Page 13

L ukas didn’t speak to me at dinner. Nor did he speak to me on the journey back to my bedchamber, choosing to leave me at my door before marching back down the hallway without saying goodbye.

It was only as I was drifting off to sleep in my grand shell bed that I felt his presence again. Citrus and hints of salted caramel wafted past my nose while two strong arms pulled back into a warm chest. Letting my eyes flutter shut, I relaxed in his hold. Only to be woken up again what felt like five minutes later by a rough hand shaking my shoulder.

“Naria, wake up,” a male voice grumbled.

I winced as the harsh morning sun hit my eyes. Dressed in a loose cotton shirt, Lukas sat up propped on his elbows beside me, his wavy hair still mussed from sleep. Judging by the dark rings under his eyes, I clearly wasn’t the only one who could do with a few more hours in bed.

“What time is it?” I rasped. “I thought today was supposed to be another rest day.”

Lukas looked unimpressed. “I need to show you something.”

“Right now?” With a groan, I rolled over onto my side. “Ask me again in a few hours.”

But clearly he was in no mood to wait. Flopping me onto my back, he climbed over my body to leave the bed.

“Get dressed.” He swiped up a clean set of clothes from the back of a chair. “And wear something easy to take off again.”

My eyebrows shot up. Cheeks turning pink, I opened my mouth to protest, but before I could ask him what exactly he had planned for us, he marched out of my room.

Less than an hour later, his hand was tight around mine as he whisked me through the palace. My pale-blue gown with simple tie fastenings swung around my calves, and around my shoulders, my blonde curls hung loosely. Lukas was dressed just as casually, in a cream shirt and dark breeches, with no familiar golden crown upon his head.

If Raena were here, she’d throw a fit at how plain we both looked. But considering that dawn was just peeking over the sea outside, I doubted we’d need to worry about her judging our clothing any time soon.

Lukas didn’t slow down once we reached the palace grounds. Instead, he veered off through some palm trees and took a steep path down to the beach.

“Where are we going?” I asked, out of breath.

He didn’t stop to answer. “Just trust me,” he replied over his shoulder. Although I was finding it harder and harder to do so the more we ventured away from the sand-coloured palace.

Eventually he slowed his steps to dip between a gap in the cliff face. I fumbled around behind him while he kept dragging me along. The cave walkway was narrow and winding, but after a few minutes of darkness, it opened into a vast, sunlit chamber.

A gasp spilled from my lips. Morning sun poured in from the branch-covered crater above, casting dazzling patterns on the stone floors and onto a rock pool in the centre of the cave. The pool was no bigger than a fish pond, but the light reflecting off the water gave the chamber a gentle blue glow.

“It’s so beautiful,” I breathed, letting go of his hand to step forward. “What is this place?”

Lukas drew closer to the pool, his footsteps echoing through the chamber. “It’s some kind of old merfolk hideaway,” he explained, lowering himself to the edge of the pool. “When I was a child, I’d sometimes stop outside my mother’s bedchamber and listen to her talking to the servants. She’d tell them all manner of stories – most of them nonsensical. But one of them stuck with me.”

Dipping his hand into the blue water, he spoke in a low tone. “She’d tell stories of an underwater cave, hidden away by corals and guarded by dolphins with enchanted bridles, but there was an entrance to it above ground, along the beaches of Ryntook, if you knew where to look.” Sadness coated his voice before he cleared his throat. “Of course, I always thought it was just a story… Dolphins with enchanted bridles?” He shook his head. “But,” he swallowed, “after certain… events took place, I’ve started to wonder just how many of her stories were actually true.”

Rising to his feet, he turned to me. “And so yesterday when I woke before the sun, I took a walk along this beach to clear my head and I found this.” He pointed to the rock pool, the blue glow reflecting on his sleeves. “The hidden underwater cave from my mother’s stories and the perfect place for us to talk.”

“Talk?” My eyebrows flew up.

“Yes. Talk,” he shot back. “Because there are things you haven’t told me, Naria.” His voice deepened. “About him .”

A swallow lodged in my throat.

“And if it takes me dragging you into a merfolk cave, somewhere hidden well enough that even he would never find us there, just so you can tell me just what’s going on… then that’s where we’ll go.” Reaching for the hem of his shirt, he lifted it over his head and tossed it aside.

My breath swept away like a whirlwind.

