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“You have her powers, her hair. She ruled all four oceans, and so will you.”

“I don’t have to.”

“But you can. Nobody has ever done that before or since her.” His eyes light up with excitement.

“What if I don’t want to?”

Dad’s brows knit together. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“There isn’t anything good about her story! The trials, the—never mind.” I almost said the dad curse.

“The what?” He inches closer. “What?”

“Nothing. Never mind.”

“You can easily defeat the trials,” he says. “What else has you concerned? I can’t help you if I don’t know what you’re not telling me.”

I turn to Bash for help. He just throws me a questioning glance. So not helpful.

“Daughter, what aren’t you telling me?”

I keep my gaze averted. “Nothing.”

“All I’m trying to do is help you.”

“No.” I turn to him. “You want to turn me into her! That’s what you want.”

“That isn’t it. Not at all. I never expected you to take on her powers.”

“Of course not. You were trying to bring her back to life.”

He nods. “I was, and it was foolish to think I could. I had no idea your mom was carrying you—but it was all meant to be. You’re going to do even better things than she ever did.”

I roll my eyes.

“You don’t believe me?”

“What if I don’t want this?”

He flinches as if I punched him in the gut. “Why wouldn’t you?”

“Because I want to make my own destiny—not live out someone else’s!”

“You can do that too.”

I shake my head. “I can’t have both.”

“And why not?” He crosses his arms.

“Because I’d have to kill you!” I blurt out. As soon as I realize what I’ve said, I race out of the room. Someone calls after me. I think it’s Bash, but it could be my dad, and I don’t stop. Instead, I dart up and down different hallways, hoping to lose them.

I can’t believe I told him that. That was the last thing I wanted, but he’d pushed me. Demanded to know, so I told him.

Maybe he’ll get off my case now. Drop all this Queen Sirena business and let me live my life the way I want to. There’s no way he’ll go along with the dad curse. He can’t be that obsessed with it. Enough to lose his life? Nobody’s that crazy.

I stop at a random room with several couches and a huge window overlooking the forest. Once inside, I close the door, sit on a sofa, then stare at the woods. All the colors should calm me, but I can hardly breathe. How will my dad react now that I’ve told him about the curse?

Not that it matters because I’m done with it. I killed the dad who raised me, for all the good that did. The curse probably calls for me to kill my birth dad because with him in power, I can’t be the queen even if I wanted to be—which I don’t.