Silence stretched to impossible lengths as Kai stared between the three of us, obviously waiting for an explanation, for the truth. I couldn’t look him in the eye, even as I felt his gaze fall heavily on me. I was too afraid I’d find an accusation in his eyes, and I couldn’t deal with that, atop everything else.
Thankfully, Odele spared me the hardship of explaining. She let out a dreadfully weary sigh. “Okay, look,” she began. “Aunty Odessa had a baby with Dorian who was stolen from them, and that baby is her.” I looked up to find Odele gesturing vigorously in my general direction. “So meet Odalaea Malabella Knoll, Princess of Thalassar, rightful heir to the throne of this kingdom and Kappur’s. If you have any questions, keep them to yourself, because she doesn’t want to answer them, and frankly, neither do I.”
“Oh gods.” I dropped my face into my palms and tried taking deep, calming breaths. Her explanation had been short, terse if anything. Of course Kai would have questions. He’d be crazy not to have them. After a moment, I finally felt brave enough to look up at the Prince.
He looked to be grappling with the information Odele had just given him.
“Don’t hurt yourself trying to process it,” she commented unkindly.
Kai ignored her and looked up at me. Our gazes held, my own was fearful, waiting for judgment, accusation, for something.
“You are the daughter of King Dorian and Princess Odessa?” he asked quietly.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. Daughter was a title I could not yet accept wholly as a part of myself. And yet when Kai asked, I found myself nodding, forcing down a swallow. “Yes,” I replied, equally quiet.
“How long have you known?” His eyes flickered away from me and onto Elias for a brief second.
Odele let out an exasperated sound. “She’s known for less than twenty-four hours, and the Black Blade has known for an hour. Are you done? Because I’m bored, this whoooole conversation is boring.”
I opened my mouth to comment on what she thought would make the day more interesting? Explosives?
I never got the chance, though.
Because a few quick knocks sounded on the door, and we all turned to glance at it with horror as it opened, and a moment later, Captain Saber swam through.
“I sent the guards away,” he commented, almost distractedly, and froze.
My heart would surely cease beating now, I thought. There was no way I could continue living. Not when Captain Saber’s gaze settled slowly, ever so slowly, like the workings of a recording, over each one of us. Me. Elias. Kai.
And finally, Odele.
His mouth dropped open, rendering him speechless momentarily, before a strangled word tore from his throat like a gasp of pain. Not a word, I realized, but a name.
“Odele.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Tiberius
SURELY THIS WAS the working of my own overactive imagination. Surely this was some sort of phantasm, some sort of recording.
Surely this wasn’t real.
“Odele.” The word tore from my throat without meaning to. She was here. The Princess of Thalassar was here, alive, in this room.
I had long given up the idea that I’d ever see her again. I never imagined our reunion. All I could imagine was the hope and relief I would feel once she was back home in this palace. How we would go back to our normal, regular routine. How my feelings would finally settle into the stillness that her absence had obliterated.
Looking at her now, I felt none of what I thought I’d feel coarse through me.
I felt only a sense of dread, and confusion, as it tore out of me like the last striking of a blade set to kill. Like the soundlessness of a bomb exploding on a battlefield before chaos erupted into a cacophony of confusion, blood, and death.
A small part of me wanted to reach out and touch her, grasp her at the shoulder to make sure this was all real, that my mind wasn’t playing some cruel, ironic trick on me. I didn’t dare take a stroke forward.
I feared I’d throttle her if I did.
“You’re alive…” My eyes couldn’t seem to tear away from her figure. I should look away. My eyes should find Maisie’s, I should be giving her a smile of reassurance. One that said, All is well. I am here. But Odele was hypnotising, keeping me focused.
“Of course I’m alive, Tiberius, don’t be ridiculous.” Nothing about her had changed. Not her voice, not the impetuous way in which she answered, she was the same.
I cringed. How had I never realized before the venom in her words, the terrible, terrible way she looked at me?
“Where have you been?” I threw the words out like the accusation that they were. “Everyone has been worried about you. I—” I broke off, all too aware of everyone staring at me. Of the Black Blade’s amusing glances boring between my shoulder blades. I could practically hear his own accusations and mocking laughter in my mind, even though all in the room was silent.
I reeled in my emotions, tightening everything on a steel hook and pulled them, tucking them tightly into my heart. My shock could wait a moment, and my anger could wait even longer.
Right now, I wanted answers.
“Why are you back?” I demanded tightly.
Odele’s eyebrows rose in amusement. “Well,” she pointed out sarcastically, “this is my house. And honestly, that isn’t the warm welcoming I was expecting from you.” She smiled, the type of smile that used to make my heart thump wildly and my palms itch with a burning need to touch her.
I tightened my hands into fists and whirled away from her to look at Maisie.
And for the briefest of moments, I caught a glimpse of something in her eyes. Of that confidence she’d displayed being suddenly demolished into crumbling little pieces, like a conch shell crumbling to dust. As she caught me looking at her, I could see the struggle it took to rebuild that structure, around her soul and around her heart.
