Chapter 5
Maren
Ihad to get out of here. My thoughts spun constantly as I searched for a solution, lying in my bed in the king’s bedroom.
The indoor space merged almost seamlessly with the outdoors in the palace.
The rhythmic swishing of waves flooded the room through the window openings, but the sound failed to soothe me.
The conversation at dinner didn’t go the way I had planned.
Now the evening was over, and I was nowhere closer to figuring out how to get back home.
I wondered what was happening back in my world now.
Liam had surely called the police. My father would be raising hell, demanding a thorough investigation into my disappearance.
They had Leslo’s picture, but it was useless since he wasn’t even in the same world anymore.
They’d never find him. They’d never find me.
If I wanted to come home, it was up to me to find the way.
“Cooome...” a quiet voice suddenly emerged from the swishing of the surf. “Cooome heeere.”
I stiffened in my bed, my eyes opened wide, my ears listening.
Was someone out there? In the ocean? Outside on the patio?
If they were, they could easily walk right in.
With no doors or window panes in the palace, these rooms were open like a garden gazebo.
There were no guards on this side of the palace either because who in their own mind would try to attack the cursed king?
His curse protected him better than even an army of guards could.
But was anyone really out there? Maybe I’d just heard one of those phantom voices that sometimes emerged in the white noise if one listened to it long enough?
“Cooome,” the voice sang in rhythm to the waves.
Did the king hear it too?
The solid wooden screen between us blocked his bed from my view. I heard no movement from his direction. If he was asleep, he wasn’t even snoring.
What if he wasn’t here at all?
Fear crept into my chest at the thought that I might’ve been left alone in this place.
Moonlight seeped through the walls, reflecting in the many glass surfaces with eerie dancing lights.
The movement of the water, both inside and outside the palace, created ever-shifting shadows that rippled through the entire palace.
It had looked eerie but pretty during the day.
At night, the light colors of turquoise and aqua had darkened to indigo, teal, and black, creating a far more sinister atmosphere.
“Cooome, human...” the waves whispered, calling to...me?
I was the only human here, after all. Or at least that was what Leslo said.
Alarm jolted me up into a sitting position. I clutched the covers to my chest. Sleep was out of the question now.
Someone out there knew I was in here. They called me, personally.
But to whom did that voice belong to?
There was only one way to find out—to do as the voice told me and follow it to wherever it wanted me to go.
“Just like those people in the horror movies who end up dying first,” rushed through my mind.
The thought proved sobering, helping me fight the inexplicable urge to follow the voice.
But was staying behind the screen a wise choice? I couldn’t see what was happening in the room. If danger was indeed stalking me, I wouldn’t see it until it was too late.
The tremor of anxiety in my chest urged me to my feet.
“Come, human. Come where you’ll be free...” the voice flowed in tune with the eternal song of the ocean.
Free?
It said free.
What if this was someone who knew how to get me home? Someone who might be afraid to face the king and to talk to me in his presence? After all, his own servants acted terrified of him.
Slipping out of bed, I peeked behind the screen.
The watery lights continued their eerie dance with the shadows, bouncing between the glass walls of the palace.
The only real furnishings in the room were those brought in here for me today.
A tall chest of drawers, a pile of dresses, and several trunks with stuff I hadn’t had a chance to look at yet.
The rest of the royal bedroom remained bare, save for the king’s large glass bed. With my vision obstructed by the moving shadows, I couldn’t tell if the king was in it.
Carefully lifting the hem of my long nightgown, I tiptoed across the glass floor toward the royal bed for a better look.
The king lay in it, the sight of him irresistibly beguiling. He slept on his back, with one arm folded under his head. The waves of his long hair spread around his head like a shimmering mist over the dark glass of his pillow.
His appearance remained ethereal, even more so when awashed by moonlight.
Yet the pose he slept in, with his arm under his head, his right leg bent, and his pretty dick resting ever so casually on his thigh, made him look less of a king or a dream, and more of just a man—more approachable, more vulnerable, more real, and even. ..desirable.
With him sleeping like that, I could easily imagine a woman resting at his side, with her head on his shoulder and his arm wrapped around her.
