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Claira

T he very fabric of the universe seemed to shatter around me. I plunged into a realm suspended in shadows. Darkness assaulted my senses, infiltrating my lungs with its all-consuming embrace. The husky voice in my ear soothed, “Easy now.”

Easy now? Like I was some wild animal for him to snatch up and expect to tame? I started to thrash, but the unyielding pressure of his body against my back served as a reminder of which of us was in control.

Dammit .

I reared my head back to headbutt him just as shreds of the universe bled through the darkness, weaving back together around us. My feet found solid ground, and I took advantage of the loosening arm around my waist by throwing myself forward.

“ Miss you? ” I yelled, my voice breaking. My hand dove deep into my satchel, and with a clumsy slash of my arm, I twisted, brandishing my shell in front of me, ready to slice him up. “What are you even doing here?” Each word was a struggle, forced out through the smoky magic still lingering in my lungs. I was half gasping, half pleading, my emotions rising. “Why here? Why on the Indian Ocean’s island, of all places?”

A thick eyebrow, black as pitch, arched at me.

“My kind hail from these waters,” he said, casually slipping the hand that had just been around me into the front pocket of a pair of dress pants. He stood straight, his tall frame clothed in a tailored black suit, every slick line and dark contour underlining his fearsome presence.

“Dammit,” I muttered. The memory was hazy, but it felt like Leander had mentioned something about cecaelia living in the Indian Ocean.

And here one of them was—the sea wizard. A man of undeniable power.

Darkness seemed to embrace him, highlighting the otherworldly white of his eyes that gave away what he truly was, even in human form.

“Okay, you come from these waters, but we’re on land, ” I threw back, my mind grappling with my next move. If Barren’s sister knew everything that happened on this island, had she known of the sea wizard? Did she have something to do with him taking me?

“Oh, I’m well aware.” Completely calm, he straightened the front of his suit like he hadn’t just used magic to rip through the universe. An unseen wind streamed around us, ruffling his hair.

“What are you doing?” I scrambled back a step, shuddering as black seeped into his irises. It was as if his eyes were absorbing the dark magic pooled around us, soaking up every last drop. “Stop it,” I warned, holding up my shell as the last of the magic faded from the air.

His white eyes had been the only thing that gave away his true nature, but now that they were black, he looked like a different creature entirely. Human, almost.

I wasn’t sure I liked it.

A bitter smirk formed over his pale lips. “I see you kept my gift .”

My eyes snapped to the shell I was clinging to, and— shit .

Heat flushed over my face, but I continued clutching the shell’s ribbed surface. It was the only weapon I had. “And I see you don’t look so tough without all your extra limbs and your trident,” I lied, my lips curling. “Where the hell are we?”

The air was damp, heavy with the distinct smell of salt water. I glanced around the room with a feverish intensity, taking in every detail. Only there wasn’t much to see. Abstract art, a fish tank that sat on a decorative console table. Travel worn carpet and textured burgundy wallpaper that made the narrow hallway feel even more cramped.

Where the heck had he taken us?

Wait—my eyes caught on the decorative sconces lining the walls. They looked perfect for bashing my sea wizard captor over the head with if it turned out my magical seashell knife had no effect on him.

The dark clothed man stood there, not giving up anything. I edged closer, my instincts teetering between fight and flight. “We aren’t in the casino, are we?”

While his gaze remained cold and unmoving, a grimace twisted his mouth. “Your ability to solve riddles remains as impressive as ever, I see.”

His face seemed so different now that his eyes shared the same black as his hair. Sharp and chiseled angles that gave him an almost sculpted appearance. With a swift and confident glide of his hand, he slicked back his hair. “We’re not in the casino, no.” He took a step forward, and I raised the shell. The threat didn’t deter him. “Far from it, in fact.”

Fury flashed in his dark eyes, but what right did he have to be angry? “So good at riddles,” he said, his voice dropping to barely more than a hiss. “Yet you couldn’t decipher the meaning of a decimated portal and a clear warning of the dangers you’d be facing here.”

