Page 48 of The Dark Sea Calls

“You know what I mean.” I waved my hand.

He reached up and grabbed my wrist, not hard, but enough to form a bracelet with his fingers. Tor pulled my hand closer to his face, studying the pads of my fingers. My hand looked so tiny against his.

“I miss your pearls,” Tor said, frowning at the unadorned skin I wore out of the water.

I had nothing to say to that, so I remained silent.

Footsteps echoed down the hall, through the cavern. Someone was coming.

Before I could think, Tor used his grip on my wrist to pull me into the hall of silvers. Rainn turned to greet us, beaming, no doubt about to form some witty quip, but Tor’s expression silenced him. Tor turned, easing the door closed with a quiet click despite its large and ornate structure.

The Kelpie tugged me to the side, bypassing the two lines of mirrors, ignoring their whispering heckles. Rainn followed and didn’t argue as Tormalugh pushed us both into a shadowy corner and stood in front of us, forming a shield.

Before I could ask what was happening, I felt a veil drape over us. It felt like Tormalugh’s magic.

Not a second passed before the door opened and a Siren guard entered, holding the door for the queen.

I held my breath. Waiting for the Siren Queen’s eyes to find us, but instead, her dark gaze skipped over our corner as if we weren’t even there.

I knew that Kelpie magic enchanted the mind—a frightening notion in itself—but I hadn’t imagined that it could be used to make us invisible.

All three of us stayed still, backs pressed against the wall behind our Tormalugh shield.

Without hesitation, the Siren Queen strode forward to the gilded mirror in the center of the left row. Its frame was adorned with all manner of gemstones and pearls. The same kind I had seen on my Undine kin, embedded in their skin.

I pressed my hand to my mouth and waited as the Siren Queen approached her chosen mirror, dipping a finger into its liquid surface. Like a stone thrown into a pond, the dark, tarnished silver rippled and cleared until a face appeared on the other side.

It felt like an age since I had stood face-to-face with my uncle—as he had told me about his plans for me after the migration.

I felt the punch to my gut, the same familiar feeling I would get when one of his guards came to get me for my ‘lessons.’

The memory of thousands of hours of bloodshed, sitting on the High Throne, sent bile racing up my throat. It took everything in me not to bend over and empty my stomach on my feet.

Rainn stepped closer, his shoulder brushing mine. He didn’t say a word, but I accepted his silent support.

I unfurled myself and kept facing forward as my uncle appeared in front of the Siren Queen, walking out of the silver as if he were taking a single step instead of two weeks' travel on foot.

King Irvine of the Undine had the same white hair that the Cruinn family favored, though it looked like he hadn’t been brushed it in weeks. His eyes were the same cloudy soulless eyes I had looked into all those months before, but he looked older somehow. His cheeks were gaunt as if he had lost weight he couldn’t afford to lose.

From what I knew of my Cruinn bloodline, most Cruinn’s favored pearls for their embellishments. I had shared a crescent pearl marking with my mother, though all that remained was a scar.

King Irvine did not favor the pearl. His arms were pockmarked with fat round lucid green crystals, the color of seaweed. Malachite. I wondered if those stones were why it was so difficult to be close to the king. His very presence was toxic.

From what I knew, his adornments had not always been green. But I didn’t know much. King Irvine and I hadn’t spent much time together, if any, and we certainly didn’t swap stories about Undine skin ornaments.

King Irvine sniffed the air; his skin cleared as his adornments sucked back into his skin, and the webbing between his fingers and toes disappeared as he grew used to the dry air.

The Siren Queen watched and waited, her wings tucked against her back, making her look smaller than she was. Almost a child—instead of darkness in Fae form.

“Is everything prepared for tomorrow?” King Irvine didn’t look at the Siren Queen as he asked his question; instead, he tucked his hands together and slowly studied the other silvers.

The Siren Queen tilted her chin, looking down at the Undine King as if he were an ant. “My soldiers are ready.”

“Good,” the king mumbled, repeating the word a few times as if he had lost his train of thought.

“You will provide me with the name of my son’s killer,” the Siren Queen pressed. “If needed, you will attend the Unseelie Kingdom to find him and bring him to justice.”

“Demanding, aren’t we?” King Irvine’s smile held no warmth.

---