Page 55 of Sea of Evil and Desire (The Deep Saga #1)

53

Finn

I should kill my father. I let my webbed fingers unfurl, molding to the curve of his throat.

I should kill him for everything he’s done to Morgana . . . to me. But I can’t. He’s all I have left. I clenched my fingers into a fist, pulling it tight against my chest.

I would tear out enemies’ throats for Morgana with my teeth, feasting on their flesh. I would break the world apart if she asked and I’d kill any man who made her shed tears. But not him—he’s the one man who holds me in chains.

My father’s long dark hair floated in the swell, and weary lines ran beneath his closed eyes. He seemed so weak, so peaceful. It would have been too easy to run my sword through his throat, but that would be a cowardly move and no way to ascend to the throne. He had stripped me of my choices and shaped me into a weapon, but even now, with every reason to strike him down, I couldn’t. Because who was I without him?

I could hate him. I should hate him. But hatred was too clean, too simple. What I felt was a tangled mess.

My father would be angry, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. Dealing with this situation would require a performance. Fortunately, I’d spent a lifetime mastering the art of concealment.

I tore my gaze from his lifeless form and drifted into the dark hallway that led from the war room, breathing a sigh of relief. At least Morgana had left our castle unharmed. Morgana . Her name was like wine to the mind. I could get drunk from whispering it to myself.

I would tear through the tides for this girl, defy the currents, and battle the deep itself if it meant keeping her safe, and if it came to it, I would end my father’s life.

She was not a girl you loved gently. She was the kind you loved with your whole being—or not at all.

Yet everything between us felt so precarious. Would she still love me if she knew the real me? If she knew all of the things I’d done?

No, she could never find out. Even if I lost her now, she’d haunt me forever, just as the tide lapped persistently at the shore.

“Aigéan!” My father’s roar crashed through the palace like a thunderclap.

A half-human shifter had bested the mad king. I gave a low chuckle.