverie. “Let me serve you as the true goddess you are.”
One stroke and I hovered by her side. Cradling her chin with the tip of one tentacle, I guided her gaze to mine. “Such pretty words and a charming sentiment, yet I know you for the conniving sneak you can be. Answer me this: if I were to cut you free, what will you do now that your army and title are gone?”
“Ursela, you have been banished from Atlantica. You need to leave the boundaries of the kingdom!” Triton huffed, struggling to reassert the authority I’d stolen from him.
“Simmer down, junior. The grown-ups are talking,” I tossed over my shoulder at him, before wrinkling my nose in Calypso’s direction. “You were saying?”
Full lips parted, then clamped shut again. Jutting her chin out with an indignant flair, the Caribbean beauty opted for the ugly truth. “When the mood strikes me, I shall turn my fury or favor on all those of my choosing.”
Snapping upright, I glanced back at Triton, my eyebrows disappearing into my hairline. “Now that was a good answer,” I mused, jabbing my thumb in her direction.
Purposely keeping my tone light and airy, I pretended not to notice the soldiers slinking in behind me or the inaudible ghoulish whispers buzzing a constant stream of background noise.
Curling my fingers, I engaged my magic. Wisps streamed into Calypso’s pupils, dilating them to black pits eager to be filled.
“Calypso,” I pressed in close to breath against her ear, “I free you from this subservient bond. From this day forth, you shall be bound only by the ocean—able to take whatever nautical form you desire.”
Shackles falling away, Calypso’s protective glare snapped around, thick braids lashing at her face, “Behind you!”
I knew the young soldier was there, could feel his presence edging closer. Still, the heads up was a thoughtful sentiment. Snatching at the water between us, I reduced him to a polyp before even acknowledging him with a glance.
“They just don’t seem to be getting this,” I commented to Calypso in a conspiratorial hush.
“Stand down,” Triton ordered his men, most likely for their own safety.
Rising above them all with a flick of my tentacles, I jerked my head in Calypso’s direction. “I would steer clear of this one,” I warned my brother. “She’s feisty.”
Echoes of my own manic laughter swept me from the only home I had ever known. Only I knew my performance for the façade it truly was: a painted mask of sculpted beach sand fragile enough to crumble at the faintest touch.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
F loteson? Jetteson?” With one hand against the slick stone wall, I ventured into the mouth of the cave where I first found my babies.
I expected to be enveloped in a heavy cloak of darkness. I was welcomed, instead, by the soft blue glow of bioluminescent plankton. The walls had been painted with it. Spinning in a slow circle, I admired the starry night sky effect on the otherwise dismal cavern.
“Princess,” Jetteson darted in, his scaly hide brushing against my cheek.
“We’ve been busy preparing things for you,” Floteson finished, lacing himself around my now fuller midsection.
Closing my eyes, I reveled in the squeeze of their twining embrace. “My darling boys, I feared you wouldn’t recognize me.”
Flicking their heads, my striped babes exchanged matching guilty grimaces.
“We had to know you were well, Your Majesty,” Floteson explained, his tail nervously twitching from side to side.
Jetteson’s lip curled from his teeth in a vicious snarl. “We saw all our princess was subjected to by those treacherous wretches.”
Them having witnessed my degradation caused a hot flush to fill my cheeks. “If you watched, you know I am no longer anyone’s princess.”
“Now you can be whatever you choose.” Curling across my lower back, Floteson nudged me forward while trying out my new moniker. “Come … Ursela, let us show you around your new home.”
“It took a great many trips since your arrest, and some awkward collaborative team work, but we would gladly endure this and more to make you happy,” Jetteson gushed, guiding me down a slight incline which delved farther into the lair.
Eyes snapping open wide, my hands clapped over my mouth. Everywhere I looked, the space was decorated with my most treasured possessions from my quarters, and my Alchemist parlor. A ridge in one wall was lined with my potions and tonics. Next to that, sat my cauldron and the faded remnants of the Olympus Pearl.
Snorting an abrupt laugh, my shoulders curled in as I rushed to a heap of fabric situated in the corner. “My bedding! You thought to bring my wonderfully cozy bedding!”
My boys braided themselves together, beaming at my enthusiasm.
“We would’ve brought your actual bed,” Floteson began.
“But the sea turtle we bribed to carry it swindled us,” Jetteson finished.
Gathering one lush blanket in my arms, I flung it around my shoulders like a cape. Twirling with a giggle, I stopped short, the laughter dying on my lips. My vanity mirror. Mouth suddenly arid, I realized I had yet to see the result of my transformation.
Letting the blanket float to ground in a discarded mound, I moved to the mirror in a dream-like trance. Parted lips expelled a slow, easy exhale. The figure staring back at me was of fuller, more cephalopod-esque form. That part I anticipated. Unfortunately, I was unprepared for the ruthless fashion in which the devastation had robbed my entire appearance of its vibrant pallet. Long, flowing raven hair drained to a dull platinum. A once creamy complexion had taken on the shade of an overcast day. Bright violet eyes I inherited from my mother blinked back a steely gray.
