Page 56 of Depths
My heart had still been whole then, and it had thudded so hard it felt like it might break my ribs. I’d been alight with nerves and excitement, utterly captivated by Mateo’s smile when he’d glanced back at me before pushing open a door that wasn’t yet shut at the end of the hall. I’d eagerly followed him inside.
I couldn’t bear to remember what had happened next. It was too intimate, too sweet, and I was currently tainted with worry.
I sat up, kicking back my sheets. To my surprise, Ugo and another guard were in my room on either side of the door. Felipe was nowhere to be found. It shouldn’t have mattered, he probably needed a break, but his absence left me feeling unsettled, so in my nightdress, I swam over to Ugo where he hovered by the door.
“Yes, Your Majesty?” His orange eyebrows shot up in surprise to see me awake, but I could see the dark circles under his eyes. He needed to sleep soon.
“Is Felipe off-duty?”
He gave a brief nod. “For another hour, Majesty.”
“I need to speak with him now, please.” An hour was more anxiety than I could handle. I needed someone to tell me what this competition was, to reassure me that Mateo could handle it, that he’d come out unharmed.
I tried to recall if Mateo had been there all night after dinner, but I couldn’t. Too many citizens and suitors had kept me up into the wee hours. I hoped he had snuck away to practice … Did he even know what to practice?
I stared at my guard and tried not to wring my hands. Ugo, to his credit, didn’t look at me curiously, though I was certain he wondered at my request, at why I couldn’t wait a single hour to see Felipe. I didn’t give him too long to ponder, however. “Take me to him, and then find someone to relieve you. Get some rest so you can enjoy the competition tomorrow.” Someone should.
That did the trick. Ugo gave me a grin and said, “Always thoughtful, Majesty.”
I smiled back at him. “Well, I have to be. You and Felipe work so hard. Someone needs to mother you both.”
He belly laughed at that. “If you were mer, you’d hardly have gotten your final tail color. Can’t think of you as motherly.”
I shrugged as he held open the door for me and led me down the hall. The other guard followed behind silently and respectfully. I’d have to ask his name later. “So, where are they housing the guards?”
“Oh, he’s not sleeping, Majesty.” Ugo shook his head. “Not if I know him.”
Curious, I opened my mouth to ask more, but Ugo shook his head, and I heeded his warning. I followed him through the mayor’s grand house silently until we emerged at the arena. Moonlight interrupted by irregular clouds filtered down through the waves, coloring patches of the alabaster sand a pale blue. Three dark figures were on the far side of the arena, floating near the green row of the audience stands. Felipe’s dark blue tail was just visible, Mateo’s silver tail far more so. Between them was a fish of some sort, tail toward me, thrashing as they held onto it from either side. While the sea didn’t carry the scent of sweat quite the way the air did, I could still sense tension and exhaustion from the way Mateo’s neck drooped and Felipe’s posture had lost its rigidity. Clearly, they’d been in this ring for hours. Were hours enough? Was he prepared? Would Mateo survive the first challenge?
I held up a hand to Ugo and the other guard, signaling them to stop where they swam. “Thank you. You may go.”
“But, Majesty, two guards—” the new man protested.
“Felipe’s cousin won’t harm me,” I replied calmly. I waited gazing firmly at them until the two slowly and reluctantly swam off. Then I turned and swam around the edge of the arena to give myself more time to watch Mateo and Felipe before they spotted me. I wanted to see how they got along, gauge their progress, because I was certain they’d both lie to me with utter confidence.
As I got closer, though, my concern about the competition turned to downright dread. Because that fish that they were wrangling was roughly the size of a horse. And it wasn’t some fat tuna or bloated sunfish. It was a swordfish, with a long sleek body that faded from black on top to silver at its belly. Its dorsal fin was fitted with some kind of straps. I watched in horror as Mateo wrapped those straps around his hands and then mounted the bucking fish, turning it toward the center of the arena.
The clouds in the sky shifted, and the beast’s massive nose slipped from shadows into light. I gasped in horror. The creature’s pointed nose had been covered with a mer-made, double-sided, serrated metallic blade that looked sharp enough to slice through the rocks that formed the arena wall.
My gasp had both mermen craning their heads to look at me. But for Mateo, that was a mistake. The beast sensed his inattention and started thrashing wildly. My love’s body was thrown side to side like a rag doll, but still he held on. His tail flicked forward as he struggled to regain control of the wild animal, and I screeched when that sword sliced right next to his clumsy tail fin.
No!
The poison of terror spread through my system, paralyzing my limbs as I watched. Mateo used his arms to bodily swing himself around so that his body was right next to the beast, not mounted atop her but aligned at her side. I breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn’t mounted. But at least he wasn’t a second from getting speared.
“Get back on her! Steer! Control her. Get her to the target. Remember to use those reins!” Felipe barked orders as if Mateo weren’t about to be flipped over that beast’s back and speared by its nose.
What in the hell are they thinking?I swam toward Felipe, but my movement caught the beast’s eye. She changed directions and charged at me.
I hardly had time to be horrified, much less think, before Felipe had grabbed me in a burst of speed. The arena became a blur, the stands turned into stripes of stacked color, as we raced across it. I heard an angry low from the swordfish and Mateo’s uncertain yelp, “Whoa!” and knew that we were still being chased.
Felipe made a sharp right turn and then suddenly shoved me behind something tall and dark and human shaped. A second later, with a crack, crunch, and crash, a metallic sword sliced through the giant dummy at our side, seaweed guts erupting from its leather skin and fluttering in front of my face.
My hand flew to cover my heart, which stumbled, stopped, and then haltingly started again. I was dizzy with fear and adrenaline.
But Felipe gave a joyous whoop. “You did it!”
I blinked, watching dully—trying to catch my breath as Mateo slowly unwound his hands, which were striped with red from how fiercely he’d hung on to the beast—as my guard and my true love embraced, clapping each other on the back.