My mind flooded with images of the shattered portal fragments. The anguish on Leander’s face. “ You destroyed the portal? Then, the eel…”

He touched the tip of a long finger to his lips, signaling me to keep the conversation quiet. “Guilty,” he mouthed.

“Why… why would you do that?” I all but yelled. He wanted quiet? Well, screw that. He might have had magic, but he didn’t have all the power here. “I was looking forward to teleporting, you creep .”

Maybe it was stupid of me to goad the man wearing a black suit that looked like it could have easily belonged to a mobster, but I didn’t care. I’d wasted so much time mulling over the sea wizard. Contemplating his true intentions.

Now, it was official. From here on out, I was considering him a threat.

“And teleported, you have,” he said, a black strand of hair falling over his eyes as his jaw lifted. Smirking like a true villain, he placed a hand high on his chest, a gesture to himself. “You’re welcome.”

Was he serious?

“You know that’s not the same,” I snapped back, my teeth grating. My hand twisted around my weapon as I imagined what would happen if the shell came in contact with his pale flesh. The Rook’s face had ripped apart effortlessly, but the sea wizard’s wide jaw was so solid, so distinguished. It was hard to imagine a knife sharp enough to leave a mark on it.

“It’s not?” His dark laugh lingered in the air like smoke. “And how many times have you teleported?”

“Well…” I gnawed at my bottom lip, attempting to formulate an answer.

“Well, while you think on that, I must inform the crown of your arrival.” He straightened his suit. “I’ll only be a moment.”

The crown? Shit.

I seemed to be popular with royalty today. Only, if this was cecaelia royalty I was about to meet, there was a good chance this meeting would turn into an execution.

In my mind, I could still see the Rook. His wails as I dragged my shell through his flesh.

I was still holding the shell in the air when the sea wizard turned, heading for a set of wooden doors behind him.

A shudder racked me. Even on land, he moved like a shadow. And when he slipped through the doors, leaving me alone in the hallway, a strangled sob tore up my throat.

Shit, shit, shit.

I whipped around and could have cried with joy. The doors behind me weren’t barred.

Time to make a run for it.

But when I opened one of the doors, the bulky backs of two towering men blocked my only path to freedom. I closed that door so fast.

Okay—new plan.

I was stuck in the hallway, unable to move forward or backward, confined between two sets of doors. Stuffing my shell back into my bag, I whirled around, searching for an oversized air duct or some other equally unlikely escape route to present itself.

Nothing.

When I reached for a painting, imagining the possibility of a hidden window just waiting to be discovered underneath it, I knew I was really in trouble.

“Dammit!” I dropped the painting back in place, and my eyes widened as I noticed the fish tank below it.

In the center of the glass, a tiny sky blue and white speckled fish hovered. Its head lifted, its beady black eyes staring right at me.

A betta fish.

The longer I stared back at it, the more certain I was that the fish was, in fact, looking right at me. Tiny, intelligent eyes probing deep into my soul.

My stomach coiled.

… Could it really be?

“Shit,” I muttered, my panic rising. It seemed I wasn’t the only one held captive here.

I plunged my hand into the tank without hesitation, and as my fingers closed around the helpless fish, a hum vibrated next to me.

“Well, this is interesting,” a smoky voice said, wafting into my ear.

And instead of popping into the form of a magnificent merman, the fish in my hand bolted, its slick scales slipping through my fingers as my head turned to where the sea wizard peered over my shoulder.

“I, uh…” Embarrassment hit me like a wave as I held my hand down in the water. Despite the heavy smell of salt in the air, it seemed to be freshwater. The betta swam to the tank’s pebbled bottom, hiding from the psycho trying to snatch it up.

An ordinary fish in an ordinary fish tank.

“I was… hungry,” I said, the words surprising even me.

One of the sea wizard’s dark eyebrows lifted. “Hungry?”

“Um. Yeah.” Looking down into the tank, I plucked up a plant from the bottom. “Thought this was star grass,” I said, each word sounding more wooden than the last. “It’s… my favorite.”

