Page 167 of Cruel Tides

The trident dissolved away, taking its place deep in his chest. “The real reason I’m here,” he began, “is to make sure you’re comfortable. And to give you this.”

Lifting a hand, a puff of magic emerged from his palm.

His tentacles seemed to twitch with restless anticipation as he held his hand out to me. “For you.”

The thing he’d conjured up was limp and lifeless, hanging in his hand like a waterlogged bundle of cords.

“Uh…” I gave whatever it was a skeptical glance, and although I was glad to have the sea wizard here, I realized I wasn’t in the mood for his games. “I’ll pass.”

“Ah.” He pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, seeming to contemplate his next move. “I suspected you might have been lying about it being your favorite,” he muttered. “I suppose it doesn’t matter.”

Wait—lying to him? My favorite?

I examined the contents of his hand once more, and although my stomach was a tangled mess of nerves, saliva collected in my mouth when I realized what he was holding. “Is that… star grass?”

How had I not recognized the tiny stars lining the stalks?

My eyebrows furrowed as I looked back and forth between the plant and the sea wizard, trying to make sense of it. “You brought me star grass?”

“Indeed,” he said, straightening his posture. “As I said, I came here to make sure you’re comfortable.”

A strange feeling arose in my chest, and I couldn’t quite understand why it had. He’d really remembered my lame excuse for sticking my hand in the betta tank outside Queen Sagari’s office?

“Oh.” My voice was small, barely a whisper. Why was this simple gesture affecting me so much? “That was kind of you to remember.”

He offered me the bundle, but I didn’t take it. Instead, I reached out to touch the stars. They looked smaller than they did in my memories, but they still looked delicious. Even in the washed-out shade of gray instead of the bright yellow I knew the plant to be.

Whatwasthis feeling? Gratitude? Something more?

I let my hand fall away from the plant, my voice raw when I asked, “What’s the real reason you’re giving me this?”

“If you insist on knowing, consider it an apology.” His discomfort was palpable, as if he were revealing a secret he never intended to disclose. “One born from guilt.”

“Guilt?” I looked up at his cold eyes and chiseled chin, searching for signs of deception—not that I ever seemed able to parse the sea wizard.

Instead of elaborating, he gave the driest laugh imaginable as he sat the star grass down next to my tail. “Indeed.”

“Yeah, I’m going to need a little more than that if you expect me to accept your apology.” My frustration churned like a brewing storm. “Do you feel guilty for… stalking me at the casino? Or for bringing me down here?”

I found the crown in the seagrass, lifting it up. “Or do you feel guilty for putting this crown on my head? Or maybe because you knew what I was going to see in that mirror this entire time, yet you decided not to tell me?”

The sea wizard remained perfectly silent as my anger escalated to where I hurled the crown back down to the rocky floor. “Or do you feel guilty because it was all an illusion? Another one of your deceptions, like that lousy deal you conned me into before bringing me down here. You’re never going to tell me how you remove your trident, are you?Are you?”

I knew it wasn’t fair, pinning all of this on him when I’d made the choice to come here, but I was finding it hard to care.

He’d given me the abalone yet advised me not to use it. He’d warned me not to come to the Indian Ocean yet abducted me as soon as he could get his arms around me.

He was hot; he was cold, and I was sick of these games.

My voice cracked, but still, I pleaded. “Tell me it was a lie.” I reached for him, feeling his hand tense up as I latched on to it. “Please, wizard… puppet, whatever you are. Tell me I’m a mermaid. Tell me that I’m nothing likeyou.”

The sea wizard’s lips parted, but no words came. He simply looked at me with an intensity that made my heart thump like a war drum.

When he finally broke the silence, his voice was rough. “I understand that you have no reason to believe me, but I assure you I have no guilt pertaining to our deal.”

That’s it? That’s all that he had to say for everything he’d done?

Then he extended a hand, as if maybe he was going to lay it over my eyes but stopped himself short. “As you have no doubt noticed, my words and actions rarely align. I’m confined by my orders, be it to bind or abduct or to deliver you to the Undersea.” The words came out of his mouth like a bitter poison, and he took a moment before adding, “But you’ll find my words to be the truth if you care to see through to their meaning.”

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