And I couldn’t help but feel like I was on the outside looking in, and that with the return of the Princess of Thalassar, Maisie would undoubtedly lock me out.
For good.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Maisie
I COULDN’T HELP but feel like I was on the outside looking in. Watching desperately from a barred window in a high tower as the captain was reunited with his first love. As he looked at her with shock and admiration, his hands curled into fists at his sides, almost as if he were holding back from reaching out to her. From touching her, to assure himself that this was real.
It shouldn’t have been such a grand shock. After all, we all assumed the Princess would come back eventually. I was just fulfilling her role for the briefest of moments. But I’d gotten so caught up in it, that I’d fallen for the facade. I’d fallen for those in her life that were never really meant to be in mine.
Watching Captain Saber take Odele in was a sharp reminder that we never truly belonged together in the first place.
I’d merely been her replacement.
“Explain,” the captain demanded coolly. I could make out the strain in his voice, the difficulty he was having at keeping everything rigidly contained. Maybe all he wanted to do was break down and grasp for her. Hold her. Love her fully, fervently like he never could with me.
My heart broke, and I took comfort in the fact that Odele did not love him back, but my guilt at the emotion was immediate. His suffering shouldn’t be comforting. I’d known this whole time who he really cared about, and it shouldn’t bother me now, whether Odele returned his feelings or not.
“Ugh, do I have to explain everything?” Odele complained. “Fine, but only one more time, so listen up. Maisie is my long lost cousin. Her real name is Odalaea Malabella Knoll, and she’s the heir to the Thalassarin and Kappurin thrones. Got it?”
After hearing the story so many times, my heart should have been numb to the repetitive news. It wasn’t.
Captain Saber’s eyes widened to impossible fractions. He looked even more surprised at that news than he did at Odele’s presence, honestly.
I was a mess.
“If Maisie is heir to the throne… then that means…”
“Thalassar is hers. She can stop the war, and marry Kai and do whatever else she wants,” Odele interrupted the captain’s musings.
My whole body tensed at her words. “Thalassar isn’t mine,” I choked out. “Because I don’t want it.” How many times did I have to tell her? I wasn’t a royal. I didn’t want her life.
Elias’s warm hand touched my lower back, steadying my emotions and me. I drew on his strength.
Odele looked at me with exasperation. “Odalaea,” she began arrogantly. “We have the proof. Your claim to the throne is irrefutable. It’s yours, you just have to take it back.”
I snorted humorlessly. “And how do you propose we do that?”
There was silence afterwards. I looked from face to face. Odele, who I could tell was mulling it over in her mind, trying to come up with a plan. Captain Saber, his gaze never once straying from her. Elias, who was staring at me with lazy concern in his dark gaze, and Kai, who was chewing ferociously at his bottom lip.
“That’s what I thought,” I said with finality. “There is no way to fix this, except for you take the throne you’re meant to take, Odele.” I pressed my hands into my tail as I leaned forward, conveying with my eyes the decision I’d finally taken. I would not take the throne. She would. It was hers. She was the Princess the kingdom knew. I was just a baby stolen from my mother’s arms.
“But it’s rightfully yours, cousin. I won’t steal it from you.”
“It’s not stealing if it was never really mine in the first place,” I pointed out. “Keep it. Because even if I wanted the throne, there’s no way I could keep it. No way I’d be accepted.”
“Actually…” I turned abruptly at Kai’s slow interruption. His brown eyes were shining through with a blue that I recognized as the mischief of his dragon entity. “Perhaps there is a way.”
Odele’s eyes shone at the prospect of a plan. Lazily, she dropped herself onto the bed, looking quite graceful as she did it. She sat up straight, and placed her hands in her lap as she smiled at the Prince. “Do tell,” she ordered casually, as casually as if she were ringing for tea.
“The wedding…”
I sucked in a breath. No. Not this again.
“The wedding…” Odele pursed her lips. “What about the wedding?”
“You’ll be eighteen in but two weeks,” Kai commented.
“Aww, you remembered my birthday.”
Kai ignored her and continued, “We are to be married the day of. The Queen wanted to postpone it because we fell behind schedule when you ‘fell ill’.” He used water quotes mockingly. “I convinced her not to.” He smiled almost triumphantly.
Odele snorted at the expression. “Don’t look too smug, Lizard Prince. If she acquiesced, it’s likely because she has a plan.”
Kai’s smile didn’t die. He just looked at her with eyes that seemed to burn for a challenge. “Which is why we will have to counter with a plan of our own. Maisie is the first-born heir, let her marry me in your stead. Let her sign her given name upon the marriage documents. Let her be crowned, and once it’s done, we expose Circe for the usurper she is.”
Odele opened her mouth, closed it again, searching for a flaw in his plan. “What if she tries to kill Maisie before the coronation?”
Captain Saber tensed. “I will not let that happen,” he hissed venomously.
I started at the tone.
Odele looked at him curiously. “Well, it’s quite a possibility that she’ll do it. Perhaps that’s why she accepted your proposal, because she doesn’t plan on keeping Maisie alive.”
“Then we protect her,” Kai suggested. “I set my advisors on her.”
