CHAPTER EIGHT
Myra
“Traitor?” I cried out, panic racing through my veins as I tried to wrestle my arms free. “What are you talking about? I’m not a traitor! We came here together to—”
“SILENCE!” The queen’s booming voice echoed off the pearl-encrusted walls as she launched herself toward me.
“You do not get to speak, you conniving little ingrate. Not after all the plotting and scheming you’ve been up to.
” She stared down at me, hatred burning brightly in her dark blue eyes.
“You thought you could use your power to usurp me, did you? That you could just waltz in here and take what is rightfully mine without repercussions? Could replace me on the throne?”
“No,” I blurted out, utter shock and disbelief loosening my tongue, “I would never! You know this—”
The sharp sting of a jellyfish slapped against my face as it sealed my mouth shut.
“I told you to be SILENT! I will hear no more of your lies, Myra Morningtide. Not a single one.” She swam lower to level her gaze on mine as her jet-black hair floated up around her in a mesmerizing, snake-like dance.
“I’ve been thinking long and hard about how best to punish someone I trusted so blindly—and I think I’ve come up with a fitting punishment.
” I struggled against the one restraining me, desperate to free my arms and rip the jellyfish away so I could tell her that I had no idea what was happening.
That I would never betray her. That I loved her.
But my efforts were in vain. “You wished to take my crown… and for your treachery, I’m going to take your tail.
” Icy terror raked down my spine at her words, and she smiled as she read it in my expression.
“You will walk on land amongst the humans, unable to ever return to the sea.” This isn’t happening…
it can’t be happening. “This consequence will hurt you as much as you’ve hurt me,” she said, feigning pity. “Poetic, don’t you think?”
And it was.
Because I had never wished to roam above, as so many of our kind could and had over time—had no desire to see what life on land was like.
And now I’d be exiled there.
A plan was in order—one that Yael would never see coming.
He’d be furious once he realized how I’d double-crossed him, and I relished the thought, but first I’d have to pull it off.
That would require a few things, like me getting close enough to him to execute the magic, and him being off his guard enough to not suspect my actions.
The condescending fairy was many things, but stupid was far from one of them, which meant I had to assume he’d at least considered the possibility that I might use my only true remaining power on him at some point; unless, of course, that hubris of his, combined with his desperation to find his sister, had blinded him entirely.
Either way, I needed to proceed with caution.
Angering the being I was magically bound to didn’t sound like the wisest idea.
By the time I hit the front-of-house, I had a few solid ideas floating around my mind.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” Sasha asked from behind the bar as she restocked the shelves. “Your shift isn’t over yet.”
“Oooooh, I’ll bet she’s sneaking out to see Yael.” The raw mischief in Laney’s voice was impossible to ignore. “There’s no way that midday quickie is going to tide her over much longer.”
“I’m actually going home,” I lied, hoping it would end the conversation.
Sasha put the case of glassware down and turned her full, unwanted attention on me. “To what? Sleep?” she asked as she smiled wickedly. “Because you sure as hell didn’t get any last night.”
I opened my mouth to clap back at her, then slammed it shut and inhaled deeply.
Arguing was clearly not going to deter either of them.
With that thought in mind, I made my way past the bar slowly and smiled widely.
That was far more unnerving than my anger, apparently, judging by the way Laney edged behind Sasha, who held up an ice scoop like a dagger for protection.
“You’re really going to bail on us before last call?” Sasha whined as reality set in.
“How long were you gone in the portals, again?” I asked rhetorically.
Her drawn-out silence was answer enough.
“Then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, girls.
Try not to piss off Ravi any more than I already have.
” I continued through the room to the front door, the sound of Sasha’s objections chasing me to the exit, then walked out without an ounce of guilt for leaving them to fend for themselves.
They’d be fine without me. Probably better than with.
After hurrying home, I jumped in the shower to wash the stench of fryer oil and beer from my pores while trying to think through my wardrobe for something that might meet Yael’s demand for the evening.
With nothing to go on other than “sexy”—which was highly subjective—my options were both vague and limited, but by the time the water pelting my face turned to ice, I had an idea.
