Chapter 22 #2
Kaid shuddered, his nerves completely on edge. All the answers Asta had been searching for laid within her sister. The sister that Asta had trusted and loved despite their differences.
The siren prince shifted his gaze between Maren and Svanhild. He had been living with them for nearly a month, two people who clearly wanted him dead. But why hadn’t they done it? Why hadn’t they killed him?
Kaid swallowed loudly. “How did you know it was me? That I am the lost prince?”
“Your protection only lasted as long as your avoidance of the ocean. We’ve known since the day my clueless sister splashed you with sea water.”
Kaid narrowed his eyes at the princess, his fists curling into balls. “And once you found out, you graciously decided to spare me? Imprison me in a life of unwanted wedlock instead?”
“Our matrimony has nothing to do with you, sweet prince, but everything to do with Queen Arielle. She has made our life such hell since your disappearance, making it nearly impossible for us to properly feed. That’s why I started bringing villagers to my people to help them sustain life.
We can only eat so much fish and crab before we need to consume human.
Whether it be blood, flesh, or bone, we cannot survive without it in our systems. Your mother instated a law in the Northern Seas that we were no longer to kill our prey, only feed from them.
But that’s not the finfolk way of life, so we haven’t exactly been willing participants.
“So what better way to punish our tyrant empress than ensnare her only son in a binding union with the princess of the finfolk?
Together, we will find the lost Ventarin Trident and rid the sea of Queen Arielle and King Aerik's existence, leaving the throne open to us. You will be my puppet for the hundreds of years we have together. And when the time comes, we will produce our heir, the first of mixed merpeople blood. We will restore the Northern Seas to the chaotic glory they were before the sirens ever came about!”
Someone cleared their throat in the opposite corner of the room and Kaid whipped his head around to find Queen Yrsa floating in his doorway, her dark hair dancing around her head like tentacles.
Kaid sat up straighter than he had been, all of his senses on high alert as the queen pushed into the room using her gray eel tail.
The finfolk queen smiled superficially toward her daughter before turning her attention to Kaid, who was still helplessly shackled to the wall. He immediately felt more aware of his vulnerability than he had before.
“My sweet daughter, you have forgotten one small part in your story,” The queen displayed her mouth full of fangs in a twisted smile that resembled more of a snarl. “Me.”
The sharp nail Maren had been using to caress the vanity surface scratched along the top of it, leaving an indented line in the glass. She averted her gaze to the smooth stone floor.
The queen approached the side of Kaid’s bed before she spoke again.
“You will have your turn to rule together, but first, once we kill your parents, I am the rightful empress of the Northern Sea. And you do not get your turn until I abdicate or die. Neither of which I plan to do for a long, long while. But need not worry, I will allow you both to enjoy the perks of royalty until then. Though I still think it would be far easier to exterminate the entire Andreassen line, Maren was quite persuasive with her proposal to wed and control you. And a mother only wants her child to be happy.”
Kaid couldn’t stop the scoff that escaped his throat.
He was in a room of deadly females who wanted to ruthlessly kill his entire family for a crown, and yet they were acting like it was a favor to spare him.
But he had a mother. The mother he believed to be dead, the mother his own father had mourned over his entire life.
But Kaid now realized that the mourning had never ended because Duke Aerik had known his wife was still out there, alive, awaiting the day he could safely return to her with their son.
Kaid’s heart ached. He had a mother, and he may never get to meet her.
Through gritted teeth, Kaid snapped at the copper-haired princess next to him. “I will fight you for the rest of my life, I swear to the gods and goddesses. I will defy you in any way I can. I will never make this easy for you.”
Queen Yrsa barked a wicked laugh as she said, “Fight all you like, dear prince. But if you try to run—or worse—I’ll have your little human girlfriend dragged to the ocean floor where I can play some delightful games with her, giving her hardly enough air to keep her alive to partake in the fun.
Then, I’ll have her neck snapped and force her flesh down your throat. ”
Kaid was too shocked to speak, to move. Asta’s life was in his hands, reliant on his cooperation.
He had no choice but to obey their orders until Asta’s hair turned as white as King Botmar’s, until she crossed over to goddess Gylla and found her peace in the kingdom in the sky.
He couldn’t save his parents, but he could save her.
The queen swam out of the room, followed by a sneering Svanhild.
Maren took her time getting to the door, her shoulders uncharacteristically sagging.
She turned to Kaid as she floated in the doorway and something he had never seen from her glinted in her brown eyes, vanishing as quickly as it came.
Desperation. The princess of the finfolk sucked in a deep breath, squared her shoulders and left without another word.