exactly what she’s doing. She’s stalling. But for what? Oh gods,
Layla, what do you think you’re going to do?
“When I was young, I was still learning my powers.” Nieve likes
telling stories. She relaxes her pose, taking comfort in knowing that
if Layla were to run, she could fry her. “I was married to the rebel
Southern King. He liked to test my magic. He’d heard that my father,
the true king, could take human form with the blood and ink of the
ancient cephalopod. That everyone in our courts was branded with it,
with the symbol of the trident. It gave us the ability to shift out of
our beautiful tails and into those terrible things you call legs. But
not I.”
“It didn’t work on you?” Layla asks.
Nieve leans her face, her red lips curling into a smile. “I didn’t
need it. I could do it on my own. It was painful. I hated it. But my
husband king loved watching me do it. And so he wanted me to give him
the legs my father denied him.”
Layla’s eyes go wide. She leans her face in to the silver witch.
“Did he get his legs?”
“Yes. But he died trying.”
Layla stands back, afraid once again. Nieve realizes the mistake
she’s made and starts backpedaling. “But with the trident, you won’t
feel a thing. After all, dear, you can’t hide your heart’s desire from
me.”
Layla frowns.
“Let me show you,” Nieve says. She shudders as a wave of magic
passes through her. For the first time since I’ve known her, her
silver tail parts into two slender legs. She’s unbalanced and holds
out her arms unsteadily to stand. “It only hurts the first time.”
Someone at the entrance gasps. Instead of Gwen, a servant girl
returns. She’s stitched up the same as Archer, from her clavicle to
her belly button. Her skin is a soft gray, like a shark. Her hair is
pleated into a long braid and she’s got a curved dagger on her hip.
The hilt is made of ivory and encrusted with jewels. When she opens
her mouth, she’s got the teeth of a piranha.
“Avana,” Nieve says, “where is my daughter?”
“She went to see about the catch for tonight’s meal. Our brothers
are taking too long.” She places a metal tray at Layla’s feet. Layla
picks it up and starts eating the raw pieces of fish.
Nieve looks concerned. “The Alliance will be patrolling. Tell them
to try one of the shores further south.”
Avana nods. “Yes, Mother Queen.”
It happens fast.
The second Avana bends over to bow, Layla slams the tray on
Avana’s face. Layla grabs the dagger at the merrow girl’s hip and
makes a break for it. Nieve screams a terrible wail, sending shocks in
Layla’s direction. But she holds up the metal tray as a shield,
blocking most of the hit. She runs across the chamber, and when Nieve
tries to chase after her, her unsteady legs buckle beneath her and she
falls on her face.
Avana rushes to Nieve’s side but the sea witch screams, “Don’t
touch me! Go after her!”
Nieve pushes herself up in time to see Layla jump feet first into
one of the pools.
Gwen runs back in. “Mother Queen?” She’s startled at seeing Nieve
on the ground with two weak legs. She screams as they form a single
silver tail once again. Blood trickles from the sea witch’s scales.
“Bring her back here!” Nieve shrieks. “No one makes a fool of me.
I want to feel her heart stop in my hands. I want to-”
Avana runs out of the room, perhaps to get out of the way of
Nieve’s wrath. Perhaps to fetch Layla.
“Mother Queen,” Gwen says. “If she went down the pool channels,
she’s either drowning or will be eaten by the shark guard.”
Nieve stops, collects herself. She presses her hands on her
temples. I wonder if she can hear me screaming Layla’s name because
the next word she says is “Layla.”
She shakes it off. “You’re right.”
“I don’t think she knew anything.”
“You told me Tristan would come for her.” The sea witch nods. I’m
still in her head and she can’t figure out what it is, like a mosquito
she can hear and not see. “Where is he? I’ve lost sight of him.”
“He doesn’t know she’s gone,” Gwen says slowly. “He doesn’t have
to.”
“Send someone to make sure the sharks have finished her off.” When
Nieve tries to move, her face contorts in pain.
“Are you well enough to move?”
Nieve groans when she bends her knees. She’s not. The shift took a
large toll.
“I’ll be fine. What is it?”
“We can’t get a fresh catch ’til the morning. Not with the
Alliance patrolling in such numbers.”
“Is that all?”
Gwen shakes her head. “You have visitors in the council chambers.”
The way she says “visitors” strikes a chord. Nieve’s mood cheers
up considerably.
“In the morning, you and your brothers will go fishing. We’re so
close, my dear. We’re so close to having what was denied us.”
Gwen doesn’t look happy at all. She knew Layla was playing her,
but she wouldn’t dare speak out to her mother. Still, she bows.
Nieve dives into her pool and swims down the tunnel that leads to
the council chambers. She sniffs the water for a scent of the girl,
but the water is clean. When she resurfaces, she’s in another pool and
she’s not alone. The light is a flicker of only two sconces, but it is
enough to see her visitor’s copper hair, her emerald eyes. They
embrace like old friends.
“Lucine,” says the silver mermaid. “Where is-?”
“I’m here,” Kurt says, stepping forth from the shadow of the wall.
His violet eyes are glossy and unfocused.
“Good,” Nieve says, sizing him up. Her fingers reach for the
trident, but one look at Lucine and she stops. I can feel her
thoughts. Handsome, like my brother. With her eyes. If Tristan won’t
join me, this will do. “Are you ready to help me rule the seas?”
And Kurt, my friend, my blood, holds his trident up, the prongs
igniting with lightning, and says, “I am.”
“Let go of me!”
The fuzziness around my eyes recedes. Hands. Dozens of hands grab
me. Around my biceps, my forearms, my chest.
“Tristan,” she says. The voice is familiar but I can’t place it.
“Tristan! Settle down!”
And all the while, I scream. I can hear myself screaming at them
to release me. I have to find her. I said I would come for her and I
didn’t. And now Layla is-No, I won’t say it.
I feel my fist hit flesh, bodies tumbling to the ground. I open
the metal gate, letting in wind and rain. People gasp around me, their
eyes wide and bewildered because their champion’s gone mad.
And then I’m out the door and running down the streets as fast as
I can, ignoring the pouring rain. I run across the boardwalk, hop over
the warped railing, and hit sand. Wind whistles and I gasp for air. My
thighs and chest burn as I push my way toward the water, my name a
distant shout in the background.
And all I see is Layla in my vision, jumping into the tunnels that
lead down, down, down into the sea. My blood has turned to ice. My
mind is on fire.
I can feel someone fast, faster than me, catching up. He tackles
me to the ground. I eat sand. I kick. I punch. But it’s like hitting
solid stone.
He holds me down with his cold hands.
“You are not going in that water,” Frederik yells.
“Let go of me.” I try to swing but his iron fists hold my arms
down at my sides.
“Weaponless. Blind. You’ll die.”
“ She’s out there! ” I scream. I try to punch but he weighs a
fucking ton. “I know she’s out there. She has to be.”