Page 8 of Cursed Waters

“Nerida?” I let the name loose from my tongue before I even knew my brain had conjured it up from long locked away memories.

Instead of answering, she dove forward, clapping a hand over my mouth.

“Careful,” she snapped, the simple word striking like a dagger. “My name isClaira, and I amnota mermaid.”

But her rancor had already given away the truth. Her palm lingered over my lips, but I barely felt it. My senses had dulled, my mind leagues under the sea, dreaming up the vision of a young mermaid that was once brought to the palace daily. Until one day, for the first time I could ever remember, her father had arrived at his post alone.

Nerida.She wasalive.

5

Claira

“I’m going to move my hand, but only if you agree to shut up and listen first.”

I paused, giving him adequate time to accept with a nod, but no signal came. His eyes were vacant, a fine mist collecting at their corners as he stared off at the wall beside us. Hoping to knock him out of his stupor, I leaned in and pressed more of my weight against his jaw.

“Are you listening? Nod or something so I know you’ll keep your mouth shut.”

One blink, and he jerked back to life, his eyes suddenly scanning my face as if he was seeing me for the very first time. A fervent gaze flickered from my forehead to my nose, then onward to my lips, where it unexpectedly lingered.

What was he staring at? I licked at the corner of my mouth, wondering if it was still dried out from the ocean air. Following the movement of my tongue, his pupils dilated, and my heart nearly gave out. Too shaken to wait for a nod, I yanked myself away.

“He said you were dead.” The words fell like a hailstorm the moment my weight left his jaw.

“He, uh, what?” I leaned back, clenching my hand to my chest. For some reason, I found it hard to focus while the moisture from his breath evaporated from my palm. “He—he told you I wasdead?”

Slumping forward, I let out a bitter sort of laugh-snort. That sounded about right. Not like my birth father would have confessed to what he’d actually done. Death was easier than the truth, and honestly, he’d been right to abandon me. I’d never belonged in the ocean in the first place. Papa had just been the first one to see it.

“You think this is funny?” Muscles pulled taut, tensing the sharp curve of Leander’s jaw. “That for over ten years I thought my friend was murdered right outside the palace walls while I slept?”

He drew closer and shook his head, then dragged a hand through the bedraggled mess of his hair, twisting the strands tightly in his knuckles as if the little act of self-inflicted pain could somehow numb his grief.

“I—Well, I don’t think it’sfunny,” I said, confused by the intense anguish cast over his eyes. “But it doesn’t surprise me he told everyone I died that night.”

I looked down at the carpet, wrestling my own torrent of emotions. “Honestly, I never thought about what happened after he… after he…”

The pain of abandonment and memories of my old life under the waves came rushing back, but I didn’t want to—Icouldn’t—dwell in the past. I was on land now, and whatever my birth father had told everyone else had nothing to do with me. I certainly shouldn’t feel guilty because of it. That was all on him.

My fingers gripped at the carpet fibers, and I looked up in disbelief. “Wait, you said,your friend?We were never friends.”

“We were definitely friends, Nera.”

Nera, ugh. That horrible nickname he used to call me. If I still had my boots on, I would have chucked one right at his handsome face.

“No, we were not,Leander.You must have hit your head on the side of my boat when I fished you up.”

“You used to call me Lee,” he corrected. “And yes, we were. You were the only friend I had back then.”

“We were not!”

Disappointment draped over his lips. The miserable look tugged at my conscience, but I deadened my heart. He was wrong. We really hadn’t been friends at all.

“You reminded me every day that the other mermaids laughed at me and wouldn’t play with me because of my… my tail.”

If that was his idea of friendship, well, he was sorely lacking in good company. He’d teased and picked on me just like the others had, and that was the truth. I would beg to be left at home some mornings, but I’d been completely useless on my own back then, so of course Papa never listened.

“Yeah, they wouldn’t play with me either, remember? Because they knew I’d be their king one day. We were the same back then, you and I. Outcasts. We were friends.”

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