Page 11 of Sunken Empire

After dropping the bomb on the guys and telling them everything Cecaelia showed me, they left me in the study at my request. The only thing I didn’t tell them was about Bruinen. No reason to burst their bubble as soon as it forms.

I stand in wonder at what I originally thought was an aquarium. Now that I know the truth, it seems all the more magical. Enchanted, I watch as brightly colored fish swim by. Reaching out, I touch my hand to what I thought was glass, but Zale explained is part of the magic. A tingle shoots up my arm and makes me smile. It feels as though the magic recognizes me, and I it.

Sighing, I turn and face the books stacked on the table. Merrick had come in a few hours ago and given them to me. The top one is a living registry of all known merpeople clans. Sort of like family trees. He left a marker at the Noelani Clan where my mother’s name sits lonely at the bottom of the page. I had flipped through until I found Bruinen’s name on the Mindel Clan, promptly slamming the book closed, and I’ve been standing here since. The other books are mer history and I should probably read them, but my brain feels like scrambled eggs at this point.

Collapsing into the nearest chair, I allow my head to fall into my palms.

“You ok, damselfish?” Zale’s soft voice asks.

The sound of it sends skitters of tiny butterflies into my stomach. It pulls me away from my current thoughts, only this kind can’t be allowed. I try not to think about the way that his lips felt pressed against mine. It works until I look up into his face.

He smiles down at me and it is my undoing. Tears flow freely from my eyes. I’m not sure if it’s from the info dump or the loss of family that I never had the chance to know or regret from what can now never be with Zale.

Shockingly, he kneels down in front of me. I know from finding their family page that the three of them are technically royalty, which explains the servers reaction earlier, but they shouldn’t be subservient to anyone. Least of all me. He reaches out, and I jerk upright before he can touch me. Guilt eats me alive as hurt flashes across his face, but it’s for the best. I’m certain my forced smile looks more like a grimace.

“I’m really tired,” I tell him, trying to cover up my rudeness.

Zale nods as he stands. “Want to take the books with you for later?”

He is so thoughtful, and I can’t help reaching out to give him a hug. Warm breath filters through my hair right before I pull away from him. I walk over to pick up the books, which he immediately takes away from me. With his other arm, Zale offers me the crook of his elbow. The guilt is still hanging around from a few moments ago, plus I simply don’t want to be impolite, so I take it.

We walk out of the study, and he takes a new route. I love how this palace of sorts, even if it started out being a prison a few short hours ago, isn’t overloaded with gawky pretentious decor. It’s got subtle light tones with dark undertones. The fixtures attached to the ceiling are the fanciest thing in this whole place. Thinking of mundane things is a good distraction.

“How do you have light in those?” I ask Zale. “I mean, I’m assuming it’s not regular electricity and all.”

His gaze follows mine to the ceiling. When he doesn’t answer me right away, I look down to find him watching my face. Whatever he sees there makes him smile.

Wiggling his fingers at me, he says, “It’s magic.”

I roll my eyes, but a short laugh escapes at his theatrics. My absentmindedness follows us all the way through the halls until we come to a set of double doors. The crest etched into the main door is present here as well.

Zale turns his body to me looking sheepish. “I know you said that you were tired, but I wanted to show you something first. You may consider it a little weird, so just try to keep an open mind.”

He waits until I nod before opening the door. I’m not remotely frightened because Zale wouldn’t hurt me intentionally. However, that doesn’t stop the small flutter of butterflies of nervousness in my stomach. After the shortest of hesitations, I follow him inside, my feet coming to a stop just over the threshold.

My eyes must be bugging out of my head. “What the...umm, Zale?”

“It’s not as scary as it looks,” a warm breath says in my ear, causing a shiver that races through my body. Which of course, said body betrays me by stepping back into Zephyr’s embrace so that his hands find my hips. A wicked look crosses Zale’s face as he watches Zephyr pull my face to him.

Coming to my senses seconds before our lips touch, I pull away from him. Instead of the hurt look Zale wore before, Zephyr has determination burning in his eyes.

Too many more looks like that and I won’t be able to hang on to my resolve no matter who it hurts. Distractions. Distractions are good.

I clear my throat and step away from him. “Where are we?”

The loss of his body heat hits me like a ton of bricks immediately. I ignore it as Zale starts talking.

“This is what you’d call our crypts,” he replies, shooting a weird look over my shoulder to Zephyr.

Well, that much is quite obvious by all of the skeletons around the room. Normal crypts never have the bones just lying around. They’re all in coffins, urns, or cement. I’m not sure I want to understand why they’d do it this way because the effect is overall creeptastic. When I voice this to them, they laugh.

“They’re just bones,” Zale says. “They won’t come back to life or anything, but there’s magic still there. All of our past generations of royalty are here.”

We come to stand beside the largest one in the room. I get the whole merpeople thing, but it’s still shocking to see a skeleton with a tail. Especially one that makes the person at least eight-foot long. This one was their father, and something about the magic calls to me. Nowhere near as strong as the guys, but it’s still there. That’s not the only reason I know. The stone statue beside it would have given it away. She is absolutely stunning, even etched in stone. It’s clear where the guys got their looks from.

“She was your mother,” I say, not questioning if I am right.

Zale steps up to my right as Zephyr comes to my left. It’s Zale that asks, “How did you know?”

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