Page 24 of Coral Prince Conundrum (Runaway Prince Hotel #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY

Seero

Breathing has never been this difficult.

Daryl has been gone for merely an hour, and I’m sitting in the dining room of our surface house.

My shoulders hunch as Imelda pours me a cup of tea.

When she disappears, I run my fingers through my hair and gaze at my reflection in the dark liquid.

I look awful, and I think I know why. Part of my soul feels blighted, like a piece of me has dissolved, ashes cast out onto the sea.

Why didn’t I enjoy his body last night, knowing it was our final hours together?

Better yet, why didn’t I ask him to stay?

Oh, that’s right, because he’s a foreigner. He was never my true soulmate, just a man I met while escaping to America. My duty is to that of the Coral Kingdom. My destiny belongs to the Corali people, including, one day, an appropriate life partner from my country.

Then why do I see his face when I close my eyes? Why did saying goodbye feel like barnacles scraping against my throat?

I sip the bitter liquid, and it warms my mouth.

Perhaps the Corali Court will not pass my bill.

Then I can craft another excuse to bring Daryl here.

He can stay with me, in my bed, and he can tell me all about surface life.

We’d make love at night, and I could take him around the kingdom during the day.

He would want for nothing, all so I could have him by my side. That would be…an amazing life.

I huff and tap the teacup. It would also be selfish. Daryl has school, a job, and a life back in Princedelphia. Plus, when word got out that his family was a destroyer of fish, the public may not look kindly on him. This was all just temporary, and I need to resume my duties as the Coral Prince.

Before I can wallow any further, my phone vibrates. Almost no one has this number, so it must be urgent. I stand up and swipe the green button.

“Hello?”

“Brother, where are you?” Oroy’s voice sounds panicked.

“I am at the surface home. What is wrong?”

“Come to the marine life hospital at Port City.” His voice sounds grave, and he’s huffing his breath like he’s walking rapidly. “Something…has gone wrong.”

Blood leaves my face, and I fear the worst. I know the hospital is for creatures of the sea, the pets of the most wealthy in the country. However, some instinctual part of me knows Daryl is hurt. So, I holler for Imelda to bring around a seahorse-drawn boat and driver.

My heart beats rapidly as I storm out of the house. As I wait for the carriage to pull up to the waterway, I try to take calm, slow breaths, to no avail. All I can think of is that I should never have let Daryl out of my sight.

It’s a horrific vision at the maritime animal hospital.

We’re near a private operating room with the most experienced veterinarians in the country.

The guards stand outside, allowing only those I trust to enter the emergency area, including my siblings.

My heart breaks as I gaze at Drakey, my beloved sea dragon, on the operating room table.

Apparently, he suffocated and has laceration marks around his long body.

No one can configure how a water creature was strangled in the ocean, but he was lucky to make it back to shore.

Fortunately, since the guards recognized him as one of the royal steeds, he was rushed to the vet immediately.

It’s all too much. After the doctor explains the injuries, I turn and hug my brother and sister. I can’t lose Drakey, too. I already said goodbye to…

“Wait, what of Daryl?” I wipe a tear from my cheek and face the veterinarian. “What of Daryl?” I repeat, panic rising in my throat.

The vet looks to my brother for guidance. “Brother,” Oroy says quietly, taking my arm. We walk toward the waiting area, barren since the guards have cleared that area as well. “He hasn’t been spotted.”

“The royal guard is searching for him,” Priya says softly. “But they suspect a whirlpool?—”

“No,” I say firmly. I won’t hear of it, Daryl cannot be dead. I shrug off my siblings and briskly walk away. They follow as I leave the animal hospital. The main port of entry is not too far from here, but I’ll need to borrow a seahorse.

“Brother, wait,” Priya says. “I need you to calmly think this through.”

“I’ll think this through when I FIND HIM!” I snap. “I will turn the oceans upside down if it means protecting Daryl Tishman.”

My siblings glance at each other in concern. “They already have the best coast guards looking through his path in the ocean,” Oroy says.

I turn and briskly walk down the stone sidewalk, closer to the waterway. I’m willing to pay for any sea creature available to take me out there. “They do not have me,” I say with a frown. “Because he’s mine, and I need to find him. We have a bond, and…and I’ll track him down myself.”

“The public is going to see you,” Priya says as the two of them follow me. “It will be an international incident.”

“I do not care.”

“Whirlpools happen,” Priya says quietly.

