Page 6

Chapter six

T hessa’s lips burned from that kiss! Try as she might, she couldn’t banish thoughts of how she’d betrayed her people by succumbing to his charm… if even for an instant.

More than an instant—Oh! That—that devil! There was fire in his touch. She was part of the Sea Sovereignty. She had her family name to protect! She couldn’t go and have feelings for—for humans.

A school of fish scrambled out of the way to allow the princess through. She waved back at them, her heart thundering against her ribs as she raced through the frothy crystalline waters. The iridescent seaweed of her laced vest danced around her.

Her father was close to death. She should be there! What sort of daughter was she? Faithless, inconstant—to lose herself in the blue-eyed gaze of a human? That roguish way he watched her had made her breathless. What would’ve happened had he not been half-drowned? More than anything, she longed to run her hands through hair infinitely blacker than a storm.

No more!

Nephele had warned her to be careful when interfering in the wars of humans.

“Depths take me!” she muttered. And this man was the worst of them! A pirate! She could just hear her sisters’ tittering laughter.

Girl, that happens when a man flirts with a maid. He’d jumbled every sensible thought from her brain with his soft touch and strong hands. Really strong… and they were surprisingly gentle against her skin!

“Ah, Tides!” she groaned. Her sisters would never let her hear the end of this—or worse, they’d go tattling to Father. He was a human, after all! Her ooey-gooey memories faded as the blast of reality wiped the silly grin from her face. All union between their kind was destined for failure.

Just ask Aunt Undine… she’d dissolved into seafoam after her prince’s betrayal, after that heartbreaker had drained away her youth and devotion like water through a sieve.

Don’t fall in love with humans… so why wasn’t her heart listening to her? Silly heart!

Fine then! Thessa never had to see that swaggering troublemaker again! Her heart sank like an anchor at the thought. Well… perhaps she could spy a little… from a distance.

A shimmering rainbow of magic spun around her father’s palace, a masterpiece of polished coral and mother-of-pearl that sparkled with all the colors of the deep. Though today, the usual guards were absent from their posts, and the sweeping courtyards were eerily empty. The strange plague that had struck her father touched them all.

Her throat constricted as she passed through massive gates of intricate sea-glass mosaics. What if she was too late? Her father might’ve already drawn his last breath. Why had she been so foolish to intervene in the matters of humans? Their ships were always sinking or exploding; what was one more death?

Yet nothing could make her regret saving him .

“Nephele!” Her cry echoed through the silent halls, past swaying fronds of jewel-toned anemones that decorated the classical Greek columns. “Nerissa! Thalassa!” She called for each of her sisters as she swam faster through the haunting stillness. “Galene? Aktaia?”

No answer came.

Panic seized her now. “Where are you?”

“Thessa!” Nephele appeared suddenly, her hair floating around her like a dark cloud, her face tight with an older sister’s mixture of relief and reproach. “We’ve been waiting for you!” She grabbed Thessa’s arm.

Sudden reluctance filled her—seeing her father’s worsening condition for herself would make it all the more real, and still she allowed Nephele to lead her toward their father’s chambers—a room the mighty Poseidon rarely used since he hardly rested.

All feared him, all quaked in fear. And now? She was shocked at the sight of him lying weakly among pillows of softest sea-silk and blankets woven from multi-toned kelp, sheltered by a canopy of delicate coral lace. Such magnificent surroundings couldn’t disguise his weakness. He looked out of place there, more tired than she’d ever seen him, though his barrel chest and powerful shoulders still spoke of his legendary strength.

Thalassa, their gentle middle sister, carefully lifted their father’s crown—a masterwork of platinum and black pearls shot through with veins of ever-changing crystal. She tenderly placed the heavy adornment in his weathered hands, the same hands that had once gathered all his daughters into the security of his powerful hugs.

The great leader of the Sea Sovereignty had been brought low, and now his daughters must tend to him.

“Nephele,” Poseidon sought out his eldest daughter by his wife, Amphitrite. His voice carried echoes of its former thunder. “Take my trident, girl.” The legendary weapon gleamed with an inner fire; its prongs forged from deep-sea metals no human smiths had ever touched. The broken tip remained a testament to ancient battles—likely lost in some brave clash between merfolk and human.

