Page 34 of The Dark, Dead, Deep

I blinked, unable to look away as I tried to gauge if he was serious. “The migration is made so that we reach our magical majority,” I spat. “We come to the beach to commune with Belisama. These sands are sacred.”

The men exchanged glances.

“You came here and killed so many of my kin. Angered the gods’ plans and thwarted their gifts.” I sat back and crossed my arms over my chest. “Was it worth it?” I snarled. “To kill innocent younglings who couldn’t defend themselves?”

Though he hated that name, the dark-haired male—Tormalugh—stood up. “Do not talk of fairness when the King of the Undine slaughters our people daily. When unrest is a choking algae because the undine hunt and fish in our waters. They poison our food. They steal our children!” With that parting remark, and a glare from his midnight black eyes, Tormalugh marched away.

I tried not to let his words get under my skin. Regardless of what the undine had done, these males had killed my kin.

The meal continued in silence, though Tormalugh did not return to the table.

Chapter 7

I sat on the sand, watching, with my hands bound again, as the kelpies and merfolk got along as if they had been allies for years.

I ran through the names of the men that had spoken to me. Of the four males, Cormac Illfin had given me the most information. I knew Cormac was the mer-king. I had met him as a child when he was just a prince.

I knew almost nothing about the other creeds of fae that inhabited the lake, save that they were enemies. My uncle had focused on the merfolk as a point of pride after the previous mer-king had tried to take the High Throne from the undine.

Of all of the soldiers on the beach, there was a single selkie and a single nymph. Both were out of place.

None of the soldiers had spoken to me, but I didn’t get the impression that it was because they thought I was too unimportant to deal with—a feeling I knew all too well. No, the four males had something to do with it. There was a hierarchy at play that I didn’t understand.

I rattled off their names in my mind, committing them to memory. Cormac Illfin—the mer-king. Tormalugh, the kelpie. Rainn, the selkie, and finally, the nymph, who hadn’t deemed it necessary enough to give me a name.

I had imagined the day after migration very differently. The feast tables laid out for the migrating undine had been decimated by the soldiers. The invaders looted the tents that had been left behind to offer newly mated fae some privacy as they used them to set up camp for the night.

My stomach churned as I watched the water roll over the shore and the rocky cliff edges that signaled the entrance to the lagoon. My breath fogged in front of me, and I couldn’t bring myself to move as the soldiers disappeared into the tents as the sun set on the beach.

As the males settled in their bedrolls for the night, and the air grew frigid from the chill blowing in from the Night Court, I waited, with every muscle frozen in fear. I was a captive. I was their enemy and had been left alive when the rest of my kin had not.

There could have been several reasons for my presence, but none were pleasant.

I was useless dead because water fae turned to foam when they crossed into the afterlife.

I could have been a message to my uncle if they were planning on killing me with undine witnesses. For that, we would be traveling closer to Cruinn.

I didn’t dare think of the other reasons that a group of males would choose to keep a lone female.

The mer-king was wearing his armor, with his trident pinned to his back as if it weighed nothing. With his arms crossed over his chest, he wore a smug grin as he approached before looking down at me for a long moment.

“Looking at something?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.

“Savouring the view,” he lifted his brows, affecting innocence.

“Do I get a tent?” I gestured to the beach.

“Would you prefer to sleep on the sand?” Cormac Illfin cocked his head to the side and sounded genuinely curious.

I gave him a look. “I’d prefer to sleep in the water.”

“Ah.” He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “We set off in the morning.”

“We?”

The mer-king chuckled before glancing over his shoulders and waving at one of his men. I remembered the merman from earlier, his name was Toddy, and he had been the one to carry me to the beach.

“Your majesty?” Toddy dipped his head.

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