“Why?” I demanded. “Why is the idea so repulsive to you?”
“Because!” she shouted. “Because this is what it means to be royalty.” She started forward and jerked the sleeves of my kimono up my arms, yanking my palms face down. Her fingers slid over my forearms, and the ridges of thin scars there. The scars my own father had given me. “It means cruelty, and death. It’s a whip coming down on hands for answering a question wrong. It’s war. It’s the lives of mer in inexperienced hands.” She pushed me away, almost as if with disgust. “I don’t want that, Kai.”
I let the sleeves slide back to my wrists. “It’s not just cruelty, my gem. It’s so much more.” I took a stroke forward, grabbing her wrist to pull her to me until our bodies touched. Until I felt every curve and angle breathing against me, until I felt the thumping of her heart like the second rhythm of my own. With one hand, I held her, and with the other, I pressed it against her chest. “This is what being a royal means.” I pressed my hand tighter against her chest, right against her thumping heart. “It’s for the love of the mer, and the love they have for you. It is heart and determination. It is sensitivity and caring. It is you.”
She stilled, black eyes trained on mine. She wanted to believe me, wanted to grasp onto those words like a lifeline. And I could see the precise moment when it all sank. She yanked away from me, shaking her head back and forth. “It’s not,” she whispered.
Those two words shattered my heart entirely. “It’s not?” I repeated quietly. “Then, is our shared love not enough to convince you? Is my love for you so awful that it prevents you from wanting to marry me?”
“You know that’s not it.” Her words came out weak and unconvincing.
“Then what is it?” I demanded on a shout, causing her to flinch. “What is it about?”
She paused, and I had cause to wonder if it was about anything at all. If she truly had qualms about the whole thing, or why she even had to stop and think on it. At this moment, I didn’t understand anything, I didn’t understand her.
“It just would have been nice to have been asked,” she admitted quietly. Before I could comment on it, she was shaking her head back and forth and glaring at me once more. “The problem is, you’re a royal.”
“So are you!”
“No. I mean, you’re a royal at heart. You didn’t bother asking me, you just expected me to marry you, without talking to me first, because you’re used to everyone obeying. I don’t want that from you, or from this life.”
I ran a hand through my hair, stopping when I realized it was tied up. I dropped it again. “If that’s not who you want to be, then don’t be that mer. I’ll admit, to be a royal sometimes means giving up a part of yourself for the mer, doing what you don’t want to do for their safety and protection. Isn’t that what you’re doing already? You care about the mer, and they care about you. No one is saying you have to be like Odele, or like me. Just be you. Caring, kind, and beautiful.”
A sob burst past her lips, and her shoulders began racking up and down. “What if he doesn’t want me?” She gestured at herself, in her imperfect entirety, taking extra effort to gesture at the left side of her tail, where I knew her torn fin was.
“He will want you,” I said fiercely. It was all I could think to say, words I prayed to the Great Dragon would be proven true, because if they turned out not to be, I’d kill the King of Kappur.
“How do you know?” she demanded angrily.
I pulled her into my arms and held her there, pressing her face into my chest. I let her sobs rack through me, felt her heartbreak like it was my own. Inside, my dragon roared at her pain. I pressed a comforting kiss against the top of her head. “He’s tried to tear apart all of Thalassar to find you, my gem. He will want you. He will.”
She pulled away slightly to look up at me. She sniffled. “Kai,” she whispered. Her words were an invitation to take the pain away with a ferocity that almost crippled me.
I bent down, more than willing to gift her with this, perhaps the only thing I could, when around the corner, a body appeared, stilled, and stared.
Maisie gave a small jolt of fear and turned to look at the merman there.
Staring.
I wondered how long the Iolish mer had been there. What he’d heard. One look into those knowing, eerie silver eyes told me all I needed to know.
He’d heard every bit of our conversation.
“Val,” Maisie murmured nervously.
He looked between us, gaze gauging, assessing like a predator would its prey. There was no mistaking the threat there. A threat that passed over neither of our heads when the side of his lip twitched into the semblance of a smirk.