Hands trembling with the shock, I pinched my cheeks to give them a dash a color. It helped … a little. Extracting a petal from a sea flower my boys had generously supplied, I painted my lips a brilliant red. The girl staring back at me would never be what she once was. On the other hand, there was nothing saying she couldn’t be … better. Fabulous even.
Spying my fencing sword propped against the wall, my hand instinctively closed around the hilt. Twisting my bleached locks into a knot on top of my head, I administered one quick swipe of my blade. All that remaine
d of Vanessa was sliced away, drifting off on a passing current. Curling my fingers into my short-sheared hair, I gave a pull here and a tug there. The strands darted off my head in a messy disarray. Sucking in my cheeks, I turned my head one way then the other, admiring the end result.
It was new.
It was unexpected.
It was … fierce.
“That’s a good look for you,” a deep baritone rumbled from the mouth of the cave.
Six little words. That’s all it took for me to go from eased acceptance to ravenously livid fast enough to give a sailfish whiplash.
“Triton! Saying you aren’t welcome here is a vast understatement.”
Skirting around him with a vengeful glare, I dragged my fingers through the glowing plankton, leaving angry black slashes in its otherwise serene blue. My heart beat the drums of war against my ribs, the crescendo of thumping calling forth death’s malevolent army. The walls came alive around me, writhing and churning in a sea of faces. Yanking my hand away, I flinched at the stone surface that blinked back at me with cold, unfeeling eyes.
Oblivious to the ghostly new arrivals summoned by my rage, Floteson and Jetteson shot behind Triton, pinning him into the lair.
“I didn’t come here looking for trouble.” Acknowledging the stunted sharks with little more than a passing interest, Triton cast his gaze to the ocean floor. Chewing on his lower lip, he watched the tip of his tail brush over a few loose stones. “Quite the opposite in fact.”
“He plays coy.” The voices of the unseen melded together, their whispers curling over my lobes, burrowing their influence into my mind. I could make out my mother’s voice among them. I would recognize it anywhere. “The timid younger brother. Yet it was he that ordered you to be strung up. He would see you, his own sister, exxxxxecuted.”
“Playing coy,” I repeated. Swallowing hard, I attempted to physically shake off the spirits’ influence. “I almost believe the act. Then, I remember you to be the same cold-hearted barracuda who ordered my body be shredded and contorted in the most painful way imaginable, and better sense prevails. I’m fickled like that.”
Nodding his acceptance of the claim, Triton chose his next words carefully. “When I handed your sentencing over to the Council, I never imagined they would demand such extreme measures.”
“Lies!” the paranormal chorus countered. “He wanted to see you suffer, yet was too cowardly to speak the words himself!”
Acidic bubbles churned and popped in my veins, releasing their venom into my bloodstream. “You did nothing to contest it. Quite the opposite, in fact. You, in all your kingly glory, called forth the creature to infect me. You see, I remember the proceedings in intricate detail. I found that moments of abject torture and anguish, such as that, provide a certain sense of clarity.”
Dragging his tongue over his bottom lip, Triton forced his gaze to meet mine. “I said I never imagined, not that I didn’t agree.”
Behind him, Floteson and Jetteson hissed their outrage, their mighty jaws snapping at the water.
“He admits it!” the dead chided. “He doesn’t deserve to wear that crown!”
Gills rising and falling in ragged pants, my blood boiled, preparing to erupt in a violent fury. “Thank you so much for coming all the way out here to clarify that. Now, I suggest you take your leave.”
“Blind him with ink. Trap him in—”
Expanding his gills, he expelled a rush of water in exasperation. “Hundreds of soldiers died, Vanessa. The spell that killed them was your creation.”
“Say that name again and it will be the last word you utter!” I roared, eliciting a giddy titter from those haunting faces.
Palms raised, Triton attempted to halt my outburst. “Ursela,” he corrected in a soothing whisper, “I didn’t come here to fight, nor to apologize.”
“No one knows he’s here, or else they wouldn’t have let him come alone. Now’s your chance … seek our vengeance.”
The blood pulsing behind my eyes awoke a pounding in my temples. “So, this visit is for a status update? Wonderful. Let me speed this up then. You publicly tortured me and turned me into a sea monster. We,” with two fingers I gestured from me, to him, and back again, “are not okay.”
“Torture him.”
“We could be,” Triton exclaimed, edging his way closer. “We have no one except each other left. We can still be a family. The banishment must stand in the eyes of Atlantica. Even so, that doesn’t mean we can’t be a part of each other’s lives!”
“Family,” I tried on the word, wincing at its bitter bite against on my tongue. “Is that what we are?”
