Table of Contents
The King
Responsibilities
Human Again
The Bathtub and Magic
The New Queen
Heartbreak
A Hurried Wedding
Two Jobs and a Blind Date
The Adventurer
A Quest
The Ruined Honeymoon
On Film
The Map
Lured
Sirens
Enchanted
A Revelation
Ari
The First Time
Overboard
Dead Alive
Saved
The Mermaid’s Tail
Havfrue
The Shark
Sirens Retreating
The End and the Beginning
Thank you for reading
All books by J.A.Armitage
Breakwater
The King
The wonderful feeling of the salty water flying past me as Ari drove me through the ocean never got old. I lived for moments like this when it was just the two of us, swimming through the cool water, jumping over the waves, and sunning ourselves on the rocks away from the media, away from my family and most of all away from responsibility.
We weren’t dating...at least, not officially. If any of the press asked me about him, I’d remind them that I was still single, but everyone knew about us. We’d been splashed over the cover of every national newspaper for weeks and a couple of international ones too. So, officially we weren’t a couple, but it was no secret to anyone that I ran down to the rocks after my lessons every day, pulled my dress over my head and leaped into the ocean in my swimsuit where Ari would meet me.
Ari swam me back to the rocks, cutting our time together short as I had to go to a dress fitting for Hayden and Astrid’s wedding. After everything that had happened over the past few months, they realized how much they meant to each other, and Hayden finally popped the question in a much more fitting way than he had done the first time when he was under the spell of the sea witch.
I picked my way across the rocks, following the route I always did and rushed back inside to take a shower and wash all the salt water from my hair. As usual, I’d spent too long in the ocean and was already cutting it fine, when my father apprehended me with a towel.
“I do wish you’d take a towel with you,” he wheezed, handing it over to me. “We are forever having to mop up water.”
I looked at the floor behind me and conceded he had a point.
“Sorry, Daddy,” I kissed his cheek, jumping back as he dissolved into a coughing fit. “Maybe you should go for a lie-down? You’re not looking so good.”
He waved his arms around as if to dismiss the notion he could possibly be ill. “You are as bad as your mother. Honestly, now that she’s not worrying about the water anymore, she’s turned all her attention to me.”
My lips curled up at the edges. While it was true that my mother was more relaxed and calm than I’d ever known her since the threat that had been following her for her entire life had been eradicated, her relationship with my father had only strengthened. It had been a shock to him that he’d been married to a mermaid without knowing it, but he was a pragmatic sort and took it in his stride. I guess that was part of what made him a good king.
After bidding him goodbye, I took the stairs two at a time to my room where I pulled off my drenched swimsuit and dove into the shower.
Despite the rush of shampooing my hair and trying to wash my body at the same time, I still managed a little dance of joy at how wonderfully my life had turned out. After my lessons on how to be a queen, I spent every afternoon with Ari having a freedom I never thought I’d have. And the best part was that after Hayden and Astrid’s wedding, my parents were allowing me to borrow a sailboat from the royal fleet for a month-long vacation with Ari. I also had to take one of the Palace naval officers to sail the boat and watch over me, but for thirty glorious days, Ari and I would be mostly alone. Not only would I be with Ari, I’d be fulfilling my life-long dream of sailing the ocean. Ari wouldn’t be able to join me for long on the boat as when his tail dried, it turned into legs. Legs, which thanks to the sea witch’s last spell, caused him great agony. But he could sit on the edge of the boat and dangle his tail fin into the water, or swim beside us. Either way, it was going to be great.
I tried pushing back the little voice that popped up frequently, telling me that there was no future for us. I knew it, but I didn’t want to acknowledge it. He couldn’t live on the land without great personal pain, and I couldn’t live underwater. I was a half-mermaid, but unlike my mother, I couldn’t breathe underwater without holding the hand of another mermaid or merman. It made things difficult. To compound the problem, Ari and I were magically bonded. It wasn’t something that we chose; it was just something that happened. But neither of us could deny it had happened. So destiny had us pegged to spend our days together while reality made it easier said than done. At some point, we would have to go our separate ways knowing that being apart would hurt both of us. Whatever we did, there would be pain involved.
“Urrgh!” I jumped out of the shower, pushing the bad thoughts to one side, and dressed at lightning speed. My mother had offered her study to Astrid to use as a fitting room for all the bridesmaid dresses, so I didn’t have far to run, and yet, I still managed to be the last one there.
All eyes turned toward me as I dashed through the door, my hair still dripping wet.
“Sorry,” I mumbled, looking for a seat next to one of the younger bridesmaids.
