Authors: Tracy Deebs
I’m sorry about that
, he said.
I guess I was too rough
.
I didn’t bother to answer. He’d smothered me into unconsciousness, so yeah, I had a tendency to see that as “too rough.”
What do you want, Sabyn? I’m too tired to play games
.
Even after your nap? I’m so sorry to hear that
. He gestured to the floor.
Why don’t you have a seat, get comfortable?
He pulled a picnic basket into the room, set it down next to me.
Maybe something to eat will help with your exhaustion
.
I stared at the basket in disbelief.
I’m not hungry
.
He shrugged his shoulders.
I guess that depends on how badly you want answers. Besides, who knows when I’ll decide to feed you next
.
You are completely revolting
.
And you are a total pain in the ass, but here we are anyway
. He held out a kelp bar.
Try it. It’s pretty good
.
I don’t think so
.
He shrugged, then took a big bite.
Suit yourself
.
Sabyn settled with the picnic on the ground, or at least as close to the ground as he could get with the sea water pushing at him. Merpeople, like other half-human sea creatures, have a built-in resistance to the ocean’s buoyancy, which allows them to counteract it any time they want. It doesn’t mean they’ll be able to walk on the ocean floor without effort, but it does mean that they won’t float more than an inch or so above it unless they want to. My resistance isn’t as good as a full merperson’s, but I can usually stay two or three inches above whatever it is I’m resting on. Unless I’m concentrating. Then I can lie on a bed or walk on the ground like any other merperson.
Are you going to tell me what’s going on here, Sabyn? You can’t actually think you’re going to get away with holding me prisoner
.
He laughed.
Who’s going to stop me? Kona? From what I hear, he can barely stand to be in the same ocean with you. Besides, he’s got other problems right now
.
My blood ran cold.
What do you mean?
You screwed things for a lot of people when you took off for home last week. Now Coral Straits is mine, and Kona’s kingdom … well, let’s just say it’s not really his anymore. But don’t feel too bad; his people are probably relieved. He’s been having a rough time over there since you dumped him
.
Sabyn’s words hit me hard, made me focus on the guilt that was always just below the surface. I wanted to lash out at him, to tell him off, but I couldn’t. I needed him. Not just for me—I was more than happy to piss him off when I was the only one at risk. But Sabyn had news of Kona, and that I wanted desperately. He might not be my boyfriend anymore, but that didn’t mean I didn’t still care about him. If something else happened to him because he was helping me … I’d never forgive myself. And I would make Sabyn, and Tiamat, pay.
I’d never been particularly bloodthirsty as a human. Even as a mermaid, I would rather take flight than fight if I could get away with it. But I’d had about enough of Sabyn and Tiamat and all the other sea monsters they had working with them. If I got out of this damn dungeon alive, I swore I would take them all down, no matter what it took. Their reign of terror had to end.
But I was smart enough to know that there was no way I’d get a chance to escape if I didn’t play nice with Sabyn. Oh, I didn’t necessarily expect him to buy it—he wasn’t a total idiot, after all. But he was vain, really vain, and if I worked it long enough, maybe his guard would slip. If not today, then sometime soon.
Hating myself and what I had to do, I settled down next to him and his ridiculous picnic. I even grabbed one of the disgusting kelp bars and took a bite, praying it wasn’t poisoned.
He didn’t say anything while we ate, and neither did I. I was smart enough to know that I had to wait for him to take the lead or I would never get anywhere. But it was so hard, when I was dying to know where Kona was. Not to mention what he
had done to my powers. If there was ever a time I needed them, this was it. I couldn’t do anything without them.
Sabyn forced me to sit there, watching him go through a truly disgusting amount of food. I knew it was for effect, that he was showing me he was the one in control. But even understanding his motivation, it was difficult not to grab one of the kelp and veggie sandwiches and cram it down his throat until he choked on the stupid thing. Except he was a merman so he couldn’t actually choke. More’s the pity.
