Page 74 of Bride of the Sea King

Time was what would really help me improve, now.

“Something feels different,” I said, frowning as I looked around. Releasing Triton’s hand, I stopped where I was and closed my eyes, focusing on the magic I was sending through the water.

Checking on the ocean around the castle was the hardest thing to use my magic for. It took an insane level of focus, and Triton said it had taken him multiple decades to master it.

I definitely wasn’t there yet, but I kept working at it.

“Different how?” he asked. He ran his checks morning, afternoon, and night, so if something was really wrong, I assumed he would’ve felt it.

“I don’t know.” I waded out further, scanning the horizon as if it could tell me more than the sea.

It couldn’t.

I was just looking for an answer.

When I didn’t see anything, I slipped beneath the water and closed my eyes, sitting down on the sand. The waves stilled around me, responding to my desire for calm water.

“What do you feel?”Triton asked, and I could feel his attention on me.

“I’m not sure. You don’t feel anything?”

“No.”

“Hmm.”I focused on what was off.

“Where is the feeling coming from?”Triton asked.“Which direction?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe the tides are changing.”

“That’s just an excuse for a holiday. They don’t actually change.”

I knew it.

“It’s probably nothing,”I said.

“Aria, we rule the sea. If it’s warning you, we need to listen, and figure out why.”

“Why would it warn me and not you?”

“Because you’re the queen. Or perhaps because I’m too consumed by my perfect mate.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes at him. He flashed me a small grin.

Something nudged my consciousness, and I closed my eyes. There was a tiny bolt of familiar, comfortable magic in my mind, and I followed it with my own power until it stopped.

Where it stopped, I scanned the water.

Something was there, and moving quickly. Stealthily.

“The selkies are coming,”I whispered into Triton’s mind.“They have something big with them. I’m not sure what it is. Monsters, or creatures, or?—”

“Where?”

“They’re in the cliffs right now.”

A moment of silence passed before Triton swore viciously.“They’re bringing squids. They still want the throne.”

There was only one kind of squids the merrae were afraid of—the poisonous ones that the selkies usually kept under control. Merrae warriors could kill the squids themselves, but they considered it an unnecessary risk. That breed of squids never came to the part of the ocean we lived in, anyway. They preferred warmer water, like the selkies.

---