Page 57 of Depths
Were they insane?
The beast gave a fearsome bellow and then a grunt from where she was still pressed up against the dummy. The sword on her nose waggled up and down. But the beast was stuck. I studied the target again and realized that his middle was made of a ship’s mast. The blade had plunged right through that.
I grew queasy. That blade had been after me. And what about Mateo? He’d been practicing with this unhinged, violent swordfish all night? What was he thinking? What was Felipe thinking?
“The joust will be yours!” Felipe reassured Mateo with a pat on the back.
“I don’t know about that, but I do think that maybe I’ll know how to control the fish a bit better tomorrow,” Mateo replied.
“Nah. Confidence. It’s necessary. A tool even, I read that somewhere. You need to be confident. Bertie is the most vicious of all the beasts, that’s what Posey told me. And she set all this up. If you’re assigned any other beast tomorrow, then you’ll be just fine. Easy as sinking a ship.”
I turned my most Gela-like scolding face toward the fools. But I was scooped into Mateo’s arms and swung in a circle before I could get a word out. “I did it! Avia, I did it!” He smashed me tight against him, and I reveled in the feel of being in his arms again.
It had been too long. And it felt so good, so right, like it was where I belonged. I never wanted to leave. But I still couldn’t quash that inner need to scold him, to lecture him for doing something so dangerous, something that might have gotten him hurt. I pulled back and stared at his eyes, but his joyous glee was just too much. Tears swam in my vision, making him as blurry as if a strong current had just blown in and whipped across my face. My chest tightened as I felt the connection between us, and Mateo’s elation soaked into me, washing away everything else.
He’d done it. He’d come to a foreign land—no, a foreign world—for me. He’d disguised himself, humiliated himself, looked like a bumbling fool to the other competitors. And then he’d spent who-knew-how-many hours here tonight, practicing so he could prove himself worthy enough to win my hand. Because we didn’t live in a world where I could just give it to him.
I was so proud of him. And so humbled that there was someone in this world who loved me that much. Even if every other man in this tournament had selfish intentions, dreams of riches or power … I knew one didn’t. The man floating in front of me, posing as a silver-haired mer, he loved me. He’d loved me even without my magic, without anything else. He’d loved me when I’d simply been a normal-looking girl, a second daughter, a princess without any prospect of power, a human without magic.
I wrapped my hand around the base of his neck and used my wings to push myself up and forward, just enough to press my lips against his. Perfection. Delight. Euphoria. Nothing had ever felt more right. I deepened the kiss, opening my mouth slightly and tilting my head.
Mateo responded instantly with enthusiasm. His hands clutched at me before they drifted lower, curving around my ass and pulling me into him. My legs wrapped around his tail, near his waist, gliding easily over his smooth, surprisingly soft scales. I poured everything I felt into that kiss, trying to show Mateo how much it meant that he would want me, even changed and strange as I was, here in this wild world beneath the sea.
I felt heat travel up my thighs, lighting up my core. Bubbles tickled the skin of my legs, and the sensations were so intense that they couldn’t only have been in my head—couldn’t only have been the result of a kiss. My eyes popped open. I pulled away slightly and glanced down. Mateo’s tail had magically transformed into legs.But how?
Mateo didn’t question it as we sank slowly to the sand of the arena. His lips found the pulse at my neck and began to suck. My heart thudded and my eyes nearly closed as pleasure surged through me, but then I spotted him.
Felipe floated just behind Mateo, an open potion bottle in his hand. The exact same kind of potion bottle he used each day to give himself legs in order to make me more comfortable.
As Felipe watched Mateo’s lips trail down my neck, the other man bared my breasts and began to suckle. I gasped as pleasure shot up my spine, and Felipe’s eyes found mine. His pupils were blown out, and he stopped breathing. I recognized the one thing I’d always wanted to see in my guard’s eyes as he stared at me.
Desire.
18
Always act like you will walk away from the fight. Then you can get in the first blow.
—Sultan Raj of Cheryn
* * *
“WHAT in thename of Sedara is happening?” Posey’s voice echoed through the arena.
I yanked back from Mateo, startled, my arms flying up to cover my chest. My eyes landed on the half-flower sprite as she marched angrily in our direction, kicking up bits of sea dirt that swirled around her calves. Her petals stood straight up on her head, and despite the fact that her face was rotting because she was undead—and therefore unable to make every human expression—I could tell she was furious.
“I am in charge of this competition!” Posey snarled. “No one was supposed to know what it was. No competitor was supposed to have the opportunity to practice. I was supposed to ensure fairness.” Posey glared at Felipe and jabbed a finger into his chest. The skin of said finger sloughed off sideways so that only her bone remained, jabbing him near the heart. “I trusted you,” she growled. “I trusted you only had Her Majesty’s safety on your mind.”
“He acts under my orders.” I tried to salvage the conversation, or at least prevent all her rage from melting Felipe where he stood. Posey’s rage was rather volcanic.
The flower sprite turned her undead eyes to me. “You? You ordered this?” Her look of disgust could have withered a century-old tree.
I pressed my lips together and nodded. I debated telling her Mateo’s true nature, about why he needed help. But the fewer people who knew about that, the better. Just as only three people on the planet knew about my injured heart. Though Posey knew exactly what would happen if I did rid myself of my heart to access my powers, because the same thing would happen to her. As part-sprites, we both could sacrifice our humanity to gain inhuman magic. She had chosen not to do so, as I would have if I hadn’t hurt myself. But I didn’t get that luxury any longer, not when rebels were attacking and I could help if I only accessed that magic. I decided to tell her a half-truth. “My future is determined by the outcomes of these competitions. I want to ensure that at least one of the men I marry loves me, not my crown.”
Posey’s rotting lips curled skeptically. She jerked her head to the side. “Majesty, a word, if I may?”
She trod away across the sand, and I straightened my nightdress with a pained glance at both Mateo and Felipe before I fluttered my wings and followed her.
When we reached the far side of the arena, she turned. “Are you sure about this? You really want the simpleton to win?”
