Page 32 of Depths
I turned to watch, in shock as he knocked on the panel that typically admitted my handmaid.
Disappointment flooded me.
He’d decided not to admit his feelings.
We were going to have to pretend everything was the same as before … only it wasn’t.
I stoically swallowed my sigh of disappointment until I realized that the person emerging from the servant’s hallway wasn’t my maid.
Mateo swam into my room clumsily. Because while he looked like himself from the waist up, he now had silver hair and an iridescent silver mer tail.
* * *
I was onlyaware of the fact that I fainted when I woke, laid out on the couch in the sitting room of my private chambers. My windows showed the waves outside were black as ink, meaning it was still night. I glanced at the door that led to the hall. It was still locked. The rest of my room, the tapestries of seashells, the marble sculptures, were all in place, not bowled over as I had been.
As I pushed wearily up into a sitting position, I overheard Mateo’s harsh tone coming from behind the couch.
“She’s not ready for this. She probably wanted to send me away earlier today. Declan’s wrong. You’re wrong. Everything is changed—”
“Mateo?” I asked, surprised at how scratchy my voice had become. I gripped my throat lightly as I cleared it and turned my head.
Mateo lowered his finger from where he’d jabbed it accusingly at Felipe.
It did not look like they were getting along.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
Felipe gave a curt nod, and the two men immediately parted.
Mateo hurried to my side. Of course, he wasn’t used to swimming with a mer tail. He flicked it from the knee joint area several times but didn’t use his arms for counterbalance so he ended up making himself somersault clumsily through the water, a surprised look crossing his face as he spun. He crashed into a side table, his now silver curls sliding wildly and ripples emanating from where he landed, making all the little knickknacks in the room waver in their places.
“Are you alright?” I stood up far too quickly, felt dizzy, and had to sit right back down. Shite heart.
Meanwhile, Mateo used his arms to push up from the ground.
Felipe called out, “You need to push from the hips. Put your arms out when you move.”
Mateo tried again to swim to me, his hips jerking awkwardly back and forth. But he had no rhythm and couldn’t get the motion going smoothly, so he ended up just reaching for the nearest chair and navigating it like an ape, using only his hands. He reached out and latched onto the couch arm, pulling himself over to sit next to me.
All the while, I watched in dumb stupefaction. Why had Mateo gotten a tail? Who’d given him one? Why would he need one? And his hair! What had happened to his beautiful hair?
Mateo’s hands closed over mine, and he leaned in, contrition written all over his features. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea you’d faint. We should have asked you before. This was a stupid plan. So stupid.”
“What plan? What are you talking about?”
Mateo just kept shaking his head, and I glanced over to Felipe for answers.
My guard pressed his lips together. “I noticed how … attached you were, Your Majesty. And I didn’t mean to overstep. I just thought you deserved some happiness despite all this business. I can see how much the other contestants frustrate you.”
My brow furrowed as my bleary mind tried to process everything he’d just said. The other contestants …othercontestants …
I turned toward Mateo, eyes widening in horror. “You didn’t!”
“See?” Mateo dropped my hands and jerked up from his spot, though he couldn’t keep himself from tilting forward. He turned toward Felipe and started to clench his fists. “She doesn’t want me.”
His fierce words ripped a hole in my chest. How could he say that? Ever? “Of course I want you! But I can’t—”
“You can’t marry anyone who doesn’t complete the tournament tasks,” Felipe finished smoothly. “Which is why, Mateo, idiotcousinof mine, was late to arrive for the tournament.”
