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Abyssal

I t seemed my magic reserves were in no hurry to replenish.

“Irri… tating,” I ground out, bending over my desk. Each passing moment brought with it more relentless pain shooting across my shoulder. The lightning strike had dealt its damage, leaving me with a stubborn burn that defied all attempts to heal it.

Unfortunately for me, my condition mattered little to the crown. There was still much to be done.

I forced myself to focus on the work laid out on my desk even as the familiar tomes and scrolls lining my chamber began to warp and bend, the walls twisting around me.

“Master.” Aracos’s sudden presence was a tap to my mind, yanking me from the brink of unconsciousness. I gulped on compulsion, my fingers curling around the edge of my desk as I fought to steady myself.

My familiar slid up my desk, a peculiar scrap in his jaws. “Aracos was tasked with delivering this.”

“What’s this?” I couldn’t hold back my smirk as I plucked the scrap from his mouth, turning the thin piece of parchment around in my hand. It looked to be a message of sorts. “Hmm…”

It was no ordinary parchment, but one of my own creations, imbued with a spell to prevent it from being worn out or torn.

Just like that, the room appeared slightly less nauseating.

Clever little captive. She must have used the shell I’d fabricated for her to cut off a scrap of parchment for her own use. Even more shocking were the glyphs she’d carefully scribed upon it.

Greetings, Creep.

Ah —it hurt to laugh. I cradled my ribs and flipped the parchment over again just to read the message afresh.

“Quite the progress she’s made,” I murmured. The pen flicks were shaky, but they were legible enough.

She never failed to surprise me.

For a moment, I endured the pain, picking up a pen and a fresh scroll of my own. The moment my pen touched the parchment, however, I hissed.

“Master?” Aracos whirled around me, caught in a fearful fit.

“No need to worry,” I forced through clenched teeth, unable to summon even the minuscule fragment of magic needed to speak to his mind. My chamber resumed its twisting, my vision blurring.

How irritating .

My head rolled back as a sudden wave of tingles rippled across my scalp, spreading down the column of my neck. Clever. Aracos was transferring his magic back to me. Magic could heal me, but what he was offering was merely a drop of what was required for the task.

The pain sharpened until my stomach lurched. So very irritating .

“Damned... lightning,” I muttered before collapsing onto my desk.

My senses returned, and with them came a surge of Aracos’s panic.

“Masterrrrr.”

I garbled a groan in return, mentally cursing myself for letting my familiar see me in such a state. That wasn’t one of my finer moments. The blackouts were happening more frequently, and without my magic, I was quickly finding how powerless I was to prevent them.

He nudged me, anxious as ever, his tail flicking over my back. I rolled my head over my desk, caught in a daze.

My limbs were practically numb. Delightful .

But then, when I thought my pride had sunk to its lowest point, a soft, worried whisper brushed against my senses. “What happened to you?”

Despite being halfway buried in a mound of parchment, my jaw managed to drop. It seemed I was dreaming. Because, surely , Aracos was more intelligent than this. Never would he even think of betraying me by?—

The surrounding scrolls shifted as the owner of that tender voice pulled herself up to my desk. “Are you okay? Wizard?” With her came an alluring sweetness that spread through the water, filling my choked-up throat.

“Aracos...” My temples throbbed with the force in which I pressed my eyes shut. I gripped the edges of my desk, summoning the strength to pull myself upright. “Why did you bring her here?”

“Her magic. It’s like yours, Master.”

I hissed, not only from the pain but from the mind-boiling frustration of this moment. Oh, the fool .

“I tried to tell him I don’t have magic.” There it was again. My captive’s voice was sweet and filled with a touch of desperation. “But he was so upset. He insisted on taking me here. He wouldn’t leave me alone until I let him...” Her soft voice trailed, and I released a deep sigh.

Yes, this certainly wasn’t one of my finer moments. “You weren’t supposed to see me like this,” I confessed, sparing no effort to sugarcoat it. What use was there for pretense? In my current state, I was nothing more than a hollowed-out version of myself.

I understood better than anyone that without my magic, I was nothing. Devoid of substance. Dispensable.

My every vulnerability hung heavy in the water, and there was nothing I could do, not even a simple spell to conceal it.

“Leave me,” I grumbled, pressing my face into my desk. “Aracos, take her back?—”

A tender hand grazed my shoulder, and I hissed again, flinching away from the contact.

“These marks,” she whispered much too calmly, “they’re from lightning, aren’t they?”

So, the concealment spell had finally worn off. Of course.

All my carefully laid plans...

