Page 337 of Kingdoms of Night

I scanned the room to make sure no one was listening in. Then, I leaned closer. “I’m playing my role to get what I need. Listening to stories of the sailors’ travels is the safest way to get information without having to actually chase down any pirates. I don’t want just any pirate. I want him.”

“Well, if you’re so insistent on stopping him, maybe it’s time to reconsider your approach.” Malia arched her eyebrow.

“Oh, and I thought you were here to convince me to go home.”

She scoffed. “If you’re going to do a job, at least do it right. Stop being so afraid. Grow a pair of shells. Find the bloody pirate, elicited his help, and break the curse.”

I bit my tongue, then lifted the bar rag and began scrubbing the counter. The last thing I needed was an overprivileged princess telling me how to execute my mission. She didn’t know how hard it was to blend in with humans—to keep it a secret that I hailed from sea-folk.

“I don’t tell you how to do your job,” I murmured, cheeks hot.

“Because I was born into it. You don’t know the half of what I have to do to survive in the Sea Court,” she snapped back. “You don’t have to marry a tyrant in order to keep the kingdoms at peace. You don’t have to sacrifice your body to stop a brutal war.”

“Lower your voice.” I threw the rag on the bar between us. I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes at her. “You should know better than anyone else that all I have left in this world is my duty. Now, stop talking to me like I’ve forgotten who I am or where I came from. If anyone knows that, it’s me.”

“You could have fooled me,” Malia said, flipping her hair over her slim white shoulder as she looked around the seedy tavern.

She was still pale as snow, unchanged by the bright star that lit the human world. I’d been touched by it—and it left my skin a glittering bronze that helped me further blend with the land-folk.

Malia scrunched up her nose at the men hunched over the short tables, wet and dirty from hard days at sea. “It looks like youlikeit here.”

I crossed my arms, unwilling to budge beneath her goading. Truth was, I would have loved to take the sea by storm and hunt down every last pirate until there was none left. Surely I’d get the one I was looking for along the way.

But, that was how my father had died, and when I was chosen to follow in his footsteps as Sea Knight, my mother had begged me not to make the same mistakes. Mother made me promise to use my strength wisely, to reserve myself for the right opportunities.

Some days, that was a really trying promise to upkeep. I’d thought it would get easier with time, but nearly a decade later, it was harder than ever.

This mission was different than any other I’d been assigned to. Perhaps Malia was right. Perhaps I needed a more upfront approach.

When I didn’t respond, Malia turned back to me, this time her expression a little more pleading. “Leave this place, Siddhe. Come home and lead other guardians. I’ll make it so. I’ll make you leader. That would be better use of your time. If we’re cursed, its fate.”

I softened my scowl. I knew why she was really there. I knew why she went back-and-forth between scorn and acceptance.

She was afraid. She missed me.

I sighed, seeing her with crystal clear clarity.

She loves me.

“Malia,” I said, softly. “Look at me.”

She glanced over her shoulder.

“I have it all under control. Trust me.”

Her eyes searched mine, confirming my suspicions of her fear—of her love. “I get it,” Malia said. “You come out here and pretend to be a human. The men all flock to your tavern for ale and to listen to your beautiful voice. I totally understand. You like the attention. But—back home—things are taking a turn for the worst.”

“I know,” I said, and my stomach churned. I remember how tense the kingdom was before I left.

“Do you? The Sea Court is getting antsy, and when the courtiers sense any sign of weakness, they start making demands. They start threatening to take matters into their own hands. We have to ascend past the surface to survive—and our ability to stay submerged is growing shower. It is undignified. It is unnatural, and my father is losing his influence.”

She was right. It was unnatural for a sea-folk to have to come up for air. Were were going to lose our power and become human?

I shuddered at the thought—even as I stood there with two legs where my tail used to be.

“Malia,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “I know what I’m doing. This is the best way I know to help our people. If I can break the curse, I can free us all, and your father won’t have to fight to keep his crown. I can return us to our way of life.”

Instead of replying, Malia stood from the chair.

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