Page 48 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
“Dragons’ sakes, Ichiro, who’s at the door?” Kai’s voice sounded out from beyond the room, impatient, annoyed.
“No one, Your Majesty.” The advisor—Ichiro—started to close the door in my face.
In a split second, I made my decision. I’d not let advisors and royals shut me out from what I wanted to accomplish. Not anymore. I shoved myself into the space that was left and pushed. The advisor called out as I forced myself into the rooms.
The first thing I noticed was that the room was as spacious as my own, and consisted mostly of the same layout. The second thing I noticed was the smell. It was… strange… different.Spicy.
On two-legger land, there was fire, and it burned. I knew from stories told by the traveling market in Lagoona, that two-leggers believed things beneath the sea could not burn. That wasn’t true. While things did not ignite here like they did there, the lava of volcanoes could still heat and incinerate things in the water.
The lands between mer and two-leggers were alike, and yet so vastly different. Two-legger clothes floated in the water, while ours, being made from matter in the sea, did not wholly do so.
So, Prince Kai’s rooms smelled likeburning.Scents wafted in tendrils through the water that were both strong and calming.
I also noticed that Prince Kai’s rooms were dimmed to a red glow. Red jellies floated like lanterns on his ceiling. He was not in his bed, however, a shell with black anemones swaying here and there. I didn’t see the Prince at all really until Ichiro swam forward, further into the room, on the other side of the bed and bowed to the floor.
“It is—”
I hurried beside him before he could lie to the prince’s face. But the moment I saw Kai, my face heated, and a lump formed in my throat that was hard to push past.
Prince Kai sat on the floor to his rooms. He still wore the red robes from earlier, and yet there was something different about him. Maybe it was the sickness, or maybe it was because the robes opened at the lapels, and the material hung from his shoulders, revealing the skin underneath, and the strip of a kelp bandage cover his wound.
My breath caught in my lungs and gills. I didn’t dare breathe as I watched him. He was distracted, and hadn’t yet seen me. His arms were up, holding his long hair in his hands, as if he’d been in the midst of tying it back. And in the corner of his mouth, he was biting down on the end of the sash that went around his waist. It was loose around him, and I wondered if he’d been about to change, to take it alloff.
My tongue darted out to touch my lips.
“This is highly inappropriate!” Ichiro sputtered. “You must leave. Now.”
Kai looked up then, and my palms shook. In his gaze there were traces of that separate entity. The one who had fought me in the training room and had nearly left me naked. The one who had protected me in the park. Dark eyes nearly glowed as they took me in. The look he gave me chilled me. Like he was prepared to devour me whole.
He dropped his hands, and his hair fell slowly around his shoulders. Using long, elegant fingers, he pulled the end of the sash from his mouth and fingered the edges thoughtfully.
“Princess…”
I gulped. Menace. Danger. A promise and a threat, in one single word.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty, I told the princess that you were resting—”
Kai shot Ichiro a murderous look that shut his advisor up completely.
“Leave us,” Kai commanded hotly.
Ichiro’s face went red, though perhaps that was a result of the colorful jellies dancing above our heads. “Majesty, I do not think that is appropriate—”
“I saidget out! And take Lee with you. Close the door anddon’tcome back in.”
His advisor’s jaw worked tightly, before he finally bowed. He started speaking in Draconian, clipped and fast words. A moment later, Kai’s second advisor came out from the bathing room. He took one look at me, sniffed, but they didn’t dally as they left the rooms, closing the doors behind them.
And Kai and I were finally alone.
He was observing me like I was a curiosity. It was unnerving, and words somehow wouldn’t come. I’d been so determined before, now I felt shaken.
“Sit, Princess.”
His voice was like magic curling around my limbs, making me obey. I sat across from him, tail curling beneath me. Very little space separated us, and I could feel his heat, burning as hotly as a lava seam.
“Why are you here?” he asked darkly.
I finally loosed the breath I’d been holding since I’d seen him. “I wanted to see how you were doing…” The words sounded lame. I regretted them immediately. What was I? Some guppy?