“Good evening,” he murmured, his voice like black ice, before he swiftly swept past us.
Maisie’s face was white with horror. “He heard us.”
He had. It had been obvious in his expression, the expression similar to a two-legger gloating upon catching game. And we were the fish on his hook.
“What are we going to do?” Maisie looked to me for guidance to fix this. I’d nearly ruined everything else for her, including our relationship. I’d almost pushed my mate away because of my arrogance. The least I could do was fix this.
Determined, I bent and took her lips in a ferocious kiss that left her breathless. All too soon, I was forced to pull away, even as she reached for more.
“Go to your room, my gem,” I ordered gently, yet firmly. “I will sort this out.”
I half expected an argument, but she sighed and nodded. Before she left, she pressed her hand warmly against my arm, like an offering of peace between us, as if our relationship hadn’t just shifted into something more. Boundaries had been tested, threatened the balance of the love we shared. I could only hope that our honesty strengthened it, helped us love deeper, wholly.
She turned from me, and I watched her go briefly before I whirled and swam to catch up with the Iolish.
He swam at a sedated pace, with all the stance of a mer who had nothing to worry about. He tensed when I swam up to him, and I noticed his hand skim over the pommel of his sword.
I decided to do aside with niceties. “You heard,” I accused without preamble.
He didn’t break his stance. Didn’t slow, or hasten. I took in his cool demeanor. The merman looked every bit a warrior. He was fairly tall, taller than even me, with a wide expanse of muscle. He looked like a block of ice, and his silver eyes were eerie, with something absolutely vicious in those depths.
“Perhaps,” he answered coolly. “It did not make sense at first, but I understand it now. Why she is so different from what we heard of her.” There was a smile in his voice, even if his lips were forming a thin, serious line.
A hot wave of rage swept through me, causing me to give free reign to the dragon inside. It reared up, spreading its massive wings. I could feel the change take over me in an instant. Nails lengthened to talons, scales hardening, pupils splitting, eyes changing. Everything about me was suddenly menacing.
But the Iolish did not quiver, foolish mer.
“You will tell no one,” I growled, my voice low and guttural. I’d do whatever it took to protect my mate and her secrets. Even if I had to leave this one bloody in the waters. “You will speak to no one about what you heard or saw.”
The Iolish stopped and turned abruptly to me, silver eyes blazing like starlight. “I do not respond to threats. So you will do well to hold your tongue.”
I smiled, a formidable twist of my lips that was mocking, and knowing. “Perhaps not, but if you share her secrets, then I will be forced to share yours.”
He did tense then, fingers tightening around the hilt of his sword of steel and ice. His eyes narrowed, as if to say, I don’t know what you mean.
I smiled cruelly. “You Iolish may frown upon cohorting with the rest of the kingdoms, and you may close yourselves off, but you are not as secretive as you think.” Daringly, I lifted a talon up and traced it down the length of his smooth cheek
. He kept still, as still as a block of ice. “You thought I wouldn’t know? We are neighbors, after all.”
He did knock my hand away then, without fear, yet with impatience. He had assumed a battle ready stance, but I had no desire to fight him. All I wanted was assurance, assurance that he would not tell our secrets. In exchange, I would not tell his.
“I assume you are keeping your secrets for a reason, just like we are keeping ours.”
The Iolish growled. “What do you want?” he demanded.
“Your silence is all I seek.”
“Then you have it.”
He held his arm out to me. A Iolish tradition, to seal deals with a hard shake. I clasped my arm in his, gripping his forearm while he gripped mine. We shook tightly, brusquely, and then pulled away.
“So it is done,” he murmured.
I smiled. “So it is.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Tiberius
“WHY ARE YOU here?” I could not contain the words any longer. It had been merely a few seconds after the Black Blade had disappeared through the tapestry before they had slipped out. They’d been on the tip of my tongue the entire time I’d watched the exchange.
