Page 46 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
My throat tightened with unspoken words I desperately wanted to say. Somehow, none of them came out. I swallowed, nodded, and bowed to the mer who had become a royal right before my eyes. It’s what I’d trained her for. To be cold. To be like Odele. Now that she was, something about it just didn’t swim right.
“As you wish, Your Majesty.”
Turning stiffly, I left the room. She didn’t stop me. She didn’t say a word or call after me as I closed the door. My hands tightened into fists. I longed to drive them through something. To pummel someone. My mind whirled.
All I could see was that arrow zooming towards Maisie. How I’d been too slow to get to her. If I hadn’t angered her, I would have been at her side. But I’d stayed behind in the shadows. So she wouldn’t see me. So she would not be blinded by her anger again. In my mind, I saw the arc of the blade intended for Prince Kai’s heart.
He’d protected her in a way I couldn’t. I wanted to despise him for it. A prince was a better guard than me. I was breaking my promise to Maisie. The promise where I said I’d protect her like I couldn’t protect Odele.
What was I good for if not for this?
Anger pushing my tail, I turned through the hallways and made my way towards Prince Kai’s rooms. I knew this wasn’t the time for this. He could be on the brink of death, and I still pushed on.
Outside of his doors were the guards I’d posted there. They saluted me, but I found myself ignoring them as I rapped once on the prince’s chambers and opened the door.
It was a breach of etiquette, but this was an emergency.
It was dragon fury within the room.
A blur of bodies fighting, screams that were guttural, more beast than mer. Transfixed, I watched as Draconian advisors attempted to restrain their prince. He thrashed his tail, bucking and fighting against them and the medics. Blood flowed from his wound in thin tendrils. The poison was making him delirious.
I knew there had been something strange about him. This foreign prince. His demeanor was calm, almost too calm. Like he had a restraint on his inner madness. Here was the proof.
The prince stopped thrashing and there was an eerie silence. Slowly, creepily, Prince Kai turned his head to look at me. Madness rested in his eyes. A beast waiting to pounce. He saw me, and smiled. The twist of his lips was rather alarming.
“Captain,” he purred. “What brings you to my rooms?” The voice didn’t seem like his own. It was the same voice he’d used at the park. Deep. Threatening. Like a whole new entity resided at the back of his throat.
“His Majesty is suffering from the effects of the poison,” a medic chimed in breathlessly. “He might say… things… and he refuses his medicine.”
The prince let out a low rumble that emanated from deep in his chest. He sat up in his ivory shell bed, pushing aside his guards with annoyance.
“What do you want, Captain?” He leaned forward, pressing his forearms against the bend in his tail. There was a dangerous gleam in his eye, a hungry look there.
I went deeper into the room. The scents of the place tingling my nostrils. It smelt like heat. Like medicine, and something else. “Why?” It was one question. One he understood. One I didn’t need to elaborate on.
Maybe because we both knew the answer.
The prince raised an amused, delicate brow. “Why wouldn’t I? She is my betrothed, after all.”
No she isn’t.My fists tightened, and his eyes followed the movement before flicking back up to my face. A smile twisted his features.
I wanted to hate him. Perhaps, a part of me already did. Because of who he was, and of who he had. The one mer in the world who could never be mine. And because he no longer had her, but the one he so obviously wanted wasn’t even a royal at all, and he hadn’t even noticed.
“Have you come to presume my feelings again, Captain Saber?” He leaned back in the cushioning of his bed, and winced. More blood flowed. He closed his eyes, silent a long moment. When he finally did speak, his voice no longer held dragon fury. “I know why you are so angry with me, Captain.”
My eyebrows rose. His voice was becoming a whisper; he appeared to be in a dream-like state.
He opened his eyes, and they were feverish. “I pondered on it for a while, when I realizedwhy.” He chuckled. “So obvious… the Captain of the Royal Guard is in love with the princess, too.”
My blood ran cold as he laughed, and laughed, and laughed. Until his laughter became coughing, and his eyes rolled to the back of his head until nothing was visible but the whites. Prince Kai’s entire body began to tremble and his advisors and the medics scrambled to get to him, forcing a tonic down his throat.
I swam backwards, shocked at the sight before me, and his words ringing in my mind. My back hit the door, and I fumbled with the knob. Prince Kai was gasping for water now, his whole body seizing.
You’re in love with the princess, too.
My eyes squeezed closed. I did not love the princess. Because the princess was really Maisie. And Maisie was someone I could never love.
When I opened them, I gasped out. “No, I’m not.”
