Page 340 of The Spider Queen
I sighed.
“Stella,” Aloysius snapped. “I just dove into the sea for you. Me. A desert man with a fear of deep water. This was after a tentacled monster attacked our ship in case you—”
“It’s notourship,” I reminded him.
The man actually growled and glared at me.
“You were under the water for at least fifteen minutes,” Dorian voiced. “You should have drowned. Immortal or not.”
“I should’ve pulled your lifeless body onto the deck. Instead you’re fully conscious,” Aloysius stated softly. He shoved the dark hair off his forehead, and the scarred part of his face looked stark against golden skin.
I looked into the mug of broth and tapped the rim. “I can breathe underwater.”
Meghan snorted. “We gathered that much already, Stella. The question I want to know is, if you can breathe underwater, then why didn’t you swim to the ship?”
“Andhowcan you do such a thing?” Aloysius demanded. “You didn’t get that ability from your parents. They can shift from human form to their true forms, but not into a water animal.”
A memory came to me, of my parents shifting into spiders. I’d ridden on the back of my mother when I was a child. “You’ve seen them shift?” I asked in surprise.
“Yes,” he said, his face still pale. “It was…a sight to behold.”
“Terrifying,” Meghan added. “Two giant spiders…”
“You live in a desert with massive scorpions and moving sand dunes. A sea creature just attacked this ship which is being sailed by ghosts, but my parents shifting into spiders is too much for you?”
“We’re getting off topic,” Aloysius said. “Tell us why you can breathe underwater. Please.”
“I have merrow essence.” I shrugged, trying to play it off, knowing it was unusual. KnowingIwas unusual.
Even though I kept my head down, I saw out of the corner of my eye the three of them exchanging looks.
“How can that be?” Meghan finally asked.
“I’d really rather not get into it,” I stated. My mother’s history was not mine to share, even if it did directly affect me. “More importantly, we should discuss what Poseidon told me.”
“Poseidon?” Aloysius raised his eyebrows in clear surprise.
“Apparently he’s quite dramatic in how he wanted to approach me. So he had his sea monster bring me to his domain.” I quickly filled them in on what he said, about how they couldn’t come with me onto the island.
“You mean we have to stay on this forsaken boat without any reprieve? For how long?” Meghan demanded.
“No idea. He didn’t tell me how long it would take to cross the ocean to get to the island, and he didn’t tell me anything about the island itself, except that I’ll find what I’m looking for in the meadow.”
For all I knew, there would be another long journey the moment I stepped foot onto the shore. And that wasn’t something I even wanted to contemplate. I’d think about it when I got there.
“I need a bath,” I said, throwing off the cloak and standing.
“Wait,” Meghan called as I walked away, wanting to escape below deck. “You can’t just—”
“Let her go,” Aloysius said.
I was suddenly exhausted and I’d only been awake for a few hours. In that time, I’d been pitched from my bed, taken hostage by a sea monster, and exchanged snarky barbs with a Greek God. A Greek God who could’ve made my life a lot more complicated than he had.
He’d warned me.
Why?
What was his end game?