Nephele approached, her cheeks pale in sorrow, accepting the trident as her shoulders bowed under the weight of both weapon and responsibility.

“You must be strong now, my children.”

Thessa could bear it no longer. “Father!” The cry tore from her throat. “Fight this! Please, fight this!” She rushed to him, brushing past her sisters’ warning hands to grasp his fingers, though she tempered her desperate grip at their urgent whispers to be careful.

“Ah, my Thessa,” her father’s eyes softened as they found her face. An emotional glitter of phosphorescence brightened his expression. “My youngest by Amphitrite. I had hoped to see you one last time.”

“No, not for the last time, father!” She shook her head, copper hair swirling through the water. “You cannot die! We must find a way to stop this!”

“My dear! I expect nothing less from your fighting spirit! The fire of your hair has run straight to your heart, and yet, not even you can stop the course of nature.”

But they could! There was a way! “I was told Scylla came!” Thessa blurted. Normally, she’d never dare whisper her name, but her desperation moved her.

Her father’s proud chin lowered. True fear flickered in his eyes at the mention of the Sea Witch. But why? He was never afraid. “I sent her away,” his softened tone still held a commanding edge.

“How could you, father?”

Her sisters gasped at her insolence at talking back.

Thessa didn’t care if she was ramming through their every custom like a whale trying to fit through a tiny porthole. She’d dance with the forbidden to save her father. “What could it hurt to use the Sea Witch’s help this one time?” Surely, they could find an agreement that wouldn’t harm their people.

Her father was already shaking his head, though the movement clearly drained him, making her heart constrict with guilt and fear. “Put that out of your mind, youngest.” His derisive snort at the thought of Scylla’s assistance emerged as a weak growl. “You think she offered her assistance out of compassion? Her visit was only a mockery on us. Her demands are tricks—she only came to steal what is not hers in our time of weakness. No, my dear Thessa, trust nothing she says. She’ll rise up against us after I fall. Use your fiery spirit to stop her instead of falling for her tricks!”

Wage war was all that they ever did—they were just as bad as the humans! “Father, her magic can make you better.”

“Her magic destroys everything in her wake.” He sank deeper into the cushions of woven sea-silk, his strength failing him.

Thessa tried to make him understand. “Not all magic destroys…” If he wouldn’t take Scylla’s help, then perhaps he’d take hers. Steadying her shoulders, she gathered the last of her courage. Some secrets could not be kept back when they could do such good. “My power can heal… let me use it on you, father.”

Anger blotched his cheeks like red coral, his weakness forgotten as he pushed up from his bed. “Never! Heed me in this!” The muscles in his face trembled with such terrible fury that would have sent any of his subjects fleeing through the currents—all but Thessa. “You will never use your powers on our people… or you are no daughter of mine. Do you hear?”

The words struck her like a physical blow, each one breaking off a piece of her heart.

Her father’s hand caught hers with desperate strength, and she understood that beneath his harsh words lay fear—fear of losing her, though she couldn’t fathom why. “You think Scylla was always this way?” His voice dropped low with the question, and still as powerful as the sea. “Magic warped her soul. The dark enchantments are seductive. They lure the users down troubling paths! She is to blame for my sister’s fall.”

Yes, but what had happened to Undine was more than a thousand years ago. Could they not learn to work together?

“She is a trickster!” her father’s voice rose. “And in return for her voice, Scylla gave my sister what? Legs? Every step Undine took was wracked in pain, like the jagged edge of shells in the soles of her feet. What a mockery! Not only did that witch turn my sister human, but she rejoiced at her fall! Encouraged Undine to fall in love with a—a human prince, knowing he was selfish and unfeeling, and that he’d never love her in return! My sister…” A spasm of pain contorted his face.

“Father!”

He couldn’t respond immediately, sinking back against the pillows. His grip on her hand never loosened. Thessa squeezed his fingers, desperate to hold him to this life.

Nephele cried out. Their other sisters rushed forward like a school of startled fish. “Please, let’s not speak of this anymore,” Nephele pleaded. “Father needs his strength.”