“But we can’t talk underwater,” I argued, trying to look anywhere other than the slowly undressing man in front of me.

“Do you trust me?” he asked.

A clunk sounded as his belt hit the floor, soon followed by his boots and breeches.

“Yes,” I rasped.

“Then take off your gown and join me in the water.”

My gaze lifted just in time to catch his toned legs as he lowered himself into the pool. Short briefs covered his middle, giving him an ounce of modesty, but still, my throat dried immediately at the sight of his exposed bronze skin. And Ancients, there was a lot of it.

“Naria?” he prompted.

Flinching, I glanced away. “Sorry,” I squeaked, focusing instead on my fingers while they loosened the bodice of my gown. But I didn’t miss his smirk as his torso joined his legs in the water.

Moments later, I stood cowering on the first step into the pool. Water lapped around my bare ankles while the rest of me tried not to focus on how far down the sand lining the bottom was. There was no way either of us would be able to stand and still breath. It was about as deep as my tower was tall back home.

Although that didn’t seem to be a problem for Lukas, whose broad shoulders bobbed confidently in the water.

“This way.” He beckoned me further into the pool.

Reluctantly, I took another step. The blue water rose to my thighs and soaked the hem of my chemise enough to make me shudder. My lips parted again to argue, but then before I could speak, I squealed as my weight was pulled out from underneath me and I was being held just by two arms.

“It’s alright,” Lukas soothed while I splashed about.

“But it’s too deep!” I panicked. “I can’t swim!”

“You need to trust me, Naria.” He drew closer, pressing his forehead to mine. “Close your eyes and trust me.”

My heart beat like raindrops hitting the sea. It took everything within me to not reach back for the pool’s edge. Eventually, I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to slow my rapid breathing to match his.

“Trust me, forest princess,” he murmured, before he forced me below the surface.

Water rushed into my ears and nose. A scream battled against my closed lips, making my whole body shake. With my eyes shut, I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel bubbles fizzing on my skin along with two hands forcing my body down. Down. Down.

Panic burned in my chest. What was he doing?

I began to wrestle out of his hold, until his grip on my wrists tightened, and I felt soft lips pressing against mine for just a few heartbeats. Was he kissing me?

“Open your eyes, Naria.” His voice swirled through the water.

Shaking my head furiously, I tried to swim up.

“Open your eyes. Trust me.” Somehow Lukas’s voice was clearer now and the water didn’t feel so foreign against my skin, nor did the wet sand beneath my toes.

Slowly, I opened my eyes. Through a fading curtain of bubbles, I gasped to see Lukas standing before me, the water between us as clear as the air above. My hand smacked over my mouth the moment I realised I was breathing, too.

I’d never known anything like it. Our hair and the little clothing we wore still floated around us, as if we were underwater, but everything else was just like being on land. Aside, of course, from vibrant tropical fish and the swaying seaweed, all enclosed within the circular walls of the vast underwater cave.

Lifting my feet, I gasped to find I could still float like in water. Though I only drifted for a few seconds before Lukas pulled me back down to the sand with a scowl.

“I brought you here to talk,” he said plainly.

“I’m sorry, you expect me to be the one to talk right now?” My eyes drank in the cave, twisting my body as I spun around. Colourful fish darted around coral trees, while starfish and other sea creatures I couldn’t even name covered the boulders on the ground. This was like an entirely new world. A hidden blue world, and somehow, I was standing – no, floating – in the middle of it.

“This way.” Lukas grabbed my hand and started towards a gap in the coral trees.

When we arrived at a small clearing in the centre of the cavern, he motioned towards a flat rock.“Sit.”

“Really?” I laughed, but he just motioned to the rock again.

“I didn’t bring you here to talk about me, now sit. Please .” The desperation in his tone was enough for me to hold back the thousand questions on my tongue. At least for now.

Sighing, I paddled over to the rock and sat down. The moment Lukas joined me, he reached for my arm.

“Tell me about this.” His fingers circled my wrist and tapped the crystals.

A bolt of cold fear shot through me as my reply came almost instinctively. “I can’t.”

“But you can.” His grip around my wrist tightened. “Whatever hold the faery prince has on you, you’re safe here. He wouldn’t dare use his magic to conjure himself into this cave. We’re too far below the surface.”

