Page 36 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
I cut the rest of that filthy sentence off by shoving my thumb into his throat. He gurgled. “The only thing necessary is that you stop talking and listen. Do you understand?”
I eased my grip and he immediately opened his mouth. “You—argh!”
I dug my thumb in deeper and when his gurgling ceased, he nodded.
“Good.” My smile was a blood-curdling, cruel thing, and there was a glare emanating from him somewhere beneath the droop of his saggy eyes. “Because I want you to know that if you ever,evertouch my future queen again…” I choked him for emphasis. “I will kill you.”
Silence ensued. And only when I thought he’d absorbed my threat completely did I let him go.
He scrambled backwards, gasping for breath like he’d been drowning on air.
I turned to the princess, who was staring at me with such wide eyes. The tame part of me would have apologized for such a display. Right now, I was not tame. Either she’d accept me in all my savage, raving, murderous glory or not at all.
“I believe, my gem, you had a schedule to keep?” I only said it to gauge a reaction. All she did was stare. With disgust? Or was that a gleam of delight in her eyes, a precious obsidian glow that drew me in as all treasures did to dragons?
She opened her mouth to reply, and I ached to hear those next words. But the voice that spoke wasn’t her own.
“The princess in fact,doeshave a schedule to keep.”
I turned slowly, but not before noting Odele’s sudden pale parlor. The appearance of Captain Tiberius Saber had nearly every single one of Odele’s guards scrambling over each other to float in a single line. He ignored them to swim by Odele’s side. He gripped her upper arm, much more gently, but her own face could not mask the venomous reaction to his touch.
“Captain Saber.” My way of greeting. “Pray, tell, where have you been?”
His posture was stiff. Saber was a big merman, wide and muscular, as opposed to my lither body and thin frame. Yet, I had no doubt that I could crush him if I really wanted to.
Ice was trapped in the depths of his eyes, encasing around his entire body and demeanor. Cold. Emotionless, even when he wore the depths of his heart in his eyes.
“Forgive me for the bluntness, Majesty, but I do not answer to you. Where I was is none of your concern.”
I really wanted to stab her guard.
“It becomes my concern when you are absent from doing your duty to my betrothed. Perhaps, had you been present, such violent liberties against her would not have been taken.”
“You know what?” The princess huffed out a laugh that was all too fake. “Idohave a schedule to keep. Since it’s too late for tea, I think… I think I’ll go change for riding.” She discreetly pulled her arm from the captain to rush closer to me. She was such a sight to behold, in a dress that was mere tatters now. Stretching out on her fins, she pressed a kiss to my cheeks, where her warm lips lingered. Heat stirred inside me, and I kept very, very still as her lips traveled to the lobe of my ear.
“Thank you, my prince.” Another kiss, and she pulled away. Her absence made me shiver.
“Until next time, my gem.”
She smiled at my parting words and swam past Captain Saber, acting as if he wasn’t there in the first place.
He didn’t follow her immediately. His eyes were like chips of glaciers threatening to crash into me and plummet me to an icy death.
Little did he know that I was forged in ice and jewels. And if anyone was to bring about the ruin of a merman, it would be me, and Captain Saber wouldn’t live to see tomorrow.
Chapter Nineteen
Tiberius
I’d slipped inside the training room for but a moment. I hadn’t meant for Maisie to see me, not after she’d made it abundantly clear just how little she wanted to do with me.
I’d conceded to her wishes, if only because I thought the space would help quench my own anger. I furiously spent the past few days looking for any sign of Princess Odele and of the Black Blade. I swam to the mouth of that alley, the one where that criminal had dropped her off, near the rear of the palace. I had been searching for a clue as to how she disappeared out of thin water.
All my efforts had been fruitless attempts.
So much investigating left me with little answers, too many questions, and a bout of cold fury.
There’d been nothing to do but monitor Maisie from afar. And that’s how I found myself here, watching, raging.
