Page 18 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
“The Black Blade threatened the princess. How can you all admire a criminal willing to harm the princess you now admire?” the interview asked, perplexed.
The merman shrugged. “I don’t think he would have harmed her. That’s not the Black Blade’s way. He doesn’t kill or hurt anyone. He’s like a miracle sent to us from the gods. He has more of a heart than the queen and king, that’s for sure. Besides, she’s safe in the palace. He didn’t touch her.”
The scene cut off and went back the hosts of the news. They began talking, but I didn’t hear them. My mind was reeling so much, that I almost forgot I was still holding my breath. I let it loose slowly and then dropped back onto the bed cushioning.
What I’d thought would end disastrously had actually ended in something else entirely. The mer of Thalassar were happy. They were rejoicing. They loved the princess…
No.
For once since I’d come here, it wasn’t the princess they loved.
It was me.
Chapter Twelve
Elias
Pain dragged me in and out of unconsciousness for hours, until it was the cold of the cove that finally pulled me from the darkness. My teeth clattered together, the sound echoing across the cavernous stone walls.
Darkness enveloped me, the only source of illumination was a dusting of phytoplankton floating around. I reached a hand up to grab the particles but they dispersed while I cringed in pain.
Never, in all my years as an outlaw had I been caught until the night before last. Since Maisie had swam into my life, I’d been captured, beaten, and nearly killed. Now, I was the most wanted merman in the whole kingdom. Not that I hadn’t been before, but this was different. Before, I’d just escaped Selection. This time, I’d abducted their princess. I tried to make myself despise Maisie for what had happened but in truth it was my fault.
I’d grown careless. The moment I’d dropped her off in the alleyway, I’d turned and had been filled with nothing but thoughts of what it’d be like to have her body flush against mine. I’d neared the poorer half of Eramaea when they’d grabbed me. Seven royal guards pummeled me with fists and the blunt ends of swords. When the beating stopped and I’d opened my eyes, I’d seen him.
Captain Tiberius Saber.
They’d parted to let him swim through and he’d tried so hard to look the formidable opponent as he bent to glare at me from my position in the silt.
He’d smiled at me in a gesture that was neither fortuitous or boastful. He smiled at me with manic possessiveness. A look that said much more than words ever could. Moments later, I was hauled up, bound, gagged and blindfolded, taken away to what could only be the dungeons.
I’d been stripped, beaten by prison guards, and given dirty rags that reeked of mud and a rotting corpse, and awaited my fate.
I guess the greatest joy I’d gotten out of this entire situation was bashing the captain’s face in with two-legger kitchenware. I hoped he’d bruised, both his body and his ego. That and the way Maisie’s body felt against my chest. The way she’d defied all rules to protect me. The worry in her gaze.
That mer was invading my every waking thought. I tried pushing her out. After all, she hadn’t given any indication that she dreamt of me with the same fevered passions I’d dreamt of her.
But even so, I knew that there was a reason we had met. Like the gods themselves were pulling our futures together, threading our fates. There must have been a reason she wielded the other half of my blade, and the reason was only one I could fathom.
Maisie was meant to be mine.
I sat up in the dark with a groan. This place, though I couldn’t see well in the dark—I’d shoved the lava globes away so I could sleep—was too spacious, it was nearly suffocating. I got up and wrapped the rags and cloak around myself, swimming blindly through the cove. My tail bumped into hard objects as I passed. I tried to remember the layout of the place, swam up and forward, until my hands came into contact with a wall. It was furry, and covered in barnacles. I pushed down on the stone, feeling my way across the surface, the imperfections digging into my palms. I pushed against the stone and it gave way, screeching together loudly, the wall parted to form a doorway.
Smiling, I swam into the alleyway, the doorway closing behind me.
Night had fallen in Eramaea. For hours, I’d succumbed to the pain and darkness. It didn’t matter because this, I could deal with. I could become one with the shadows and do what I needed to do before anyone was the wiser.
I was the Black Blade, after all.
I pulled the hood of the cloak over my head, tying the drawstrings together at my neck. I started forward to the mouth of the alleyway, looking around. The streets were relatively empty, save for the occasional mer strolling about.
There were a few guards patrolling, but I was careful to let them pass before I slipped out into the shadows of the streets. I stuck near the underside of buildings, letting the cover of darkness camouflage me.
I swam cautiously through back streets, making my way by memory instead of sight. There were no lights to illuminate the way here. Not that I’d need it.
I made my way out of the busier parts of the city, into the poorer parts of Eramaea. I paused, straining my ears, and feeling for even the slightest of stirrings in the water. I would not be foolish enough to swim blindly there and get caught a second time.
And there were ways to sneak in undetected, secrets ways, and I knew each and every one of them.