Deafening silence.

The sea wizard moved behind me, a shadow shifting in the light. I shuddered as his arm grazed my back, reminding me he was very much real. He leaned in, surveying the plant. “It’s plastic.”

Water dripped from the decoration’s many stiff, neon green points as I held it up over the water. “So it is.” Could I have felt any more foolish? “My mistake.”

The cool vapor of his laugh brushed over my shoulder as I stuffed the plastic plant back into the bottom of the tank. I pinched my mouth shut, hating that the sound of his laugh wasn’t entirely unpleasant. “Come,” he said, moving back to the doors. “The crown is awaiting your arrival.”

“Of course they are.” I rolled of my eyes, wiping the tank water on the front of my pants. So much for my great escape. Barren had been right—it seemed the island really did come to life at night.

But before opening the door, the sea wizard seized my arm. “You keep playing right into our hands.” He threw the words at me like stones, his expression bordering on mockery. “So easy to manipulate.”

“The hell is that supposed to mean?” I jerked my arm away and was surprised when he readily let go.

The way his lips thinned as he reached for the door only pissed me off more. “Nothing,” he said dryly.

“No—please, do tell me what you wanted me to do differently,” I snapped right back. “You’re the one who grabbed me out of thin air. Or do you consider me needing to use the restroom ‘playing into your hand’?”

The sea wizard turned to me fully, and the raw fury in his retort made my throat tighten. “Oh, we’re far beyond what I wanted, little captive.”

I glared back at him, my anger mounting. “So, that’s it? More cryptic words for me to decipher?” Was he incapable of speaking plainly? “And for the last time—I am not your captive.”

“No, you’re not,” he agreed, his anger rivaling my own. Then he took a deep breath, collecting himself. With a cold glare, he edged the doors open. “Now you’re hers.”

The doors opened, and a puff of humid air slapped me right in the face.

“Come in, come in.” A gentle, rippling voice, like delicate seashells rolling in the surf. “I’ve been eagerly awaiting your arrival, dear child.”

Driven by an indescribable feeling, my feet carried me past the sea wizard and into the stuffy room. An unremarkable desk sat in the center of a dimly lit space, its surface covered in chaotic piles of papers and worn-out trinkets. Yet the room held a surprising addition—a hot tub tucked away in the corner.

Even more surprising was the woman lounging within its depths, a prominent smile spreading over her maroon lips as she regarded me. My eyes widened when I spotted a tentacle languidly caressing the water’s surface.

Salt water .

The water bubbled up around her curves, and steam rose in excessive amounts as she waded to the front of the tub. Emerald eyes dazzling in the dim light, she draped her thick arms over the hot tub’s edge. “Come closer, child,” she beckoned, a gentle command I found myself following.

It was strange how brittle her voice sounded compared to the smoothness of her plump face.

With a long fingernail, she lazily swirled a strand of deep burgundy hair sticking out of an overly messy bun atop her head. Despite her ageless features, thin lines of silver streaked through her hair, and when the matted strands shifted, it revealed a tarnished black crown hidden within the mass.

The knots looked so complicated that I had to wonder how long the crown had been stuck in there and if taking it off would require the use of a pair of shears.

It was at that moment I felt it—the weight of eyes on my back. I spun around to a couch hosting an assembly of striking young men.

Oh. My. Goodness.

There was no clothing between them, not even a strip.

They sat there, six in total, their eyes darkened and brooding. Every type of hair seemed to be present, ranging from jet-black locks cascading like a waterfall to shorter, tousled waves of sandy blonde.

Laverne would have gone rabid, foaming at the mouth to either jump on the couch with them or call them all shameless.

I whipped back around, but not before catching one of the men flexing, curling his spine as if stretching out his back. The others seemed to be wiping sweat from their brows, their chests rising and falling in subtle pants.

What exactly had I interrupted?

