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Abyssal

T each her to read? To use magic? Evidently, I’d lost my mind.

I pressed my head against the rocks outside the princess’s chamber and sighed deeply. So, she thought I was prickly. Ha…

Those derisively sweet lips of hers would be the death of me, but I couldn’t let my desires get in the way of my mission.

This… feeling I had. It was something she would never reciprocate.

That thought burned in my mind as I forcibly tore myself away from the wall.

With my duty to the crown momentarily fulfilled, it was time to turn my attention to my own plans.

My little captive had fallen into the vile queen’s trap far quicker than expected, leaving me with precious little time to prepare. Nevertheless, I’d make do.

“Aracos,” my mind called out. It had been a while since I’d last sensed him, having sent him away before taking the princess into my bedchamber.

His answer was swift. “Master.”

Good—he was still awake. “Keep watch over the royal hallway. One eye on the crown, the other on the princess. Inform me of any movement.”

“Aracos will be your eyes, Master.”

Of course, I didn’t expect either of them to make a move. The queen, too occupied with her own pleasures, likely had no intention of leaving her throne. As for our princess, she was safely tucked away in her cage. I’d already made sure the spell I’d given her was sitting in the doorway, preventing her from being disturbed.

“Keep safe. Keep hidden,” I reminded, then felt the pull of Aracos draining more of my magic. His interference when one of the queen’s pawns slunk into the princess’s chamber was commendable, but it had been close. Too close.

Puppet strings be damned, I’d tear the entire Undersea apart, reducing it to mere rubble and silt if any harm ever came to my familiar.

I teleported to my desk and gathered the necessary materials before visualizing my destination—a certain merman-infested bungalow perched atop a calm lagoon.

However, upon opening my eyes, I found myself bobbing over a tumultuous sea. Forked lightning bolts splintered the brooding sky, and thunder rumbled ominously as if delivering a foreboding message intended solely for me.

How utterly delightful.

Squinting against the stinging wind, I took stock of the shore. The waves knocked against my tentacles, but I plowed through the surging current. The source of this chaos had to be close.

And there he was, the spitting image of the god of storms himself. His burnished gold hair whipped against the fierce wind carrying sand all around him, his eyes pinched shut.

And although he appeared to be taking in long, measured breaths, the air crackled with his fury.

Interesting . He’d probably been out searching for her this entire time.

“Leander Asphaleius,” I called out, my voice bellowing across the frothing sea.

The cyclone swelled around him, and one of his eyes popped open, his gaze spearing me where I stood atop the waves.

Yes — see me and know I’m the source of all your torment.

“We meet again,” I continued, a smirk curling my lips as his shoulders squared in my direction. “You appear to have gained an inch or two since the last time I had the pleasure of basking in the presence of the great heir to the Atlantic.”

“So, you know who I am,” he growled, anger rippling through his voice like an electric surge. He was a feral creature, all right. Cloaked in sand and poised to rip me apart.

“And what name shall I pass on to your brethren,” he forced through increasingly erratic breaths, “when they come to find what little remains of your corpse, dark spawn?”

Ah —

My throat closed as the binding strings of the crown’s old command held tight.

“Do not waste time telling your name to others, puppet. Your identity before becoming my servant holds no significance.”

“Consider me a messenger,” I said smoothly, recovering with practiced ease.

Just as the tension thickened, a second figure appeared, running through the wall of sand with a hand braced over his face. “Leander! Laverne found a crab who…” It was easy to tell the exact moment recognition hit. Upon seeing me, his eyes bulged as though he were facing a demon, fear freezing him in place. “… You .”

Anticipation rose within me, and I felt my smirk stretch wider.

“Kai Corentine,” I mused. Things were unfolding even better than expected. “I didn’t come here to strike a deal with you, I’m afraid.”

Before I’d even finished, the Pacific mer’s face had drained to a sickly pallor.

Ah, yes —it seemed he’d gained some wisdom since our previous dealing.

The prince next to him took a protective step forward, wedging his body between us as if attempting to shield Kai from any harm I might inflict. Intriguing . The brotherly bond they shared was palpable. Unfortunately, his attempt at protection had come far too late.

Oh, I was enjoying this little reunion. Enjoying how their fear and anger mingled in the storm building around us. All the better to set the stage for what was to come.

