Page 4 of Waves (Tangled Crowns #6)

Avia

T wo mountain peaks made of ebony stone loomed over us, looking as though they had been poured out like honey and then solidified.

There was something unearthly and deeply intimidating about the idea of liquid rock that made my stomach churn—made the environment seem hostile instead of welcoming.

Or maybe it was the lingering scent of sulfur in the air.

Around us, the current was colder. Denser. The blue deepened until it smudged into a navy-black abyss beneath our floating feet. We hovered above a cliff near the first peak. It seemed to extend downward endlessly, beyond my line of sight, and my muscles tensed.

“Are you alright?” Keelan asked, and I realized that my grip on his hand was bone-breakingly tight.

I loosened my fingers, cleared my throat, and apologized, “Sorry. This is one area where my sky breather upbringing hits hard. Right now, my body is very certain we’re going to fall.”

“Trust me, queenie. The only falling you’re going to do is for me,” he boasted with just the right amount of hubris to set me off.

Chuckling unwound the knots inside my belly and helped me move again as we swam slowly over the massive darkness, gazing down at it. “It’s almost like a starless bit of sky,” I murmured.

“Yes but do the dark bits of sky contain monsters?” he asked, drawing my attention back up.

“What?” My query was playful, certain this was another of Keelan’s games.

But he cocked a brow, and his voice was solemn as he explained, “Legend has it that twelve centuries ago, before the curse that befell the eight kingdoms and made women as rare as rubies, there was a dragon that lived in these waters. Tatzel.”

Just the word dragon sent my spine rigid, recalling the awful memories of being plucked from the ground in Evaness, certain I was about to be eaten.

The darkness below us morphed into something even more terrifying than a cliff. Imagination ran amuck and I swore I thought I saw glowing eyes peering up at us. My pulse blared inside my ears and drummed through my veins.

Avia, it’s just a damned legend.

I blinked and the eyes were gone.

Keelan continued on, “Tatzel plagued the land, attacking towns until the first king of Okeanos—yes, we had kings back in that day, very backwards society—killed it.”

Dead. It’s dead.

I walked my wild mind back from the scenarios I’d pictured and forced myself to take slow, even breaths. “Quite a legend. Glad dragons didn’t keep tormenting you here the way they did the land kingdoms who had the Fire Wars.”

“Agreed. My mother used to love that story though. Or maybe I did. I was a bit bloodthirsty as a kid.”

“No. You?” I teased.

“I used to get furious at the idea of anyone attacking the kingdom. Soldiering must have been in my blood,” he replied with a shrug.

“Must have,” I agreed, leaning closer to him in a half hug as we swam on.

Ahead, a castle tower appeared beyond the edge of the cliff, one that I didn’t recall from all the maps I’d studied with Sahar and the other Okeanos courtiers.

“What’s that? Did we swim all the way to another village?

” I didn’t see other buildings, but the gleaming white facade of the structure was gorgeous, something out of a dream.

“I don’t know. It looks new. Should we go make friends?” Keelan asked, though the question was rhetorical. The upbeat siren had already started off quickly in that direction before he even finished the question, pulling me once again.

Always one for adventure and of the mind that he had no enemies, only unmet friends…

I wished I had a little bit more of Keelan’s attitude.

Even if I didn’t, I could pretend for a little while.

Hopefully, the sea folk on this side of the forest didn’t hate me quite so much.

Hopefully, this remote castle was a refuge from all the political turmoil.

As we got closer, I realized that there was an iridescent sheen to the small palace. The white walls held casts of blue and pink and one lone tower rose up higher than the rest of the structure, sparkling.

“ Mother of pearl , that’s fancy.” Keelan gave a whistle.

I was about to agree when I noticed that the castle sat upon what looked like a bed of sea trash, discarded items creating ugly little hills around the structure. “That’s bizarre,” I commented, pointing.

He turned to look, and his brow furrowed. “Yeah, not exactly an ideal location.”

The guards closed in, and I realized one of them was Ugo. I’d been so distracted this morning that I hadn’t even recognized my personal guard. Giving the red-headed merman a nod of greeting, I gestured toward the palace.

“We’ll scout ahead,” he replied, not needing any further instruction.

“Thank you,” I responded.

They congregated and conferred before swimming ahead of us and then reporting back after barely any time at all.

“Abandoned,” Ugo stated. “Though it’s strange. The building itself looks brand new.”

Keelan and I exchanged glances. Who would build a castle and abandon their hard work?

“Do you think it’s safe to look around?” I asked.

“As long as we’re close,” the guard responded. “Let’s stay outside though. Haven’t had time to check out the innards or suss out booby traps.”

And so, my siren and I swam up to the open front door of the palace, peering in.

The interior was empty and undecorated. No furniture.

It didn’t even have sconces in the walls for torches.

Without lighting, only the windows provided streaks of light, and we proceeded from one to the next, peering in, looking for clues about the occupants. But there were none.

“These walls are unnaturally smooth. You can’t even see any seams,” Keelan murmured, running his hand over it. “Insane workmanship. It doesn’t make sense that someone built this and swam off.”

“Or they were killed before they moved in,” I responded, ice shards nicking my spine.

“Or that.” We shared a dark look.

Nothing about this place made sense. Who would have chosen this location in the first place?

Who’d want to live in the middle of this detritus field?

The rubbish around us wasn’t merely construction debris, it was a compilation of random items…

some possibly even dumped by land kingdoms into the sea.

“Majesty!” Paavo’s voice drifted to us from the side of the castle and my guard sounded concerned. “You might want to see this.”

Quickly, my entire retinue swam over to where Paavo hovered, just feet above a mound of trash. Beneath his flickering fin, however, was a wooden treasure chest bursting with sand dollars.

“What the…who would leave all that money?” Keelan’s voice faded as we all shared fret-filled glances, knowing that no one would willingly leave it behind.

Something very bad happened here.

Intuition prickled at the back of my mind, but I wasn’t quite certain what it was telling me.

“It’s like they magically up and disappeared,” Ugo muttered.

“Let’s get out of here,” Paavo’s eyes didn’t stop darting around. “Before we do the same.”

We quickly mounted up onto the sharks, the guards pairing up so that Keelan and I could take one.

It was a sign of how spooked we all were that not one person tried to take a sand dollar with them.

No. There was something wrong with that shell castle.

It almost felt cursed.

As if I needed one more problem to deal with in this damned kingdom.