Chapter 6
Six
Angie
Lulu was yowling when Angie stepped through her apartment door that evening, her tail held stiff, back arched and ears flat against her head.
Kneeling, Angie’s brow furrowed with concern. “Hey, what’s wrong with you?” She had never heard her cat like this. Before Angie could try to settle her down, Lulu bolted for her room, stopping at the doorway, her yowl turning into a hiss.
Angie threw her shoes off and followed her cat with long strides, her gaze searching her small room for what could possibly have scared Lulu.
A vibrating hum filled her room, as if she had left her phone on the floor and it was buzzing with an incoming call or text.
Her seaflute was rolling on the floor again and Kaden’s voice filtered through. “Angie? Are you there?”
“Yes, one second!” She picked up the seaflute and looked back to where Lulu stood at her doorway, her head cocked and unblinking sapphire eyes. “Nothing to be afraid of, okay? It’s okay.” Angie motioned to the seaflute. That seemed to calm her cat down, and Lulu turned her back, walking away.
“What’s okay? Are you okay?” Kaden asked from the other end.
“It’s Lulu.” Angie’s gaze flicked up to her nightstand, where her top drawer was ajar. “I guess she got into my nightstand drawer to play with the seaflute, knocked it over again, and got scared when you called and it started vibrating on the floor.”
“Oh, didn’t mean to scare her. I’ve been trying to call you for some time, trying to time it when you usually get home from work.”
“Hit a bit of traffic today.” Angie poked her head out of her room, where Lulu was now curled up on Angie’s couch, faceplanting into it, sleeping. “Are you back at your queendom now?”
“I’m here, tired, but here. I had to use more of my magic to get back faster,” Kaden said. “My mother’s funeral is at the next low moontide.”
“So, tomorrow night,” Angie replied after calculating the tides and times in her mind. Tomorrow was the start of her long weekend, and if she could get the first flight out, she could be home with plenty of time to spare for the funeral. “I’ll be there. I want to come pay my respects.”
“I’d like you here, too.” Kaden’s voice softened. “I may be busy helping with final preparations, but I’ll meet you at the shoreline at low moontide. And we can go together. I have some things I wanted to talk to you about too.”
Angie wet her lips in anticipation. “You want to talk about it now?”
“I–I’ll tell you more when you’re here, but I gave up the throne to my uncle.”
She blinked and held the seaflute in front of her, staring at it as if it were his handsome face. No, this wasn’t the right time to question him about why. Not when his mother’s funeral loomed. Instead, she said “All right. If you believe you made the right choice, I support you.”
“I appreciate that. See you at low moontide?”
“Yeah.” After exchanging goodbyes, Angie booked the first flight out in the morning on Alaska Airlines and called her usual cat sitter to watch Lulu for the next three days. After pouring herself a glass of water, she texted Mia and Bàba that she’d be home tomorrow.
The familiar salt smell of the Creston Docks, glacial air, and the Bering Sea waves’ soothing crashes filled her senses when Angie arrived at her and Kaden’s designated meeting place in the early evening.
Bàba and Mia stood beside her, both off work, wishing to relay their own condolences to Kaden. They were lost in their own conversation and Angie half-listened as they talked about their workday, Jack and Rosie, and what they ate today with Angie.
Angie had gotten home early enough to have a mixed Alaskan Chinese style breakfast with Bàba before he left for the docks, and Korean street food for lunch downtown with Mia.
The day flew by and her body ached for rest after being on the go from four o’clock that morning.
But she could rest tonight after the funeral.
The night winds picked up around her, the skies dark and glittering with bright stars since four p.m., and her boots sank into the sand beneath her feet.
Angie waited at the shoreline, tightening her puffer jacket around herself and tucking her gloved hands into her pockets, shifting her weight from side to side.
The waters rippled before her eyes, and Kaden’s head and shoulders appeared at the surface. His tiger-eye-like gaze glinted under the silver moonlight, the breeze sweeping his thick hair back, his handsome face and full lips alight.
“Zixin. Mia.” He bowed his head to them and they offered a greeting in response. “I’m glad you both are here.”
Angie crossed her legs and sat, and he pulled himself onto the sandy shore, leaving the bottom half of his tail submerged. His fingers encircled her wrist and tugged her toward him in a chaste kiss.
Zixin lowered himself to a half-kneel. “I am so sorry about your mother.” He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“Queen Serapha was a formidable leader and an incredible mother to have raised a merman like you.” He put out a hand and rested it on Kaden’s shoulder.
The Mer-Prince peered at the ground, lower lip quivering, and Mia kneeled too, offering her own words of solace.
“If you ever need anything, you know where I work. Or tell Angie to call either of us.” Bàba clasped both hands around one of Kaden’s, holding it for a moment before letting go.
Mia leaned forward to give Kaden a single-armed hug. “I’m thinking about you,” she whispered. “I know what it’s like to lose a mother.”
Angie watched the exchange, wearing a somber smile.
