Page 183 of Cruel Tides

I attempted to speak, but my lungs shook. “An…noying.” My arms, chest, and my entire body trembled uncontrollably. Bursts of white light continued to flash before my eyes, and a strange mix of bitterness and understanding welled within me, a sense that perhaps I was receiving no less than what I deserved.

My vision gradually cleared to the ominous black marks splintering down the side of my shoulder, mirroring the lightning bolt’s path. With an unsteady hand, I attempted to channel my magic into the wound to mend it, but the effort proved futile.

Ah, yes. Thiswaswhat I deserved.

For now, I would have to settle with concealing the injury and hiding the evidence of what I’d done.

I lay the concealment spell over my skin then sank back down on my desk, not caring that my face pressed into a mound of scrolls.

No, things hadn’t gone as smoothly as I’d hoped. But it was finally done.

The princess’s lovers now believed that I’d poisoned her mind with my villainous ways.

Ha.

I had no doubt they would be exploiting every relic, every bit of magic their kind possessed, to find a way to reach her. To save her fromme.

“Do not let the princess return to the merfolk.”

Oh, to see the vile queen’s face once Claira escaped this place.

If I couldn’t let her return to them, I would do everything in my power to get them to return to her, even if it meant playing the villain.

I was good at it, after all.

What was it the Pacific mer had called me… Cold and unfeeling?

How convenient it would be if that were true.

The agony lessened and gave way to numbness that spread through my shoulder, working its way down my chest and across my limbs.

My scared little captive…I could envision her now, cowering in the corner of her chamber.

Even if I handed her all the tools to escape this place herself, would she find the strength to use them?

Or would she end up like me, living a life of sacrifice and captivity. Would she allow herself to waste away for the gain of another as I’d done?

Either way, before the moon cycle was through, she would be far away from this place, far from the queen.

She’d be far from me.

If I had to break these bonds and rewrite every law of the ocean to make it so, I would do just that.

And then maybe, for once, I?—

White overtook my vision, clouding the corners of my sight as the numbness spread. “Tsk. How irritating,” I murmured, attempting to fight how heavy my eyelids had grown.

Rest was a luxury I couldn’t afford, but perhaps it was what I needed. The toils of the past few days had been relentless, after all, draining my magic reserves almost entirely.

In fact, I could only sense… ah, there it was—a faint flicker of magic. All the power I had left.

Yes, rest. That was what I needed.

With one final whisper, I let my eyes slide shut.

42

Barren

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