Page 11 of Midnightsong
“Marina. She’s their keeper when I need a break,” Adrielle explained, once the mermaid and her children had gone. “She will take them back to our quarters.” She motioned for him to follow her into an empty living area two tunnels down to their right.
“Are you going to tell me why our people haven’t greeted or acknowledged me? And why wouldn't you look me in the eye?” Kaden cast a side-eye at her when they were alone. “Has something happened since I’ve been gone?”
“Our citizens believe you contributed to the queen’s death,” Adrielle whispered. “Because you fell in love with a human.”
“I—” Kaden’s eyes grew rounder and he rubbed his face. He didn’t know what else to say. Perhaps there was nothing. The guilt had struck him more than he would have liked, wondering if he had never gotten involved with Angie, if the mer’s fight with the humans would have gone as far as it had.
If he hadn’t taken Angie to the sanctuaries and to the palace, leading to the humans finding them, his father and mother might still live, and Cyrus might have still been healthy; Adrielle would not have to raise two merlings alone while also caring for an infirm lifemate.
He would never know and the notion left a bitter tang in his mouth.
Angie was worth his pain, his guilt.
“And since you’ve been away, they’ve not gotten the opportunity to see you, interact with you. Rumors and talk spread quickly.” Adrielle snapped him from his thoughts. “Someof our advisors and soldiers stand by you. They believe you’ve done nothing wrong.” Her lips became a thin line. “The people are not so easily convinced, and you know as well as I do the public’s opinions hold high weight in the council’s eyes.”
A current brushed past, sweeping Kaden’s hair across his head. “What’s going to happen now that the throne is empty? Are you or I expected to take it?” He meant if Adrielle intended to take the throne, though he knew it selfish, with the responsibilities already piled on her head.
He wouldn’t be a good ruler and it would mean he would be away from Angie for an indeterminate amount of time. That thought squeezed his heart.
“The choice is between you and your Uncle Saeryn.”
His mother’s brother.
“Did you want it?” he asked, casting a sideways glance at her. “The council must have asked you first.”
“They did. But no.” Adrielle folded her arms over her chest, brushing a flyaway hair from her forehead, tucking it back into her jeweled clip. She smoothed out her thick braid, fiddling with the end. “My commitment lies with my family. They also asked your Aunt Cassia while you were on your way here, but she elected to remain on her throne.”
“I figured as much.” The options were slim then. Him or his uncle.
Three more tail kicks and they reached the infirmary on the palace’s outskirts and swam through the cavernous entrance.
Rows of infirm mer rested in layers on carved, stone ledges, one bed per ledge. In the open area in the center, healers flitted from one mer to another, distinguishable by the seaglass bands around their upper arms, their titles etched on the outer surface. They administered their herbal poultices and treatments. In here, the currents and tides had quieted, the water calm and still.
The elder Mer-Prince lied supine on his bed, his eyelids hooded. One hand rested on his stomach, the other dangling off the bed’s edge. His rose tail stretched straight, tailfins curled at the ends.
Cyrus’ eyes fluttered open and Kaden put a hand on his shoulder. Cyrus shifted his blanket off his chest. “Brother? You’re back.”
“I heard about Mother.” Kaden settled in, curling his tail around the rocky corner to keep himself in place. Cyrus’ expression darkened and his gills flared in response. Kaden chewed his bottom lip. After their last war with humans, Serapha no longer corrected him and Cyrus calling her ‘mother’, instead of ‘Your Majesty’, seeing them as her sons more than her subordinates. “How are you feeling?”
Cyrus’ breathing pattern calmed, gills opening and closing at a steady pace. “Better, but not there yet. The healers told me I still have some tidesmonths left before I no longer need to be under their watchful care.”
“Yes, and if you listened to their instructions to rest and stop trying to move around so much, you might recover quicker.” Adrielle gave her lifemate’s forearm a gentle, affectionate squeeze.
“I don’t like to wait so long just to be able to move around.” Cyrus grunted, rolling to his side, his tail contracting. His jasper eyes met Kaden’s. “I assume Adrielle updated you on the situation with the throne?”
Kaden nodded, looking at the seafloor. He was sure he wouldn’t like what was coming next.
“Will you consider taking it?” Cyrus’ question made Kaden’s head shoot up, and he shook away the sudden bout of dizziness that hit. “I know you can avenge Mother’s death peacefully.” His brother’s voice grew more insistent and Kaden couldn’t meet his eyes. “I know you didn’t pay attention to Mother and Father’s lessons. But I did. You can ask me anything you’d like about ruling and I’ll gladly share my knowledge.”
Remaining silent, he was torn in two. The mere thought of sitting on the throne, trying to rally their people, many of whom had already shown their indifference toward him, and at the same time trying to figure out what in the black depths he was doing as King made his head throb and pressure build behind his eyes.
The thoughts lingered like parasitic roundworms.
“No, I—I can’t.” He rubbed the back of his neck to ease the unpleasant tingling across it. “I don’t deserve it. It’s not meant to be mine.”
“Why would you say that?” Cyrus arched his thick brows.
The reasons lodged themselves in Kaden’s throat, and he couldn’t speak of them aloud. Cyrus wouldn’t understand. “Never mind. I will think about it,” was all he was able to say, brushing the tips of his caudal fins along the ground. Back and forth, back and forth, a distraction from having to make any sort of decision, now or ever. “How about I talk to Uncle first? And if I truly feel in my heart that he would damage the queendom, I’ll take it. And you can teach me everything you know.”
