Page 6 of Drown Me Gently (Flipped Fairytales)

Auren lasted a week.

A week of torture, caged in palace walls. Surrounded by polished lies and thinly veiled deceptions. The only thing that kept him sane was Elias’s silver silk, twisted into a braid down the side of his hair.

He wore it every day.

From the moment it touched his hands, Auren hadn’t been able to let it go.

The scarf was soft as breath, the scent of humans, of Elias, still clinging in its fibers.

Auren twined it into his hair with careful fingers.

A token. A symbol. Something he could press between his fingertips when the world grew too heavy.

And he did. Often.

When the throne room felt too suffocating, when the elders’ voices buzzed in his skull like biting sea gnats, he found himself reaching up, fingertips brushing that silken thread like it could free him.

He let himself daydream.

About the human.

About the way Elias had looked at him with wonder. Not fear or violence, as his mother and Ulric would have him believe. But something akin to worship. Like Auren was something special. Not a prince, not a pawn, not an heir to anything but the moment they’d shared on that ship’s deck.

It had only been seconds. But Poseidon, it had been enough to spark something inside him that Auren hadn’t known was missing.

Elias’s eyes saw through the glamour of court titles and duty-bound obligations and saw him.

And it made Auren feel… dangerous things. Hopeful things.

He’d never felt that with any Mer.

His siblings had all taken mates by his age, had built lives, and formed families. Auren had been propositioned more times than he could count. By noble Mermaids, bold warriors, even one of his sister’s old flames, who claimed they could make the palace less boring together.

But none of them ever stirred anything inside Auren. None of them made him feel like the world paused just to make space for his heart.

He’d started to lose hope that such a connection would ever find him. Started to think maybe those feelings would never come. Maybe his bloodline made him too different, too untouchable. Or maybe he was broken in some irreparable way.

Then Elias had looked at him like that .

And suddenly, Auren wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

Not his duty.

Not his future.

Not the promises he’d been born into.

Only the silver scarf in his hair, and the memory of sky-colored eyes that made him feel completely seen.

But seven days of court depravity were enough. He couldn’t do it anymore.

He slipped past the guard under the cover of night, heart pounding with every swish of his tail. The city wall loomed, and Auren could practically feel the cooler waters outside its border. Cool and quiet. The kind of quiet Auren craved.

Another day of court nonsense still clawed at the back of his skull. Hollow words and passive threats. Future obligations and necessary protections.

As if all of it wasn’t a noose tightening around Auren’s throat.

The idea of being tethered to the depths, of being cut off from the surface forever… his chest went tight just thinking about it. He needed open water. He needed freedom. He needed to leave.

And he was nearly to the wall when a familiar pressure rolled through the current.

“I was wondering how long you’d last,” came the low rumble of Ulric’s voice behind him.

Auren cursed under his breath and spun in the water. “I’m not going to the surface.”

“Then why sneak out under the cover of darkness?” Ulric asked as he drifted over. “Why slip your guards? Again ?”

Auren growled. “Because I needed to get out. I can’t—” He faltered, his chest tightening again. Gills refusing to work.

“Can’t what? Bear the responsibility?”

“No, I?—”

“Can’t handle the task of scribing a few meetings? Honestly, Auren, it’s like you’re not even trying?—”

“I can’t breathe in there!” Auren shouted, his voice echoing through the water.

Something in Ulric’s expression shifted, just slightly. The stern crease between his brows eased.

“I don’t have the strength for a lecture,” Auren muttered, and hated the way his eyes stung. “Drag me back if you want. I’m not in the mood to fight.”

Ulric was silent for a long moment. Then, unexpectedly, he said, “Go where you need to go.”

“You’re not going to take me back?”

Auren watched as Ulric wrestled with his better judgment and forced the words out through clenched, shark-sharp teeth.

“If you need space, you need space. Just tell me where you’re going and when you’ll be back.”

Auren blinked, thrown. His shoulders eased a fraction. “There’s a bioluminescent storm over the western reef tonight,” he said quietly. “I’ve missed it three years in a row. That’s where I was going.”

Ulric hesitated so long that Auren assumed the Kraken was about to object. About to tell him that it was too close to the surface. But instead, he said the last thing Auren ever expected to hear.

“Can I join you?”

The words rippled through the water like a current heading the wrong way. Auren blinked stupidly at him, unsure he’d heard right.

