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I tried not to think about Kai, his expression, or the dark and dangerous promise of his parting words. It wasn’t hard to forget him the moment Ytgar held my hand firmly into the crook of his arm, chattering away in my ear.
Though I followed the conversation, it was hard to grasp the actual point of it. Then again, maybe there was no point to it at all. Maybe he was just talking to take my mind off of the Dragon Prince and our argument.
I hated that it was starting to work.
Soon, there was nothing on my mind but the comfort of Ytgar’s warm touch, his lighthearted words, and the protective presence of Val at our backs.
I turned over my shoulder to look at the silver-eyed merman and was taken by surprise at the gleam in his eyes. I hadn’t really gotten a good look at him before. How could I when Ytgar stole all the attention for himself? But there was something formidable about the dark-skinned mer. He was commanding in his own right and wore a much more serious expression than I’d ever seen on Captain Saber. His silvery-white hair was tied away from his face. He wore a tunic in dull tones of gray, partially exposed beneath the long, thick cloak of velvet he wore. The garment was so long, and lined with the thick fur of some northern creature, it covered his tail entirely. In fact, I realized with a start, both Iolish mermen wore clothing so long neither of their tails were visible. Surely they felt the suffocating heat?
“Why don’t you swim next to us, Val?” I offered with a smile. His protective presence had been welcoming at first, but now, after getting a good look at him, I felt suddenly nervous, and I couldn’t quite place why.
His grave expression never changed, but his lips did twitch slightly into what I believed was a smile. “How am I to guard your backs if I swim next to you, Princess?”
My cheeks flushed, burning warmer when Ytgar laughed. “Always so grave, Val.”
I quickly turned away from Val to focus on the hallway before us. I chuckled a little bit with Ytgar. “I’m sorry. I should have known better. My guard is the same way; never wants to relax around me.”
Ytgar’s warm hand covered my own. “Oh, Val isn’t a guard.”
I blinked. “But...” But you introduced him as your guard and advisor.
“You’re aware that Iol breeds whales?” I barely got my nod out before he kept going. “Valmundur here is a whale trainer and my closest friend since infancy. I’m hopelessly lost without him, I’m afraid. So I lie and say he’s a guard, or else they’d never let him into those fun meetings of yours.”
He waited a breath, and I wondered if he was expecting a reprimand for such an action. Really, if he thought so little of me, I don’t know why he’d bothered to share that secret in the first place.
“I hope you do not think less of us for it; for his position, or for the deceit.”
I wondered if Odele would have minded the position. If she would have been upset that a whale trainer had been allowed into royal meetings, had given his opinion so freely?
Well, I wasn’t Odele, despite my origins or whatever relations lay between us. I was a waitress from Lagoona, with a position perhaps lower than even Val’s, and here I was, being escorted by the arm of the Prince of Iol.
I smiled up at him with reassurance, and I swore his breath caught. “Of course not. What should it matter where someone is from or what position they hold? It’s the heart that counts, I should think.”
Both mermen went very still, and despite earlier protests, I felt Val’s presence on the other side of me. I felt suddenly very small, caged between the two mermen.
“Ah, you are so very lovely, Princess. And not at all what we expected.”
“And what did you expect?” I asked, merely for my own amusement. I was already sure of the answer.
“Fun,” he replied, and I took immediate offense. Was I not fun, then? “Also rude and sarcastic. I admit, I imagined all the lovely arguments we would have, and here I am. Disappointed.”
“Ha, well, I’m sorry I am not much more fun than this. It’s been a trying morning.”
He patted my hand just as my room came into view. We started towards it, and he released me. Just as I turned to thank both him and Val for escorting me, he gave me a breathtaking smile. “Perhaps we will not quip with words, but there are other ways to have a good time,” he offered. I stilled as his fingers went to my cheek and trailed low to my chin. His eyes were fixated on the ring heavy between my exposed cleavage. I flushed all over at the insinuation.
“How dare you?” I demanded.
He blinked, as if a spell had been cast over him to make him say those words. Or maybe he was just surprised by the anger in my voice.
“Um...”
I straightened into a posture that was formidable in my own way. That was commanding. Queenly. “I am engaged to be married—within two weeks—to the Dragon Prince, Kai Li of Draconi. I am sure your brain is not so small that you cannot recall the meeting where it was announced?” I had the satisfaction of watching Ytgar’s mouth drop open.
“But... I...”
I held up a hand, and he shut his mouth. “Regardless of what you saw or overheard in that hallway, he is my betrothed. And if he knew you were propositioning his soon-to-be wife, he would cut you into pieces and feed you to his pet dragon.” At the mention of violence, both mermen tensed. I merely smiled and added, almost as an afterthought, “And he’d do it with his bare hands, too.”
Ytgar’s mouth opened and closed in silent stammers. “I—I meant no offense...”
My eyes rolled. “Of course you didn’t, Prince Ytgar. But please, next time, find your cheap entertainment elsewhere, because you won’t find it with me.” I looked over his shoulder at Val, who looked to be either suppressing a cry of rage or a laugh. I smiled at him. “Have a good day, Valmundur.”
And then I turned and opened the door to my room and swam inside, but not before I heard the harsh bark of laughter, no doubt coming from Val’s throat. Their voices muffled when I closed it, and I leaned the back of my head against it to take deep breaths.
