Page 40 of A Sea So Cruel
The lord turned to see the crowd before them, some on the sandy beach and some lurking in the waves. Among them, at their center, stood Maren and Svanhild. They were wearing dark cloaks with slashes through them— the same injuries Asta had inflicted on their enemies the night before.
Kaid side stepped so his body was mostly blocking Asta’s but, naturally, she stepped out of his cover. He could see multiple figures in the water, but where their legs were supposed to be were strange fins instead.
Kaid’s head began to spin. Were these sirens? Was this who had called to him that day on the beach? Did they know the courtesan?
Maren prowled forward, her unbound copper hair whipping around her in the winds from the brewing sea storm. Her red strands looked like her own personal hurricane, ferocious and unforgiving. The clouds were much closer now, the lightning striking the small islands visible from the beach.
The redhead princess smiled wickedly. “Many of you may know, but for those who do not, this is my sister, Princess Asta, and my sweet, loyal future husband, Lord Kaidian.”
The crowd around them cackled as Maren observed Asta and Kaid. Maren’s hands were not gloved for once and her skin was riddled with scars from her fingertips to the sleeves at her wrists. The gloves hadn’t been an act of modesty—they were to hide her true self. He risked a glance toward Asta, who was calmly assessing, calculating. The wheels in her brain ever-turning.
Maren continued, “It’s so nice to finally introduce my separate families. Kaidian, Asta, these lovely finfolk are my courtiers.” She gestured to the creatures wading in the waves.
So they were finfolk, the worse of the two merfolk species.Perfect.
Maren’s voice echoed as she announced, “Except for the queen, of course.”
A chill rattled through Kaid as a royal blue-haired woman swam forward, a crown of golden bones atop her head. Her eyes were black like an abyss at the deepest depths of the ocean and her skin was cobalt hued. The queen’s cheekbones stuckout so sharply that they reminded Kaid of the cliff overhangs in the forests of Haalberg, and her ears… her ears were long and pointed, sticking out inches away from her head. Her black lips parted in a cruel smile, displaying her mouth full of sharp, flesh-ripping fangs.
“Queen Yrsa of Ryktarva, the finfolk kingdom of the Ventarin Sea,” Maren’s thunderous voice boomed over the beach. “Also known as my mother.”
“What the—” Asta lunged forward, but Kaid whipped out an arm and held her back. Multiple finfolk in the water hissed as Svanhild stepped closer to Maren with her sword drawn.
“Ah, ah, ah,” Maren waved a finger in the air, “No picking fights with family, dear sister. Is that really how you want to earn their trust?”
Asta was panting, her anger mirroring the storm looming above. Maren was finfolk, and not just common finfolk, but a finfolk princess. All of the myths and legends were real. Kaid wished he had heeded his father’s warnings and never left his hometown, remaining as far away from the sea as possible. But it was too late now.
Maren laughed, a wicked sound so different from the reserved woman she posed herself to be all this time. “Oh sister, your emotions really do control your actions. You should get a handle on that. Maybe if you stopped cracking your knuckles and combing your hair long enough, you could play in this game with me, too.”
“Fuck you,” Asta snarled.
The finfolk princess only waved a hand in the air, as if swatting a bothersome fly away instead of her own sister. “Now, Lord Kaidian, if you’ll come with me, we have much to discuss.”
Kaid stepped back and grabbed Asta’s wrist. “What do I have to do with your kind?” He tried to sound merely curious, but his voice shook as he asked.
“We have a wedding to move forward with, silly. Have you already forgotten about me after one lust-filled night in a cave?” Maren gestured toward Asta as she kept her focus on Kaid. “Now, say goodbye to Asta. She will stay safe, so long as you obey orders. You are coming with us.”
Kaid gestured to his body. “Clearly, I cannot go with you. I am not an ocean dweller.”
“But aren’t you?” Maren’s question lingered in the air like smoke.
Kaid was human. Born of two human parents. His mother passed during his birth. How could he possibly be anything but human without knowing? But if he was a merperson, it would explain the calling he felt toward the waves. Explain the warnings his father gave him. Explain why he never felt like he belonged.
He looked between the sisters, each of them pleading for him to go with them. He knew what he had to do.
Kaid released Asta’s wrist and stepped forward. Maren waved a hand and Svanhild and placed a firm grasp on his shoulder. “You come with me now, Lord Kaidian, or you watch as she dies at the hands of the finfolk.”
A sob escaped Asta as she pleaded with her sister. “Maren, please! I’ll forget all about this. We’ll never speak of it again if you let us go and come home with us.”
The princess of Ryktarva’s voice was cold as she responded, “Orntali has never been my home, not since the moment I was born, and it never will be. You live in a delusional world, Asta, if you cannot see that. I was only sent here for one purpose—to find him.” Maren pointed a scarred finger directly at Kaid.
He didn’t know what any of it meant. He just knew he had to go with them in order to protect Asta.
“I will go with you, Your Highness, if that is what I must do. I will go with you, and I will marry you. Please, let her returnto the castle safely,” Kaid begged, his own desperation engulfing him.
Asta sniveled as Svanhild dragged Kaid toward the water, sand kicking up with each heavy foot step. He looked back at the blonde princess, her cheeks tear-stained and eyes bloodshot. He plastered on his most charming crooked grin for her before he turned away from her pleading eyes. He wanted that face to be what she remembered of him. Always smiling even in the face of evil. The evercharming prick.
Svanhild shoved Kaid forward with a splash and Maren stepped to his other side as he stood knee-deep in the ocean. A sting shot through his body, but it wasn’t from the salt water spraying into his laceration on his leg. This was a strange sensation that was painful but welcomed.
