Page 165 of Cruel Tides

When the Rook’s grunts ceased, I closed my eyes, envisioning the passageway as I called upon my magic. When my eyes reopened, Aracos slipped through his veil to greet me. With a languid grace, the eel moved through the water, brushing his smooth skin across my shoulder blades.

I let my palm skim over his head in return.“You did well. Go and rest now.”

Aracos twisted, flicking my hand with the end of his bony tail.“You need rest, Master. Not Aracos. Your magic, it thins.”

That hadn’t stopped him from borrowing even more of my magic to keep himself concealed. No, that was an excuse.“You’re fond of our princess, aren’t you?”

He turned another circle around me as if reluctant to leave the door to her chamber.“Her magic smells like yours, Master.”

I chuckled because there was a good reason for that.“Best to keep that thought to yourself, Aracos. I doubt our princess would appreciate the comparison.”

Speaking of our princess… I parted the drape with the back of my knuckles.

There she was, curled up in the corner, her face resting in her hands. So different from the version of her I’d seen in the mirror.

Although I’d had a suspicion of what she might look like underneath her spells, I hadn’t expected her to be quite so beautiful. The vision I saw when I held her up to the mirror in my arms was bewitching in every sense of the word.

Slender, supple tentacles that fell from her waist like living jewelry. Eyes that were power itself. I’d been unable to look away, and even still, the image had barely flitted from my mind since.

My attraction to her was undeniable, even though I knew that feeling was dangerous. She didn’t belong down here. No sea witch did if they valued their life and their freedom.

They’d taken her to a room full of carved walls and luxury, one of the nicest in the entire Undersea, and she’d hidden herself away in the seagrass. My scared little mouse.

The drapes fell back into place as I pulled away.

“Master?”

“Keep an eye on our princess.”My magic stirred, flaring down my arms like cold flames.

Soon, I would go to her. But before that, I had something important to attend to.

With my destination in mind, I closed my eyes and let my magic overtake me.

38

Claira

This wasn’t happening.

The vision I’d seen—it had been a trick, hadn’t it? Some dark magic conjured up by the sea wizard?

That creature I saw in the mirror, its hideous white eyes and tentacles, thatwasn’t me.

But had I ever believed that I was actually a mermaid?

Ex-mermaid—that’s what I called myself.I’d always known I was different, but it was easy to ignore those feelings back when I was a merfry. Back when Papa used to act like he… like he actuallycaredfor me.

Could Papa really have stolen me away from the cecaelia? He’d taken me to see my mother at least once when I was a young merfry—that I was certain of. I could remember the grueling length of the trip and seeing her red hair. At least, I thought I’d been certain. But now…

My body trembled with another wave of fear, because I wasn’t sure of anything anymore. Short, ragged gasps wrenched from my throat as I fought to make sense of what was happening to me.

Crowned a princess, then immediately dragged off. Taken to this horrid chamber carved with grim imagery of oceanside cliffs and sunken ships. I was as good as trapped in the Undersea, wasn’t I?

“Argh!” Lifting my head from my hands, I threw out my fists. “Son of a bitch,” I hissed as my left one immediately found a spike hidden in the bed of seagrass.

For a second, I thought it had been from my magical switchblade shell. But no, the spike had been from the crown I’d tossed aside the moment the queen’s pawns had thrown me into this damned room.

Oddly enough, the pain was a welcome distraction. A grounding reminder that, at the very least, I was still human enough to feel. To bleed.

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