A playful cunning lit in the woman’s emerald eyes. Two of her tentacles reared up, pulling her up the side of the hot tub. “I’ve been waiting to meet you, child. I am Queen Sagari, ruler of the Undersea.” One of her back tentacles gave a wide flourish that sent sizzling drops of salt water spraying about.

“Queen Sagari,” I repeated. A queen in a shear black bathing suit. This sure didn’t seem like a room fit for royalty to relax in. I glanced around the space with its torn wallpaper, dim lights, and molding ceiling tiles. A complete contrast to the luxurious casino I’d been stolen away from.

Her friendliness bordered on excessive, her focus fixed on me with an intense passion that left me stricken. My stomach rolled as I thought of the Rook again. In the queen’s mind, I’d murdered not one, but two of her subordinates.

Emotion pulled at my vocal cords. “I assume you didn’t bring me here for a friendly chat.”

“Indeed, I have not,” she said, pointing a sharp-tipped fingernail, still very much lounging in her hot tub. “Do you know how thoroughly we’ve searched for you, my child? Combing through both land and seas?”

I shifted uncomfortably, not sure how to answer that. My eyes caught movement, and I glanced over, catching the sea wizard slinking into the room. He quietly stood beside the men on the couch, blending into the room’s shadows.

If he hadn’t been out stealing me away from the merfolk, would he have spent his evening on the queen’s couch, draped in nothing but the limbs of the men beside him?

My mind slipped into an image that I immediately regretted.

The queen chuckled, her voice becoming rough with amusement. “Sorry, child. My pawns can be quite distracting.”

Pawns?

One of her tentacles curled, a come-hither motion, and my heart froze in my chest as the couch behind me creaked. The men passed me by, sending further chills through me as they formed a circle around the hot tub. A blindingly pale, very naked circle.

The queen caressed the underside of the man with the longest hair’s jaw, and I spun around, finding myself sinking in the sea wizard’s dark stare. He stood still in the shadows, seemingly oblivious to the queen’s call.

“Let me cut to the chase,” Queen Sagari said over the sound of water sloshing behind me. “I have been informed of an incident that recently occurred deep within the Atlantic.”

A wave of panic hit, leaving me dizzy. I moved a trembling hand to my bag, feeling for the comforting bulk of the shell hidden inside it. The sea wizard knew it was there, but the others didn’t.

“Figured that was why,” I mumbled, turning to see four of the men helping Queen Sagari out of the tub. This might have been the strangest execution trial ever.

Her tentacles hit the ground with a wet slap that caused three of her men to transform, exploding into writhing knots of black limbs that they were quick to tame.

I couldn’t help but gawk, amazed to see that, unlike merfolk, they were not helpless after transforming on land. The queen’s sheer bathing suit fell past her hips, stopping where her dark limbs held her perfectly upright on the ground. Eight legs in seamless movement.

Now that she had her balance, she took a smooth glide forward, leaving the support of her men behind to venture over to the desk. “This is my office,” she said, digging through one of the desk’s overfilled drawers.

“ Your office?” My eyes caught on the speckles of mold working their way up the walls. “But why would a queen—?” When I noticed she had stopped her rummaging to glance up at me, a gasp caught in my throat. For a moment, it was as if her round features had sharpened, her skin taking on a monstrously gray hue, but when she looked all the way up, her smile was perfectly kind.

“Why, for leasing out rentals, of course.” As she spoke, one of her tentacles shuffled over the desk top before picking up a length of paper it stretched out for me to take.

I took it, and the tip of the tentacle curled to give me a little wave, leaving me wondering if it had moved of its own accord as I scanned over what it had passed into my hands. Lush tropical blooms accentuated the corners of the glossy paper.

“Luxury condominiums,” the queen said, her voice going husky. “It’s quite the booming business.”

I forced myself to swallow before nodding in agreement, hoping to avoid any more insults. “It looks beautiful,” I said, thumbing through the brochure.

The tentacle snatched it away with a forceful jerk that belied the queen’s pleasant smile. “Indeed, it is. Ah-ha .” She pulled out something flat and silver from the desk’s drawer, and my insides clenched.

