Page 48 of Secrets Among the Tides
I blinked, the realization finally dawning on me. The understanding of why he’d gotten so angry. I remembered so vividly the way he’d whispered Odele’s name at Lagoona, when he’d mistaken me for her. The expression of hope on his face…
“Captain do you…are youin lovewith Princess Odele?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Tiberius
ARE YOU IN LOVE WITH PRINCESS ODELE?
And here came this mer from the freshwaters, a mer I hadn’t known for that long and she was wrenching out the secrets I would have killed to hide. Saying the words I’d been ashamed of feeling so easily, bringing them straight out of my heart and into the light.
I pointed a finger at her, fear melting into anger, anger rising to lash out at her. “Shut your mouth,” I ordered, and I cursed my trembling voice, betraying me entirely. I’d never given myself time to accept those feelings coursing through me. I never wanted them there in the first place.
I could not love Odele. Because she was royalty, a Princess, and I was the soldier that had failed her when she most needed me. I did not deserve her.
“You do,” Maisie whispered, her eyes wide with awe as if she’d just discovered some great secret.
I supposed she had. And she was pulling it slowly out of me to leave me crippled, bleeding. It was easier to push feelings away rather than bring them forth. And she didn’t seem to care what she was doing to me.
“I told you to be quiet.” I had the sudden urge to zip forward and shake her again until she obeyed. Until she did what she was told. Until she started acting like the Princess would. Until shebecamethe Princess.
And that was the core of the problem. I was so desperate for the Princess to be back that I was forcing Maisie to try and change her every aspect, if only to become Odele. But Maisie would never be Odele.
“Why?” she snapped with irritation. “It’s the truth. You love her. It all makes sense now…”
“Don’t try to analyze this, Maisie,” I warned. It would only end in heartbreak.
She acted as though she hadn’t heard me. “If you love her, why didn’t you ever tell her?”
A frustrated growl tore straight out of me. Finally, I’d lost all composure I’d built up within myself. Everything I’d worked so hard for came tumbling down because of her. “Would it have made a difference?” I shouted. “She’s a Princess and was to be married to Prince Kai.” It was the closest I’d ever come to admitting what I felt for Odele.
“Why?” Maisie demanded. “Why do you love her?” She looked me over as if she couldn’t quite fathom what I was thinking or if I was out of my mind. Maybe I was. But she’d brought it up, she’d pulled this straight out of me.
“She is not what she seems.” Only I saw her day and night. Only I saw the heavy burdens she carried on her shoulders. There was the weight of an entire kingdom there, the weight of a marriage she didn’t want or desire. The weight of trying to be perfect. Only I noticed the shadows beneath her eyes and heard the cries that were carried to me by the current at night while I guarded her doors.
“She’s exactly what she seems.” Maisie got up and swam to me, her eyes begging to hear me out. She placed her hand on my shoulder and kept it there. “How can you love someone who doesn’t care about her kingdom? Who can only belittle others?”
Angrily, I tore away from her, letting her hand fall back to her side. “Don’t you dare try to tell me who I can and can’t love or what she’s like. You may be wearing her clothes, sleeping in her bed and swimming beside her Prince, but do not make the mistake of thinking you know who she is.”
She chewed on her bottom lip. “Maybe I never spoke with her, but she never lifted a finger to help those in need. You cannot convince me she was good. Those who are good do not hide behind their closed doors to be that way. If she were really good, she would have shown it.”
My temper rose again, exploded into something I could no longer control. “You knownothingof her!” I reached forward, grabbed her again and shook her. I shouldn’t have. I should have treated her delicately. I should know to never harm a mer like I was harming Maisie. I stopped shaking her. She was pulled close to me, our chests touching and rising and falling together. One in anger, the other in fear. Her face was only inches from mine, our breaths mingling together hotly.
“Let go of me,Captain,” she ordered.
My eyes darted involuntarily down to her mouth. She looked so much like Odele that it hurt, that it made me realize what I was doing waswrong.And for the first time since her disappearance, my heart broke. I’d locked my feelings so deeply inside that I hadn’t had time to actually process what had happened.
And Maisie had ruined it all.
Slowly, I released my hold on her, bringing my fists to my sides. But she didn’t move. She didn’t take a stroke back. She stayed in place, her breath fanning across my lips.
I swallowed the sudden tightness in my throat and took a stroke back. “Don’t let it happen again, Maisie,” I told her, turning away. I couldn’t look into her eyes again. Not without seeing Odele. “Tryharder.” And before she could reply, I swam away and out the doors of her bedroom. Only to run into Prince Kai.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Kai
INARROWED MY EYES AT THE CAPTAIN,looked over his shoulder and saw Princess Odele in the middle of her room. Tears were falling from her eyes to swarm in tiny bubbles above her. And her expression was so broken, so angry. The captain pulled the doors closed behind him before I could look in any further.