I felt the vast space of the room pressing in on us, all too aware that Princess Odele and I were alone. I should have gone after Maisie, but Kai had done that. I should have spoken to Elias, but he had left. And now I was face to face with the mer I’d been searching for, and the anger slowly bubbling inside me was rising.
She looked at me with arrogance in her dark eyes. Unchanged. She was still a beauty, and she still acted as though the world was hers, and all who inhabited it should bow before her. Maisie had been right about that. About who she was.
“I already told you why,” Odele replied with exasperation. “I’m here to give my cousin her rightful place.” She smiled, and I could see it for what it really was. Venomous. She got up and fluttered about the room, hands passing over pastries on trays, picking them up and setting them back down again. I could only observe, and recognize her movements for the nervous gestures they were.
“It seems rather convenient that you came back just a few weeks before your birthday.”
She sighed and dropped a pastry. It thumped to the floor and bounced slowly. She turned to me, her every movement sinuous and inviting. Her eyebrow arched, her head cocked to the side as she studied me, observing and taking in pieces of me, much like the Black Blade collected secrets.
Except her glances affected me no longer.
Slowly, she sauntered over, swaying her hips in seductive movements that went ignored. When we were face to face, close enough to touch, she lifted a hand and ran a sharp nail down the side of my cheek. “You don’t seem so happy to see me, Captain,” she purred. “I thought you’d miss me most of all.” Her fingers stroked across my skin. “Didn’t you miss me?” She was slowly rising up so that our faces were level, so that our eyes met, and I could stare into those copper depths.
Copper depths that had me wishing for the polished glow of obsidian instead.
“Why are you here Odele?” I repeated tightly.
“I told you—”
“I don’t believe you.”
Why would I, when all she knew how to do was lie? When that was all she’d ever done to everyone? What made this time any different? A liar then, a liar now.
“Oh, silly Captain.” She rose higher, leaned in, until our lips were but a breath away. “Wouldn’t you rather kiss me instead of talk?”
I growled and pushed her away, slamming her body into the wall. She gasped out with shock at the action. I should have been shocked myself, but the feeling didn’t register. In my anger, I was blind. I pressed my forearm against her throat, keeping her pinned and at my mercy.
“You’re a liar, Odele,” I accused vehemently. “They don’t know you well enough to see it, but I do. You’re lying about why you came back here, and I want to know why.”
She squirmed against me, her nails clawing at my arm, pulling at the sleeve of my jacket. “What do you think you’re doing, Tiberius?” she demanded angrily.
I pressed tighter against her throat and then eased my grip, leaving her gasping and clawing at me. “Why are you here?”
“I told you! I want my cousin to have what was stolen from her!”
“You expect me to believe you’d be that selfless?” I pressed tighter, closing her waterway. It was like a demon had taken over me, and I wasn’t even a Draconian to claim that it was a separate being deep inside me. This anger, this rage directed at her was wholly my own, brought on by the fear of a threat against the mer I loved. “I know you, Odele. You haven’t done a selfless act a day in your life. Tell me the truth.” I eased my grip, but she didn’t reply. She glared, her eyes tiny arrows that bounded off my body. I didn’t care what or who she was. “Did you come back to harm Maisie? Are you merely befriending her as a trap, and when her back is turned will you help the Queen stick a knife in it?”
It was the only explanation I could muster as to why she’d returned, to get rid of Maisie, the true heir to the throne, and then to get rid of the Queen as well.
So that she could rule, without the weight of usurpers looming over her.
I’d not let that happen.
“I’m sworn to protect you,” I whispered darkly. “It was a vow I did not take lightly. But I swear to the gods, Odele, if you are here to harm Maisie, I’ll kill you myself.”
“Gods, lay off, will you?” She clawed at me. “I’m not going to kill my cousin, what’s wrong with you?”
“Then tell me the truth!”
“Alright!” she shouted. “Alright, I’ll tell you the truth, just get off of me.” I hesitated a moment before I pushed off of her. She glared and rubbed her neck with long, delicate fingers. “Ugh, you’ll leave a bruise.”
