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And yet, how is it that I’ve never been so delighted before?

“You have a monstrous little soul, don’t you my dear?” I whisper.

She whips her head toward me and sees me standing in the doorway. She’s literally caught red-handed, her mouth smeared with blood that also drips down her arms and hands and onto her dress, which is partially wet when it wasn’t before.

“What on earth am I supposed to do with you?” I muse to myself.

She just stares at me and finishes eating the heart. I don’t make a move for her, not until I have a plan. She’s clearly deranged and, more than that, clearly not human. She has to be a witch or magicked in some way. Perhaps a demoness. That would explain a lot.

Or maybe she’s just like me and has adapted to this life…differently.

She swallows down the rest of the heart, wiping the back of her hand over her lips and I notice her claws, how they slowly shrink in size before my eyes, until they are just fingers and nails again.

“Are you a sea witch?” I ask carefully. “Have you been sent by Edonia?”

She only scowls at me.

“You know I told you not to do anything stupid.”

“I haven’t done anything stupid,” she snaps. “I only did what I’ve been dying to do for the last ten years.”

“Aye, well, you killed my hostage.”

“You still have me.”

“Do I? Princess, I don’t know what I have at this point. What in god’s name are you?”

“A monster,” she says and smiles. Sharp teeth slowly fade back into her regular ones. Once again she looks like her normal self, though now I’m wondering how normal that self is. Has she been wearing a mask this whole time? Has this creature always been under her skin? I’ve touched her, briefly, but the only thing I noticed was how soft she was.

But I need to take her at her word. She is indeed a monster and if she has the strength suddenly to rip the heart out of her husband, then she has the strength to do that to me, and that’s something I wouldn’t survive. No one with a heart would.

This woman is now my equal.

And therefore, she can’t be trusted not to kill me.

I approach her like I would a predator. If I were swimming and saw a shark, how would I react? I would normally display brute force in hopes that the shark would swim away, not wanting the fight, but the princess seems to be reveling in her wild side a little too much. Luckily for me, my wild side likes to come out to play, and I don’t back down until I win.

“If you could help me to understand what just happened,” I say, walking toward her slowly, my palms displayed in peace.

“I had enough,” she hisses, giving Aerik an angry look, as if she expects him to say something back to her. Instead, he is staring up blankly at the ceiling, blood pouring out of the hole in his chest.

“And the mermaid?” I gesture to the dead creature in the tank.

“Your lack of compassion has spurred me.” Her eyes meet mine and narrow. Though they were always an ever-changing brilliant shade of blue before, now they positively glow like there’s a light shining from behind them.

What kind of witchcraft does this woman possess? Venla was a witch and a powerful one in her own right, but she did not radiate power and otherness like this creature does. Venla had a temper, but she did not rip the hearts of men from their chests and devour them like steak. Venla kept me on my toes but she wasn’t so thoroughly unpredictable and rash that I couldn’t see her coming.

“You are a stunning abyss of a creature,” I tell her. “One that I could spend eons swimming in and never get to the bottom of.”

She frowns. “I am not that complicated.”

“You are a mystery, Maren,” I tell her. “I can call you by your name now, can’t I? With your husband gone, you are no longer a princess.”

She opens her mouth to say something, then purses her still bloody lips. “You’ve always called me whatever the hell you wanted.”

My mouth twitches. “That be true.”

Her shoulders relax a fraction of an inch, imperceptible to most but not me. It’s enough to make me move.