Page 43 of A Sea So Cruel
When Kaid reached down to his fin, his right arm snagged backward and he saw the black cuff. The thick bracelet around his wrist was connected to a chain bolted to the wall near his headboard. However, it wasn’t the shackles that caught the majority of his attention, but the tattoo on his hand. A long staff extended from the center of his wrist up onto the back of his hand, then forked into three prongs that spread up his three middle fingers. A trident.
Kaid didn’t know where he was, but he knew he needed to get out of here. His head was pounding, and he remembered Maren’s shriek on the beach. She had known what he was, so how had he not ever figured it out?
He dug through his memory, thinking back on the times his father had warned him to never touch the water. Had Duke Aerik known that his son was some sort of merperson? And why had he kept it a secret if he had known?
He was underwater, breathing in liquid instead of air. He had a fin instead of legs. He had a tattoo on his hand that had not been there before his transformation—that he had only seen in dreams, and maybe once, a very long time ago, when he reached for the sea. Now that he was thinking about it, his torso, arms, and fingers certainly seemed longer than he remembered.
There was a knock on the door and Kaid stilled, not daring to respond.
When the stone hatch crept open, a red-haired being was observing him.
Maren watched from the doorway, or what Kaid believed was Maren. She still had the same copper hair, the same brown eyes and freckles. But her ears were long and pointed, her cheekbones were sharp and pronounced, and her teeth were that same terrifying shape that he remembered her mother’s being.
She smiled wryly and entered the room, her burgundy eel fin pushing her through the water, keeping her hovering a few inches from the stone floor. The silver foil wrap she wore on her torso accentuated her blue-tinted finfolk skin. At least whatever Kaid was, he had a human skin tone still.
Maren took up a seat at the vanity near the bed and drummed her long, sharp nails on the mirrored glass surface as she stared at him. “Did you sleep well?” Her tone was relaxed, almost bored.
Kaid didn’t want to admit that the strange sponge he slept on was actually quite comfortable. He didn’t want to admit anything—he simply wanted answers. He shifted to face her, the chain clanking against the side of the bed as he did so. “Where am I? What do you want with me?”
“Hmm, someone woke up on the wrong side of the sea sponge,” Maren mused, wearing a fake pout.
“No more games, Maren. Tell me what’s going on.” Kaid’s voice was curt, a tone he didn’t typically let surface.
Maren’s deep red fin flitted slightly in a soft current that swept through the room, her hair brushing back from her face. It was at that moment that Kaid noticed the silver crown of bones resting atop her bright hair. It was nearly identical to the golden one Queen Yrsa had been wearing during their beach encounter.
The finfolk princess sighed, “You’re lucky Mother isn’t around to hear you address me without my title. I’ll let that one pass, just this time. I’m a forgiving host.” Her brown eyes caught on the chain holding Kaid in place. “Apologies for the iron, but we can’t have you using your magic. You should be grateful, you know. I fought for you to have a suite instead of a cell. We can certainly make the chain longer once we know you will cooperate.”
Kaid hissed, an animalistic sound he had never made before. He caught his reflection in the mirror behind Maren and froze. His canine teeth were fangs, sharp and long, and his ears came to a small, delicate point at the tip.
Maren laughed, her entire body jostling with the movement. “My poor, naive husband-to-be. You haven’t figured it out yet, have you? Everything you know has been a lie.”
Kaid’s emotions felt heightened in his new body, his inability to stifle his rising anger confusing him more than anything. Why did everyone seem to know more about his own life than he did?
“Tell me,” his voice boomed.
To his shock, Maren did.
She started with Duke Aerik, explaining that he was a siren and not fully human. He was married to Queen Arielle Andreassen, leader of the Ventarin sirens and empress of all Northern Seas. But the empress status was only reliant on her ability to produce an heir to take up the throne when she abdicated. That was when Kaid was born. He was in line to be the next great ruler of both the sirens and finfolk, including rule over Maren’s mother, Queen Yrsa.
Kaid interrupted bluntly, “But that would mean that I’m…”
“A prince,” Maren stated. “Prince Kaidian Andreassen.”
Kaid swallowed loudly. Not only was he a prince, but he was aseaprince.
“My mother grew impatient, wanting to control the seas and bring them back to the old ways when we ruled over humans. But the only way she could claim ownership to the empress status was if the entire Andreassen line—your line—was exterminated. So, Queen Yrsa gathered her army and attacked your mother’s castle with hopes to rid the sea of your entire family. But your mother used the power of Ventarin royalty to summon whirlpools, rip currents, really any powerful natural occurrence she could to weaken our army before they reached their destination.
“By the time the forces stormed the siren castle, you were gone, along with your father, King Aerik Andreassen. He had been sent into hiding with you to keep you safe—to keep your lineage safe—until it was time for your return. Queen Arielle had sacrificed the power of her siren song to the gods and goddesses to keep you concealed so even my mother couldn’t find you. It was very foolish on her part.
“And so, I was conceived and raised to be a spy and assassin. I was sent to live with the humans, to search for you and anyone who may know where you were being hidden. When I learned your name, I insisted that my father bring you to the castle as a ‘prospective husband,’ but I was really trying to figure out if you weretheKaidian. There was seemingly a lot of faith put into the protection spell if no one bothered to change your name, which worked to our favor. It was also a senseless move, on your father’s part, to allow you to reside so close to a seaside town. But he stupidly came to care for the people of his territory, so he agreed to the marriage, not knowing what was waiting for you in Orntali. ThatIwas waiting for you. It was as though the fates aligned and blessed me with the very thing I had been searching for.”
Svanhild entered the room, her murky eyes matching the color of her eel tail. The smile on her face told Kaid that she waslikely far more brutal than she had allowed her human form to be.
Kaid’s mind was racing, so he asked the first question that came to his mind. “Is that how you can walk on land then? You are half human?”
Maren nodded. “I am, and so are many others in Orntali. Being half human gives us the ability to have a human form, which our purebred parents lack. But many of our young have been birthed with hearing and speech deficiencies over the last two decades or so—since about the time you’d gone missing—so their parents discarded them on the shores. Many of those beloved orphans that you and my sister fuss over are abandoned finfolk offspring.”
Gods, the increasing number of orphans was because the finfolk were ridding themselves of their children with disabilities. Scum. These creatures truly were the refuse of the sea.