All at once, the fear in Kai’s eyes ignited. “You!” he wailed, his voice rising above the rumbling thunder. He pushed past his golden shield, heading straight for me with no regard for the water, his entire body trembling with rage. “Tell me, was it you all along? You’re the one who took her?”

“The fuck are you doing?” The Atlantic prince seized Kai’s shoulder, hauling him backward before the waves could reach his feet.

“ Tsk ,” I scoffed, eyeing where the salt water swelled up the shore. “How disappointing. I would have loved to witness the curse with my own eyes.”

“You know this dark spawn?” Prince Leander’s voice was heavy with accusation, his eyes shifting between Kai and myself, torn between where to direct his anger.

I couldn’t help but offer him a sly smile, reveling in the chaos I’d wrought. “Claira came willingly, I assure you,” I called out over the golden prince’s growls, reminding Kai of how the stakes between us had changed.

The veins in Kai’s neck bulged as he bellowed back, “Claira… She would never!”

Perhaps things would have turned out quite differently had that been true.

“Naive as always, I see,” I said dryly.

Another figure emerged from the sandstorm, and my pulse surged with delight.

“Barren Arwa.” I snatched my trident up from where one of my tentacles held it under the waves, enjoying how the Indian Ocean prince’s gaze froze on my dark appendages. “I must say, you’re quite famous among my kind. The boy king, brought down by the might of a single tentacle.”

At last, the final piece of this puzzle was in place, and I couldn’t help but relish how seamlessly three mermen who hailed from separate oceans had come together.

The sky erupted, and a streak of lightning shot down at me with the force of a heaven-thrown spear. Sparks flew in every direction as I repelled it, tossing the blast aside with the end of my trident.

I grimaced, the muscles in my arm burning as I heaved in a breath. “For a prince marked with gold, you’re not very bright, are you?” The air was thick with the smell of hot metal, but I didn’t dare waste time inspecting how my weapon had fared.

The Atlantic prince possessed immense power, I’d give him that, but it was clear he had little control over it. “Do you really think,” I started, panting between words, “she’ll survive down there without me?”

“Barren!” Leander’s voice surged, a desperate plea disguised as a command. “Find out where she is.”

A prickling sensation built in my mind, and my attention cut over to the Indian Ocean’s fallen heir.

“Trying to pry into my thoughts, are we?” I forced a laugh, working the tightness out of my muscles by rotating my trident. “I’m afraid you might find my mind difficult to penetrate.”

“I don’t understand,” the Indian Ocean prince grunted out, his head shaking. “His mind… It’s like static.”

“Good to know those long nights of spellwork weren’t in vain,” I remarked, not bothering to mask my satisfaction. Perfecting that spell had drained a considerable amount of my magic. And while it had proven effective on Aracos, the Indian Ocean prince’s abilities were nothing short of extraordinary.

“No need to read my mind,” I continued. “Ask me whatever you wish, and I’ll tell you. Don’t believe sweet Claira would come to me willingly? Well, I can be quite persuasive. If you don’t believe me, ask Kai.”

“The fuck is he talking about, Kaius?” Prince Leander’s distrust was palpable, yet his attention had been locked on me since releasing the bolt, his gaze refusing to waver.

“I—” Kai started, but his voice trailed off.

It appeared he was unable to utter the words I sought. How disappointing.

With a theatrical sigh, I extracted a seashell from my collection. “I suppose I’ll have to enlighten you on the situation myself.”

Smoke billowed from my hand as I cracked the shell in my fist, releasing the magic stored within it, and the shock and anguish on their faces when Claira’s voice started playing in the air were a sight to behold.

“What would I say to them?”

With a grin, I mouthed along with the recording of my voice . “Do you wish they were here with you now instead of me?”

“No, I—I need time to figure out how to tell them.”

This was absolute perfection.

The air felt still and thick as her sweet voice lingered on the wind. Even the clouds seemed to momentarily cease their movement.

“Ah—I suppose you couldn’t hear the full effect,” I added, smirking down at my captive audience even as the waves pummeled, tossing me about. “Her voice… it calls to me so lovingly . I cannot wait to become more intimately acquainted. I think I’ll enjoy our time together immensely.”

Kai was the first to shatter the silence that followed, his voice leaden and desperate. “Leander—Barren. Don’t you dare listen to anything that demon says.” Then he turned to me, determination lighting his eyes. “You’re lying. You could never be one of Claira’s mates.”

“Oh?” I countered, thoroughly amused. “And what makes you so sure of that?”