“But before we talk business, child, there is a minor matter we must first attend to.” Her voice dropped, hitting a dramatic note I wasn’t ready for. “Your silence .”

She slapped the object on the top of the table—a silver dagger.

My throat constricted, a lump forming as I took in the weapon’s sharp, honed edges.

“Puppet,” Queen Sagari shrilled, ice forming over the word as she tossed the dagger toward the sea wizard with a flick of a tentacle. He stood still, letting it ricochet off the wall above the couch beside him with a dull clank before he retrieved it.

The sea wizard straightened, squaring his shoulders. Then he stepped up to me, dagger in hand. I could barely think—barely move. His face was a hard plaster mask, completely unreadable. He looked every bit the threat I’d wondered him to be.

Queen Sagari’s laughter boiled over the roar of the hot tub. “Look at you, trembling like a stalk. My puppet is perfectly tame.”

Tame? The sea wizard was unpredictable chaos and riddles. The complete opposite of tame.

I clenched my bag, taking backward steps until my back pressed against the doors, hating how my fingers shook. Was I really going to have to fight him? The sea wizard, with his imposing height and dark magic, against me? I wasn’t even sure if my weapon would be useful.

“Now, don’t be dramatic,” the queen said, tentacles curving as she eased down into a chair behind her desk. “It’s just a prick, child. One insignificant drop of blood. You won’t even miss it.”

“My blood?” I squeaked, and with a pop , the queen was seated, propping two thick legs up on her desk. That friendly smile was far gone, replaced with something sinister. Bordering predatory.

“Yes, yes. One drop to ensure your silence. Can’t let the merfolk know we’re hiding right under their noses, now, can we?”

So Barren’s sister hadn’t known the sea wizard was going to take me, after all. My stomach tightened—then there was no way of Barren finding out where I was or even that I’d been taken. “You want my blood?” I asked again. “You mean you’re… not going to kill me?”

“Kill you?” The queen howled a brittle laugh. “You’re worth so much more to me alive, dear child.”

I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that. “I don’t understand. Your Rook…” I let the name slip without thinking it through, and the queen shifted, throwing her legs down to the floor.

“Ah, my Rook. You must forgive me, child. I put little thought into those I put in charge.” She held up a sharp finger, her crown knocking around its cage of knots as she shook her head. “A flaw of mine, I recognize, but I judge the men I surround myself with on a strict set of qualities that do not always account for intelligence.” Then she shrugged, tossing some scraggly strands of wet hair that had fallen from her bun back behind her shoulder. “You understand.”

I struggled to hold back a gag. I wasn’t sure what quality she’d seen in the Rook worth keeping nearby.

“So, you’re saying you didn’t abduct me for revenge?” I asked, eyeing the sea wizard for answers. Although he held out the dagger, his face was a cold, blank canvas. I narrowed my eyes.

All of his personality seemed to be missing, leaving him a vacant shell of the powerful man that had wrapped his arms around my back, whisking me into the shadows.

No wonder everyone called him the queen’s shadow puppet—he was playing the part well.

“Now, a drop of your blood, please,” Queen Sagari crooned. “A simple spell to keep our presence hidden. It’s just good business, you see.”

My hands clenched. “And if I refuse?”

“Then I cannot let you leave. But that would make this business transaction quite messy. Trust me, dear child, we do not want that.”

The sea wizard’s sudden, probing voice startled me. “Your finger.” He held a hand out to me, the dagger in the other.

Only moments ago, he’d blamed me for playing into their hands, but when I searched his eyes for a hint of what he expected me to do, his expression remained neutral.

“I—” Now I was really panicking.

“Ah, my puppet scares you. Adorable.” The queen rose to her feet. When her pawns came up beside her for support, she shooed them away. “There’s nothing to fear. As I said, he is perfectly tame.”

Queen Sagari came around her desk with a cautious gait, the wood creaking under her weight as she leaned against it for support. “My authority over him is absolute, you see. He cannot do a single thing against my command.”

