Page 5

Chapter Two

“Five days. Five.”

It had taken her two days to find Caspian. Ridiculous, when one considered the relatively small confines of the village and the castle that overlooked it.

Aria hugged herself against the chilly night air. The cold that was nothing to the merfolk could be deadly to her more fragile human form. The drafty cloak couldn’t shield her from the ice that tangled around her spine, or the circle of heat that burned around her wrist. A physical reminder that her time ticked away.

Being in the village of Alamari brought back dark memories. She had secretly hoped seeing Caspian would give her some small measure of hope in this dismal situation.

Well, seeing Caspian definitely brought something—despair that she would fail in her mission and lose her family.

“What a jerk,” she murmured.

Handsome. Utterly handsome jerk.

Ten years had been unfairly kind to Caspian, as had two apparently well-muscled legs and clothing. His jet-black hair in its carelessly mussed style. Those deep azure eyes. He’d always carried himself as strong and proud as the prince he denied he was, but there was something about the way his presence filled that human office that made her skin tingle and her blood heat. His legs filled his pants perfectly. She couldn’t help herself when she stole a glimpse of the tease of scale-free skin beneath the open V of his button-down shirt. He’d grown into himself, and into a human body beyond what she would have imagined.

It wasn’t any wonder human women fawned after her prince.

Aria came up short. Pedestrians bumped into her arms as they sidled by to go about their business, their faces pinched with disgust.

Her heart sank.

He’s not mine. He never was.

And he made his total disdain for her clear with his chides, jabs and painful stares. Words and actions she’d never imagined he’d direct at her.

“I deserve it.”

“Hey, will you move out of the way?” a man barked. He shoved into her shoulder, knocking her off balance and sending her stumbling into the side of a building. A couple scowled as they passed her, keeping their distance as though she carried a disease.

Gods, she’d forgotten how cruel this world could be, especially to the less fortunate. How dangerous.

Lifting her head, she caught the glow of the castle on a distant cliff, gaslight lanterns flickering in the ocean breeze. Dread poured into her chest and weighed down her legs. She’d escaped the prison that elegant facade hid behind stone walls and stained glass windows. So much beauty in this village, until the sun went down, exposing a vile underbelly.

Aria turned into an alley before another wave of pedestrians could sweep her aside. She hesitated, eyeing the questionable characters that loomed in shadowed doorsteps or huddled in clumps around crackling fires that sent up sparks from metal barrels.

Slowly, Aria wove her way down the alley, passing its occupants without making eye contact. Women, men, children. Scraps and rags for clothes. Smudges of dirt on faces and matted hair beneath threadbare scarves and hats. Rats scuttled about, snatching up crumbs left by hard rolls and old meat some of the lucky homeless found to nibble on. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she had yet to eat more than a few slices of rancid meat since washing up on shore. She’d forgotten how fragile the human body was compared to that of merfolk. Two days of no food was too long, and if the expression she’d caught on his face during her brief encounter with Caspian told her anything, it was that she was far from presentable.

Once, he had a twinkle in his eye when I was near.

She’d squandered their bond.

She’d been so preoccupied with learning about Caspian’s life in Alamari that she’d forgotten to be wary of the dangers returning to this seaside village presented. Her face was known to many, although it was far from the glamorous sight it had been when the horrid prince—now king—courted her. She’d seen a few random signs, encouraging the hunting and maiming of merfolk to keep the village safe from savages.

Savages.

Like her people cared to come ashore and wreak havoc on the humans.

As she passed one of the warm barrel fires, a bone-rattling shudder swept through her. Her teeth clattered and she sought the heat at a barrel with only a few strangers gathered around it. Wiggling her fingers at the fire, the first hint of a grin tugged at her lips. She’d been hiding since crawling onto the sandy beach, naked and cold. She’d dug the cloak out of the trash and washed it as best she could in the sea. She had nothing else, besides a scavenged pair of slippers with holes in the toes and soles. A cloak and slippers, and a ticking time bomb pulsing around her wrist.

The bracelet glinted in the firelight as the sleeve of her cloak slipped back. She immediately lowered her hands, shaking the cloak back into place, but it was too late. A pair of unsavory men emerged from the shadows like tarry figures, slinking through clueless folk. Trying to keep her welling panic under control, Aria tugged the felt cloak tightly around her, turned, and headed toward the street.

“Aw, no, precious thing. You ain’t going away that fast.”

Strong hands came down on her shoulders, stopping her escape. She tried to shrug the man off, but another snatched her arm and shoved the cloak sleeve back, revealing the cursed bracelet.

“Lookie here, Gavon. How much do you think that’ll get us?”