“You’ll have to go last,” grumbled the seamstress who was currently pinning the hem of a young flower girl’s dress. The girl in question, a tiny thing of about four or five looked bored to tears as she was asked to slowly twirl so the seamstress could insert the pins. In addition to the flower girl, there were four others, all dressed in pale blue half-made dresses. My mother watched over them all, but she still managed to give me a steely look as I took the seat beside her.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“It’s fine,” Astrid said, hurrying over to me. “I wanted you to be last anyway. That means you can help me with my wedding dress and tell me what you think. It’s a little bit crazy.”
I looked at the garment bag hanging up on the wall and wondered what she meant by a little crazy.
With her bright green and blue hair, she was going to stand out, no matter what she wore.
Just then, the door opened, and my younger brother, Anthony, stuck his head through the door. One of the other bridesmaids threw a cushion at him and yelled that it was girls only. The cushion bounced off his head and fell to the floor. My mother stood up to see what he wanted, but I jumped up ahead of her.
“It looks like I won’t be needed for a while; I’ll speak to him.”
My mother tutted her disapproval. “Okay, but let him know it was awfully rude to butt in here. I told him that we were using this room as a fitting room. He should have known that the girls would be in various states of undress.”
I bit back a smirk. That’s probably exactly the reason he’d chosen to look in. He was at that awkward stage. Sixteen years old and second in line to the throne. He’d also managed to have a growth spurt over the summer, adding about five inches to his height and was now taller than I was.
“What is it?” I hissed, closing the door behind me.
“I’m sorry. I forgot you were all in there. I was looking for you, actually. Father said you might be down here.”
I chose to believe him although his coming to speak to me was unusual. It’s not th
at we didn’t get on. We never had a bad word to say about each other; but the truth was, we weren’t close. He was two years younger than me, and a rather gangly looking kid now that he’d grown so quickly. It’s like he hadn’t given his body time to catch up and so was ridiculously thin despite eating like a horse at every meal. And he never quite knew what to say. Up until a few weeks ago, we barely saw each other except in passing in the palace or at mealtimes. I’d usually be out with Ari or, before I met him, with Hayden and Astrid. Anthony generally liked to go to his room to read. He enjoyed his own company, whereas I liked being around people.
“You found me,” I said leading him to a little sofa along the corridor. “What is so important that you’d seek me out?”
He shifted a little, looking uncomfortable. “I wasn’t sure of one of the things we learned about today, and I was hoping you’d clarify it for me.”
My eyes widened. “This is a turn up for the books—you asking me for help with your studies.”
He’d asked to join my preparations for becoming a monarch a couple of months ago. Even though he’d never be king, he wanted to know more about our country. My father thought it a splendid idea, and since then, he’d joined me in learning how to rule the kingdom of Trifork.
I wasn’t being totally fair with him. I’d been having lessons like these for well over a year, and so it made sense that I knew more than he did, but it was still a surprise that he came to me for help. He got things better than I did. It was instinctive in him, whereas I had to study hard to retain any of the information. He enjoyed the lessons. No, he loved them. I, on the other hand, tolerated them and spent most of them wishing the time away until I could go and see Ari.
“I was wondering how the kingdoms of Trifork and Havfrue work. I mean, we are heirs to the throne of both, but Havfrue isn’t technically a kingdom. What happens if our grandfather dies? Will our mother have to move back there?”
I nodded. Technically, what he said was true. Havfrue, the underwater city that my grandfather ruled was not on any map and was not one of the official nine kingdoms like Trifork was. It was barely a kingdom at all. Really, it was only one city, but it did have a ruler who was a king, so it was kind of a kingdom. As the ruler of Havfrue had no interest in any of the other nine kingdoms (apart from his own family in Trifork) I didn’t think it really mattered either way. Most people didn’t know mermaids and mermen existed, let alone knew of the existence of Havfrue, and that was the way our grandfather liked it. When the media found out about my mother’s origins, Havfrue was catapulted into the press for a while, but since then, things had calmed down.
As for us both being heirs to both thrones, I guess that was true too. If my father died, I would become queen of Trifork. If my grandfather died, as his eldest daughter, my mother would technically become queen of Havfrue, but it was tricky as she was also queen of Trifork through marriage.
“I don’t know what will happen if our grandfather dies, but I doubt Mother will move back. She is the queen here. Maybe one of her younger sisters will take her place.”
Just then, the younger bridesmaids trooped out of my mother’s study along with our mother.
“I’ve got to go,” I whispered to Anthony. “I’m the maid of honor, and the seamstress is a right old bag.”
Anthony gave me a grin as I headed back to the study.
The dress that had been picked out for me was the same shade of blue as the other bridesmaid dresses, but Astrid had picked out a material that looked like mermaid scales. It was also cut in a mermaid style. I held it up and raised an eyebrow at Astrid who stood there grinning at me mischievously as if she’d done the funniest thing in the world.
