Page 178 of Cruel Tides

I went back to looking through the tomes when an unbridled question bubbled up inside me. “Hey, wizard?”

“Hm?”

“Do you remember that merfry you helped who was stung by a jellyfish? Why were you hanging out near the shore that day?”

He remained hunched over his scroll while answering. “I was curious. The Atlantic mers rarely visit land.”

That was true, I supposed. It felt strange to have a genuine conversation with the sea wizard—one in which he actually responded to my question.

“And my mother, did you know her?” I casually tossed out, testing the waters to see how much he was willing to share.

His quill scratched over the scroll, his shoulders hunched as he muttered, “I was still quite young when she passed.”

Young?How long had it been since my mother had died?

“How old are you?” I asked, giving him a once-over, my eyebrows cocked skeptically. “I thought wizards were supposed to be ancient. That’s kind of their thing, isn’t it?”

He slammed his quill down on his desk, irritation creeping into his voice. “Met many wizards, have you?”

“Well, no. But on land…” I hesitated, realizing I was fumbling my chance to get information out of him. “You know what? Never mind.”

I sighed and returned to perusing the tomes, completely caught off guard when he suddenly supplied, “Twenty-seven.”

“Really?” I asked, eyeing his back. I hadn’t expected to get an answer at all, and now here I was, doing math in my head. “Are you sure that’s not in octopus years? I swear I thought you were in your thirties, at least.”

The sea wizard snapped his head back to glare at me. “If I look old, I assure you it’s the toll of many years of servitude underneath your family.” Anger—or perhaps hurt—simmered in his every word.

My mouth snapped shut as I realized all too late that I’d taken things too far. “Sorry,” I muttered, my gaze averting. “I was just?—”

“I have no need for your apology. You weren’t the one who bound me here.” After a lengthy sigh, he leaned back over his scroll. “Although a day in your servitude seems to be wearing on me more than I anticipated.”

The tension between us was palpable, and I desperately wanted to ease it. “Well, if it’s any consolation,” I began, “I appreciate all of your help, even if you are a bit prickly.”

He shot me a sidelong glance, yet his lips curved ever so slightly. “Prickly, am I?”

“Just a little.” Shrugging, I sighed. “But I suppose I’ve been prickly, too. Sorry that I teased you about your age—I’m a bit of a mess right now.”

His gaze lingered. “You’re doing better than most would in this situation, princess.”

It was an unexpected compliment, and I turned away, distracting myself from the blush it had caused by thumbing through the tomes. Their leather spines were brittle. What kind of leather was it? Stingray? Whale? Some were so old it seemed as if they would crumble to sand if I dared to touch them.

I slid one out and opened it, disappointment filling me when I couldn’t recognize any of the writing inside. After a few more beats of silence, I asked, “What are these books about?”

“Have you not been nosing through them this entire conversation?”

I cringed, feeling caught. “I was looking for one with pictures,” I admitted, and a shiver ran through me when he abandoned his desk to move closer.

His eyes were boring into me now, much like mine had moments ago when I was trying to decipher his age.

“Do you not know how to read?” he asked.

“Why would I know how to read a cecaelian language?” I threw back, my embarrassment peaking.

A laugh, smooth and deep, rumbled through the water. “There is only one script of the ocean. Do you truly not recognize any of these glyphs? What did the Atlantic teach you in all this time?” he pressed, retrieving a book from the shelf and opening it under my face. My head shook, but he kept flipping through the pages like he couldn’t believe it.

“I never learned how to read, okay?” I mumbled, shoving the book out from under my nose. “I’m not even sure my papa knew.”

“What a terrible shame,” the sea wizard lamented, a hand going under his chin. “I suppose I could teach you.”

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