Page 52 of Secrets Among the Tides
I leaned back on the bench. “Because I wanted to wipe the sadness from your eyes.”
She flushed, but shook her head. “No, no, no. I mean why are you here in Eramaea?” She looked around cautiously, afraid someone might overhear, then she leaned closer to him. “You’re an outlaw,” she whispered.
My eyes glittered in amusement. “You don’t have to whisper, little fish. I know I’m a criminal.”
She rolled her eyes. “So if you’re wanted by everyone here, why stay? Why not leave Thalassar and live somewhere without having to look over your shoulder at every turn?”
I batted away a shrimp that came over to buzz around our faces. When it was gone, I smiled. “Misdirection,” I explained. At her blank look, I elaborated. “That’s what everyone expects me to do, little fish. I’m the most wanted mer in the capital. I’ve fled Selection and have helped other mer flee Selection and find sanctuary. Where? At the one place they’d never think to look.”
Her eyes widened and she smiled. “Right under their noses.”
“Exactly. They wouldn’t expect the Black Blade to be hiding a few strokes away from their palace. They never look. And all those mer you saw today? They were all selected at one point. After a few weeks in hiding, they change their appearance, change their names and they can live comfortably in the only kingdom they’ve ever known.” Home. I had no home. Not anymore. Mine was brutally stripped from me by tyrant royals who did not like the idea of a free merman.
“Why do you do it?” she asked.
No one had ever asked me that before. The smile on my face died. Everyone always thanked me for what I did for them. They treated me like a hero, like the savior of the broken. I’d never wanted to be that. I never wanted titles that weighed heavily on my shoulders, and I hadn’t been born with them. They’d been bestowed upon me because of what I could do and what I’d done.
“Because I love Thalassar.” My reply was simple enough. I didn’t think I needed to explain my love of it to her. I didn’t need to elaborate and tell her I loved the merpeople, I loved the currents, the schools of fishes. Her eyes were bright with understanding. Royals would never understand the love I had for the ocean we resided in. But she held the in depth understanding of someone who had been Selected would.
Her hand found mine, and instead of looking down at it, I was captivated by her eyes. By her smile. “Thank you,” she whispered.
And she didn’t need to explain to me what she meant.
I already knew.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Tiberius
IWATCHED FROM ACROSS THE PARK.She had not yet seen me, and I probably would have missed her if I hadn’t heard her laughter or seen a quick flash of purple. So I stuck to the crowd, followed at a steady pace. My eyes had not failed me. There she was. Maisie. Wearing drab clothing, out of the palace and with a merman.
I tried to simmer the rage down but it would not stay. My eyes narrowed as I took the merman in. His tail was long and black, his fins looking as sharp as razors. His skin was brown, his hair and eyes black and everything about his demeanor told my gut that he was a criminal.
And then I saw the rings adorning his fingers. Lavish things of sapphires and rubies. One in particular caught my eye. A black, obsidian ring perched on the ring finger of his left hand. The hand Maisie currently held. There was so much confidence in the gesture, so much trust. I grit my teeth together and loosed a slow, steady breath.
I’d come to the city to clear my head, to get Odele and Maisie out of my mind and regain my composure. And now here she was, swimming through the city streets with none other than the Black Blade. The outlaw the crown had been looking for, for a year.
I didn’t need to get close enough to listen to their conversation to know who he was. His ring had been a dead giveaway.
Everyone knew the stories of the Black Blade. Of a legend of cloak and shadow and of the rare obsidian blades and accessories he possessed.
And Maisie…did she know she was in the presence of a criminal? She had to. She had to know who he was. She had his blade, for tides’ sake, and she worshipped it like she would a god for reasons I simply could not fathom.
She should have been at the palace, in her rooms. How had she gotten out without the guards noticing? I’d ordered them at her door and to follow her every move. Had she somehow slipped past them? If so, how?
But more importantly, what was she doing with a wanted criminal of Thalassar and why was she smiling at him as if she were in love?
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Maisie
WHEN NIGHT STARTED TO FALL, ELIAS—he wasEliasnow, a name that seemed far more intimate than just calling him ‘the Black Blade’—escorted me to the mouth of the alley where we’d first met. He didn’t ask questions about how I got in and out of the palace unseen, though I suspected he already knew.
Our goodbye was bittersweet, and he didn’t wait to watch me go in through the secret passage before he was already turning and swimming away. I watched him disappear into the crowd before I left myself, swimming into the cove. My heart was filled with a glee that hadn’t been there since Selection. Glee that hadn’t been there for such a long time.
I felt giddy, felt hope surge straight through me entirely. Elias had given that to me with his words and actions. He believed in the tyranny of the royals just as much as I did because he’d seen it. Even though I was the Princess, he’d been kind. I wondered if he could believe I could make a change as much as I wanted to believe that myself.
His belief in me made me think that perhaps this hadn’t all been for nothing. That I was suffering through dress fittings, tea time and everything else for a reason. And that reason was because the changewouldcome.