“Aracos.” I seized him by his tail, yanking him down onto my desk, forcing him close enough for me to glare at him. The moment my lethal gaze landed, he vanished into smoke.

Ha! So he hadn’t relinquished all of his magic while attempting to heal me. No, the greedy little creature had held on to plenty for himself.

When Aracos popped back into view, he sought refuge in the princess’s hair, the traitor. I was adding that to his ever-growing list of betrayals.

I pushed down the pain and adopted a facade of calm. “It’s nothing to concern yourself with, princess,” I said, rolling my shoulders back haughtily as I pulled myself off my desk. “Merely a superficial wound.”

“Bullshit.” My captive locked eyes with me, her cheeks puffing with unabashed indignation. “Do you think I’m an idiot? I know what a lightning strike looks like. There are pictures all over the internet,” she spat out, her eyebrows furrowed in accusation. “Don’t lie to me, wizard.” Her voice choked, and she forced down a gulp. “I am sick and tired of all your half-truths and games. You went to see them, didn’t you?”

“Perhaps I did,” I said nonchalantly. “Why? Should I not have?”

Ah —so it hadn’t been the truth she wanted, after all. It seemed she craved more of my artfully woven half-truths.

Because she looked at me as though I’d cut her.

“You… why—why would you do that?” Her face was a painful blend of hurt and sorrow. Like she finally recognized me as the villain she had always imagined.

“You didn’t hurt them, did you?” she whispered, even as fear rounded her eyes. “You must know it hurts Leander whenever he...” She stopped herself with an abrupt gasp as if she’d divulged more of her lover’s secrets than intended.

“Hurt them?” I let out a savage laugh, and the pain it caused was nothing compared to the brutal agony of returning to my senses.

Perhaps Aracos had unwittingly done me a favor by bringing her here. It was a necessary reminder that they were who she cared about.

Not me. Never me .

No—I knew the truth better than even she did. The truth was that any tenderness she displayed was merely an act of survival. Every searching glance, every soft smile upon my entrance to her chamber, every scrap of affection. Those were nothing more than her desperate hope I would one day be the one to save her from this hellish prison.

In her mind, she was the captive, and I was the captor. Little did she know that I, too, languished in this prison alongside her.

Cold resentment frosted my heart, but I kept my face emotionless, my words low, and my voice tight. “You can rest assured, princess, that the only one to be injured was me.”

“But why…” Her hands clenched together, though the act did little to conceal their trembling. “I don’t understand. Why did you go to them?”

“Because I would have wanted to know,” I said simply. It wasn’t even a falsehood, let alone a half-truth. “Had you been mine and some wicked merman stole you away from me the moment my back was turned, I?—”

I pushed off my desk, turning away.

This was pointless. Not at all part of what I had planned.

“Did you... tell them about me?”

I shouldn’t have glanced back at her. Shouldn’t have taken in those desperate eyes. They were wide and panicked, pleading with me for the truth of what had happened.

“I told you I would keep your secret, and I have.” Not that she would believe it. Half-truths and games—that was all she’d learned to expect from me. Now that she knew I’d met with her lovers behind her back, she would always wonder what else I was keeping from her.

Ha —unfortunately for her, my sins were too numerous to count.

“I’m sorry that my familiar disturbed you.” The chamber was twisting again, a prelude to another blackout. It was time for her to leave. “Aracos should have considered the consequences before bringing you here,” I said stiffly, keeping the words flowing even as my headache sharpened. “But you needn’t worry. He won’t be summoning you again.”

Her face all but crumbled.

So, she honestly didn’t believe that I’d kept her secrets. She appeared more than just upset by it, but genuinely frightened. It was as if the mere thought of them knowing the truth about her was breaking her apart.

“Don’t say that,” she pleaded, her voice unexpectedly raw. “Aracos was so worried about you. And can you blame him? Look at you . You look…” She paused to suck in her bottom lip, biting at it as she eyed my wound. “You look like you’re dying. I don’t mean dying , dying, I mean… He just wants to help. Please. Is there anything we can do to help you?”

I felt an eyebrow rise. I hadn’t expected this.

The realization that she held some concern, whether for me or my familiar, stirred something long lost within me. There was now a spark, delicate yet potent, and I could easily envision losing myself in the desperate pursuit of keeping it alive.

“There is nothing to be done about it, unfortunately,” I sighed.

“There must be something .”

That potent spark flared with her hesitancy to leave. Ah, yes… This was the reason I had no doubt that her lovers would find a way to free her from this prison. She was addicting, indeed.

“Now, Aracos. It’s time to return the princess to her chamber.” I went to bow to her in farewell, and the pain that shot through my temples seemed to join up with my shoulder.

