“I’ll protect these for you,” Annaruth said, indicating the trunks of gowns she’d given me for events and dinners. I watched as she tucked the prizes and jewelry I’d won in the Trials inside. I wasn’t off ‘Future Spark’ duty just because I was moving out of the Royal wing of the Palace. “The doors will be enchanted to only open for you.”
“I don’t need these chambers anymore.”
“You do, but I understand that you aren’t ready to face that.”
I sighed.
“I guess I could treat it like . . . a closet. For events.”
She nodded.
“Whatever you want to tell yourself, dear.” She wrinkled her nose. “I cannot imagine sleeping in such close quarters with so many Mers!”
“Of course, you couldn’t. You were born Royal,” I said affectionately. “You’ve lived a life of luxury.”
She stopped to look at me, her beautiful face full of surprise. Finally, she shrugged.
“I suppose you are right. You know, sometimes, I think you see more than I do.”
“I don’t even have a touch of the sight,” I protested as I shoved a few of my uniforms into a small bag. Everything else I left behind, even my mother’s necklace and the dress that Lila had made out of scraps. It was safer here, I reasoned.
“But you have experienced a full range of emotions. At your age, that is remarkable. So you recognize what you have felt in others.”
Now it was my turn to be speechless.
“It’s not telepathy. It’s empathy,” she explained. I nodded slowly. I knew what she meant. I didn’t say anything, though the revelation had me deep in thought. I did empathize with others.
Even those who had treated me badly.
Speaking of which, I’d caught Thalia staring at me in almost every class of late. It was unsettling, but I had no choice but to get used to it.
It’s not like the path through the Academy was quick or painless. If I made it. And I had to make it.
I swallowed, knowing I would have to face my sister sooner rather than later. I was moving into the barracks after dinner. We would be roommates before the night was through.
Well, actually, I was moving during dinner. I’d asked my friends to sneak some food out for me. I didn’t want to make a procession through the student barracks with every Mer in the Academy watching.
Basically, I was moving right now.
“Are you sure about this?” Annaruth asked worriedly. “Mers can be cruel. Your position as Spark has likely created a lot of jealousy. And your half-sister . . .”
“I’m sure. I can’t hide up here. I’m not Royal. I didn’t earn any special privileges.”
She raised her eyebrow but waved me out of the room when I was ready to go. The hallways were quiet, but unfortunately, the barracks were not quite deserted. My sister and her cronies were there, as well as a few other Mers, lying on their beds, talking, and studying scrolls.
Thalia swam over to the empty bed I had chosen near the back corner. She sneered at me with her arms crossed.
“Did the Queen kick you out?”
“Or was it the Prince?” one of her friends asked with a snicker. “I heard he got bored of you already.”
“It wasn’t the Prince,” a familiar voice cut through their barbs. “She chose to stay with everyone else.”
I looked up to see Dane taking the cot beside me. He dropped a box onto the blankets, magically woven to keep us warm and stay in place. It was nothing fancy, but the cots and bedding were more than serviceable. Better than I’d had in my stepmother’s palace, for sure.
The mean Mers dispersed, clearly embarrassed at being caught with their nasty gossip. My sister threw me a dark look over her shoulder as she swam away. I sighed. I had hoped she would have forgotten about me and focused on herself. She’d never had a problem ignoring me before. Clearly, she still had an agenda. But I was more focused on Dane at the moment.
The Royal Heir was the last person I’d expected to see down here. And if he’d come because of me, he was only going to attract more attention to our . . . um, situation.
Or the lack thereof.
“What are you doing here?”
“You were right,” he said, sinking onto the thin pallet. “We don’t deserve special treatment.”
“I didn’t say that! And anyway, you do deserve special treatment. You are the heir to the throne.”
He hid a smile.
“I know,” he said patiently, as if I hadn’t just said something really, really stupid.
I threw up my hands in exasperation.
“How many guards are posted outside right now?”
“Probably about a dozen.”
“There go my late-night swims,” I sighed, flopping back on the cot. I winced. Okay, so maybe I had gotten used to the luxury. It was a far cry from the cushy bed I’d had in the Royal wing.
“She’s having second thoughts,” an amused voice drawled. I looked up to see Rip and Starla hovering at the foot of my bed. I sighed and made room for them to sit. Starla sat beside me and Rip sat beside the Prince.
“This is cozy,” I said ironically. Mers were starting to come in from dinner. Pretty much everyone was staring at us.
“We brought provisions,” Starla announced, opening a net bag to hand me a large folded seaweed. I opened it and sighed happily.
“Sole?”
She nodded and whispered, “There were softshell crab too, but they disappeared too fast.”
I groaned. Crab was one of my favorites. But so was sole. I had a lot of favorites.
We dug in, eating while Starla chattered about this and that. Mostly how the barracks operated. Lights out, security, the toilets . . . I grimaced at the thought of sharing with a hundred other Mer. Rip added some salient points and tips. I was staring at my leftovers when everyone stopped and looked at the doors.
A servant swam in and handed a basket to Dane with a bow. He looked at me sheepishly and shrugged.
“I knew we were going to miss dinner.”
He lifted the lid to show that the basket was full of softshell crabs. And small, savory pies. And a few lobsters. I started drooling immediately.
He laughed at the look on my face and handed it over.
“I can’t! You need to eat something first.”
He shrugged and took a pie. I grabbed a softshell crab and almost inhaled it, it was so good. I gobbled down another and was halfway through a lobster when I noticed an odd look on Dane’s face. He’d just taken a bite of his pie. He wasn’t moving. He was just staring at me, looking shocked.
“Dane?”
He slowly reached between his lips and pulled something out. It was silver, sharp . . . definitely not a standard pie ingredient. It was a blade. Our eyes connected as a droplet of blood escaped his mouth.
“Triton!” Starla exclaimed before I shushed her.
“Starla, get Annaruth. Hurry!” I turned to Rip. “We need to get him out of here. Act casual,” I added as we each slung an arm around the Prince.
“I can swim,” he hissed under his breath, so we both moved back. I saw the look of alarm on his face. “There is a piece . . . the blade is still inside. I can feel it . . . burrowing.”
“Where?” I demanded, gesturing for Rip to block us from view. Dane touched his jaw, and I closed my eyes, silently asking Lumi to go and fetch it. Dane’s eyes widened as the bright light sank into his skin. I stared in awe as the bright light moved under the surface of his jaw to his throat.
“This is going to hurt,” I warned him, but Dane just gasped out his agreement.
“It already hurts.”
“Lumi. Return,” I whispered, and the tiny seahorse appeared through a small cut on Dane’s neck. The little seahorse dove into my hand, leaving a wicked-looking sliver of metal resting in my palm. Dane slapped his hand over his neck and exhaled, looking at me in awe.
“Let’s go,” I murmured softly.
I ignored the stares of the other Mers as we swam past. My sister’s eyes were like swords, piercing me. I didn’t even glance her way.
Someone had tried to kill Dane.
Or hurt him.
And they had succeeded in hurting him.
I felt a cold fury start to build inside me as we swam toward the High Priestess’s chambers.