Finally, when I felt like I was going to lose my mind if he made me wait one more second, he pushed his plate away with a huge sigh.
Beer?
he asked, holding out a brew made of red algae. It was Kona’s favorite brand, and my heart thumped a little in my chest when I saw it.
I shook my head. I hated the stuff. Besides, the last thing I needed right now was to cloud my brain with alcohol.
So
, Sabyn said after taking a long drink.
I have a proposition for you
.
Finally. What do you want?
You
.
Excuse me?
Surely I’d heard wrong. Then again, he looked surprisingly earnest when he leaned forward and reached for my hand. I yanked it away before he could get a good grip on it, then folded my arms over my chest in case he hadn’t gotten the hint. I had to admit I felt like I was in the middle of a particularly weird and horrifying episode of
The Twilight Zone
. Or maybe
The X-Files
. That show has always freaked me out.
I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. Nor did he do anything besides stare at me with a wounded expression on his
face. Like my not wanting him to touch me had somehow offended him. Which was so ridiculous it made me long for my powers even more. There was nothing I wanted at that moment as much as the ability to blast him into next week.
Finally the whole nervous talker thing got the better of me and I demanded,
Sabyn, what the hell are you up to?
I thought that was obvious. I’m taking over your kingdom
.
Yeah, I got that. But what are you doing bringing me picnic lunches? We’re pretty much the definition of mortal enemies at this point
.
I think that’s a little harsh, don’t you?
You shot me with a dart gun, stripped me of my powers, and chained me in a dungeon. And that was just today
.
Yes, but that was for your own good
.
My own good?
I almost choked on my utter incredulity.
In case you didn’t notice, people weren’t exactly overjoyed to see you today
. He gestured carelessly to the world outside my dungeon walls.
I didn’t talk to anybody. That’s the whole point. You have my people so terrified of you that they wouldn’t even come greet me
.
That wasn’t terror, Tempest. That was disgust. I didn’t seize control of Coral Straits. It was given to me in a gift box, all wrapped up with a shiny bow
.
I don’t believe you
.
He shrugged.
Fine. Don’t believe me. That doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Your people sold you out
.
I wanted to ignore him, to discount everything he was saying. But he was so calm, so rational, so sure of himself that it was hard to do. Besides, I could still see Bali’s face, could see all those people who saw me come into town today and went out
of their way not to talk to me. After seeing Sabyn, I had decided it was fear that motivated them. But what if it
was
something else? What if they had chosen Sabyn as a leader? They could have been avoiding me because no one wanted to be the one to tell me. Or worse, because they’d known what was waiting for me and they were okay with me being hurt, imprisoned, trapped.
But still.
Why would they do that?
I demanded. Even as I asked, I was aware of the irony of seeking answers, reassurance, from the man who had put me in this situation.
My guess? They don’t like your ties to the human world. Every time things get rough, you run home to your daddy and that human boyfriend of yours. You have to admit it’s a little pathetic
.
I wasn’t about to discuss Mark or my family with Sabyn. They were none of his business and, truthfully, I hated that he knew anything about them at all. I decided to change the subject.
So, at risk of sounding like a broken record, what are you doing here? If you have the monarchy of Coral Straits all tied up, what are you doing in this dungeon with me?
He smiled then, and it was such a cold, slimy thing that I had to force myself not to shudder. The way he was looking at me made me feel like Little Red Riding Hood at the foot of her grandmother’s bed after the big bad wolf had climbed into it—like I was lunch and I just didn’t know it yet.
Funny you should ask
, he told me, tipping his beer toward me in a little salute before he drained the bottle and tossed it back into that ridiculous picnic basket.
I’m here to ask for your hand in marriage
.
At first I was certain that I had heard him wrong. Then I was certain that he was playing with me. And then … then I didn’t know what the hell I was certain of except that there was no way Sabyn had just asked me to marry him. I had heard—and done—a lot of crazy things in the year that I had been mermaid. I’d also sacrificed a lot for my clan, for my queen, for the people I believed I was destined to rule. But never in my wildest imaginings or nightmares could I have come up with this. That, more than anything else, convinced me that Sabyn had actually said what I thought he had.
