Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
Angie
The next morning, Angie awoke to find Kaden gone from the bed. The scooter was gone as well, and she rubbed her eyes, running a hand through her hair and yawning.
A sound of surprise came from outside her bedroom.
Shén me guǐ?
She threw her sheets off and put her robe back on, swinging her legs over the edge and slipping her feet into her house slippers. Angie poked her head outside her bedroom door, squinting.
Kaden was zooming around the apartment, the black-and-blue poncho draped around him backward. Thankfully, and shockingly, he hadn’t knocked anything over.
Lulu crouched behind him, and when he stopped, she pounced for his tail.
Angie looked on in horror, the scene before her playing out in torturous slow-motion.
Her cat flung herself at Kaden with all eighteen claws exposed, her furry body twisting and turning in midair for a perfect landing on his tail. Once she had latched on, her claws snug, she sunk in her teeth.
And from the second surprised noise that came from Kaden’s lips, this wasn’t the first time Lulu got hold of his tail.
“Lulu! No!” Angie made a mad dash for her cat, debating whether to pull her off or not. She didn’t want to tear up his tail if the cat didn’t let go.
Fortunately, she didn’t have to decide, because Kaden gritted his teeth and shook his tail out until she let go. Lulu landed on her paws and skulked away. Angie put her hands on her hips. “She got you, huh? She’s been trying ever since you came.”
“She is bold and relentless. And stubborn. Like her guardian.” Kaden inspected his tail, from which Lulu didn’t seem to have drawn any blood. “I will gain her trust one of these days.”
“You’ll have to be patient with her. She doesn’t trust easily, but she’ll warm up to you eventually.” Lulu was guarding her food bowl, watching her. “Here, let me feed her. I see you finally put the poncho on.”
Kaden didn’t meet her eyes and Angie knew why. He had protested all night that he wouldn’t get cold. “It’s more comfortable and warmer than I thought.”
“Glad you like it. It was a little big for me anyway.” She jabbed him lightly on his shoulder with her index finger. “You wash up already?”
“I did. And I used that strange brush and sweet, cakey paste you gave me on my teeth. I’m not used to my breath feeling so—so cool.
” He relaxed his tail and rested his forearms on the scooter’s handles.
“Such strange things humans have to do to keep their breath fresh.” He blew on her face with a blast of cold winter mint.
“It’s necessary. I guarantee you wouldn’t like the smell of any of us when we wake up in the morning.” Angie filled Lulu’s food and water bowl, and the cat lost all interest in Kaden as she moved to replenish her energy.
Clearly, chasing a merman around the apartment worked up an appetite.
Angie stepped away to brush her teeth, wash her face, and give her hair a quick brush while Lulu was busy.
“Oh, let me know when you need to get back and I’ll walk with you to the sea,” she said, after returning from her washroom.
“I can stay for a few tidesdays. Give my uncle time to talk to the mer out of despising me.”
“I know, you told me you had a lot going on.” She recalled the conversation she had with him when he was on his way there, about his difficulties with getting the council and Saeryn to listen to him—about the protests calling him a traitor, accusing him of working in league with the humans to get Serapha off the throne—how the citizens who weren’t openly hostile to him, appeared scared of him, and how he feared for his safety that the mer might attack him.
In turn, she had caught him up on the events of the past two weeks.
She pulled up a bar stool to sit beside him, resting her hand beside one of his pelvic fins.
“With all of this happening, I think you would do a much better job as King.” She hadn’t wanted to bring it up to him, knowing his thoughts on ruling, but it sounded like things were going from bad to worse in the queendom.
“Have you given any more thought to that?”
“No.” Sitting across from her, pain colored Kaden’s face.
“It’s not so easy, even if I wanted it. I can’t force him from the throne.
” He absently skated his fingertips along her granite island countertop.
“The humans were the ones who broke the truce in the first place. The queendoms are fractured.” His words were raw and gritty, his nostrils and gills flaring, a simmering fire in his amber eyes.
“My mother was attacked and killed from the docks your father runs.”
A proverbial knife pierced Angie’s heart and a little voice whispered to her.
Did Bàba know something about Serapha’s murder, and he didn’t stop it?
A fresh wave of worry smacked her. She had to talk to him and made a mental note to call him later.
About to fling back that she wished he would do more and believe in himself to take the throne, she stopped and forced herself to take a deep breath to calm her emotions.
Her therapist had told her that when she was still experiencing flashbacks and nightmares of the war, she sought help to address them.
Those symptoms reared their heads only sporadically now, and she credited her therapist for helping her handle her PTSD symptoms.
Laying blame on him wouldn’t solve anything, something she learned when Māma and Bàba had disagreements.
Instead, she said, “I understand you’re trying your best. I’m sorry if I insinuated otherwise.”
“Thank you for understanding.” Kaden leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose and sat back.
He rubbed his chest for the second time since he’d been there.
She noticed him when he had his back turned, waiting for her to return with the scooter, when he thought she couldn’t see.
The clouds parted outside and let the sun through for the first time in two days.
And under the bright sunlight filtering through her windows, the paleness and dullness of his skin was clearly on display.
She leaned back in her chair, studying him. As if her gaze weighed on his shoulders, he rounded his posture, his gaze darting toward his tail.
“You don’t look like you’re one hundred percent.”
“What do you mean?” The words came out much too quickly.
“You keep rubbing your chest and you look pale.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Angie balled her hands into fists and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m worried about you.”
“There’s nothing to worry about.” Kaden still hadn’t met her eyes.
“I need you to be honest with me.” She leaned in, tilting his chin so their gazes locked. His symptoms reminded her too much of what she went through with Māma, and she couldn’t go through that again. “If you aren’t, and I find out later, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Okay, okay! I–I spoke with Cyrus’ healer. My giving you breath and using my magic had a deleterious effect on my body and it’s sucking out my lifeforce too quickly.”
The happy mood of the weekend crumbled. “Wh-what? Did you ask the healer if there was a cure?”
“I asked. She said there wasn’t one.” He twisted his glass of water on the table round and round.
Angie took another deep inhale. Maybe there was a reasonable explanation and there was no reason to get upset. “How long have you known?”
“I talked to the healer some tidesweeks ago. But–”
“But?” She fidgeted with her bathrobe’s belt, as if it would make him answer faster.
A sheepish frown crossed his features. “I’ve had symptoms since the past tidesyear.”
“The past year? When were you planning on telling me?” Her head spun and temples pulsed. “Did you not trust me? Why did you put your life on the line for me? I wish you told me you were feeling this after giving me breath so many times; we could have figured something else out!”
“I didn’t want to burden you! You had to think about school and your job. And especially since you went through something similar with your mother. You can’t be worrying about me.”
Angie’s spine stiffened as she sat ramrod straight and bit hard on the inside of her cheeks.
He knew she had to watch her Māma wither away.
He knew how helpless Angie felt that she couldn’t help her because she had confided in him.
The sadness and fear of those years came rushing back.
“You hid this from me. And you still tried to brush it off when I asked multiple times.” The timbre of her voice dropped and shook.
“It makes me feel like you don’t trust me. And I’ll be honest. It hurts. A lot.”
“I’m sorry.” He reached for her, but Angie pulled her hand back, her forearm muscles twitching and growing taut.
It was too much for her to bear, and she turned her head away, unshed tears burning her eyes. She slid off her chair and without another word, strode to her room and closed the door.