“I hope you can rest easy now that you… know where your lovers are. Wait, no…” My words jumbled, tangling together like strands of kelp. “I meant... now that your lovers are aware of your whereabouts.”

A disorienting blur crept into my vision. Ah —it seemed I was on the verge of passing out once more.

“But, Master…”

The stinging pain intensified, and I hunched forward, bracing over my desk. “Take her?—”

“Ignore him, Aracos.” A gentle touch landed over my topmost heart, and my eyes shot open to find her palm flat against my chest. She blinked up at me. “Are you sure there isn’t anything we can do to help? There’s so many books here…” She looked around. “Surely, one of them must have something on lightning.”

Then her expression changed, and she stared off at nothing. After a pause, she mouthed one word. “Magic?”

My gaze shot to Aracos.

The princess was biting at her lip again. “I know you say I have magic,” she murmured, her voice dripping with doubt, “but I don’t… I don’t know how to use it.”

Aracos slithered under her hair as if to whisper that very secret into her ear.

“ Aracos, ” I warned, my tentacles writhing with my agitation. He was speaking to her mind. But he wouldn’t—he couldn’t?—

With a gasp, her voice dropped to the barest of whispers. “In my blood ...?”

“No!” In a desperate move, I seized her arm, pulling her close. My tentacles, usually so obedient, failed to cooperate even as I willed them to enclose around her.

Darkness flirted with the edges of my vision, the pain in my head reaching an unbearable peak. “If you bite her, that’s it, Aracos,” I yelled, uncertain if he was even still entwined in her hair. “I will strip you of your magic, toss you back where I found you. Banish you out of the mouth of the Undersea. I swear it .”

A hiss followed a sharp intake of water. “Will this do?”

My head spun as I stared down at the fragile figure I held against my chest. A deep wound marred her right hand, inflicted by the very shell I had fabricated to keep her safe.

My heart twisted with seething fury. “Foolish,” I barked, powerless to do anything else. “Foolish woman.”

If I had my magic, I would? —

“ Ouch… ” Pain flashed over her face as Aracos clamped onto her hand.

My arms dropped from around her, and I fell back, dazed. My familiar had defied me. Aracos was feasting on her blood, eager not to let another drop go to waste.

She was giving up her blood for me? Why?

“Enough,” I ordered. The walls spun around us. I couldn’t let her do this. Not for me. Not after all I’d done to her already. “Enough! Aracos!”

He wasn’t listening. Neither of them were listening. It was as I feared. Without my magic, I was powerless. Nothing.

“Ara...” Dizziness overcame me, and I stumbled, falling in a defenseless heap beside them.

What a remarkable sensation… The pain had vanished.

“I think he’s waking up,” a voice sang over me so sweetly that my tentacles ached with the impossible desire to wrap around it. To claim it and make it mine.

My eyes opened to two guilty faces peering down at me.

“Aracos healed you,” my dear captive rushed to get the words out. “And don’t you dare punish him. I’ll tell Hari not to let you in my chamber if you do.”

“Ah—” My throat was incredibly tight. I sat up, realizing that I’d been moved onto the flat rock that served as my bed.

“I mean it,” she added. Oh, how delightfully determined she was.

Should I have told her that using the entryway had merely been a courtesy? That if I wanted to enter her chamber anytime I pleased, I could do so, and her knight would be powerless to stop me?

Perhaps it was better not to frighten her with the truth.

Instead, my attention shifted to her hand, gently bracing against my chest, guiding me back down onto my bed as though she believed I was still an invalid. If she thought the gesture would placate me, she was gravely mistaken.

“You gave him your blood,” I said sharply.

Aracos bolted, the coward. He slithered behind my desk, leaving my dear captive alone to nod at me, her eyes downcast.

“He said it was the only way to help you,” she reasoned. “It’s not like I could have healed you. We didn’t know what else to do.”

Ah—it was laughable how much trust she placed in my familiar.

“You needn’t have done that,” I said hoarsely. However, considering my shoulder no longer felt like it was being gnawed upon, their plan had proven to be successful. “I am capable of looking after myself.”

Her eyes flicked up to meet mine, and for a fleeting moment, I was adrift. Lost somewhere in the depths of them.

Had she been… worried about me?

I couldn’t believe the way she looked at me, despite all that I kept from her. It set my very core ablaze.

There it was, that potent spark igniting, burning through me like fiend fire. It was a heady replacement for the pain I’d been enduring for days.

Unaware of this revelation, she pursed her lips. “It sure seemed like you needed help to me.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. Would she still have offered her blood had she known all that Aracos had planned for her magic?

