Page 57 of Hunters and Prey

Turning the Tide

Domino Taylor

Chapter 1

Elpis could name at least dozen other activities she’d prefer over babysitting. Plucking all of her teeth with pliers or sliding barnacles under her fingernails ranked above babysitting. Drying out beneath the sweltering sun in the Sahara Desert ranked above babysitting.

Frankly, it wasn’t that she loathed children. Babies were adorable, and she liked cuddling them before passing the little tykes back to their parents. In this instance, babysitting blew chum because the object of El’s protective detail was an adolescent mermaid with a chip on her shoulder.

The bright winter sun glowed against her bare shoulders and warmed the foaming surf washing over her toes. She wandered down the shoreline as she watched her target, pretending to enjoy tagging along as a glorified chaperone on a spoiled noblewoman’s holiday to the surface world.

Her superiors in Atlantis had called it “light work”—practically a vacation—but the dramatic reality was that it was temporary exile away from everything she enjoyed, her comrades, and the city that needed her. And they did need her, more than ever after recent events that had threatened their kingdom and the life of their princess.

Even their lord regent realized a better combat healer didn’t exist in all of their army, otherwise he wouldn’t have promoted her in her father’s place as their medic commander. They’d called her a prodigy, revering her magical gifts since childhood, and training her just as long to save lives despite her mother’s objections to turning a gentle girl into a weapon.

While other high mer noblewomen counted their starfish collections and attended banquets, Elpis dedicated three decades to fighting the Gloom and saving countless Myrmidon lives, putting their men on their feet again within days—sometimes hours—to continue the endless war. She should have been preparing her combat medics for the next incursion, not wasting her time on a crowded beach watching the fledgling courtship of an Atlantian lord’s simpering daughter to the self-indulgent prince of another kingdom.

The interim ruler of Atlantis had sent Elpis to Playa Grande, Costa Rica in the company of four dozen other Myrmidons, hoping to reforge the old alliances between the two underwater realms of Pacifica and Atlantis, as well as safely escort Lady Zeta to meet with her potential new match on neutral ground.

She hadn’t encountered a single battle or used her healing magic since arriving three weeks prior. At least the two adolescents seemed deeply infatuated with one another, which meant she’d likely be attending a royal wedding within the next year.

“I can’t believe this is how you spend your entire day,” Elpis grumbled under her breath to the merwoman strolling on her left. She glowered across yards of rolling waves toward the proud form of Queen Laka’s spoiled grandson.

Calanthe’s laughter resonated with good-natured humor. “It’s not awful. As the Pacifican royal family is so large, we all endure royal brat duties from time to time.”

“I’m ready to cut my own throat if I have to watch this kid flex one more time. Are you surethis is what you want to do with your life?” Calanthe had transferred over a year ago from Atlantis, receiving a once-in-a-lifetime lateral transfer to serve as a royal family guard in another kingdom. Sometimes, those duties meant protecting the queen’s many progeny from danger instead of standing watch over Her Royal Highness.

The other merwoman rolled a shoulder, looking casual in a two-piece bikini despite lacking armor. “I would be lying if I didn’t admit that my favorite part of the rotation is serving Queen Laka herself. It isn’t that she asks little of us, but that…gods, how do I describe it? There’s a sense of peace surrounding her at all times. You can be standing watch by her side, alert and with a hand on your trident, but you feel at ease. She is tranquility incarnate, while the rest of the world surges in a storm.”

“I guess.”

“She and Princess Kailani are related, you know. Queen Laka is her great-aunt. It’s a shame the princess lacks the time to come visit with her relatives in the next ocean.”

“It is. But royal duties are royal duties. Her battle lessons with Manu keep her busy.”

“Ah.”

The walk lapsed into silence that thickened while they watched Prince Keanu teach Lady Zeta to surf.

“So…” Calanthe said, the word filling Elpis with dread. She knew what to expect before the other woman asked. “How is he?”

“How’s who?”

“Don’t play dumb.”

“I’m not.” Elpis feigned interest in a sand castle abandoned too close to the shoreline. The tide would take it soon.

“How. Is. Manu?” Calanthe asked, enunciating each word with excruciating slowness. “Don’t leave me in suspense, Elpis. I’ve been gone for almost a year now. You never tell me anything about what’s going on whenever we speak. What’s happened since I left Atlantis?” Her eyes clouded over with pain. “Aside from the obvious. How is he handling it?”

“He’s taking the loss about as well as you’d expect him to take it.Manu and I aren’t…we’re not really that close anymore, that I’m able to answer anything about him,” she lied between her teeth.

“You frequently drank together. I assumed you still do.”

“I’ll drink with any of my fellow Myrmidons. Doesn’t mean I follow their love lives. Maybe you should, you know, call or write to him if you’re concerned about the man you left at the figurative altar.” The man who had, until quite recently, been ruined for all other women and such a moping sack of scales he’d drunk his way into bed with Elpis one lonely night.

She did not plan to share that with Calanthe. Atlantis may have had a less judgmental society when it came to courtship and sexual activity, but friends still didn’t typically sleep with each other’s exes. Not if they could help it. The pool of eligible men could be quite small, tinier among the highborn. Sometimes, exceptions had to be made.

Calanthe cocked her head, silver brows raising toward her teal-streaked bangs. “I didn’t leave him at the altar.”

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