Page 2 of Of Rime and Ruin (Sirens of Adria #2)

Before I hear her song, Winona’s magic wraps around me with a hard rope of water.

She severs my saddle tether and yanks me skyward, suspending me like a fish on a line.

My golden tail flops in the dry air until finally my bones rearrange and split into my two-legged form. Dangling naked for the city to see.

The air is warm and sticky, frizzing my hair in an instant. My scales lift at the rush of the sea breeze, nipples brushing the starfish that cover my breasts. The sun is brighter up here, unfiltered by seawater. I squint, adjusting to the abrupt change.

Winona tightens her magic around me and glares.

My sister is everything I’m not: tall, thin, and effortlessly graceful in her crisp morning robes. Our bronze skin and brown eyes match, but hers are sharper, somehow. While my dark curls dangle past my shapely ass, hers are slicked in a no-nonsense bun. There’s nothing soft about her.

And there’s nothing she loves more than taking time out of her royal duties to see to my embarrassment personally .

The subjects stare at me, and I roll my eyes; it’s nothing they haven’t seen before.

Still, their duties pause—nets half-folded, fish half-filleted, hair half-braided.

A basket of sweetnuts spills on the ground.

A guppy halts their game of hop-two, their lifted knee bent and mouth gaping wide.

Only the birds ignore me, chattering from the high branches of the palmwoods.

I search the crowd for my empathetic favorites: the middle-aged florist waves from the half-propped door to her shop. The baker salutes me with his baguette. In the city center, a blonde guppy swings from a tree and screams out her greeting.

Winona flexes her jaw. “Care to explain why I found Miss Elodie in your bed this morning? Giving her your nightclothes was a good touch. Brilliant. But don’t take that as permission to do this again, Nahlani. This is unacceptable. You’re not a way-maker. You’re a princess.”

I beam. “You think I’m brilliant?”

With a twitch of her mouth, she yanks me higher.

“How long before you realized this time?”

“It’s not funny.”

“Five minutes? Did you recount the whole to-do list or just the first twenty items?”

Through the glistening tide, I glimpse Keen barely keeping his laughter to himself.

“I’m serious, Nahlani Mahelona. This ends today.”

My full name. Nice.

Her face is stern. I’ve found the line, and if I push any more, the consequences won’t be pretty. Gone are the days of our guppyhood, when harmless jokes flowed both ways.

I dip my head. Her magic tugs, and she plops me down with a splash. The shell is rough beneath my bare skin, hot and half-baked in the morning sun.

I straighten, wringing my hair as she hands me a robe, and I slip my arms through the breezy sleeves.

“You’re out of control,” she hisses under her breath. A small crack in her armor. “Pull yourself together.”

Shadows skitter across her face for a moment, and I can’t tell if she’s talking to me or herself this time.

She clears her throat and pulls a stone tablet from her robe; its surface engraved with the Coral Kingdom’s signet.

Wordlessly, she hands it to me. I touch the stone, activating its stored magic to reveal the message it carries.

An image plays in my mind.

The Queen of Coral greets me with a flashing smile, spreading her hands in invitation.

“Princess Nahlani of the Brine. To unite our great kingdoms, I request you consider my son, Soren, Crown Prince of Coral, for your hand in royal marriage.”

There’s a brief image of the prince himself. Muscular, with bronze skin. Dark hair braided down his back. A perfect cocky smile.

What’s left of my breakfast threatens to exit the way it came in. I sever the tablet’s spell and extend it for my sister to take.

“Keep it.” Winona threads her fingers, refusing the stone. It hangs between us, and my arm grows heavy with its weight. “We make for Coral tomorrow.”

She bends to knock on Ramona’s shell. Keen’s head lifts from the water, and he touches his gills in a sign of respect, like he wasn’t just eavesdropping.

“Steer her toward Coral, Master Keen. We’ll submerge in the morning. Her Highness has a wedding to attend.”

My stomach rolls. Bile rises, and I taste its acid in my mouth. I take a dizzy step, as if I might dive into the saddle and turn Ramona off her course.

At Keen’s command, Ramona tilts southwest. On her back, the city bustles with action, preparing to submerge.

The captain shouts orders. Some brace the palmwoods while others move loose items inside their abodes.

Guppies weave around the trees, squealing in their giddy games as their feet stir the dust. It’s been a few moon cycles since we last submerged.

The air crackles with excitement. Already, I can hear the whispers: Princess Nahlani’s getting married!

Blood roars in my ears as my heart pumps frantically, threatening to pop. There are worse ways to go than an exploding heart. I’d get out of this whole ordeal, and Winona would be rid of me for good. Win-win. My knees knock together as I wobble on my feet.

My sister steadies my elbow and gives me a tight smile. She tucks a stray lock of wet hair behind my ear. “This is our destiny. You and me, Queens of Adria. We’re going to make a difference, Nahla.”

I find the horizon, focusing away from her face as I inhale the salty air. The ocean stretches in every direction, the only constant greater than Ramona herself.

Could I live a land-bound existence, rooted in the shallows? All for her vision of our royal destiny?

“Come,” Winona says. She smiles, making it up to me with forced kindness. “Let’s ask the chef to make us some sweetnut cakes to celebrate. What do you think?”

I swallow against the nausea, pushing it deep into my belly. The message stone quivers in my hands. If I dropped it into the sea, would I still have to marry the land-dweller? Or would Winona send me diving after it?

I check her expression. That smile is already fading as the disappointment spreads.

Shit. My entire life, I’ve been her greatest letdown.

And it’s not just Winona. It’s Mother and Father, too. My entire family is counting on me to grow up and play my part. To release my grip on this silly dream of being useful .

No more pretending my future awaits beneath the waves. I cannot disappoint them again, not with something this important.

If I marry the land-dweller, will my sister finally be pleased?

She’s frowning now, watching with a weariness all too familiar to me. I tuck the stone into the pocket of my robe.

I grimace, nod, and then I lie. “Win, I’d love some cake.”