“What?” She shrugged, holding up her hands. “I thought it fitting, given that you are half-mermaid and all, I figured you may as well look like one. Besides, it’s a nautical themed wedding because of Hayden’s family’s naval background. You should see my dress.”
“Please tell me you aren’t dressing up as a squid or something? I don’t think I could take it.”
“Silly.” She pulled a dress from the final garment bag and held it up. It couldn’t have been more different from the dress she wore at the fake wedding a couple of months back. It started off white at the top but had an ombre effect where it went through every shade of blue from the palest sky to the depths of the ocean near the hem. I wasn’t too sure if I liked it until she put it on. It matched her hair and her quirky personality perfectly.
“I’m going to match it with some white lilies and have my hair up. What do you think?”
I stared at the pair of us in the mirror. Neither one of us looked traditional in our strange wedding outfits. This wouldn’t be to my mother’s taste at all, and because of that I was kinda glad she’d left when she had. But seeing us there together, we looked out of this world.
“Sensational!” I replied and meant it. It couldn’t have been more perfect.
I pulled down the zipper at the back of Astrid’s dress to help her out of it, and as I did, the door to the study flew open.
I turned to find Anthony, red-faced and out of breath.
Annoyance at his blatant rudeness overtook me. With my hands on my hips, I barked a warning at him. “Didn’t I just tell you twenty minutes ago not to come barging in here while we are dressing? You can’t just do that. I’m going to tell father.”
“That’s why I’m here,” he blurted out. “Father has collapsed. An ambulance has been called for, but he’s not breathing. One of the members of staff is doing CPR on him.”
Responsibilities
I’d only just talked to him an hour or so earlier. He’d looked ill then, but I couldn’t quite replace the image of him berating me for getting water on the floor to one of him lying unconscious. Without bothering to change, I rushed out of my mother’s study and raced after Anthony.
We found a whole bunch of people crowded around his recumbent form in the palace entrance way. The grand double height oak doors were open, and I could see an ambulance outside. The crowd of various members of the palace staff parted as Anthony and I got there, and the four paramedics lifted my father onto the ambulance.
“What happened? How is he?” I asked my mother when I found her in the crowd. Behind me, I heard Anthony thanking the members of staff for their help and telling them to go back to work.
“He’s breathing now, but I don’t know what’s wrong. He was found unconscious at the bottom of the stairs, but it didn’t look like he’d fallen down them. I think he collapsed before he started walking up them. Can you look after the palace while I’m gone? Ask Anthony to help. I’ve already asked John to do anything you need. He’ll be able to help you with the media. This is bound to get out sooner rather than later, and we’ll have to put out a statement. I’ll call you as soon as I know more.”
I nodded my head as she was helped into the back of the ambulance. The doors closed, the blue flashing lights swirled, and the siren blared. At the bottom of the driveway, the main gates opened and already a group of people had shown up to see what was happening.
As the main doors were closed, I turned to speak to Anthony, but he’d already gone, more than likely helping the staff get back to business as usual.
I had never felt more alone in my life. The huge hallway was now empty of people except the two doormen who stood silently behind me, waiting for instruction.
“You can go back outside,” I whispered to them, my voice cracking with the simple command.
They both nodded, leaving me completely by myself and unsure of what to do. I was now the highest ranking person in the palace, and yet, I stood there, rigid and filled with fear, not having the first clue what to do next. My mother had mentioned John. John was the king’s chief advisor and my father’s right-hand man. If anyone would know what to do, it would be him, and it seemed like a good place to start.
I dashed down into the servant’s quarters on the lower level, taking the steps two at a time, trying not to trip o
ver the mermaid style dress as I went. Most of the staff lived locally, but some of the higher staff members had their own quarters, John being one of them. He had the nicest suite with his own kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and living area. I hammered on his door, despite it being the middle of the day and therefore unlikely that he would be there. One of the kitchen staff heard me and shouted down the corridor.
“Ma’am, if you are looking for John, he’s up in his office.”
Of course! He had his own set of rooms upstairs where he and a number of staff beneath him helped run the palace. In my agitated state, I’d completely forgotten.
Getting up the stairs again was much harder than running down. The dress was tight at the bottom making it difficult to run. Why did I have to be in this ridiculous dress just when my father needed me so?
John was exactly where the kitchen hand said he’d be. As I walked into his office, I found him on the phone. With a somber expression, he held one finger up as if to tell me he was nearly done.
“I said the palace has no comment at this time... As soon as we know anything, we will issue a statement... No, good day.”
He replaced the receiver then lifted it again to stop any more calls.
“Bloody press! Your father left less than ten minutes ago, and already, I’ve had more than five phone calls from reporters. I don’t know how they find out so quickly.”
Blue Water (A Little Mermaid Reverse Fairytale Book 2) Page 1