What was it like to be with someone like him? Before the curse made it impossible to be with him at all?
Was he a fun, generous lover who made his partner forget about sleep for hours on end? Or was he just as abrupt and arrogant in bed as he was at the dining table?
“Come...free,” the voice called again, yanking my attention away from the sleeping king.
The voice didn’t appear to come from outside, I realized, but from inside the palace. Did the person calling me come in? Or had they always been here? What if the king wasn’t alone here? What if I wasn’t his only hostage?
Quietly, so as not to wake the king, I stepped out of the bedroom, crossed a corridor, then peered into the watery darkness of the great hall.
“Come with us...” the voice whispered, so close, it startled me.
I felt someone’s presence in here, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see anyone.
“What do you want? How can you set me free?” I called into the shimmering darkness.
“Free, loved, cherished...Cooome...” the whisper trickled like water under the glass floor.
It came from everywhere at once and yet...its presence seemed to be stronger down somewhere, below the floor, in the dark depths of the ocean.
“Where are you?” I walked ahead cautiously, watching the ripples of water through the floor.
“Yessss, this way, human...” the voice urged.
The word “human” had grated on my nerves from the moment the king first used it.
To me, there was a special kind of disdain in addressing a sentient being solely by their species, denying them any individuality.
Now, the displeasure at hearing it weakened the relentless lure that kept tugging me forward.
The moment the pull eased, fear jolted me anew.
“Where are you?” I screamed out loud, stopping just a step away from a large pool in the hall.
The water in the pool splashed as if the palace went adrift into the ocean. A ripple ran in a spiral over the surface. The water rose, bubbling over the edge and spreading along the floor until its dark, glossy edge touched my bare feet.
“Welcome, welcome, little one...” the voice vibrated with eagerness and impatience. “I’ve been waiting for you. Come... Just one more step, child.”
But instead of taking that step forward, I shuffled back, uncertain. The water splashed around my feet irritably, as if water could feel irate. It acted like a living being, however, swirling around and splashing over my feet as if trying to push them into motion again.
“I’m not going anywhere until you show me your face,” I yelled at the dark void of the pool.
The next splash onto the glass brought a wave of muddy green. The color spread over the floor in thick tendrils. Like slimy tentacles, they undulated on the wet glass, reaching for my bare feet.
I screamed, jumping back. Slipping on the wet glass, I fell to my knees, then crawled back on all fours.
“No. Come...come...come...please. So close now.” The voice was everywhere, as if an army had surrounded me.
Dark tentacles swarmed all around me, growing long, gnarly fingers and cutting off my escape. Fear gripped my throat. Panic buzzed through my entire being, making my arms and hands shake. Frantic, I slid and slipped on the glass slicked by the bubbling, splashing water.
Something soft and slimy slapped around my bare ankle and yanked me off my knees. Horror and desperation tore from my throat with one single name.
“Kye!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
I didn’t know why I called the king by his name for the first time now or why I thought he’d be the one to help me. I just intuitively hoped he was big and powerful enough to handle the monstrosity that threatened to drag me to a place I feared was far worse than here.
Maybe, deep inside, I also believed that since this was his palace, his ocean, and his world, that he would know what to do.
“Kye...” I tried to scream again, but the tentacle yanked at my leg, sending me face down into the water. His name turned into a bubble of breath that might be my last breath ever.
The beckoning whisper became incoherent, blending with the splashing and rippling of the water. I could no longer discern a single word, but the emotion in it was clear. It conveyed a deep satisfaction at successfully trapping its prey—me.
I tried to lift my face out of the water, tried to draw in some air, tried to grab something to hold on to, to kick at the tentacles trapping me...
Suddenly, the movement stopped, and the water stilled. I scrambled to sit up. The tentacle around my ankle had turned from dark to clear. I kicked my leg against the floor with force, and the tentacle shattered into pieces of glass.
“Kye?” I lifted my head, searching for the only one I knew who could do something like that.
His tall, pale shape stood starkly against the darkness of the hall.
“Fuck!” he cursed, kicking a round chunk of glass into the pool.