Page 16

Bree

T he days blurred together as I lived with and worked for the sea witch. Had I been here for a week? Two? More?

No matter the number, the longer I was here, the more I realized just how cruel and deranged the serpent woman was. I wasn’t sure if she’d always been this way, or only after her failed attempt at overthrowing my father’s throne all those years ago.

But one thing was certain—she was downright evil.

A coral’s sharp edge dug into my arm, and I winced as blood blossomed from the cut.

For the past few days, Calypso had me collecting a specific type of kelp growing near her home for one of her many spells.

I’d learned early on to stop asking about the ingredients or what the spells did, or about anything.

Asking through my confused facial expressions, of course, since I had no voice.

It was like trying to talk during a hurricane and expecting someone to hear me.

I’d gotten used to being ignored, or at least, I’d forced myself to.

The first days after losing my voice had felt like drowning in silence—constantly misunderstood, fighting to be seen without the most basic tool of communication.

Now, the silence was second nature. But even when I knew how to make the shapes with my face, the weight of my loss never fully left. No matter how much I adapted, the ache was always there, a reminder of how much she had taken from me and how much I’d taken for granted.

Her punishments for even minor infractions were swift and severe, and I had a multitude of bruised bones to prove it.

After years of training to fight and a month in the human ring, I could take a beating, but Calypso thrived on making me suffer.

And without my magic, healing took forever.

Being a non-Gifted human must really stink.

Reaching into the small bag I carried, I pulled out a strip of kelp and tied it around the cut to stop the blood flow. Attracting sharks—other than the witch’s ever-present sand sharks, that is—wasn’t on my to-do list.

I glanced at them warily, wishing she’d give them something else to do than guppysit me. It’s not like I could go far with our contract intact. Not without swift and painful consequences.

The sharks had done nothing to warrant my dislike, but their unnatural stillness gave me the creeps. Most sharks had to move to survive. Not these guys, which made them the perfect spies for an evil sea witch.

With a sigh, I returned to my task. Although time had lost all meaning in the oppressive darkness of Calypso’s lair, I was pretty sure it had been just over a week since I’d arrived. One week down, the rest of my life to go.

I often wondered whether I had made the right decision, or if I should have included Marissa in it, let her be a part of the choice. But what good came from wondering? I’d already sacrificed too much, beyond the point of return. I could mourn the life I’d lost, but nothing would bring it back.

So I pushed forward, day after day. I had no other choice.

Besides, I knew what Marissa would have said. Despite all her selfish tendencies, my little sister wouldn’t have wanted this for me. She wouldn’t have agreed to return home to our father either, not after living with freedom for so long.

But then what would we do? We had nowhere else to go.

Our talismans would have failed, and we would have had to start over—this time, back in the ocean.

I might have learned quite a bit about surviving since our first foray into a new world, but that didn’t mean I wanted to repeat the process in an unfamiliar underwater kingdom, constantly looking over our shoulders even more than we did already.

A slight disturbance in the water caught my attention. I looked up from my work and froze.

Three male sirens were headed my way, and they had definitely seen me. I might have welcomed their approach, hoping for a rescue, except one face was all too familiar, even from this distance.

It was Sidon, the siren Marissa and I had fled from when he showed up the night I fought Dominic. He was the right-hand siren of King Ateleíotes, who had once been my father’s worst enemy. He was also a brutal killer.

Before my heart reacted to the thought of Dominic, I spun around to dive into the relative safety of Calypso’s lair, which was protected by a labyrinth of tunnels. Except I swam straight into the witch herself.

Her upper lip pulled into a snarl, revealing her fangs. Her gaze dipped to the kelp I’d wrapped around the cut on my arm. "So clumsy for a princess."

With wide eyes, I shook my head and pointed at the approaching sirens. Then I gestured at her and me and mimed swimming away. I waved at her to follow me into her lair.

Why I was trying to help her, I had no idea.

Call it a bad habit. I only knew we were running out of time before Sidon arrived, and I didn’t want to risk breaking our contract by fleeing without her.

The magic binding me to her would work even if she wasn’t present, and the consequences of going too far would be fatal.

But instead of following me to safety, Calypso gripped my arm and held me in place. Her claws dug into my skin until I winced. "We greet our guests with respect, child. Especially such esteemed guests as these."

A bubble escaped my open mouth. I stared at her, hoping for more of an explanation, but her focus was solely on the approaching sirens.

I gulped down a wave of fear. If Calypso wasn’t afraid, then maybe she was more than capable of protecting us against three trained warriors. I had already underestimated her at least twice.