“And I sent almost all the guards out,” Oroy adds.

I turn and glare at them. “I don’t believe it was a whirlpool. Drakey did not get those bloody marks from nature. This has to be an assassination plot! Someone hurt Daryl!”

“We have never had one of those,” Oroy says, looking down.

“Are you suggesting that someone purposefully went after him?” Priya asks.

“Yes, and I should have been there. They nearly killed Drakey, and they—” My words are cut off when I look up.

Seagulls float above, which is a common sight throughout the kingdom. My siblings aren’t nearly as well-versed in communing with marine life as I am. Hope blooms in my chest, and I whistle. In less than a minute, my prayers are answered.

“Pelly!” I say. My siblings look at each other with confusion as the bird lands on my arm. “What happened?” I ask.

The speech is garbled, but I understand enough. I smile and whistle, asking her to take flight.

“What’s going on?” Priya asks as I stride forward.

“Daryl is alive.” I look up at Pelly in the sky, and my pulse pounds faster. “Pelly says so. I asked her to look out for him, and she did.”

I find an officer near a waterway and quickly ask to borrow his golden sea dragon. He nods and bows—I’ve never loved my power as the Coral Prince more than I do now.

“So wait, what?” Priya asks.

“He is in a south coast cave, near the rocky crags. At least I think that’s what the pelican is saying.” I grip the reins and glance at my brother. “Oroy, can you gather a security detail and a royal meeting? Mother and Father need to know about the assassination attempt.”

“Okay, but you might need assistance,” my brother says.

“Go,” I reply urgently.

“I will be the assistance,” Priya says, hopping onto the sea dragon. My brow furrows when she wraps her arms around me. “This dragon will not go near the rocky crags. We will have to swim there, and you might need a better water mystic.”

She’s not wrong. I smile at her, then at Oroy, overjoyed that my siblings are supporting me. “Thank you. Now go!”

I whip the reins up and down, and Oroy runs off. With that, my sister and I are speeding down the waterway to the ocean. I gaze up at Pelly and pray to the ocean gods that the bird is not wrong, and that I’m not too late.

Ten pulse-pounding minutes later, Pelly swoops down.

My sister was correct in presuming the sea dragon could not go close to the rocky southern beaches.

Leaving the dragon behind, Priya and I jump into the water, then swiftly swim closer to the jagged shore.

No one ever visits here, and given how sharp the rocks beneath my feet are, I can see why.

Pelly squawks above, pointing to one of the farther caves.

“Are you sure about this?” Priya asks as we approach the land.

“Yes. Pelly was tasked with guarding him, along with Drakey.” The thought of Drakey almost dying has my mouth dry, but I cannot hesitate now. Daryl, my soul, my very heart, needs me.

We make it to a cave blocked by several tall boulders, jutting out like stone pyramids. Pelly lands on one and points the way with her beak. This cave would be difficult to find without eyes in the sky, but I can see how something drifting may have ended up here. Please be here in one piece, Daryl.

Priya and I make our way to the shore. We hike up the rocks and enter the dark cave.

Fortunately, there’s a small path, a one-yard-wide ledge for us to walk on.

The stones are sharp on my feet, but I don’t care.

The structural integrity of this cave is tenuous; the longer Daryl is here, the more likely he is to die.

My heart races as I scan the area. Dark water is below this natural walkway, but I don’t see anyone.

The sunlight barely breaks through the cave’s entrance, so I have to squint.

Ocean gods, I beg of you, he has to be fine.

I’ll spend my life devoted to him, protecting him, loving him, whatever it takes. He’s too important to me.

I realize now that he truly is my soulmate. I need to tell him that.

Pelly flies in and squawks in a circle a yard away. When I spot a figure clinging to a rock, my heart nearly leaps out of my chest. “Daryl!”

For a brief moment, I’m afraid he’s not alive.

Those fears are dispelled when he turns and blinks at me.

He’s clinging to a ledge, breathing haggardly, and his eyes are sunken in.

It’s been less than two hours since I let him go, but he looks like he’s been dragged through the very underworld itself.

“He’s here!” I say to my sister, then quickly amble toward him. I leap into the inlet of water, and it goes up to my waist. The rocks scratch my feet as I wade toward him.

“Daryl!” I lift him up and seat him on the cave floor opposite the previous path. “Are…are you alright?”

“Seero,” he croaks. Then, he hisses and points below—his ankle is bloody.