Auren’s first instinct was to dismiss it as another way for Ulric to play guard and protect Poseidon’s heir, as always.

But… Ulric had asked. Not ordered. Asked.

He’d given Auren the option to say no. And that—that wasn’t something the Court Sorcerer ever did.

This didn’t feel like an obligation. It felt more personal.

Something warm stirred in Auren’s chest. He swallowed and gave a single, careful nod, brushing the feeling away before it could rise too far.

“Alright,” Auren said. “But don’t slow me down.”

They swam, slipping past guard routes and into the older ring of stone fortifications. Auren moved toward his usual escape route, already dreading the scrape of stone against his ribs.

“I don’t think you’ll fit through this one,” Auren muttered, preparing to wedge himself through the crack.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Ulric replied.

He placed a single suctioned appendage on the stone beside Auren’s usual exit and pressed inward. The rock gave with a creak, revealing a narrow but smooth archway. A hidden passage.

Auren blinked. “What—wait, this was here the whole time?”

“It’s an old courier exit. Magically sealed, but I keep the enchantment on it fresh.”

Auren’s mouth dropped open. “You’ve been watching me smash myself through coral for years … and this was here the whole time?”

Ulric’s smirk was unrepentant. “A small justice I allow myself.”

“You’re an ass,” Auren muttered—but he was grinning as he said it.

They slipped into the passage lit by trapped flame-bubbles pulsing blue. When they emerged on the other side, Auren moved forward, just as a shadow passed overhead.

An Orca.

One of the Deepguard’s long-ranged patrol beasts. They guarded the city even without Merfolk companions. The creature spotted them instantly. It turned, mouth open, ready to unleash a shrieking alert.

Before it could, Ulric surged forward, faster than Auren expected.

A single hand extended, palm open. The tattoos on his fingers lit like brands, bright blue magic flaring to his elbow. The orca shuddered, gaze going glassy. Then it turned away and continued on its patrol at a languid pace, seemingly without a care in the world.

Auren stared, mouth slightly open.

“If you weren’t the very reason I have to sneak out,” Auren said, “I’d definitely bring you along more often.”

Ulric raised a brow. “And here I thought you snuck out just to avoid my company.”

Auren grinned. “That too.”

He brushed past him in a flurry of bubbles, a grin curling at the corner of his mouth. Ulric followed, then said, “Oh, and uh— don’t tell your mother.”

Auren couldn’t help it. He laughed.

The reef shimmered, the bloom casting everything in ghostlight. Cool blues and glimmering greens trailed like smoke through the water. A colony of sea lions joined the natural wonder. Their slender bodies weaving in and out of the kelp fronds, trailing whisps of blue bioluminescence.

Auren swam and spun with them, knocking aside stalks of kelp, creating bursts of light.

The glowing algae clung to his skin and tail like stardust. He knew his hair was likewise coated in dots of luminescence.

Behind him, Ulric moved slower, always with control and purpose, never abandon.

Auren grinned as he glanced over his shoulder.

“Don’t strain yourself, old man.”

Ulric’s eyes snapped to him. “What did you just say?”

“I said, try to keep up without throwing out your back,” Auren called, laughing as he used his tail to flick a whisp of blue light into Ulric’s face.

The Kraken moved. A tentacle snapped forward and curled tight around the joint of his tail fin, yanking hard.

Auren yelped as he was dragged backward through the water, limbs flailing for balance.

Another tentacle caught him mid-waist, spinning him like a hooked fish.

He twisted, trying to right himself—but Ulric darted forward, his human half now fully engaged.

Their chests collided, and Auren found himself pressed up against hard muscle and cool, ink-marked skin.

Their hands caught mid-strike, forearms straining as each pushed against the other in a sudden test of strength.

Ulric’s grip was iron. His arms barely budged, while Auren’s muscles flexed and corded in resistance, trying to gain leverage.

The heat of it surprised him—not just the friction, but the closeness. The press of their bodies. The sheer, solid presence of Ulric in front of him. Tattoos flashing along Ulric’s arms, pulsing with power beneath Auren’s fingers.

“Who’s old now, you little shit?” Ulric barked, laughter curling in his voice.

They wrestled—if it could even be called that. Auren kicked and shoved, his arms braced against Ulric’s shoulders, his palms digging into solid muscle. But Ulric didn’t budge. Not really.