Page 18 of Coral Prince Conundrum
“No. But it has healed me.”
“I saw that.” I pick up a tiny stray seashell and play with it in my hands. “You can breathe underwater?”
“In the sea, yes.”
I nod. “And you were swimming up and down, bobbing out of the waves with ease.”
“That…is a gift from the ocean. To me, and members of the royal family.”
“What? Your amazing swimmer’s body?” I shoot him a facetious smirk.
“No.” He bites his lip, like he’s conflicted. “I…can show you my greatest gift of all. But…it may shock you.”
“Man, you broke my car and almost died in my arms.” I lean back on my elbows. “We’re way past keeping secrets. I’d like you to come clean.”
He nods and stands up. “We treat the sea with the utmost reverence. And it has granted my people the gift to commune with it deep within our souls.” He puts out his right arm and pulls his left back, like a fighting stance.
“What do you mean —ah!” I yelp and scramble to my feet at the sight.
The beach water in front of us changes. The waves bend and are fuckingmovingtoward me in a vertical wall. My mind can barely interpret it as a flowy curtain of water leaves the ocean and flows toward me, surrounding my body. All the while, Seero is maneuvering his arms like he’s doing tai chi.
“What the hell?!” I try not to hyperventilate, but the ocean water is freakingfloating aroundme!
“Do not be alarmed,” Seero says, calmly.
“How can I not be alarmed when…when…?” My words die out as his arms continue to move. The wall of water spins around us like a slow-moving vortex. “You’re…doing this?”
“Some Corali have this ability. But yes.” He puts his hands together, and then pushes his palms forward to the ocean. With that simple gesture, the wall of water unravels and flows back. Within seconds, the ocean is back to normal, and all is right in the world.
“You…you…” I gulp. “You have…hydrokinesis?!”
“Is that your word for controlling the water?”
“Yes!” I shout, waving my arms around. “What the hell?”
He steps toward me, unfazed by my panic. “I thought you wanted me to, how you say, come clean?”
My shoulders slump—he’s got me there. “I guess.”
“I am a water mystic; I commune with the ocean. I am able to shape and bend water. It is a gift to our people for our reverence to the sea; we owe it our lives, after all. Every living creature on this planet depends on it.” He gazes at the nighttime waves, and I do the same. “But some cause it harm.”
“Some like my dad,” I mutter.
He turns to me with a tired but sincere look in his eyes. “The duty of the Coral Prince is a great one. Once I travel the world enough, I am to return to the Coral Kingdom and report my findings. My people are counting on me.”
I nod, letting his words sink in. “Understandable. But Princedelphia is hardly the world.”
“I am, as you might put it, running away? I fear what will happen when I go back home.”
“What?” I step forward and touch his shoulders, a surge of protectiveness flowing through me. “Are…you in danger?”
He shakes his head. “No, but you are.”
“Huh?”
He picks up the towel and I do the same. Then, he looks right at me, his eyes pooling with dread and sorrow. “The world is filled with people like your father who disregard marine life. We have witnessed it time and time again, and my people know this to be true. We regard the surface world as a toxin that must be purged. As such, if I cannot sway the Corali Court, they will enact martial law on the world’s oceans. My father the king will declare full control and make a statement to the United Regions enforcing rules in the water. We have enough water mystics and sea creature whisperers that we can do it.”
He shakes his head. “Ships will be capsized. Boats will be destroyed. Deliveries will be halted. Shores and docks will be ravaged. Entire economies will cease.”