“Play with him.”
“Of course!” Triton grinned. The blue diamonds sparkling victoriously in his eyes made it clear he believed me to be convinced. “I love you, you know that!”
Tentacles rolling across the ocean floor deposited me directly in front of my brother. Tilting my head, I stared up at him through narrowed eyes. “Were we family when you had me bound in the courtyard? What about when the first gruesome pop of my tail tearing apart resonated through the kingdom? Were you my protective brother then?”
The words struck him with the force of a harpoon to the gut, stealing the water from his gills. Hunting for words of any sort, his mouth opened and shut like a largemouth bass.
“Kill him,” the seductive whisper of the voices skittered up my spine, shuddering through me.
“I was alone in my torture. And you shall be alone in yours,” I rasped, hands clenched at my sides.
It wasn’t time.
I wasn’t ready.
His offer to repair our shattered family still sliced too deep into my battered heart.
Even so, the wraiths’ suggestions seeped into my veins, creating an overpowering need for carnage and chaos. It took every ounce of strength I had to keep all ten appendages firmly in check.
“He’s not fit to wear that crown. Rid the kingdom of his incompetence. Take what is rightful yours.”
“You need to leave. Now,” I snapped, feeling the thread of my resolve slipping from my grasp.
“I’m not afraid of you, Ursela,” he declared with a sad, nostalgic smile, whisking us both back to the first time we found ourselves in that same cavern.
“Wrap your tentacles around his neck. Choke the life from his useless carcass.”
Chin to my chest, I feared movement of any kind would unleash my brewing frenzy. Glaring up from under my brow, I forced the words through clenched teeth. “Then you really haven’t been paying attention.”
“I don’t want to leave you.” Tone bordering on a whine, Triton’s shoulder’s sagged in defeat. “Ursela, please …”
As if moving by their own accord, my hands rose, curling into vicious claws on their ascent. Something ugly and twisted inside of me yearned to feel his pulse still. To experience the crunch of his trachea under my unrelenting grasp.
“Triton,” I gasped in a final plea, “get out!”
A potent riptide of magic slammed into him, whisking him back to his domain in a bright flash of light.
Arms falling slack, I squeezed my eyes shut at my temporary victory and focused on steadying my erratic breathing.
Slimy scales brushed my bare shoulders and neck, my boys coiling around me in anticipation of my command.
“Floteson, Jetteson, follow him home,” I ordered, acknowledging each of them with a tender scratch to the chin, “and … keep an eye on our young king.”
With dutiful nods, the whirled around me, then darted off to do my bidding.
“You won’t be able to resist us forever,” the rippling wave of faces warned. “Only through retribution will you be reunited … with your love.”
Something bumped the halved clam shell resting on a nearby ledge, which the sharks had swiped from the vanity table of my palace quarters. A small item rolled free, catching the current to float directly into my eye line.
Breath lodged in my gills, I moved as if in a dream. Catching the
thin reed between two fingers, I turned it over, admiring the whale’s tail image carved into the delicate driftwood. The last time I saw Alastor, I gazed up at his handsome features while he fastened the accessory into my hair. Clutching it to my chest, I felt the scabbed wound on my heart tear open. He had only been mine for a moment, yet I held no doubt I would ache for him eternally. With him, I was safe. I was beautiful. I was home.
Vanessa would have screamed her throat raw at the loss of him and unleashed her fury by shattering vials with a violent sweep of her arm. My hand twitched at my side with longing to carry out that very act. Then, I remembered … Vanessa was dead. Pulling the reed away from my torso, I pinched it between two fingers. Eyes narrowing, a tentacle rose on either side of me, looping around each pointed edge of the painful reminder. A sharp pulse, a little pressure, and the twig snapped in two. Both fingers and tentacles let it fall away, the shards riding the tide out.
If that was all I had left to hold on to of Alastor, it was insufficient by far.
Caught up in the dark storm of my thoughts, I failed to notice the chestnut-haired beauty flitting into the cavern with tentative strokes of her tail.
It was the sweet lilt of her voice cutting through the somber drone of the dead that snapped my head around. “Lady Ursela? I-I’m terribly sorry to disturb you. Others warned me not to come, but I had no choice. I had to speak to you.”
Sucking water through my teeth, I recoiled into the shadows. I had barely recovered from the ghouls’ last onslaught, I couldn’t fight them off again. Not yet.
“I mean you no harm!” the girl offered with a compassionate tilt of her head, extending one hand in my direction.
“It’s not me I’m worried for,” I forewarned, sinking farther into the darkened corner.
The mer let her hand fall. Lacing her fingers together in front of her, she nervously picked at her nails. “I don’t believe the horrible rumors circling the kingdom. You did all you could for our soldiers.” Chin quivering, her voice cracked with emotion. “What happened was simply a horrible accident. What followed … a travesty.”
Rise of the Sea Witch Page 22