“I will speak!” Father glared through the pain, his warning focused entirely on his youngest. “Hear me, girl! Scylla stole what powers my sister had, so that in the end, Undine could not even save herself.” The years had been long, but the pain still carried in his voice like an ocean current. Poseidon might rule the seas with a terrible fist, but he loved his family with that same fierceness. “And like a fool, I tried to step in—I gave Undine a dagger to drive into her unfaithful suitor’s heart, but in the end, my sister could not find the strength to turn that blade on that—that enemy of our people …”

“Undine’s Blade,” Thessa whispered.

“It is crafted from the tip of my trident.” His voice was heavy with ancient grief.

Thessa’s gaze drifted to the broken prongs of his mighty weapon that Nephele now held in her delicate grip. All these years, she’d supposed the missing piece was lost in the scales of some legendary sea monster. Where was it now? The legends never revealed the blade’s final resting place.

“The curse of mermaid hair makes up the hilt—my own sisters lent their magic to the blade.” A groan escaped him. The tragedy from all those years past still cut as sharp as it had back then. “Undine could have ended her curse by killing that unworthy prince, returned to her true form and joined the Divine Sovereignty of the Seas where she belonged,” her father said, “but no, our sacrifice was in vain… and I will never see her again, not even after I leave this world.”

Undine’s spirit had been lost to the seafoam after she’d lost her bargain against Scylla. Her selfish prince never returned her love, and she’d died of a broken heart—truly a lost soul, scattered across the endless waves.

“Father, no one faults you for wanting to rescue your family from the… humans.” Thessa’s voice quavered. “Now I ask you to… take pity on me… I am as desperate as you were to save my family. I only wish to keep you alive.”

A trembling smile crossed his lips. “My dear. Even if you held all the power in your fingertips to heal, you could never bring back what is lost.” He drew her closer, and she let herself melt into the strength of his embrace. His heartbeat, though weaker now, still drummed its familiar rhythm beneath her hearing. He smoothed back her coppery hair. “You will only be safe when I am gone.”

What? The sorrow in her heart turned cold with confusion. Why? His stern expression made it clear that the conversation had reached its end, and she was to obey.

Phosphorescence stung her eyes. “I love you, father,” she whispered.

Nephele’s hand found hers, comforting and steadying her. “We will let you rest, Your Majesty. Come, Thessa.”

She barely registered that her sister had laid the trident next to their father and was guiding her away from him, so lost was she in his words, though when Thessa cast one final glance back, she noticed how still he lay. Would this be the last she saw of Father in this life?

They swam through corridors of polished nacre, past hanging gardens of jewel-toned anemones, until they reached Nephele’s chambers. Her sister’s rooms were a marvel of luxury, with shells of gold and pearl inlaid in intricate patterns across the walls.

“What did he mean, Nephele,” Thessa demanded, twisting through the room in agitation. “Why does Father say I will only be safe when he is gone?”

Nephele’s hands flew to her mouth. “No!” the word was muffled through her fingers. “You will never hear it from me!”

So, she knew! “You cannot keep this secret from me, sister! I will find out…from Scylla if I have to! I will swim over to the Sea Witch’s lair and demand answers.”

“No! You won’t venture one league near her!” Nephele sounded terrified.

“For Father, I would!”

Her sister’s composure shattered like a delicate shell. “Then you would break his heart! Have you no decency? After everything he’s done for you!”

“Nephele.” Thessa was at a loss. She settled against the soft moss of her bed. “Just tell me!”

Her sister sighed, throwing out her hands in surrender. “It’s just that Scylla is the trickster he says. When she came to offer her services to heal Father, she attempted a shameless bargain. Nerissa told me everything—how the Sea Witch came in all her terrible glory, with tentacles black as midnight and eyes that burned like lava. She was fearful, Thess, writhing and cackling like a mad creature, and you know what offer she tried to make? She’d heal Father by returning what was lost, but for a price that he refused to pay. He threw her out like she deserved!”

Confusion and curiosity warred within Thessa like opposing currents. “What was her price?”

The secret seemed to overwhelm Nephele, and she rushed forward to wrap her arms around her youngest sister. “ You! Thessa, she wants you.”