“Thank you.” Kaden offered them another head bow, and they stood.
“See you at home, Beibei.”
“Bye, mèimei and Kaden.”
Angie turned to Kaden after Mia and Bàba left. “Are you ready?”
“Yes, let’s go.”
Angie leaned in to receive breath from him, and after raising to a partial stand, left her jacket and shoes ashore and jumped into the sea, swimming beside him.
A dense viridian and ruby kelp forest greeted them, brightened by slivers of moonlight piercing the water’s surface, and swaying leaves brushed against her bare arms and cheeks.
Kaden plucked off a piece of kelp while pinching the holdfast with his other hand. He ran the bright, emerald kelp strip through his fingers to remove sand and soil, appearing to be deep in thought as he nibbled on it. Angie cast a sideways glance at him.
She always wondered what fresh raw kelp tasted like, and she did the same as they descended. After rolling the piece between her fingers, she took a bite. She appreciated the subtle umami flavor, but not so much the briny taste and squishy texture.
Sand bounced on her tongue and upper palate before escaping down her throat, and she coughed it out, releasing the kelp piece from her hand and letting the currents take it.
“Not a fan, I take it?” Kaden asked with a slight, sideways smile.
“This is, uh, well, I like it better dried,” she said, after she dislodged the last speckle of sand from her throat. “And seasoned.”
“I can see how it might be an acquired taste.” He reached for her hand and squeezed it.
She waited for him to say more about giving up the throne, but he stayed mum.
Deeper, they met with bioluminescent jellyfish and fish emitting gorgeous sapphire, green, and amethyst hues, and Angie stopped to watch, awestruck, forgetting for a moment where they were headed.
She was so focused on them that she hadn’t realized she outswam Kaden.
He was gaining on her, his tail kicked slower, and he was using his arms to help him propel forward.
How did she overtake him? Even with mer magic, she could never swim as well or quickly as a mer. She swam back to him. “You alright?”
“Yes.” He stopped. “Fatigued. I feel like I have been swimming endlessly since I got home, too much to do.”
She thought he spoke too quickly, but he said no more and beckoned her to keep following. The jellyfish and fish dispersed when they swam through them, enveloping them in blackness once more.
Before they reached the palace, its silver glint within view among rock beds and formations, a group of mer approached at rapid-fire speed from the direction of the majestic structure, stopping before them.
“Adrielle?” She was flanked by three sentinels, and Angie moved to greet her. But the hesitation in the Mer-Princess’ expression stopped her from moving any closer.
“Angie.” Adrielle greeted her with a small wave before turning her attention to Kaden. “You need to take her back.”
“Why? What do you mean?” Kaden’s head jerked back, his gaze narrowing. Kaden’s fingers curled around Angie’s hand in a protective squeeze. “I want her here.”
“I know you do.” Adrielle rubbed at her temples, her long braid floating around her head.
“What’s going on?” Angie looked from Kaden to Adrielle, and back to Kaden again. Why had Kaden asked her to come if she wasn’t allowed near the palace?
“At high noontide, the examiners found some wayward spears from spearguns littered around the seafloor and found a match to the Mer-Queen’s wounds.
” Adrielle folded her arms over her chest, the distal part of her rose tail twitching.
“Saeryn has ordered that any humans found in our territories will be apprehended. And he’s declared anywhere past seventy fathomspans a danger zone for mer. ”
Angie’s heart sank into the abyss.
Damn Kaden’s uncle. Now she wouldn’t be able to be with Kaden when he needed her most—wouldn’t be able to pay her respects to the late Mer-Queen. And Kaden couldn’t go to the surface.
Of course, the new Mer-King wouldn’t tolerate their enemy in their space. A sense of hollowness expanded inside her. She could not do or say anything other than offer a dejected nod of understanding.
“I’m so sorry. This is my first time hearing about this,” Kaden said, hoarse.
“We just received the order.” Adrielle clasped her hands loosely in front of her, wearing a solemn mask.
“No, I understand,” Angie croaked. “I’ll go back.”
“I’ll go with you—” Kaden started.
“No, one of the sentinels can take her,” Adrielle interjected. “You don’t look so well. Might want to see a healer after the funeral.”
So, Adrielle noticed Kaden was off too. A glance over showed a paler Kaden than she remembered diving into the sea with earlier. Her brow creased with worry.
Kaden threw her a pleading glance, but Angie shook her head at him. “It’s fine. You should go.” She put a hand on his arm. “We’ll catch up afterward.”
“But when will I see you—”
“Please, go. It’ll be fine. Just—can you say goodbye to your mother for me?”
Silently, he nodded.
Adrielle sent a male sentinel with a dusk gray tail with her and Angie followed him.
She didn’t want to look back at Kaden, fearing if she did, he would change her mind about letting her leave.
It was only when the seaweed, eelgrass, and corals were lit by moonlight again, did she look down, and saw no other mer than the sentinel escorting her.