I emerged from the shower with a small shiver and wrapped myself in a towel.
Since having been ejected from the Deep, my resistance to cold water had diminished along with virtually every other mermaid trait and ability I’d possessed.
The ever-changing landscape of who I was becoming the longer I was landlocked was yet another reason I was so desperate to return home.
I barely knew who and what I was anymore, and that uncertainty only fed my surly nature even when I tried to stifle it.
Like it or not, the Playground may have hardened me, but the lack of connection with what I truly was had done just as much damage—possibly more.
Returning to the Deep was as much about restoring who I used to be as it was restoring my place there.
With that truth weighing me down, I walked into my room, headed for my closet, which consisted of an old industrial cabinet I’d hollowed out and added a bar to hang things from.
The metal doors gave me grief as I tried to pry them open, but they eventually gave way, exposing meager choices.
Thumbing through the hangers, I found a stretchy black tank top that hugged my body perfectly and pulled it out.
Next to it were the only non-work jeans I owned.
Were they sexy? No, but they were tight and clean.
I wished I had some stilettos to wear with them, but I was limited to sneakers and clunky-heeled combat boots.
Knowing that Yael, in all his finery, wouldn’t approve of either option anyway, I snagged the boots off the floor of the cabinet, grabbed my leather jacket, and walked over to the bed.
A quick look at the clock told me I had less than thirty minutes to get dressed and ready, then haul my ass down to the meeting point. Given that the trip alone would take ten if I ran as fast as I could, it wasn’t looking good. Arriving a sweaty mess seemed far from a sexy option.
Unfortunately for me, by the time I’d put on my blood-red lipstick to hopefully up the mandatory sexy factor, running to meet Yael was my only shot at getting there in any version of ‘on time.’ I tore through the darkened streets, weaving through Serpent’s Tongue and across the trolley tracks as I ignored the catcalls and dubious offers shouted at me while making my way into territory I rarely traversed.
Ravi’s influence didn’t extend into Demon’s Horn, which meant I was well beyond the safety net he provided—a fact that kept my tongue in check despite its desire to be unleashed.
I didn’t need to add to my current list of problems.
As I ran, I thought about how ironic it was that the power that had failed me and caused my exile from the Deep would be the very thing to send me back.
The queen’s paranoia would never have been an issue if I could have gotten close enough to her to use my magic to assuage her, but Finn had kept that from happening—because even though he’d been within arm’s reach while betraying me, the Siren’s Song hadn’t worked on him.
Even when we were young, he’d been impervious to its compulsion, just as I’d been immune to the invasive power he held—one I still didn’t fully understand.
It was our shared sense of ostracization, even by those closest to us, that had initially brought us together.
In all my years, he had been the only being to be unaffected by the Siren’s call.
I hoped Yael would not prove the same.
By the time the old fountain came into view, my legs were burning and I was breathing hard—and most definitely sweating.
Yael was easy to spot in the distance, wearing a sleek black suit as he loomed just outside the reach of the shadows cast by the defunct marble landmark under the full moon.
His tall frame turned as he undoubtedly heard my heavy footfalls, and the eerie blue light caught the angular features of his face perfectly.
A wry smile tugged at his lips, and for a moment—a mere fraction of a second—I almost forgot who he was and what he’d done.
Then I saw him pull back his sleeve to check his watch, and reality fell firmly back into place.
“You’re two minutes late,” he said as I skidded to a stop at his side and bent over to catch my breath.
“I wouldn’t be if I didn’t have a job or could afford a ride.”
“Isn’t that what the job’s for?”
I scowled up at him through my lashes. “I don’t get paid until next week, and I used everything I’d saved up on that fucking potion.”
“You mean the one I warned you not to purchase?” he asked with a note of superiority in his tone. “That potion?”
“No, Yael,” I replied as acerbically as possible, “the other one. Now, can you stop being a smug dick and get to the part where you tell me what the actual plan is for the evening since I know literally nothing other than I needed to look sexy?”