Unless she only planned on protecting herself, of course. Which was entirely plausible. Without my magic, I was nearly incapable of defending myself. Fists and fins could only do so much damage against trained guards.

The three males swam up to us. They wore whale-bone armor that marked their allegiance to King Ateleíotes, and all three had long, nearly white hair that was a common characteristic in their kingdom. Their tails and scales ranged in shades of orange and yellow.

While the two unfamiliar sirens shared a light blue eye color, Sidon’s were more of a light yellow like his tail and the scales running up his arms. A striking contrast to his darker bronze skin color.

Calypso spread her arms in a greeting that was as false as her generosity. "Ah, Sidon, how wonderful to see you again."

He nodded brusquely and glanced at me. "I see you’ve retrieved the princess. Well done." Despite the praise, his tone was flat and bored.

I drew my eyebrows together in confusion. What was he talking about, retrieving me? I came to the witch for help. It wasn’t like she had sent for me.

He gestured to one of the others, who carried a seaweed bag slung over his shoulder. The siren removed the bag and handed it to Calypso.

"As promised," Sidon said.

The witch peeked inside the bag. A wide grin crossed her face. "Perfect. Give Ateleíotes my regards. She’s all yours."

Wait, what?

Stunned, I did little more than float there as the two guards surged forward with a flip of their tails and grabbed my arms. Before I could process what was happening, they’d secured my wrists with thick sailing ropes.

I shook my head in disbelief and looked at Calypso for answers. I hadn’t thought she would get rid of me. She’d made it seem like I was too valuable.

Nothing but dark cruelty stared back at me as the witch smirked. "You truly think a talisman created by a witch as powerful as me would fail of its own accord? What a fool he raised. You should have listened to your father when he warned you away from me."

Oh…

Oh no .

Tears formed in my eyes as I realized how right she was. I was only valuable to her as a commodity, a trade for whatever they’d given her in that bag. I’d been such a fool and now I was paying a worse price than I’d ever thought possible.

It all made sense now. Calypso had retrieved me, just as Sidon said. It wasn’t my careless mistake. She had caused the talismans to fail somehow. Her magic was more powerful than I realized—far more powerful.

What an idiot I’d been. A stubborn, na?ve idiot who never asked for help before things took a turn for the worse. One who never seemed to learn. My shoulders slumped in defeat, mirroring the empty feeling in my chest.

Sidon’s gaze remained on Calypso.

The witch looked him up and down with disdain. "Well? What are you waiting for? Be gone."

"The shell."

She laughed, though it was a forced sound.

"Ah, of course. How silly of me to forget.

" She untied the shell containing my magic from her waist and handed it to Sidon, effectively transferring my ownership from one nightmare to another. "As long as the shell remains intact, she’s yours to control. Break it, and I can promise you’ll regret it. "

As Sidon turned away from her, Calypso caught my eye over his shoulder and winked. It took a moment for my brain to catch up with her words.

Had the witch just given me a clue to escape?

My gaze snapped to the shell. If that broke, I would get my magic back, and I would be free. I hadn’t signed any contract with King Ateleíotes. Maybe I could even take care of this problem before making it to the Thalasses kingdom.

Sidon nodded to his guards, who prodded me with their spears.

I struggled to free my arms, but they were bound tight within the ropes. Shame filled every fiber of my body, and I resigned myself to my fate. At least for now. I swam forward, following Sidon.

There was no point in trying to get away without breaking that shell. And without the use of my arms, I had no chance of getting my hands on it.

I glanced back at the witch. It was one thing to be a prisoner to Calypso—a psychotic sea serpent who had saved my sister and possibly even me—and quite another to end up captive to Ateleíotes, whose narcissistic and terrifying reputation was well known across the ocean kingdoms.

A decade ago, my father had promised my hand in marriage to Ateleíotes’s oldest son to solidify an alliance and end decades of hatred.

My disappearance had probably made things worse between the two kingdoms, but at least I hadn’t been subjected to a life of torture at the hands of the cruel prince.

But fate had turned out to be an even crueler mistress. I had known freedom for ten years, known and grown to appreciate what it meant to work hard for what you got. I had even known love, no matter how fleeting.

Swallowing down the thick lump in my throat, I held my head high.

I was determined not to wallow in my misery.

I had saved my sister and given her a life to do with as she pleased.

If I couldn’t free myself, then that would have to be enough.

Knowing she was safe and free would get me through the darkest of days.

I would hold on to that thought until the day I died, even if that day came far sooner than I ever expected.