Page 45 of Surfaces
Horror rushed through my veins and if Valdez hadn’t slyly caught my hand in that moment, I might have turned and slapped the mayor across the face.
But it got worse. As the sailors on the ship started to haul aboard the net with the mer children a cry went out.
“Queen Avia! Save us!” The little children caught in the fake net began to scream, their plaintive little voices growing louder.
The crowd grew hushed and every eye turned expectantly toward me.
My blood boiled while my stomach writhed—I was both infuriated and utterly terrified.
Gorgono had not only put on a show that deliberately sabotaged my purpose of uniting the sea kingdom with those on land, but the bastard had put me on the spot to display my magic.
Sarding hell.
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Gorgono gestured widely,a fake smile on his slimy lips—the bastard. "Well, your Majesty? I believe you’ve been summoned." His emerald green eyes glittered cruelly as his hand invited me to go help the children who pretended to be caught in the net.
He has to know that I don’t use my magic. Word must have spread after the attack on the way to Reef City.
I fought to keep my limbs from stiffening under Gorgono’s look and decided that it was better just not to look at the fucker. Instead, I diverted my eyes and glanced over at his wife to find her head bowed in shame. So at least I knew that she didn't agree with her husband's actions. But she didn’t say a word, so she was a complacent bystander and hadn’t sent word ahead as forewarning. Wonderful. This relationship with Navagio was going to hell quickly.
When my eyes left her, I felt that flash that I feared. My anger grew like an enchanted dragon, morphed and changed shape like Taft had in the carriage ride over—it turned darker and more twisted than I’d have believed possible just weeks ago.
I imagined that my magic was strength and that I could grab stupid Gorgono and lob him through the water like I was a catapult. His dumb, rock-hard head would smash through the inverted ship and everyone would cheer for me.
I took a deep breath, trying to calm the phantom pounding of my heart.
No.
Thankfully, I couldn’t do that.
Sahar was the next person I looked to, trying to regain my center. But the glance didn’t really help me—her face was just as shocked and furious as I felt. Her courtier’s mask slipped for a moment and I saw raw fury painted across her cheeks.
She’d been right.
Gorgono was a beast and he needed to be shown his place.
I took a deep breath, steeling myself – glad that Lizza and I had practiced at least once so I knew how to pull in my magic. But this was the absolute last way that I'd ever wanted to test it. Around children. Around crowds who might get hurt if I fumbled. And what if I sarded it all up so badly that it became obvious I had no control?
What kind of opening would that give the rebels?
I swallowed and it felt like knives lined my throat.
I glanced out at the crowd for half a second. They were cheering, waving, clapping, excited for the grand show they expected to get.
I saw balding mermen placing bets, sand dollars slipping from palm to palm. I saw children in the crowd clasping hands with one another in rapt attention. The mermaids were all staring expectantly in my direction, most of their gazes full of confidence, certain that I’d impress.
Do something grand, Avia. Don’t sard this up,I told myself, before giving a smile full of teeth and fake happiness and launching myself off the stoop with my betta fish fins.
As I swam upward, leaving the the mayor’s home and the crowd beneath me, it felt like the water pressure around me was building not lessening—as if I swam into a dark trench where the water was so dense that many creatures were crushed to death instead of rising up into the turquoise shallows. There was no dark trench here, only the looming shadow of an upside down ship that hovered above the square. With all the poles and ropes and rigging, it looked very much like an elaborate gallows to me—one on which I could end up hanging.
I could feel it in my bones: this would be a defining moment for my reign.
I wondered if rulers often knew that in the moment, or generally only realized their mistakes after the fact.
Gela had often told me about her stumbles. But she’d never mentioned when she realized she’d made a mistake.
Was I about to make one?