I frowned. “Talk.”
She blew out a breath. “Fine. I didn’t come back purely because I want Odalaea to take the throne, though that is a big part of it.”
Snorting, I crossed my arms against my chest. “Why should I believe that you’re willing to give up the throne?”
She kept rubbing at her throat. “You obviously don’t know me all that well, Captain.” She shook her head back and forth. “I don’t want the throne, that much is true. When I learned I had a legitimate cousin out there with an irrefutable claim to the throne, I had to find her. Because I don’t want it.”
I blinked, not quite believing that last bit. “You’d give up this lavish life?”
“Gods, no. But I would give up the throne. I’d give up ruling, because it’s a hassle. I don’t want to take care of mer I don’t care about. How boring. And I didn’t want to marry that lizard prince, either. I’ll leave the boring stuff to Odalaea. She can have the kingdom she wants to save, the Prince she loves, and I can have my freedom and just live here richly and happily.”
Gods.
This, I could believe. Even when she presumed to be selfless, it was all only in her best interests. She hadn’t done any of this because she actually cared about Maisie, because she cared that she had the life she’d missed out on. She’d only done it because she didn’t want the responsibilities that being a royal implied.
How had I ever imagined her to be vulnerable and sweet beneath this facade, if it was even a facade at all? Disgust with myself tremored through me. I’d been fooled by her pretty face too many times, by the imaginings of my own treacherous mind, hoping it’d find something that hadn’t been there at all.
So much time wasted on this mer who cared, as always, about nothing and no one but herself. And I doubted she ever would.
“Do you believe me now, Captain?”
I did, but I didn’t say it.
“You’re willing to harm Maisie to get what you want, aren’t you?” Despite them being cousins. Despite the way Maisie so obviously already cared for her.
“I’ll do whatever it takes, Captain.”
I reached for the front of her dress and tug
ged, pulling her close, so close that she could see the threat in my eyes. So she could see that I meant it. “Harm Maisie,” I whispered, “and I’ll kill you.”
Odele smiled and reached up to pat the side of my cheek mockingly. “Oh, Captain. I’d always wondered what it would take to get you to go against me. Now I know.”
I was going to reply, something vicious and cruel, when the door to the room opened. The small gasp that reached my ears was enough to tell me that Maisie had once again found her way back.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Maisie
THEY WERE PRESSED so closely together, it was almost as if they belonged there. Her hand cupped his cheek, and she was smiling up at him in a way that pressurized my chest, and made me feel like I was being pulled into darkness by an anchor.
Upon seeing me, Odele pulled away from Captain Saber, and cast me a guilty glance. Her face reddened, and I could only imagine what had been going on before I’d interrupted. She’d told me she didn’t have feelings for him, but maybe that had been a lie.
She pulled away from him, darting around his body. Odele came up to me and took my hands in hers. It felt like a burn.
“I’ll let you two talk, okay? Clear the waters.” Before I could reply, she was gone.
With inert slowness, the captain finally turned to me. “Maisie,” he breathed.
I closed my eyes against his voice, because it pained me. It pained me to hear such gentleness in his voice, knowing it was feigned. Wondering, perhaps, if he was using it on me because I looked like her.
“You must be glad she’s back,” I blurted, opening my eyes to take him in. He had paused mid-stroke, as if he’d meant to come towards me, but stopped a soon as I’d said those treacherous words. My heart was beating rapidly against my chest, like the fluttering of a swarm of shrimp, tickling my insides. I willed myself to calm down. “You spent all this time looking for her, it must be a relief to see she’s alive and well.”
“Maisie…”
“It’s kind of funny isn’t it? She was right under our noses this entire time. You searched all of Thalassar for her, and couldn’t find her, only because she hadn’t left at all.” I chuckled, though I was sure he could hear there wasn’t any amusement, any gaity in the action. My hands fluttered around nervously. “I understand if you don’t believe the news she brought with her. I can hardly believe it myself. I mean, me? A Princess? It seems like some kind of a cruel joke.”
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