Aside from healing me and stealing away plenty for himself, he’d also filled my magic reserves to the brim. Now, it powered me like I’d been the one to drink her blood.

“You’re right,” I conceded. Perhaps she was fortunate to be unaware of the gravity of what she’d done. If she knew of these… impulses I was feeling, she wouldn’t dare linger so close to my bed. “I did need help. And I suppose I should be grateful you were there to offer it.”

Her cheeks flushed at my words.

I knew well the dangers of entangling oneself with another’s magic—the unpredictability, the loss of control. But I couldn’t deny the rush that came along with it.

Aracos had been correct—her magic blended well with mine. More than well.

I could practically taste her on the tip of my tongue. Her magic, her essence. It buzzed through my veins, strengthening me. It was, in a word, intoxicating.

Yet, how would I feel once her power faded from my blood? And, more importantly, how desperate would I be for another taste I wouldn’t get?

“Are you… feeling better now?” She stared up at me, those enormous eyes full of questions. She tapped my shoulder, gauging my pain. “You look like you feel better.”

“Indeed.” I nodded, my gaze lingering on her full lips. “The pain is completely gone.”

She drew in her bottom lip, a nervous habit of hers that I found endearing. Or, perhaps… enticing was a better word for it. The impulse to lean in, to taste those lips, teased my thoughts. They would taste exactly as I expected they would. The same as her magic, surely.

Perhaps, if I ? —

I restrained myself, resisting the urge to lean in.

Ah, what a cruel twist of fate this was. It seemed Aracos’s little stunt would be the ruin of me.

My dear captive didn’t seem to notice. She was busy looking at my desk. “I… see you got my note.” There was a nervous edge in her voice. Her breasts strained against the dark wrap of ocean silk that bound them as she leaned in, pressing against my bed. “Was it legible?”

“Yes. Very legible,” I said tightly.

Initially, I hadn’t thought Undersea finery suited her. But witnessing her draped in the same deep hue as my tentacles made me crave replacing that ocean silk with a wrap of my own embrace.

Her focus on me felt like a sudden strike of lighting to each one of my hearts. Did she have any idea what she was doing to me as she pulled herself up onto my bed?

“I’m growing rather amused by this endearment you’ve bestowed upon me. ‘Creep.’ ”

“I thought you might,” she said, looking so very pleased with herself.

Mischief danced along the curve of her lips. It was a devastating smile that brought a different type of powerlessness to me.

“Aracos. Leave us.”

My command hung in the water, causing my dear, sweet captive’s eyebrows to lift. She shifted her gaze to my desk, only for me to redirect her focus back to me as I praised, “It was exceptional work.”

Her eyes now on mine, I let her chin linger in my palm. I wasn’t ready to give up that curious gaze or that smile—not yet. “I actually plan to write you one in return.”

Her next word seemed to catch in her mouth. “Really?”

For a princess, it took exceptionally little to please her.

“Indeed. But don’t get too excited, princess,” I said, attempting to harden my voice. “Did you forget that you promised to be my attentive student and follow my every instruction? Using the shell I gave you to injure yourself…” I tutted. “It makes me reconsider letting you keep it.”

“What?” Desperation flickered across her face. My shift in tone had worked. “No, please?—”

A smirk broke across my mouth. As suspected, she was quite attached to my gracious gift. “Perhaps some other punishment, then?”

Contrary to any expectation I’d had, she didn’t pull away. No, my dear captive drew closer, her eyes widening. “A punishment?” She almost sounded eager, too innocent and na?ve of the dark thoughts those words stirred within me.

Yes, Aracos’s stunt had been far more dangerous than either of them realized.

“I will compose a letter to you,” I said carefully, tamping down on the possessive urges lapping at my insides, “but I will instruct Aracos not to help you decipher the glyphs. As punishment.”

She blinked up at me with a charmingly perplexed expression. “Oh.”

A chuckle rippled through me. “Don’t tell me you’re disappointed,” I murmured. “Were you hoping for something else?”

“No,” she said almost too fast. “Of course not.”

I arched an eyebrow, skeptical. “Well then, I’ll be sure to pen something extra special. Something that will make you so curious, you might just beg Aracos to read it to you.” Leaning in closer, I lowered the pitch of my voice. “Unless, of course, you’d rather beg me to do it instead.”

Had my tentacles been touching her as I wanted them to, I would have been able to feel her delightful shiver for myself. Instead, watching it work down her every curve would have to do.

My sweet captive’s lips parted like she was searching for the right words to say. It was clear she was struggling.