Really. The nerve.
When I opened my eyes, it was to find Odele on the bed, lounging luxuriously and feeding herself little fruits.
“Who’s at the door?” she asked, her mouth full.
“Prince Ytgar and his whale trainer friend, Val,” I answered almost absentmindedly as my gaze swept across the sights before me. Platters and platters of breakfast food lay all around the room. Frothy tea, pastries, cakes filled with fruit, bowls of fruit and greens, salads, honey dripping onto the floor...
Even as my stomach gave a rumble at the delicacies, I glared at her. “Where did all of this come from?” I asked tightly.
She swallowed and reached for a pastry, a delicious looking thing that bled red berries. She licked them from her fingers before taking a large bite, and spoke around her chewing. “I rang for a maid.”
My temper flared, but I tried to reel it in. “And what, please tell me, did you do that for?”
She shrugged, took another bite. “I was hungry.”
I couldn’t hold my anger in then. “Because you were hungry?” I laughed harshly, though she’d find no joy in the sound. “I’m hungry, too, Odele.”
Odele held out her half-eaten confection in offering. “Want some?”
I shrieked and darted over to a platter of food, and in an angry, impulsive move, I flipped the contents of the tray violently, watching as it crashed to the floor.
“What’s got your fins flaring, cousin?” She only sounded amused by my outburst.
I was not.
“I can’t believe you,” I accused. “I am out there suffering through your chores while you’re in here eating the day away.”
“Well, I have to keep my arrival here a—”
“A secret, yes, I know,” I spat. “And how do you pretend to do that if the whole palace knows you’re here? You think the maid who brought this up won’t talk? What will mer say when they realize that one princess was in the meeting with the queen while the other was ordering room service?”
Odele swallowed the last bite of her food and shrugged. “I didn’t think about that.”
“No, you didn’t, did you? You don’t seem to do much thinking.”
Her eyes narrowed and she sat up straighter on the bed, eyebrows pulling together. “Don’t talk to me like that,” she hissed.
I couldn’t help myself. I was angry. I was a volcano on the verge of eruption, and all I wanted to do was damage everything around me. I wanted her to burn. “Don’t talk to you like what? With the truth? Because that’s what this is! You’re a spoiled brat, Odele. You think of nothing and no one but yourself.”
“How dare you—”
“No. How dare you? Do you even realize what you’re doing? Everything we set into motion this morning could be ruined all because you felt the need to play princess again. I can’t believe I fell for your load of silt. You probably don’t care about my life at all. You’ll gladly sit back while we take the risks in your stead!”
“We?”
“Yes, we. Captain Saber, Prince Kai, Elias, and I are all sacrificing things for you, for your kingdom and your mer, while you’ve done nothing but hide away this entire time!”
A slash of hurt crossed her features, so brief, it was like I’d imagined it being there at all. Anger and entitlement were pressed down on her. “I have too been doing stuff.”
“What stuff?” I crossed my arms.
She bit her bottom lip in thought. “I left to find you.”
I scoffed. “But you didn’t find me, did you? Captain Saber did.”
Princess Odele waved the words away, assuming an air of impertinence. “He had a stroke of luck. And anyway, we shouldn’t really be doing anything at all. We’re princesses. If you’d accept your heritage and title, you could just take the throne back, we’d out the queen, and then all would be well.”
Because it was so easy to take down a monarchy, right? If it were, she could have done it herself by now. But like every other royal I’d ever known, she wanted things handed to her. She wanted everything to solve itself without really lifting a fin to help. Oh, sure, it was easy for her to do a little digging, escape to inquire about me, but actually making the trek to find me? She’d stayed hidden within the secret passageways of the palace, for gods’ sakes!
“You have done nothing since this whole thing started. You’ve been waiting behind the comfort of these quartz and stone walls for all your problems to solve themselves.” My hand went to my chest, to grab the ring hanging there. I touched the smooth edges and was reminded of Elias, my heart suddenly hurting. A tear slipped unbidden from my eye. “You are a Princess of Thalassar, and you’ve done nothing for this kingdom. Gods, Elias has done and is doing more than you ever have.” I dropped the ring, the heavy weight of it resting over my thumping heart. I turned away, unable to look at her any longer. “Gods, and he left to search orphanages for information you had all along. Information you never bothered to share. You... time waster!” I couldn’t help but throw that last bit out like a bitter accusation. I should have regretted it. I should have taken care with how I spoke to the future ruler of Thalassar, but my anger had taken over. It was an uncontrollable current inside of me releasing in a rush. Once it started, it could not stop.
There was a deafening silence, and I dared to look up to see what my explosion had caused.
I refused to look away from the hurt on her face. I relished in it, in that brief moment of anger and cruelty. What pity should I feel for her? For this mer who had abandoned her kingdom, who had lied to me, and was risking our plan to fulfill her own capricious needs?
“You think so little of me, cousin.” Her voice was hollowed out. No trace of the entitled princess, no trace of any emotion. I’d taken it from her. “And you really made me believe that you were interested in being a family...” She sighed and slowly got up from the bed. Without another word, she turned, swimming towards the tapestry. I watched numbly in the aftermath of my angry words as she pressed her hand to the stone and slipped through the passageway.
She didn’t once look back.