Maisie

Waking up hours later hadn’t seemed to settle my exhaustion at all. My fins still ached terribly. I hiked the dress up, fingers reaching for my shredded fins. Massaging them lightly brought temporary relief, but soon my fingers started cramping up. Maybe I just needed to swim at a leisurely pace. Get up, stretch my limbs.

I did just that. My body felt tingly all over, like my every nerve had fallen asleep. I swam around the vast space of the room, hoping that the aches would ease. It only made them worse.

I was nearly tempted to call for a maid, to bring me a salve or something. The only thing stopping me from doing that was that if I told anyone, it wouldn’t be long before royal medics were rushed into the chambers to look all of me over and they realized the princess had scars that didn’t belong.

No.

Instead, I went over to the door, making sure it was secure, then went to the tapestry on the wall.

I needed to check on Elias, to see how he was faring. Hopefully his wound hadn’t gotten infected, I thought as I swam through the passageway and crawled through the muddy hole. I made it to the other side, dusting myself off. The light of two lava globes beckoned me down to the couch.

Elias lay there, his eyes closed. I froze beside him and took a moment to observe him in his stillness. The shadows of the blue glow that the lava globe cast over his features was soft, making his features look even darker. Black lashes, long and thick, fell across the top of his cheekbones. His nose was straight, pointed, and his mouth was wide, lips full.

That mouth had pressed against my lips, tongue invading the most private aspects of me. He’d shamelessly tasted my flesh, and not for the first time, I wondered why he’d done such a thing. Had it really been a claim to the payment I owed him, or was his reason something else? Sinister? Dark? Selfish? Or had he simply wanted me in all my limping glory? I doubted it.

“Do you like what you see, little fish?” His voice startled me in the dark. Black eyes suddenly fluttered open to stare at me with an amusement that matched the smirk of his lips.

“Are you feeling better?” My voice was a raspy whisper that could have been contributed to the pain, but I knew that wasn’t it. I just hoped he couldn’t read the treachery in my voice. I hoped he couldn’t hear how much I wanted him, even when I shouldn’t.

He sat up straighter, dropping his tail from the couch so I could sit next to him. I did, keeping a modicum of space between the two of us.

“As better as I can be.”

My eyes went down to where his wound was and I narrowed my eyes. The prison rags and cloak he’d been wearing were gone, and in their place, a black tunic, belted at the waist with black seal leather, a scabbard, and his obsidian sword hanging from it.

My cheeks heated as I glared at him. “You went out!” I accused.

He grinned. “As lovely as that prison attire was, I couldn’t stand another moment of the stench.”

“What if you’d been caught?” I near-shouted.

He raised a dark brow, sarcasm lacing his every gesture. “Worried about me, little fish?”

Yes. Curse him to the abyss and back.

“That was reckless!”

“I’ve been known to do a reckless thing or two...”

Fuming, I shot up from my seat. “Stop joking!” I tried to take a stroke back, but my fin—blasted flipping fin—gave in. I cried out, nearly falling onto a pile of conches. But Elias moved like a shadow, pulling me up against his chest before I could fall.

I sprawled onto him as he fell back onto the couch. His hands were warm around my waist, holding me steadily in place. The lava globes illuminated the worry on his face, and likely my own shame. My breathing grew labored, coming out in quick pants. My hands were splayed across his chest and for the briefest of seconds, I tightened my fingers against the neckline of his tunic.

I let go and begged for him to do the same. “Let me go, please.”

He looked reluctant to do so. I almost wished he wouldn’t. But I was so confused. My body was drowning in heat, a heat I didn’t know if I completely understood, and his touch only made it worse. It made me desire him like I’d never desired anything in my life before.

He slid a hand down the side of my dress. When he reached the hem, he slowly hiked it up. I sucked in a sharp breath. I didn’t move as I felt the warmth of his palm begin to slip up the length of my tail, sliding along my scales. When he fingered my fins, I moaned, dropping my forehead to his chest. I wasn’t entirely sure if the sound had been in pain or pleasure.

Then he moved his hand against my fins, massaging them with gentle fingers. His touch eased the cramping, the pain.

“Does it hurt a lot?” he asked in my ear. There was a sensual curl to his words that had me pulling away to look into his eyes.

I never spoke to anyone about my injury. Not even Josiah, my old boss from back home, knew to what extent it shamed me. With Elias, the line of boundaries was blurred. It was something that had been washed away in the current. He wanted to extract my secrets, and so he would, whether I told him willingly or he had to pull them from the whispers of waves in the deep. He’d get them. One way or another.

“If I exhaust it,” I replied slowly.

He nodded as if he understood but did not stop rubbing it, one hand steadying me by the waist.

It felt so deliciously good that I could hardly bring myself to tell him to stop.

I’d never let anyone touch my tail before, let alone my fins. With Elias, everything was different. Like he was the only one who could ever understand. And I wanted him to.

“I was fourteen,” I whispered. Never before had I spoken these words aloud. They were my greatest shame. Back home, everyone knew what had happened and they pitied me for it. I was a fool. And perhaps I was only giving him more information he could possibly use against me. But it wasn’t until this moment that I realized, I desperately needed to share this with someone. “I’d just started working at Tides’ Tavern.”

He listened to me, his fingers not stopping once.

“At the time, there were other waiters there. Before...” He didn’t prompt me to continue, because he knew what I meant. Before Selection had taken them away and left me there alone. “They were my friends. We were all young. And stupid.” I said that last part lightly but could find no humor in it. “There was one merboy, a waiter a few years older than me. He smiled at me all day, would find reasons to swim by me, let our hands touch...” My face heated. “At the time, I thought it was all terribly romantic. And then he asked me to meet him after my shift in the back.” I took in a shuddering breath, willing myself to continue. “I thought I’d be safe. There are nets separating Jo’s land from the gators, but...” I shook my head back and forth. “I waited for hours. He never showed. By the time I realized he wouldn’t, it was too late. A gator had gotten me. The rest was just darkness and pain.”