Guilt seized her expression, displacing any sentiments she may have harbored for me mere moments before, and I decided to make it easier for her.

“Don’t worry, princess. I was only speaking in jest.” I swept back my hair, adopting an air of nonchalance. “It seems that being healed has put strange thoughts in my head. You must excuse me. It’s not every day that I black out and wake to a princess climbing onto my bed.”

“Wha...?” She pulled back from my bed, creating the distance I desperately needed but never wanted. Yes, I couldn’t indulge in such fantasies. After all, once this was over, she would return to her lovers, and I would remain here, as always.

“Now that I’m healed, I have work to attend to.” I lifted from the rock, my tentacles stretching out underneath me. “I’ll summon Aracos to take you back. Oh, and don’t worry about instructing your knight to keep me away,” I added. “Aracos’s punishment will be minimal.”

It would take time to think up something appropriate for him. Now that my head wasn’t throbbing, the idea of exiling my only familiar seemed a bit excessive.

Ruminating on that thought, I hadn’t anticipated her muttering, “Would you mind if I stayed?”

A heavy silence permeated my chamber.

Even knowing the mood I was in, she wanted to stay?

“Well, if that’s what you want?—”

I didn’t get the words out before her wince cut me off.

She pressed a palm against the side of her head. “I—I think I got a little carried away slicing my hand.”

What?

I swept over to her, seizing her hand to inspect it.

“ Aracos ,” I hissed, even in his absence. He’d healed her hand, yes, but it seemed he’d been much too greedy with her blood.

No wonder he’d left without so much as a fuss earlier. He no doubt was hoping I wouldn’t notice.

My frustration simmered. “This is why I didn’t want you giving your blood away like it’s some common offering.” Try as I might, I couldn’t stop the irritation that tinged my voice. “It is precious. It is your power. And it should be treated as such .”

“It wasn’t—he was trying to—” Her voice faltered, either from a loss of blood or words.

“Aracos is my familiar,” I snapped back, though I softened my hold on her hand. “I know everything there is to know about him, so believe me when I say he took more from you than what was necessary.”

Maybe I would toss him out of the mouth of the Undersea.

“From now on, princess, please refrain from giving your blood away so carelessly to anyone who asks. Do not give it to anyone. Not even Aracos.”

Despite her condition, there was a spark of defiance in her eyes. “Does that include you?” she challenged, maintaining her composure as best she could. “What if you come along asking for more of my blood? You know, for one of your deals.”

“That especially includes me,” I retorted sharply. “Where do you think Aracos’s greediness comes from? He learned it from his master.”

She nodded slowly. “Fine. Maybe you should steer clear of thunderstorms, then, if you have such a problem with me losing blood.”

“Trust me, I have no intention of repeating that mistake again.” My tentacles wrapped around her, gently lifting her onto my bed. Her blood would replenish soon, but for now, it would be best for her to rest. “Now that we’ve settled that, lie down, princess.”

“You—you want me to rest here?” Even in her weakened state, she managed to gawk at me. “This is your bed.” She’d stated it as if I weren’t aware.

I hummed, thoroughly amused. “Unless you’d rather pick a shelf. You are rather small.”

She hesitated for a moment before complying. With a sigh, she pulled the end of her tail up on the rock where I typically slept and settled into the smooth dip in the middle. “I guess it makes sense that you can’t poof me back to my chamber,” she reasoned quietly. “You’re still recovering.”

The thought of teleporting her to her own bed hadn’t even occurred to me…

It would have taken little effort on my part. Now that I was healed, my magic was replenishing at its regular rate. Faster, even. It seemed eager to meet and mingle with hers.

But, no. I wanted her here with me. Away from the eyes of others and even from Aracos.

My tentacles curled around the base of the rock underneath her. Greedy, indeed.

She looked extraordinary on my bed, her beauty undeniable. I’d known it even before her magic sang inside me.

And the way she looked up at me with those trustful eyes brought life to me after years of darkness.

I didn’t deserve it. Eventually, she would come to realize it, too. But I would savor it for as long as she granted me the privilege.

“Rest now,” I said slowly.

“If you’re sure…” She waited for me to nod before she reclined on my bed. Soon, her chest slowed to a steady rhythm.

Though there was much that needed to be done, I indulged in her presence for one more moment before turning away.

Once I settled at my desk, I conjured up a fresh scroll. As it fell gracefully onto my desk, I selected a pen.

Ah, yes . My power flowed so smoothly now, begging to be used.

And use it, I would.

But first, I had an especially intriguing letter to compose—one that would practically beg to be deciphered.