“I’m not afraid of him.” I gritted my teeth. I was afraid, but I also was not about to give Lukas any excuse to march to his death. Arenn had told me before that breaking a faery bond was almost impossible, and that anyone who was willing to try had to love me more than the strength of our bond or they’d die trying…

I couldn’t let him risk his life.

“The crystals mean nothing,” I forced out. “Just a silly tradition from our engagement. Which, might I add, I never intend to go through with. He practically tricked me into the whole thing. There’s nothing between Arenn and I.” But somehow now even saying those words felt wrong. I held back a wince as the crystals throbbed.

“You’re lying to me.” Lukas scowled. “He says he can feel you. He says he felt you dying, Naria. How can there be nothing between you, nothing behind this,” he held up my arm again as the crystals glinted in the cave’s golden light, “if the man travelled across the entire realm intending on rescuing you? How did he know?” He dropped my wrist as my heart sank with it.

“I…” My lower lip trembled. I couldn’t tell him, but telling him a dozen lies seemed just as cruel.

“And your nightmares, Naria,” he continued, gaze darkening. “That one back in the palace had you bleeding. That was him, wasn’t it?” His voice turned murderous. “What did he do to you? Tell me so I can help. Please .”

“There’s no way for you to fix it. It cannot be undone,” I insisted.

“I’ll find a way.” Lukas shook his head, drawing closer. “Just tell me what happened. Everything.”

The words felt so heavy on the tip of my tongue, and I so desperately wanted to spill them. But then I glanced up and met his swirling grey eyes – the colour somehow still so vibrant in an ocean full of life.

A sob caught in my throat. “If I tell you, you must promise to never try and undo it.”

“Why would you—”

“Just promise me!”

Lukas blinked a few times before offering a weak, “I promise.”

“Swear on my parents’ graves.”

“Naria…”

“Swear on them!” My shouts sent all the fish retreating to their corals while Lukas just watched me.

“I swear on the late King Benedict and Queen Elowen,” he ground out eventually.

A relieved cry slipped by my lips. After a few deep breaths, my shoulders drooped.

“It’s some kind of faery bond,” I explained. “It happened when I agreed to marry him.” Holding out my wrist, my fingers brushed over the crystals. “I don’t know exactly how it works, but he can enter my dreams and I can enter his. Sometimes I can feel him too – if he’s close by. It feels… warm .” My stomach churned at the memory.

While I spoke, Lukas just stared at the crystals, as if just glaring at them hard enough would make them disappear.

“I can’t feel his emotions though, so the bond must be stronger for him,” I admitted.

“Hardly a surprise,” Lukas scoffed, folding his arms. “The man’s sick.” He frowned. “And given how obsessed he is, he’s a danger to you. How could you not tell me this sooner?”

I shook my head. “I wanted to, but…” My voice faltered while Lukas’s grew more powerful.

“Do you have feelings for him?”

“No.”

“Then why hide this, Naria?” He threw his hands down. “You cannot keep secrets like this from me. I’m to be your husband!”

I choked out a laugh, loud enough to send any fish brave enough to emerge darting back into their corals. “You want to talk about secrets?” I yelled. “Then tell me about all this.” I waved my arms through the clear water. “We are sitting fifty feet down in an ocean cave and we can breathe! How did you know this would work? And what are you? Because normal people, even kings, can’t force someone to have a conversation with them underwater.”

Lukas’s jaw tightened. “I’m nothing special.”

“Your mother was merfolk.”

“Do not speak of her,” he shot back. “I did not bring you here to talk about my mother. I brought you here to talk about this.” With a snarl, he snatched up my wrist, holding out the crystals. “So unless you have more secrets you wish to share with me, let’s discuss how exactly we’re going to make this faery prince leave you alone before I murder him myself.”

A breath caught in my throat. Lips parting, I tried to speak, but then something else made me pause.

“What is that?” My gaze caught on a clump of tall seaweed, parting unnaturally.

“Probably just a fish,” Lukas huffed.

A dark mass forced its way closer through the seaweed. After a few moments, a flash of red shot through the reeds followed by a flicker of blue.

“That’s a big fish,” I breathed, edging closer to Lukas.

There was a brief silence. Both of us stared expectantly at the swaying leaves until after a few heartbeats, a cloud of crimson hair emerged, followed by a tanned familiar face.

My heart stilled. It was the mermaid from my first night here…

“Well, this is a lovely surprise!” she giggled. Then, she pushed out from behind the seaweed, a curved dagger glinting in her hands.