Page 345 of Kingdoms of Night

I stepped backward until I rested my back against the bar. I chewed my nails.

No, there had to be another way. The crackling of lightning and thunder broke me from my thoughts.

I turned to inspect the broken window that still sprayed water inside the tavern. The storm seemed to be passing, but I couldn’t just leave the window like that.

Even after boarding it up, I didn’t feel right. I’d have to wait until morning to call on the mason up the road.

I was restless, pacing the tavern while I tried to work out a plan. There was no way I could climb the back stairs up to my little room, and sleep.

I grumbled. I wish I could ask my father for advice. He would know exactly what to do. How could I fight rogue sea-folk and protect my kingdom for the past ten years and not know how to defeat a single human pirate?

This was a night unlike any, and I needed to get some rest. But my body was also craving water—and not the drinking kind.

As a mermaid, I needed ocean water to survive—even if I was part of the few who’d been magically granted legs to walk on land.

I tossed my cloak on and stepped outside, the wind pelting me with icy rain. At least the thunder and lightning had subsided.

The storm must be moving on.

I took a quick glance in either direction. Confirming no one was around, I crossed the stone inner corridor of the main road. I grumbled at the squelch of wet mud and horse dung as I headed to the dunes. Grateful to be free of the stench, I went down the wooden steps into the sand. I was grateful that the rain rinsed my boots clean—well—as clean as they could get in the circumstances.

A glance over my shoulder showed the tavern standing quiet, wind battering at the boards I’d hammered over the windows.

I just needed a minute.Oneminute. I deserved it after what I’d just been through.

I hurried down to where the water whispered against the sand and knelt down to splash my face with the ocean water. My pants soaked from waves, and I could feel the scales forming on my legs as well as on my face.

Mother used to tell me and my sister that it was dangerous to wish for human legs—to walk along their world. Land was for them, and the sea was our sacred territory. My sister was the obedient one, and never even dared to swim a mile upward toward the shore.

Me, on the other hand, I’d wanted land legs since I was a child. I’d watch the boats float across the surface, and the lures sink into our realm. I wished for a simple glimpse.

Mother called me a dreamer. She called me foolish.

But, then the magic began to wane. Something was put off balance, and our sea-folk found it harder to remain under the sea. We learned to use our siren call to lure humans into the water—sailors and fisherman. We’d breathe their air, discovering it held something truly precious.

Most were set free.

Not all were so fortunate.

With my skin drinking in the ocean water, I felt like I couldbreatheagain. But, I couldn’t stay long. I didn’t want my skin to soak too much, or else the scales would take too long to fade. I stood, backed away from the water, and stared at the boats on the horizon for a moment while my face—obscured from the storm by my hood—dried off.

The small fisherman boats, and ships, bobbed along in the ocean, tethered to the docks. Some of them were getting dangerously close to one another as the wind continued to assault Calbrock Bay.

I folded my arms across my chest, and sighed.

Part of me longed to go home. But, it wasn’t time. Not yet. I had a mission to execute. My people were counting on me.

I’d go soon to check in, but I’d set out to end our curse once and for all, and damned if I was gonna let a little homesickness ruin that.

As I trudged back toward the empty boardwalk of Calbrock Bay, I glanced again both ways to see if anyone was around. The winding stone streets were empty. All the shops were closed.

No one lurked about. But…something peculiar between the tannery and the apothecary caught my eye.

I crept closer, turning down the path between the two shops to see something shimmering from behind a few rusted barrels.

Like golden dust intermixed with hues of blue and purple. It was beautiful.

I knew that shimmer, and what came to mind sent chills through my body.

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