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The Rift

A Millennium Ago

The humans grow more and more dangerous each day. We cannot continue on as we have. We must decide. This council has dallied too long,” Duke Odyum thundered.

King Alon glanced at his irate twin and waved a tired hand at him, seawater swirling lazily around his abalone throne. “This is not an easy decision, Odyum.”

His brother glared back, his fuchsia eyes sparking. “It is a matter of survival. It is kill or be killed,my lord.”

Some of the council shifted uncomfortably in their whalebone seats at the sneer in Odyum’s tone.

Alon bit back a sigh.

Two and a half minutes.

That was all it took to place enmity between Alon and his twin. That was the difference between being the heir and the second born to the Sirenidae throne.

Two and a half minutes.

And Odyum hated him for it.

Alon kept his mask firmly in place and studied the council. Personally, he wanted to withdraw to the sea and leave thesurface dwellers to their own devices. Odyum wanted to wage war and conquer them. Only half were on Alon’s side; the other favored his brother’s ill-advised ideas.

“Our place is in the sea. This is our home, our way of life. The surface holds no future for us. I will not risk our people for an unnecessary war,” Alon declared, finality ringing in his voice.

Odyum rose from his seat, his silvery hair floating around his reddening face. Alon held his breath and prayed his twin would reel in his anger. The Sirenidae always encouraged lively discourse, but word had reached his ears that his brother had been up to something far more insidious.

Sedition.

He prayed to the depths that it wasn’t true. But Alon had seen the signs, and it could not continue. Their people came first.

“You are a coward,” his twin spat, a mad glint in his eye. “Completely unequipped to do what is necessary for the vindication of our people—but not I. Today, you are through.” Odyum nodded, and Alon’s heart fell as half his council launched themselves in his direction.

A true coup.

Even though it hurt, he wasn’t unprepared. He’d always been shrewd. He’d had his own men hidden inside the room, waiting for this exact possibility. Alon’s fingers tightened on his trident as two-thirds of the traitors were cut down in minutes. His stomach clenched at the sightless eyes and gaping silent mouths drifting through the room. Silvery swirls of blood clouded the water, and he forced himself to swallow down the bile that flooded his mouth.

So much death over greed.

Disgust filled him as he stood from his throne, triton in hand. His webbed toes dug into the pale sand as he glided toward his brother. He took no pleasure in seeing his twin bleeding and forced to kneel in the sand.

Alon stared down at Odyum and held back his flinch when his brother smiled up at him with bloody teeth.

“Finally ready to kill me, brother?”

Alon shook his head as sorrow, hurt, and a touch of guilt swirled in his chest. “How could I take the life of one who shared the womb with me? No, you and your ilk shall have a different fate.” Odyum wouldn’t die this day by Alon’s hand. Alon knelt on one knee, meeting his twin’s angry eyes. “You’ve always presumed yourself to be the smartest person in the sea, Odyum. In your pride and arrogance, you assumed that I’ve been ignorant to your scheming. I have not been.”

His brother arched a brow and snapped his teeth at one of the soldiers holding him down. “So, it’s to the trenches for me? Slave labor? A life with the humans?”

Alon scoffed, letting his anger bleed through his pain. “Where you can continue to recruit and spread rebellion in my kingdom? I think not. Since you desire to rule, I will let you.” He paused, watching a hungry look cross his twin’s face. “You and your sycophants are to leave. You are banished to the Northern Sea. There, you can make your own life.”

The color drained out of Odyum’s face. He jerked against the soldiers’ hold. “You wouldn’t be so cruel? Leaving our waters is certain death. No Sirenidae has ever survived outside our kingdom. The temperatures alone will kill us, not to mention the creatures...”

“Since you presume yourself a king, make it happen,” Alon murmured and then stood, floating in the water. He turned his back on his twin, finding no joy and only grief at losing his last living kin.

“I will kill you.”

The king glanced over his shoulder at Odyum, heart heavy. “Good luck, brother.”