“A common belief among royals,” I said bitterly, thinking of Barren’s sister and her need for control. I lifted my chin. “They can’t stand to think that those underneath them have minds and wills of their own.”

“Ah—but this is different.” Queen Sagari clapped her hands, and a quake worked through the sea wizard’s body. “It seems a demonstration is in order.”

His lips parted, letting slip a shuddering gasp for breath.

As the queen leaned back, her gaze fixed on the sea wizard, the glint in her eye making my insides twist. “I require your blood, puppet.” The sweetness in her voice only made the horrifying command more chilling. “Show it to our guest, so she might know she has nothing to fear from you.”

Suffocating magic seemed to fill the room, draining the air. The sea wizard’s teeth grit, and the hand holding the dagger trembled as he turned it in on himself. But more shocking than that was the black halo of magic forming over Queen Sagari’s head, emanating from her tarnished crown.

“ Mmph .” I could just make out the sound of the sea wizard’s resistance as he lifted the edge of the blade flush with the side of his neck.

Tension gripped his body as dark magic slithered toward him, sinister tentacles that coiled around his shoulders. Veins bulged along his neck with the effort of his struggle, yet an otherworldly force seemed to manipulate his hand, guiding his actions. As the first drops of crimson stained the blade, a mocking laughter echoed through the room with twisted delight.

“See! There’s nothing to fear, dear child,” Queen Sagari said as the sea wizard held the dagger to his neck, fighting against it but somehow driving the blade in deeper. “He is under my complete control.”

The sea wizard’s eyes flickered with white. I stared in horror, realizing that he was attempting to call on his magic to stop it, but the wound only widened.

“Stop,” I said, a feeble plea. A thick stream of blood flooded down his neck, soaking his black suit and making my stomach weak. “I get it, so please. ” When she did nothing, my panic built.

Pain etched over his face, his cheeks sunken and hollowed out, but it didn’t stop. It couldn’t stop. Not without the queen saying so first. “Stop it! Please! ”

“That will do, puppet,” the queen said finally, and when the dagger fell to the ground with the sea wizard’s gasp, I felt my own breath catch in my throat.

Poseidon help him, I’d never seen so much blood.

He fell forward, retrieving the dagger with a grunt, inadvertently smearing blood over the floor as he did it.

The queen tsked . “I suppose we can’t use that now, can we?” She went back around her desk, rummaging through a new drawer. “Here we are. Puppet,” she said before tossing him something new across the room. This time, he caught it.

When he turned back to me, a fountain pen was clenched in his fist.

“Your finger,” he said, an uncharacteristic rasp in his voice. Blood seeped freely from his wound, saturating the front of his suit, but he didn’t bother applying pressure to the gash.

My heart felt wrung out, warped from conflicting emotions. It’d been my fault, hadn’t it? My doubt in his queen’s control had been the reason for the pain the sea wizard had to endure.

I stared down at the fountain pen, noting the remnants of ink left behind from previous use. The tip was sharp enough to prick a finger. But before I held out my hand, I asked, “What will the spell do?”

I didn’t expect the sea wizard to be the one to answer. “Our location and this meeting are to be kept hidden.”

The queen slammed a desk drawer shut. “Come now. I’m a busy woman. We do not have all night.”

I swallowed. Neither did I. And while I didn’t like the thought of being under a spell, a finger prick seemed far better than an execution.

“Fine,” I whispered, holding out a finger. Leaning forward, the sea wizard’s cold hand closed around mine. When he looked down at me with his darkening eyes, it was like the rest of the room had disappeared.

“One poke,” he said, the rasped words only meant for me. I winced at the bite of the pen’s tip as it punctured my skin. A dot of blood formed over the tip of my pointer finger, and he swiped over it with the press of his thumb.

His eyes flashed white, and the air thinned as my blood was eaten up by a rush of magic smoke. And then he was gone, turning from me, returning to his corner of shadows.

Queen Sagari’s smile curled. “Excellent,” she said, her hips swaying as she moved toward me. “Now, dear child… Let’s talk business.”