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willingly submit to the rule of an untried youngest son. Maurits’s only real concern was where their mother was, and if this

had been the plan between her and Thade all along.

“Thade, I am not calling you that,” Maurits returned in what he thought was a commendably calm tone.

His brother’s gills flared. “If you do not address me properly, you’re not only disrespecting me, but the throne and very

office of king itself.”

“And what would make you think that I would ever care anything about that?”

Thade shot up from the throne, his patience gone. “Where is she?” he growled. “The girl.”

“Really? That is your first order of business?” Maurits gave a little tsk that sent red crawling up his brother’s face.

“You stole the throne, and your biggest concern is one of Mother’s lost pets?

” He might have delivered the words calmly, but inside his heart had started beating hard and fast at his brother’s sudden interest in Clara.

Thade had seen her himself, had all but protected her from their mother, and now he was suddenly interested in her whereabouts? No, he did not like this at all.

One moment Maurits was floating peacefully before the throne, and the next, he was on his back, icy manacles around his wrists

and tail.

Thade hovered above him, his face so close that Maurits could see the tiny scar under his right eye where Thade had run afoul

of a ray as a child. “Watch your tongue, brother.”

When had Thade gotten so strong ? Not just physically, but his powers, they were... sharp. Their mother had always been able to take the water in hand,

to bend it to her will. She could bestow forms, shift her own shape, and those were just the powers of which Maurits was aware.

As her sons, Maurits and Thade had inherited some of her abilities, but never to such a degree.

As if sensing the question, Thade gave an infuriating little smirk. “While you’ve been busy on land, playing man and falling

in love, I’ve been training, honing my power. I told you I lifted your silly dog curse, didn’t I?”

Maurits didn’t bother asking him why. Whatever plans Thade had, there was little chance that Maurits would understand his

brother’s motivations. “It seems you are quite content then,” he said evenly, watching the slight tic in Thade’s eye. “You

have your throne, and I am spared having to undertake a duty which never appealed to me. I suppose I should thank you.”

Thade’s flint eyes flashed murder, but then he was smiling, pushing away and swimming back to the throne. “Oh, Maurits, the

golden child. You didn’t even ask how I managed it. Aren’t you curious how I took the crown?”

“Not particularly, no.”

Scowling, Thade lowered himself back onto his seat.

“Now that you’ve shown me just how clever you are, will you release these damn manacles?”

Taking up the old brass trident that rested beside the throne, Thade began to idly pass it between his hands, studying the

patinaed points. It was a largely symbolic object, a relic of the water kings and queens of long ago, when sparring and feats

of strength were expected of rulers. His mother had always kept it mounted above the throne, a reminder of the power that

she wielded. “Did you know that you possess something of a following? No, don’t scoff. It’s true. The basilisks seem to think

that you will give them representation on the council, and there are those among the nix and the merfolk who see you as a

vital continuation of the way of order. Whatever your transgressions, Mother has made sure that your image never suffered.

I might be the younger son, untested and unproven, but I have plans, ones so grand that you could not even begin to conceive

of their breadth. My tenure on the throne must be legitimate. There can be no alternative, no other prince waiting in the

wings.”

Maurits closed his eyes as he began to follow Thade’s stream of thoughts. “So you see, I cannot allow you to go, not when

there are those who would see you on the throne.”

There it was. His brother was going to kill him. It didn’t matter that they had been bonded through the grief of losing Evi

all those years ago. It didn’t matter that Maurits would have happily given Thade the crown and all that went with it.

Suddenly the invisible manacle bonding Maurits’s tail fell away. A moment later, Maurits realized it was because Thade wanted

him upright for whatever he was about to do next.

With a snap of his fingers, Thade summoned a contingent of guards.

Some of them he recognized from his mother’s court, while others came from some of the deeper crevices and plateaus.

Forgotten creatures that all had an angry, desperate look about them.

He wondered about the kind of company Thade had been keeping these past years.

Two of the burlier merfolk flanked Maurits, taking him by his arms. “I should probably kill you,” mused Thade as he watched,

“but whatever our differences, we are still brothers. I would not pain Mother by taking away another of her children. And

I may have use for you yet.”

So his mother was still alive, somewhere. That was a small comfort at least. “Thade, I—”

“Enough! I’ve heard enough from you, forever. All your wasted breaths and words and time on land. You have a people down here, and you ignored it all. Mother never saw you for the liability that you were, and as creative as she was with her

little games and punishments, she never took away what really mattered.”

Thade was staring at him, piercing him with his icy gaze. The guards’ grips on Maurits’s arms was tight, but he hardly felt

it. There was something unnerving about the way Thade seemed to be looking straight into the dark recesses of his heart. A

cold weight settled in Maurits’s stomach, but it wasn’t just a sense of foreboding. Soon the sensation was climbing up his

body, a trail of ice that blazed an excruciating path up past his lungs and lodged in his throat.

If it weren’t for the guards holding him up, Maurits would have fallen from the pain of it. He opened his mouth to cry out,

but no sound emerged. Thade gave him a sad smile. “No, there will be no more words now.” Another snap of his fingers, and

he was holding a little glass bubble in his palm, a bluish green light dancing within. “Your voice,” he explained. “You won’t

be needing it where you’re going. Though you never made good use of your powers, I will be taking those too.”

Maurits watched helplessly as Thade played with the bubble, letting it float between his hands.

“Goodbye, brother. I hope that you will not think me unduly cruel. What I do, I do for our people, our kingdom. The current situation with the humans is untenable, and the Water Kingdom needs a ruler who will take matters firmly in hand and see them through.”

Maurits thrashed at his idiot brother’s words. “I wouldn’t waste my energy, if I were you,” Thade said with a smugness that

only made Maurits struggle harder. “You can take him now,” he told the guards, and turned his back.