“I will protect her,” Captain Saber added.
“Very well, then we can play the proof at the wedding, the recording showing aunty Odessa and King Dorian getting married. We’ll tell all the guests the truth.” She clapped excitedly.
“My father has likely already sent my mer here to celebrate. We will have dragons and Draconians here to help secure her safety when the truth unfolds.”
“The Queen will get thrown into the dungeons for the murders, Kai and Maisie will be married, you’ll stop a war and rule Thalassar and Kappur. It’s perfect.” Odele was smiling widely at the plan, and then turned to look at me. In fact, they were all staring at me, as if waiting for some sort of reply.
My mind was whirling with their words, trying to take it all in, process the plans they were making.
“But Kai is your betrothed, Odele,” I argued weakly.
Odele waved my words off with the fanning of her hand. “I don’t want him. Besides, you two obviously have a thing for each other. I’m happy to take a stroke aside for your happiness, cousin.”
My eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why?”
She looked shocked I’d even asked. “Well, these beautiful possibilities, this palace, everything was stolen from you. I’m just trying to give it back.”
My temper rose, flared like the blinding light of sun rays. I pushed myself up from the bed, glaring at her, glaring at all of them. “I don’t want it, Odele. How many times are you going to push this on me?”
Odele’s perfect demeanor crumbled into annoyance. “As many times as necessary. Until you accept who you are, and what belongs to you.”
My nails curled painfully into my palms until I felt a cold sting. “You are taking my life in your own hands. All of you. Floating around deciding what my future should be, what I should do, and who I should marry.” I saw Kai flinch at those words. “You all get to decide these things because you’re so used to everyone bowing to your every whim and wish without asking if it’s what they truly want. That alone is why I cannot accept this role of a royal. Because that is not me, so no,” I snarled. “I don’t want it, Odele. I don’t want your throne, or your crown, or you betrothed.” My heart shattered as I admitted those words, but I pushed through, glad when my vision blurred with tears so I might not see the expression on their faces. “I don’t want any of this.”
Before I could give them the opportunity to speak, I bolted, swiping at my eyes as I swam past them and out of the bedroom, into the halls.
Taking nothing but my broken heart and loneliness with me.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Elias
I GOT UP from my place, staring at the spot Maisie had vacated, feeling the echoes of her hollowness flow through me as well.
None of them understood. How could these royals and rich ever understand the burdens she carried, we carried? It was such an easy thing for them to snap their fingers and expect obedience. Expect their every wish to be granted, to take control of another’s life.
“Stop pushing it,” I said darkly, dangerously. The threat unveiled from my eyes and settled over them. They’d hurt her, and Maisie was a part of me, so intricately woven into the very fibers of my soul that what she felt, I did too.
“I am going after her,” Kai declared, ignoring me. He got up and swam after Maisie, letting the door click into place behind him.
I turned my glare to Odele. More the fool she was for not trembling, but taking in the full force of it. “If she doesn’t want it, don’t force it on her.”
Odele frowned and pursed her lips. “It doesn’t matter what she wants, criminal. She is a Princess. This is her life now.”
“Her life is whatever she wants it to be, and the more you insist, the more she will push you away. Give her time.”
“We don’t have time,” Odele snapped impatiently. “This needs to be done now.”
My eyes narrowed upon her, much like they did when gauging secrets and sniffing out lies. I could practically hear her every anxious thought that she so desperately wanted to keep hidden. But I tucked those secrets away without ever asking her for them, without even elaborating on them. They’d all come to the light soon enough.
I lo
oked over to Captain Saber to find him watching Odele. He’d watched her throughout the majority of the exchange, his eyes wide with disbelief. For a moment, my gaze was so penetrating, the force of it seemed to curl around him tightly. He turned from Odele to glare at me.
I smirked. “Remember who you belong to, Captain,” I reminded him, just before I turned away and slipped through the tapestry.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Kai
BECAUSE SHE swam blindly, knocking herself into walls and onto vases, she left a trail in her wake. One that was all too easy to follow.
I found her, finally, still and unmoving in the hall of portraits, staring almost angrily at one in particular. The one of Princess Odessa Malabella, her mother.
I stopped beside her silently, watching her expression, staring from the portrait to her face.
She looked breathtakingly similar to Odele, and that hadn’t meant a thing to me before. After all, the ocean was a vast, vast place. Surely every mer had someone out there who looked like them. But this made sense. It explained so much.
She had the elegant arch in her neck, the same one as Princess Odessa, and her coloring was that of the Malabella lineage, purple-blue hair and tail, pink tones of skin. Her eyes seemed wholly her own. Or maybe those were her father’s or some Kappurin ancestor’s. Features pulled from both royal lines to make up the mer that I loved.
I pressed my hand lightly to her arm. “Would it truly be so bad to be a royal?”
Laughter trinkled softly from her throat, and I could tell she didn’t mean it with humor, but with bitterness. She turned to me, and tears flowed freely from her eyes, rising like shining little clouds above her head. She looked so lost. And it broke my heart.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes it would be.”
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