“Because of what you are , dark spawn,” he declared, planting a foot deep into the sand. “Cold, unfeeling. Claira would never be drawn to a creature like you.”

“A creature like me…” My lips tightened over my teeth.

Perhaps this was the very reason behind my little captive’s trembling, her struggle to embrace her true nature. How infuriating .

“I suppose we’ll see about that,” I replied, not bothering to temper my spite. “Better yet, why not follow me down to the Undersea and ask her for yourself? Ah, yes—I suppose that would be a problem, given your current?—”

A deafening crack of thunder interrupted our exchange, and I found myself forcibly blocking another bolt of lightning.

“ Ha! ” With a snarl, I hurled the lightning bolt back into the dark sky. My patience was quickly waning. “How tireso—UGH.”

A second bolt darted down from the heavens, its path a chaotic zigzag that I hadn’t anticipated. The bolt bounded off the crest of a wave and found its mark. Intense white light blinded me as the energy of the strike blasted my shoulder with punishing force, and I bit down on the agony.

Up until this very moment, my meticulous plan had unfolded flawlessly.

Yet now, pain surged through me, nearly drowning out everything else. My tentacles writhed, every muscle contracting as my body overloaded. And my hearts—were they still beating?

The Atlantic prince lunged toward the water, but his figure blurred in my doubled vision even as his mouth moved in a maelstrom of curses. “ I fucking… rip… spawn! ”

Waiting around for the golden prince to hurl himself into the ocean in a fit of rage would serve no purpose.

With my objective achieved, it was time to retreat.

I pressed my eyes shut and searched for the power to vanish from their sight, then gasped down water the moment I reappeared at my desk.

The pain in my arm reached its peak, and I crumpled over my scrolls, wondering what it might feel like if one of my hearts had truly exploded.

Struck by lightning…

It shouldn’t have been such a surprise that the Atlantic prince was so adept at commanding the heavens. His every feature mirrored that of his forefather, Poseidon, the god of storms, not that the prince was aware of this kinship of his.

I attempted to speak, but my lungs shook. “ An…noying .” My arms, chest, and my entire body trembled uncontrollably. Bursts of white light continued to flash before my eyes, and a strange mix of bitterness and understanding welled within me, a sense that perhaps I was receiving no less than what I deserved.

My vision gradually cleared to the ominous black marks splintering down the side of my shoulder, mirroring the lightning bolt’s path. With an unsteady hand, I attempted to channel my magic into the wound to mend it, but the effort proved futile.

Ah, yes. This was what I deserved.

For now, I would have to settle with concealing the injury and hiding the evidence of what I’d done.

I lay the concealment spell over my skin then sank back down on my desk, not caring that my face pressed into a mound of scrolls.

No, things hadn’t gone as smoothly as I’d hoped. But it was finally done.

The princess’s lovers now believed that I’d poisoned her mind with my villainous ways.

Ha .

I had no doubt they would be exploiting every relic, every bit of magic their kind possessed, to find a way to reach her. To save her from me.

“Do not let the princess return to the merfolk.”

Oh, to see the vile queen’s face once Claira escaped this place.

If I couldn’t let her return to them, I would do everything in my power to get them to return to her, even if it meant playing the villain.

I was good at it, after all.

What was it the Pacific mer had called me… Cold and unfeeling?

How convenient it would be if that were true.

The agony lessened and gave way to numbness that spread through my shoulder, working its way down my chest and across my limbs.

My scared little captive… I could envision her now, cowering in the corner of her chamber.

Even if I handed her all the tools to escape this place herself, would she find the strength to use them?

Or would she end up like me, living a life of sacrifice and captivity. Would she allow herself to waste away for the gain of another as I’d done?

Either way, before the moon cycle was through, she would be far away from this place, far from the queen.

She’d be far from me .

If I had to break these bonds and rewrite every law of the ocean to make it so, I would do just that.

And then maybe, for once, I ? —

White overtook my vision, clouding the corners of my sight as the numbness spread. “ Tsk . How irritating,” I murmured, attempting to fight how heavy my eyelids had grown.

Rest was a luxury I couldn’t afford, but perhaps it was what I needed. The toils of the past few days had been relentless, after all, draining my magic reserves almost entirely.

In fact, I could only sense… ah, there it was—a faint flicker of magic. All the power I had left.

Yes, rest . That was what I needed.

With one final whisper, I let my eyes slide shut.