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It was hard for me to believe that anyone could change within such a short amount of time. Princess Odele had proven me wrong.
She was far different from the mermaid I had first met all those months ago. Gone was the selfish demeanor, gone was the judgement, looking down on servants, looking down at me. It was like a different mer swam next to me.
She spoke softly, almost hesitantly, and when she laughed, she laughed freely, genuinely. And I couldn’t help but smile along to her words, with her happiness. There was so much I hadn’t known about my betrothed. If we could have gone back in time, and she would have been this way from the start, I was sure that by now, I’d have loved her.
“You did not!” She squealed with laughter.
I chuckled. “In my defense, I was a child.”
“Sixteen is hardly a child. I can’t believe you snuck a box of puffer fish into the royal hall during a state dinner.” She began shaking her head, the smile lighting up her eyes and face.
“My elder sister, Ting, convinced me to do it.” Rather, she had manipulated me into doing that. But she didn’t need to know how conniving and insane my sisters could be just yet.
“I would have liked to see your advisors faces!” She snorted and had to stop as she bent over laughing. When she laughed, there was a slight snort that she gave through her nose. Something about her changed entirely. It took my breath away.
“They were furious,” I admitted. “But not as furious as the emperor. I still have the scars from the lashing he gave me.” The remembrance stung. One day, she’d see the slight silver marks crisscrossing my arms. Would she cringe away from them? Or would she press her lips against the ridges of them? The thought froze my insides. For the first time since meeting her it made me desire her.
“That seems rather cruel,” she pointed out quietly. Purple lashes fanned across the sharp jut of her cheekbones as she looked up at me, a plaintive curiosity in her gaze. And beneath that, pity.
I brushed it off with a strained smile. “It’s normal in royal life.” I was sure she was familiar with lashings. How else would they learn everything they needed to know if not through that particular method of discipline? Or so I’d been told. I thought it rather cruel and heartless myself. I’d vowed that our children would not be educated that way...
When had I gone from despising her to thinking about our future children?
“I think royal life should change.”
I blinked at her words. “Change in what way, Odele?” It felt odd, saying her name without the respective ‘princess’ in front of it. It was pleasant, though.
“There’s a lot that needs to be changed, don’t you think?” She gestured around the gardens with her hands. “I mean, royalty doesn’t really think of anyone but themselves, don’t they?”
“I’m sure that’s not true—” She shot me a look that had my lips clamping shut.
“Look around you, Kai. We have such lavish lives while there are mer beyond these walls dying of hunger and being murdered for trying to swim away from a war they want no part in. How is that fair?”
“In Draconi, it is considered an honor to fight alongside the emperor and soldiers.”
She sighed. Though I didn’t miss the passion burning deep in the depths of her dark eyes. “But your royals fight by your mer. They defend them in battle.”
They did. All royals, advisors, and mer of my kingdom were skilled in combat. When there were disputes or wars, even my sisters followed our father out into battle, with no fear in our hearts and with ferocity saturating our weapons. The mer in Thalassar were obviously much more delicate in their upbringing. My mer would never swim away from a fight, not when it could bring honor to their family for generations to come. And my emperor and the princesses would never think of sitting with their arms crossed in the palace while soldiers risked their lives. They were always at the front lines.
“There is no greater honor than to die beside our emperor.”
Odele bit her bottom lip, and my eyes followed the movement longingly before she released it and shook her head back and forth, as if she were clearing the thoughts there. “But that’s what they choose to do. The mer of Thalassar are forced into battle.”
I looked at her, assessed her, and then slowly said, “If you are in disagreement with the laws, why not help change them? You’re the princess. You have more power than your father; surely you have the queen’s ear.”
Her face flushed as she tensed. “I’m tryin’,” she whispered. Something about the way she said it was strange, different. Her accent... She blinked and her head snapped up, face flushing. “Of course,” she said, her Eramaean, lilting accent back in place. “If I had more royalty backing me when I go before the queen to make my case...”
I smiled, accent now forgotten, and nodded. “Of course I’ll help in any way I can. Though we find honor in fighting, it does not mean that it is something we like to do.”
She bumped her shoulder against mine. The move was starling, warming. “I’m glad to hear it.”
She seemed to move closer to me then, her shoulder brushing mine. The skin of our bare fingers grazed and impulsively I reached for her hand. My heart beat rapidly as I threaded my fingers through hers, almost afraid that she would snatch her hand away again as she had earlier. But when she gave my hand a squeeze back and held tightly, I loosed a sigh of relief.
“I want to show you my favorite part of the gardens.” I smiled tentatively as I pulled her forward, and we swam through the labyrinthine gardens. The soldiers followed, matching our pace. But I didn’t care about their presence. I didn’t care that they’d later talk about the fact that we held hands and it might seem inappropriate for us since we were not yet wed. All I cared about was her. So I pulled her forward until we made it into a small clearing of the garden.
There was a patch of neatly cut sea grass, and in the center, a large wooden and stone statue of a mermaid. The statue looked like it had fallen from a pirate ship and had sunken deep into the garden in an upright position. The base was cemented deeply into the sand, seaweed and sea vines climbing up the base of it, looking like small green fissures in the structure. Tube worms were in bright blooms around the carvings of her scales.
Surely, Odele had seen this a million times already. This was her palace, her kingdom, after all. But there was something special about being here with her for the first time. When I looked down at her face, her fingers were pressed tightly against her lips and her eyes were widened with awe. I watched with fascination as a small tear bubble emerged from the corner of her eye.
Never before had she looked so beautiful.
It was then that I realized that, after this short swim through the gardens, I was falling in love with my betrothed.
That was my last thought before the spear zipped through the water, heading straight for Princess Odele.