Page 48 of Cursed Waters

Leander kept close to me as we walked, his chin lifting in tight movements to greet each mer we passed. “My father spent the last few hours trying to figure out how to summon King Darias’s voice over the phone. Its lumination drained before he succeeded. Not that I’m too fucking surprised. Neither of us knows how cryptograms work.” His head shook, and I bit back a snicker.Cryptograms?“If he keeps up like this, he is going to start a fucking war. He already wants to strangle that Pacific prince, and he’ll end up doing it if I don’t keep King Darias’s son out of here.”

A war between the merfolk on land? Something told me it wouldn’t last very long. Even if one side could afford the plane tickets, they would need to branch out their weaponry to include vacuums and mops or get their hands on a whole lot of brooms.

“Kai, you mean? Why would your father strangle him?”

Leander’s mouth tightened into a scowl. “Well, let’s just say he managed to annoy him.” We reached the corner leading back to the king’s platform, but Leander’s arm held me back. “Listen, Claira. Remember what I said earlier? You can trust Barren.”

Tucking an errant strand of hair off my cheek, he dropped his voice down as soft as he could manage. “We discussed a lot of things while you were asleep, and while our scribe is trying his best to find some sort of loophole, the other kingdoms see you as a free mermaid. They’ve decided we can’t hold on to you, that we can’t hold you here against your will. The Pacific and the Indian Oceans both want your help, and my father has decided, for now, to let them think you’ll help them.”

Wait, what?

“Help themhow?” My jaw unhinged as I stared up at him, but he made no move to elaborate. “Lee… You know I can’t swim.”

“And that’s what I told both of them,” he shot back, and my anxiety eased. “But they both said they think they’ll be able to teach you.”

Now why did that sound familiar?

“Oh, so they’re gonna take me out, too, then?” I could feel the anxiety bubbling right back up. “But what if they find out about—”

Leander’s finger snapped up to my lips, and I swallowed the words back down. His eyes cut sharply to the left and to the right, and I nodded, easily understanding his meaning. It wasn’t hard to see that these merfolk were desperate to get back into the water. No one else needed to know what my touch could do.

He seized my hand, and his long fingers spread mine apart to weave into the spaces between them. The comfort the warmth of his palm brought was unexpected. As soon as the thought drew my attention down to our clasped hands, he spoke, and his velvety voice drew me right back up to him. “Promise me you won’t let Barren or Kai or anyone else find out.”

I bit at my lip as I thought. “I mean, I’ll try not to.”

It wasn’t like it was my fault Leander had ended up in the ocean with me. It had been stupid of him to follow me into the water, even if it was to save me. Luck was the only reason either of us had made it out of that situation alive. If something else happened, how could I guarantee Barren or Kai wouldn’t act just as foolhardy?

“Claira, I need you to promise.”

Swimming without someone to hold on to was going to be difficult for me. Impossible, even. But what choice did I have? What choice had I had in any of this?

“I promise.”

His face softened with relief, but my pulse hammered at the thought of going back into the water without him. Suddenly worried, I brought our joined hands up to press a kiss against his knuckles as my thoughts wandered back to the two princes I’d left locked up in the gas station. Could either of them really teach me how to swim? How could I even trust them not to let me drown? Through the string of questions, I was only certain about one thing.

This wasn’t going to be an easy promise to keep.

19

Claira

Glancing down at the sky’s reflection in the water, I sighed. By the look of the midday sun, I hadn’t slept for very long. There was still half of a day left. With Leander still at his father’s side and no end to King Eamon’s anger in sight, what was I supposed to do with myself now? My eyes scanned the empty stretch of water leading out to the horizon.

There was nothing for me to do.

No nets to mend, fish to clean, or boats to wash down. Well, there wasone boat, but unless I’d missed a whole spare engine lying around here somewhere, it wouldn’t be running any time soon.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to stand there,” a voice called out behind me, and I turned to see an accusatory finger pointing to the spot where my boots met the pier. “See those planks you’re standing on? One, two, three, four steps. My papa says everyone has to stay four steps away from the water!” The little merfry sniffled in a shiny bubble of snot, her chest puffing with pride. “And whatever my papa says, you gotta listen to,” she added with a knowing nod.

“Is that right?” I suppressed a laugh as I took a lengthy step away from the edge of the pier. The merfry’s face brightened. She looked so satisfied by my compliance that it wouldn’t surprise me if she thought she was a captain herself. I took three more steps.

Her grin expanded, showing off a sizable gap between two squared front teeth. “Yeah, that’s right. Because he’s a captain, and you gotta do whatever a captain tells you to do. Even if it’s eating something yucky like alobster.”

The merfry’s snotty nose crinkled, and I found it hard to hold back a chuckle. “Thanks for letting me know. I didn’t know there was a rule about the pier.”

“Yeah,” she said, her lips slowly broadening. “You were standing so close to the water that I could have pushed you right in.” The edges of her mouth curled up as she spoke, the slight movement molding her face into an alarming vision of uncanny and otherworldly madness—a creature more than human. A chill crept up my spine.

The merfry turned her eyes down to the open palms of her hands, and the sinister aura seemed to evaporate away from her smile, morphing her face back into the likeness of any normal yet mischievous human child.

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