Page 142 of Cruel Tides

“Dammit,” I yelped, my face really on fire. I couldn’t stop myself. “Just drop me off somewhere. Let me wither away down here.”

Barren shook his head. “I’ve given you the wrong impression,” he said, his arm hooking around me like he wasn’t about to humor my dramatics and let me go. “I can look into minds, but more times than not, I choose not to.”

“Wait—why?” I gawked up at him, my eyes narrowing. “If I could read minds, I’d do it all the time.”

The thought of being one step ahead of Laverne was too tempting to ignore.

Suddenly, everything clicked into place, and it was like I was looking at Barren in a new light. This was why everyone in his kingdom looked at him like they did. Was it also why they’d chosen his sister as their ruler, for fear of his ability?

“I’m not fond of my gift.” The pressure of Barren’s tail slowly fell from around me, and moments later, we were drifting through the water again. “When I was a merfry, my father wished to develop my ability,” he said, his eyes on the light in front of us. “So, he forbade those around me to speak.”

There was a catch in his voice, and he paused for a moment, letting a ray pass across the sand before propelling us through the water again. “It’s a difficult gift, one that he never truly mastered himself, so he did all he could to… encourage me to use it.”

I didn’t know what to say. “No one spoke to you?” I asked softly, and the heartbreaking way Barren’s mouth fell made me wish I hadn’t asked it at all.

“No,” he said, his eyes never leaving the open sea ahead. “Not with spoken words, at least.”

“That’s horrible,” I managed, wondering what it must have been like for a merfry. The maids often ignored me, but I still had Papa, Leander, and the occasional other merfry.

“Mmh.” We fell back into silence until I noticed Barren’s tail strokes getting faster. “We’re almost there. Do you see the gates?” he asked, and I focused ahead.

Dark seafloor spread before us, dotted with clusters of flat coral. Even in the blue glow, the sand… didn’t look right. I shuddered, my body squirming against Barren’s.

“What is this place?” Even though I was typically immune to the cold while in the ocean, a shiver worked through me, all the way to the frills at the end of my tail. “A graveyard?” I asked, squinting out at the black sand. There were no bones, but there was an ominous dip in the seabed, like it was waiting to swallow up any who dared swim too close. “It doesn’t feel right.”

Although I wanted nothing more than for Barren to turn back, his tail shifted, sending us even closer to the dangerous dip. The water thickened, clinging to my lungs like soot laden with the harsh brine of death and decay.

“Barren,” I pleaded, and my panic eased when he halted completely.

“Hold on to me,” he said, a gentle request that I complied with. He released me carefully, and when he reached out, I gasped as his hand vanished to his wrist.

Completely gone.

Before I could react, he pulled back, revealing his hand was still whole. “What the heck?” I mumbled, reaching out to try out the illusion for myself. Only whatever force had caused his hand to disappear didn’t seem to work for me, and I waved my hand in vain.

Soon, the weight of my tail caused me to slip, and Barren’s arm yanked around me. “I told you to hold on,” he mumbled, settling me back against his chest. His jaw worked as he looked out at the water. “I take it you don’t see the gates.”

Gates?

Weariness settled over me as I looked out, taking in the strange seascape. “Uh, no. No gates. Just a bunch of dark sand and a creepy atmosphere. Even more unnerving than the ocean usually is.”

Barren nodded, his eyes scanning the area with a strange intensity. Like maybehesaw gates. Or something out there other than a sand trap. Then he whipped us back around, and my unease abated as he started swimming back in the direction we came from.

“Wait—that’s it?” I asked, turning back to the lights trailing our tails. “You asked me if I see gates, I say no, and now we’re leaving the creepy sand graveyard?”

I paused, a sudden thought hitting me. “That’s not some gateway to the underworld, is it?” I whispered.

Barren muttered something to himself with a hum. “Sorry, I’m thinking.”

“Oh. Well, okay,” I mumbled, holding tight around his waist as he swam with his thoughts. “I’ll be here when you’re done thinking. Stuck to your chest like a whalesucking remora.”

A titan-sucking remora,my mind corrected, and just as my thoughts wandered to a place they ought not to, Barren’s voice rumbled against my ear.

“Those were the gates to Malkeevo,” he said gruffly, not bothering to look back at them. “It appears the illusion hiding the kingdom away is still intact.”

Illusion? Then I realized—Malkeevo. That was the kingdom the cecaelian soldiers had complained of searching for, to no avail, wasn’t it?

“That’s a good thing, though, right?” I asked, surveying the sea behind us, but the knowledge that his kingdom was still safe only seemed to trouble Barren further.

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