Page 140 of Cruel Tides

But as I watched Barren slip into the water a second time—much more gracefully now that he had a tail instead of legs—I couldn’t help but want to let him carry me away.

My breath caught as the ocean lights flickered back to life around him, washing him in a soft blue light.

When we’d fallen into the water, I’d thought of the lights as a hundred tiny eyes watching us in the darkness. I’d screamed, reminded of the queen’s threat of what would happen if I dared to leave land, and the next thing I knew, Barren had pulled us back onto the deck.

From up here, the lights really did look like stars, or something even more enchanting. Miniature sprites, perhaps, suspended in liquid darkness.

“They’re beautiful,” I whispered into the night air.The sea of stars,I believed he’d called them.

It occurred to me now why there were so many tales of merfolk luring sailors to their demise. A mythical titan in the flesh, bathed in magic light. No one could have denied Barren’s invitation to join him in the water.

“We have no use for lanterns here,” he said with a nod. “The lights follow us into the deepest water.”

I reached down to dip a hand into the calm ocean. “Is it… magic?” I asked, cupping underneath a glowing dot, separating it from the rest. I pulled it close with great care, studying the cold blue light swirling lazily in the water trapped in my palm.

It was certainly unlike anything I’d ever seen in the Atlantic.

Barren leaned against the edge of the dock as if studying the light, too. “Humans call it bioluminescence.” He gestured out to the coast with his chin. “Many travel from far away, hoping to glimpse the glowing trails along our shores.” Then he cleared his throat. “In truth, the plankton in these waters react to our magic.”

“So the lights follow you as you swim?” I asked, releasing the glowing speck back into the ocean. It certainly seemed easier than the manual method the Atlantic relied on to make organic matter glow. “That’s amazing.”

“The trails they leave behind are works of art.” Blue light glittered in Barren’s eyes as he adjusted his grip on my hand. “I would show you, if I could.”

The corner of my mouth lifted. “Well, you’ll just have to make it up to me by telling me this secret of yours.”

“Mmh.” His hand tugged at mine, and I let him use his strength to pull me into the water. This time, I was prepared, and the first salty breath went down smoothly.

We started descending, and my stomach fluttered as Barren pulled me close.

His long frills swished underneath us, knocking against my useless tail as he held me tight to his chest. “Nothing will harm you,” he assured me, his deep voice penetrating the water. Even without the words, his arm around me was enough to make me feel safe and reassured.

Just as Barren had said, bioluminescent plankton lit, dancing around us. Even the tiniest disturbances in the water seemed to produce breathtaking effects, and I watched in awe as the stars twirled, illuminating our surroundings with their soft light.

“Sorry that I screamed,” I whispered, pulling myself higher on Barren’s chest. “I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but your sister threatened to order you to execute me if I went into the ocean.”

I’d expected Barren to tense at that, but a deep laugh rocked through him instead. “Did she?”

“Yep.” I met his laughter with a nervous one of my own. “And if you refuse, she said she’ll execute both of us. So, that’s fun.”

It hadn’t seemed like such a terrible threat earlier, because how would she have known if I were to go into the water? Now that I realized we were to be followed by hundreds of tiny beacons…

“Don’t worry,” Barren chuckled, as if he’d read my concerns plainly on my face. “My sister doesn’t know where I live.”

“I’m not worried,” I said, feeling all the strength in Barren’s chest as he moved us deeper into the ocean. “I’m not an expert at reading people like you are, but I think she’s afraid of you going after her trident. She didn’t believe me when I told her you’re not interested in wielding magic.”

I thought Barren would laugh again, but instead his jaw tightened, his lips compressing.

Strange. He wasn’t interested in the trident, was he?

We stayed silent for a moment as a school of fish cut through the lights in front of us, leaving a shimmering trail in their wake. They scattered around a mountain of plate coral forming over the sand as Barren pulled out of a dive.

“Barren?” I waited for hismmmhbefore asking, “How far away is your kingdom?”

We passed a circle of coral and Barren dipped low, bringing us close enough to the seafloor to make out the vibrant tapestry of shapes and colors in the light. I was about to ask if he was deliberately ignoring my question when he took a deep breath of salt water.

“I believe I owe you a secret.”

… He was definitely ignoring the question.

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