Page 28 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
“Why must marriage contracts be so tedious?” I pushed the shell away.
Percival glared. He did a lot of that, I noticed. “You and I both know that marriage contracts are a matter of state, Princess. Very important.”
“Yet it all seems so…cold.Like pawning off a hippocampus. I am a princess. Not an animal.”
Not for the first time that day, he sighed with exasperation, making me think that perhaps the princess was prone to those sorts of conversations with him.
“Marriage is a promise between two nations. Contracts are meant to assure each country that the other won’t look elsewhere, should a better prospect arise.” He looked at me, as if to say ‘You already know this.’
I ignored it and went on, “I’m sure there have been many broken marriage contracts throughout history.”
He glared suspiciously. “Of course there have been.” His tone grew a darker edge. “And they’ve all ended in the same conclusion: war.”
My bones chilled. War. A broken marriage contract could lead to war after all. His words confirmed just what Elias and I already knew. Now to confirm my other suspicions…
“And if the contract between Draconi and Thalassar were to be broken?”
He let out a gasp, his face raging red. Bushy eyebrows pulled together. “Don’t even speak such things aloud!”
I leaned back in my chair, eyes widening in surprise at his outburst. I tried pushing away his words with a flippant expression, and a wave of my hand. He didn’t let me finish half the gesture before he was bearing down on me again, reaching for my hand and crushing it in his grip.
“Kingdoms have gone to war for less than the mere mention of such treason. Thalassar has fallen victim already to the hardships of war, and you will not let it happen again. Youwillmarry Prince Kai Li. Do you understand?”
I let out the shakiest of breaths, but nodded. Only then did he release my hand.
Yes, I wanted to whisper.I understand.
“So didhe tell you that’s why Thalassar and Kappur are at war?”
Elias paced a short distance from one side of the cove to the next. He claimed he needed to stretch his muscles to help his wound. I wondered if it was really because he was anxious at the information I was bringing him.
“Not directly. But I’ve no doubt he meant to imply it.”
You will not let it happen again.
Was it too farfetched to think that that’s what he’d meant? It had felt like a warning.
I held the marriage contract in my hands, fingers tracing the edges of Percival’s neat scripture.
“He obviously knows something.” Elias finally stopped pacing and turned to look at me. His black eyes were intense, shadows cast against his cheeks and beneath his eyes, making him look even more formidable.
“Obviously. I mean, his signature is on the contract, and the old barnacle has been advisor to the Malabella lineage for decades. He knows why we’re at war.”
“Getting him to talk will be difficult.” Elias stretched, and cracked his knuckles.
My eyes narrowed. “Don’t,” I warned.
His eyebrows lifted, and the side of his mouth twitched. “I wasn’t planning on hurting him, little fish. I was actually going to suggest you use your feminine wiles to seduce the old mer.”
My face heated and I felt the words like a jab. “Don’t tease.” I glanced down at the contract to avoid looking at him. But there was the soft rustling of clothes and a moment later, his warm hands covered the tops of my own. I set the contract in my lap, eyes finding his.
“Don’t doubt your abilities to seduce, little fish. You’ve ensnared the Dragon Prince easily enough.”
I snorted. “It’s one thing to seduce a pretty prince, and another entirely to seduce a barnacled, saggy merman.”
“And what about the merman of the night?”
My breath stuck shy at the entrance of my lungs. There was no mistaking that tone, the sudden darkening of his voice that curled the hairs on the back of my neck and had goosebumps rising over my skin. He was good at that. Too good. At changing the rhythm of a conversation that would otherwise be lighthearted, into one that made my heart pound.
