Page 55 of Midnightsong
Kaden didn’t meet her eyes and Angie knew why. He had protested all night that he wouldn’t get cold. “It’s more comfortable and warmer than I thought.”
“Glad you like it. It was a little big for me anyway.” She jabbed him lightly on his shoulder with her index finger. “You wash up already?”
“I did. And I used that strange brush and sweet, cakey paste you gave me on my teeth. I’m not used to my breath feeling so—so cool.” He relaxed his tail and rested his forearms on the scooter’s handles. “Such strange things humans have to do to keep their breath fresh.” He blew on her face with a blast of cold winter mint.
“It’s necessary. I guarantee you wouldn’t like the smell of any of us when we wake up in the morning.” Angie filled Lulu’s food and water bowl, and the cat lost all interest in Kaden as she moved to replenish her energy.
Clearly, chasing a merman around the apartment worked up an appetite.
Angie stepped away to brush her teeth, wash her face, and give her hair a quick brush while Lulu was busy.
“Oh, let me know when you need to get back and I’ll walk with you to the sea,” she said, after returning from her washroom.
“I can stay for a few tidesdays. Give my uncle time to talk to the mer out of despising me.”
“I know, you told me you had a lot going on.” She recalled the conversation she had with him when he was on his way there, about his difficulties with getting the council and Saeryn to listen to him—about the protests calling him a traitor, accusing him of working in league with the humans to get Serapha off the throne—how the citizens who weren’t openly hostile to him, appeared scared of him, and how he feared for his safety that the mer might attack him. In turn, she had caught him up on the events of the past two weeks.
She pulled up a bar stool to sit beside him, resting her hand beside one of his pelvic fins. “With all of this happening, I think you would do a muchbetter job as King.” She hadn’t wanted to bring it up to him, knowing his thoughts on ruling, but it sounded like things were going from bad to worse in the queendom. “Have you given any more thought to that?”
“No.” Sitting across from her, pain colored Kaden’s face. “It’s not so easy, even if I wanted it. I can’t force him from the throne.” He absently skated his fingertips along her granite island countertop. “The humans were the ones who broke the truce in the first place. The queendoms are fractured.” His words were raw and gritty, his nostrils and gills flaring, a simmering fire in his amber eyes. “My mother was attacked and killed from the docks your father runs.”
A proverbial knife pierced Angie’s heart and a little voice whispered to her.
Did Bàba know something about Serapha’s murder, and he didn’t stop it?
A fresh wave of worry smacked her. She had to talk to him and made a mental note to call him later.
About to fling back that she wished he would do more and believe in himself to take the throne, she stopped and forced herself to take a deep breath to calm her emotions. Her therapist had told her that when she was still experiencing flashbacks and nightmares of the war, she sought help to address them. Those symptoms reared their heads only sporadically now, and she credited her therapist for helping her handle her PTSD symptoms.
Laying blame on him wouldn’t solve anything, something she learned when Mama and Bàba had disagreements.
Instead, she said, “I understand you’re trying your best. I’m sorry if I insinuated otherwise.”
“Thank you for understanding.” Kaden leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose and sat back. He rubbed his chest for the second time since he’d been there. She noticed him when he had his back turned, waiting for her to return with the scooter, when he thought she couldn’t see. The clouds parted outside and let the sun through for the first time in two days. And under the bright sunlight filtering through her windows, the paleness and dullness of his skin was clearly on display.
She leaned back in her chair, studying him. As if her gaze weighed on his shoulders, he rounded his posture, his gaze darting toward his tail.
“You don’t look like you’re one hundred percent.”
“What do you mean?” The words came out much too quickly.
“You keep rubbing your chest and you look pale.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Angie balled her hands into fists and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m worried about you.”
“There’s nothing to worry about.” Kaden still hadn’t met her eyes.
“I need you to be honest with me.” She leaned in, tilting his chin so their gazes locked. His symptoms reminded her too much of what she went through with Mama, and she couldn’t go through that again. “If you aren’t, and I find out later, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Okay, okay! I–I spoke with Cyrus’ healer. My giving you breath and using my magic had a deleterious effect on my body and it’s sucking out my lifeforce too quickly.”
The happy mood of the weekend crumbled. “Wh-what? Did you ask the healer if there was a cure?”
“I asked. She said there wasn’t one.” He twisted his glass of water on the table round and round.
Angie took another deep inhale. Maybe there was a reasonable explanation and there was no reason to get upset. “How long have you known?”