Elias, who’d been ever quiet, suddenly stilled. The hand on my waist tightened while the one on my fins touched me softly, tenderly.

“I guess I swam to Jo’s house in my delirium. I woke up there, being tended to by Lagoona’s doctor. After I healed, my merfriends told me that he—the one who invited me there—had been laughing about it in Artisan’s Square. About how he’d tricked me into waiting for him. He’d never meant to show.”

It was my biggest shame. I’d been young and impressionable. I’d believed that a few seemingly accidental touches as I passed a bowl of frog-eyed stew and a couple of smiles had meant something. And because of that, I’d been changed irrevocably. I didn’t care about the ugliness of my fins. Not anymore. What hurt was the pitying looks. Being different because of one stupid mistake, and being reminded of it every time I swam.

Elias let out a slow breath. “What was his name?” he asked, strangely calm.

“Does it matter?” I didn’t like thinking about him.

“It does. I need to know who I am going to kill. I have a few mer who owe me favors, who sell in traveling markets. I would love nothing more than to run him through myself, but I’m indisposed at the moment.”

I believed his every word, and they humbled me, that the Black Blade would think about killing someone for me, however morbid the gesture. However averse I was to violence.

“It doesn’t matter, Elias. Because weeks later he was selected.”

It was the first time I’d been glad to see someone leave. And that still shamed me to this day. Possibly more than my own injuries.

“Good.” Elias nodded. “Then I hope he’s rotting ten strokes under the silt.”

His hand had stopped moving on me, and I realized that the pain had vanished completely. And I was all too aware of how close we were, so close, the rasp of his breath fanned across my mouth.

There was this maddening urge I had to kiss him. Instead, I pulled away, getting off of him and taking a seat on the spot next to him.

Even as I sat down, he pulled my tail into his lap, and resumed massaging his fingers against my fins.

“You really are special, little fish.”

Not this again. I rolled my eyes. “Right.”

“No, really. You should hear what the mer are saying about you around Eramaea.”

I’d seen what the mer on the telly had said, but I dared not hope.

“They’re calling you a changeling. And they’re completely enamored with you for saving me. I’d say that makes you special. They love you. Not the princess.”

I knew it was true, they loved me, but it still didn’t make me special by any means.

“You earned their love, Maisie.”

“Yeah, but do I deserve it?”

One merman. I’d saved one. So far I wasn’t any closer to stopping a war or discovering why the princess had vanished.

“I guess that depends on why you’re here. What do you have to gain from this?”

This wasn’t the first time he’d asked me this question, and I wasn’t sure I should answer. Sharing aspects of my life, my biggest shame was one thing but sharing this...

What was it? Was it really any different? I needed someone to confide in. And Elias’ goals were practically the same as mine. To stop the war with Kappur.

And maybe... maybe he could be the one to help me accomplish that.

I decided to take the dive.

“The princess has been missing for months...” I said slowly. But of course, he knew this part already. “And I think she left because someone was trying to murder her.”

It took an hour to recount everything to him. From the moment Captain Saber disrupted my quiet little life, to nearly being murdered twice, to the passageway, to the conches and to the marriage contract.

I retrieved it from its hiding place, stuffed safely inside one of the many conch shells. He read it in silence by the light of the lava globe, and I anxiously watched his expression. It was rather serious, and he gave nothing away. When he finished reading, he looked up at me.

“Do you realize what you’ve found, Maisie?”

Yes. Evidence. Evidence of why there was a war with Kappur.

“We could finally find out why there’s a war. And stop it.”

He nodded and looked down at the kelp parchment held in his hands.

“We need to find out why this contract didn’t go through. To do that, we need to find those witnesses and ask them what they know.”

I swam over to him, looking down at the marriage contract as well. There were four names signed on the witnesses’ lines.

“Lysandra Mako. Percival Pike. Nigel Gillson. Jesse Fenson. Well, I don’t know any of these mer...” However, the name Percival rang familiar.

Elias shook his head. “Me neither. But they must be royals or royal associates. Witnesses from each kingdom.” He folded the contract up and handed it to me. “You need to find out who they are, little fish. Ask them if they know anything.”

I nodded gravely. I wasn’t sure where to begin. “I’ll need to keep a low profile from now on. The queen was quite angry with me for what I did.” I placed the contract back into its respected conch, and set it on the cave floor near the chest.

“No more saving criminals?” he joked.

I shot him a look. “No. Definitely not.”

“That’s certainly too bad.” He came forward and tilted my face up by tapping my chin. “I liked the way you felt against me.”

My face heated, and I was glad for the dimness of the cavern and that he couldn’t see me. Because I knew my coloring would betray me entirely.

“We should probably watch some of these conches...” I whispered. If it wasn’t the color of my face the thing that gave me away, then it would certainly be the low rasp of my voice. I turned away from him and went over to the recorder, trying to remember what conch I was on. Flustered, I bent and picked one up, looking at the number before placing it on the device and starting it up. When I turned, Elias was on the couch, beckoning me to sit next to him.

I did, as far as I could be on his other side. He rolled his eyes and tugged on my dress, causing me to fall onto him.

“Come closer. I’m not a shark, and I won’t eat you, little fish.”

That was the problem. Maybe I wanted him to eat me. I wanted him to devour me, and that feeling scared me, yet still I settled in at his side, resting my head on the crook, just where his neck met his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around my waist and held me, and I prayed he couldn’t hear my heart pound, as a recording of the princess began.