Too bad the only response I had was,
Are you out of your mind?
He tried to look offended but failed miserably. Still, when he held a hand up and said,
Just hear me out
, it wasn’t like I could argue with him. I was too shocked.
The way I see it, we both have problems that the other person can solve
.
No offense, Sabyn, but I don’t think anyone can solve your problems
.
Funny, because I was just thinking that I was the only one who could solve
your
problems
. He raised his brows at me, obviously waiting for me to contradict him. But how could I when he was directly responsible for many of my problems, especially the most pressing one?
When he figured out I wasn’t going to try to one-up him again, he continued.
I find myself in a strange and uncertain position these days. The Pacific Ocean has become a war zone, and while I would normally sit back with a bowl of dried kelp and watch the entire thing blow up, I have to admit that I’m more than a little concerned about how everything is going to shake out. Now, if you ask Tiamat, she’ll tell you that she has this thing wrapped up—I know, because I’ve asked her numerous times in the last few months. It’s kind of put us on the outs, if you want to know the truth
.
He continued.
But be that as it may, I am not nearly as confident as she is about how this thing will go down. Now, if your mom hadn’t had that unfortunate accident with the Lusca last year, I would definitely keep my money on the sea witch. But she did, and now there’s you. And, I’ve got to tell you, Tempest, you concern me
.
Well, that’s a good basis for marriage. Concern that your partner might annihilate you from the face of the earth
.
I think so
. He smiled blandly, refusing to rise to the bait.
Anyway, the truth is I’m rather fond of Coral Straits. I grew up here. I have friends here. It’s a great place to live. Not to mention it’s the richest merclan in the seven seas, one that has spent decades solidifying its power amidst the shifter clans in every ocean on earth. These are all good, good things. And now, it appears, I have quite a loyal following here as well. I’d be stupid to walk away from it on the basis of a washed-up sea witch’s promises
.
I wouldn’t exactly call Tiamat washed up
. I thought of the damage she’d done recently, of Kona’s family and my best friend Mahina’s uncle, and all the merpeople and selkies I used to know who were now just gone.
Yes, but you don’t know her like I do. I’ve spent four months trying to figure out what you did on that ship and I still don’t know. But whatever it was, she’s in bad shape. I don’t know that she’ll ever make it back to where she was
.
So that’s what this is all about?
I demanded as the puzzle pieces slid into place.
You want the throne here as a way to hedge your bets in case Tiamat doesn’t make it back?
Well, when you put it like that, it sounds so mercenary
.
I shuddered in disgust.
It
is
mercenary
.
So it is. But it’s also practical, Tempest. After all, I wasn’t cut out for a pauper’s lifestyle
.
I’m sure you weren’t. But you’re already on the way to getting whatever you want, right? I mean, you seized the throne right out from under me and you’re about half a step from eliminating me completely
. Amazing how easy it got to talk about your own death after a while. Like it was a foregone conclusion. I pushed the horror of that thought away and continued.
So I still don’t know what we’re doing here or why you would want to marry me. It doesn’t make sense
.
It makes perfect sense. Yes, I have the throne now. But everyone knows I’m not the legitimate heir. You are
.
Some will argue that the legitimate heir to any throne is the one who can seize it and keep it
.
Exactly. But not all of them. That’s where you come in. I need you to ensure that I can keep the throne. The people might be pissed at you now for running out on them, but the first time something bad
happens or I do something unpopular or hell, I don’t know, one of them stubs their big toe, they’re going to start remembering that I wasn’t supposed to be king. That there was another choice out there and that she was a very viable choice, one with an amazing amount of power and the ability to protect them. You have to admit, that’s pretty powerful stuff. But if you were already here, already married to me and ruling from the position of merQueen, the position that was always meant to be yours, well then …