Page 47 of Chasing Tail
“The druid princess is right,” Tristan said. “We have a plan, and itwillwork if all of you follow it and don’t deviate. Of course, we weren’t counting on Kishi and Taron, but we are successful at what we do because we know how to adapt. But, of course, they will be included.”
“And then you three princes need to do everyone a favor and give Kishi and Taron a proper tour of your kingdom,” Adamo said. “Introduce them to all your favorite people and show them the best land has to offer. Because I’m guessing they’ve been pretending everything is just fine and haven’t mentioned they probably won’t be welcome back home when this is over.”
I hadn’t brought it up because I had been avoiding thinking about it. Taron and I weren’t talking about it either, and we talked about everything. I didn’t want to process it until I had my revenge.
“Kishi?” Beck said, squeezing me. “Why did you risk your family and home to come here? If you had run into his men instead of us, he would have killed you.”
“Because my sister and Taron’s family were important. Some hatchlings are just as curious about land as she was, and their dolphin nannies aren’t there all the time. Even with the patrols, someonewillsneak out and try to get a look up close. My sister wasn’t a hatchling anymore, but she was still too young to die like that. So was Taron’s family. Seira was young looking and small for a mermaid. She could have been mistaken for a hatchling since your people don’t know us. They still butchered her. I have little faith the same wouldn’t happen to one much younger than her. We came to stop this at the source, even if it means they banish us. The ocean is a big place, and Taron and I will still have each other.”
“Or you could stay,” Adamo said. “You and Taron clearly have a connection to Beck, and I see how Forrest and Callum look at you. You could have everything and maybe even be queen. The mermaid council isn’t going to let you and Taron back. I think you knew that deep down when you left. Theywillallow you back to visit with your family if you bring something to the table. Like solidifying the alliance with the new druid king and passing his promises that nothing like that will ever happen again.”
I knew everything he was saying was true. I didn’t know how old he was, but he just had this look in his eyes that it was older than anyone I knew in the ocean. I grew up with the rules of the mermaid council, but Adamo and Salem dealt with them in a much different way. I was sulking like a hatchling because I was still holding onto the chance they’d let us home, even if the idea of staying with the druid princes sounded nice.
“If we tell them what we did, they might let us back,” I pouted.
Taron shook his head sadly and kissed my forehead. He knew. Talora had warned both of us, and Taron knew all along we’d be homeless if we lived through this. He also knew me well enough to know that I would go and hope for the best. He came anyway to protect me.
“We’ll miss you if you go back,” Forrest said. “You and Taron could stay with us, and you’d want for nothing. The palace is on a private beach. The two of you could go back to the ocean and swim whenever you wanted without people gaping at you or getting bothered that Taron is there.”
“You don’t have to decide just yet,” Callum said. “We need to deal with our father first. Then, we’ll show you around and take you on proper dates. Beck just skipped that and went straight for the threesome. You need to meet people and be properly romanced. You need to meet our other sisters that aren’t as mean as Topaz.”
“Shut up, asshole,” Topaz said, flinging a pillow at Callum.
“I think Topaz is lovely. She’d fit right in as a mermaid.”
Topaz beamed at me, and Tristan cleared his throat.
“The druid princess is right. The entire reason none of you know about us is that we don’t make a gigantic mess, even when it involves kings. Every king who took the throne by force is paranoid of someone returning the favor. The man your father overthrew was a gentle and good king, but some people believed he should have made war instead of alliances with certain countries. Your father was one of them. So he launched a dirty campaign to make people think the king had gone addled of the mind and made sure he was present with ideas when there were talks of replacing him.”
“We know you know this,” Salem said. “We’re just explaining things to Taron and Kishi because that’s not how things are done in the sea.”
“A lot of this is very strange to us. If someone did that in the ocean, everyone would come together to run them through with their spears for not openly challenging them. We’d give you a chance to explain yourself for killing your father, even if we liked him because he was a liar.”
“I wish we could do this the mermaid way and stab both of them,” Topaz growled.
“Well, this is not the ocean, and if you want to pull this off and live through it, you’re going to do it our way,” Tristan snapped.
“Maybe you’d just better tell us what your big plan is and how we can help because Topaz has a lot of rage issues when it comes to our father and stepmother,” Forrest said. “She’s going to keep bringing up a brutal stabbing unless you give us a better alternative.”
I was with Topaz on stabbing them, and I was pretty sure Taron would hold them down for me. But I’d been on land long enough to know things were done differently. I finally had to face the reality that we wouldn’t be welcome home when this was over. I couldn’t say I wasn’t warned either. So I just chose to ignore them in my grief.
I didn’t want Taron or the princes hurt, no matter how much I wanted revenge. So I was going to doexactlywhat these three sins proposed.
Then, I was going to let them show me around. If it was okay with Taron, staying on land with them wasn’t a horrible idea.
