Page 38 of The Nymph Prince

War.The dream I’d had the last night I’d been in the surface world re-entered my mind.

In it, I’d been in my chamber, observing the murky water outside the glass. Water that was usually blue and crystalline. A damaged helmet had drifted past the window. Then, the soldier had appeared, blood still pooling from his wounds as his lifeless eyes found me.

“Lorcan?”

“I can’t explain it, Father, but… I had a disturbing dream a few nights past. One of blood and death here in Avalontis.” The hairs on my nape stood on end. “I dismissed it as a nightmare, but now I’m not so sure.”

Father regarded me in silence, staring at me so intently that I feared his wrath. I hadn’t felt like I’d done anything wrong, but I braced myself for whatever followed.

“Was this dream the first of its kind?” he asked in a much softer tone than I’d anticipated.

“There’ve been no others.”

“Have any of your other dreams come to pass?”

I shook my head. His questions confused me. I wasn’t an oracle and had no powers other than my ability to influence people with my voice.

“Your mother had the gift of prophecy,” he confessed, shifting his gaze to his goblet. “And I’m now convinced you share that gift. Do you wish to hear a story?”

He very rarely spoke of my mother. So many times I’d asked about her, and he’d only given me vague answers.

I nodded.

“Time becomes of little consequence after hundreds of years,” he continued, still staring at the glass. “Men, women, I made lovers of them both. Countless lovers shared my bed but never my heart. Until I met my darling Annette. She made me want things I’d never before considered. Love and family.”

Father had been with the human woman, Annette, before he’d met my mother. There was a myth about thelost heart of Tritonthat told of him falling in love with a witch who tricked him, stole the magic conch around his neck that he used to control the sea, and abandoned him. Unable to use the conch, the witch had then cast it aside, and it’d been lost ever since.

The myth was wrong, of course, and the witch had never existed.

Instead it was Annette, a mere human who “stole” his heart and broke it when she died. It’d often angered me that Father spoke so freely of hisdarling Annette, but he was tight-lipped about my own mother.

“When Annette fell ill and died of her sickness, I thought it was a cruel twist of fate that I’d finally found true happiness only to have it yanked from me. Even gods fall victim to the meddling of the fates. When I heard of a nymph who held the gift of sight, I sought her out. Perhaps I had the intention to harm the nymph. Since I couldn’t punish the fates for my loss, I’d take my wrath to those who helped them weave their injustices.”

That’s when I saw it; a tenderness in his expression. Whatever he’d felt for Annette, he’d felt even more for my mother.

“Yet, when I laid eyes on Loriana, all the anger left me,” he said, his voice reflecting the tender look in his eyes. “I still remember the defiant way she’d turned her head when I entered her quarters, glaring at me with her green eyes. Her golden hair had been shorter than most maidens, not even reaching her neck. She was an oracle of the sea, yet she looked every bit a warrior as she’d stared down a god.” He chuckled, but with the humor came a note of sadness. “I’d loved Annette, but Loriana? She was my world. My reason for existing. I fell in love with her the day she held a blade to my neck.”

“Sounds romantic.”

“In my mind it was,” he responded with a grin. “The entire time her sword was at my throat, all I could imagine was grabbing her by the short strands of her hair, pulling her to me, and—”

“No need to continue that thought, Father,” I interjected and cringed.

“It took her a while to warm up to me, but once she did… there are no words to describe it. We married and I made her queen. For years, we ruled the seas together. That is, until she had a vision. Of you. She wanted us to build a life together, somewhere safe to raise a family, and so we did. It wasn’t until she was on her death bed that she confessed that she knew of her fate, even long before you grew in her belly. Gods, I was angry. Angry at her. Angry at every damned man and woman.”

Guilt swam through me. She’d fallen ill after giving birth to me. My life had brought her death. Such a cruel balance.

“You are so much like her: defiant, stubborn, and brave. The day she left this world, I knew I’d follow her, for I couldn’t accept an existence where she was no more. And then I heard you in your crib. You were only a few days old at the time, such a tiny thing.” His blue eyes softened. “You became my reason to live, Lorcan. I’m strict on you, but it’s only because I know you are capable of so much more.”

“Why did you have Malik raise me then?” I asked without thought.

My words visibly wounded my father. “As mighty as my love is for you, it’s not in my nature to stay in one place for long. I go where the tide takes me and always have. Malik was the best warrior I’d ever seen and the only male I trusted with my own life. He was there for me when Loriana passed, and I owe him a great debt for keeping me sane in my grieving. I knew he’d be the firm hand you needed as you grew.”

A silence passed over us, and I thought about how much Malik had really done for me. I needed to start treating him better and stop running away from my responsibilities.

“You need to prepare yourself for war, son,” Father stated, and I looked at him in awe. He rarely called me that. “The human king is up to something, and we need to stay vigilant. If you have any more of these visions, you come to me right away.”

“Yes, sir.”