Chapter 15 #2
“Just ‘the king’ would be lovely. No need for the ‘cursed’ adjective,” Kye grumbled under his breath.
“Hi,” I greeted the woman, keeping on the brightest smile I could manage without pulling a facial muscle. “The children are safe. His Majesty entertained them with his gift.”
I figured framing the curse as a gift would make it sound less threatening.
“Oh, they entertained me too,” Kye chimed in good-naturedly.
“Your Majesty...” The woman bowed quickly, clearly torn between showing respect to her monarch and getting the hell out of here and away from him.
She turned to me and stopped, clearly unsure how to address me.
“I’m Maren. How do you do?” I introduced myself, offering her a hand that she didn’t take.
Instead, the woman lifted her daughter into her arms and clutched her to her chest tightly, as if she had just wrestled her free from some ferocious beast.
“Mommy, do you want to see my rock?” Leela twisted in her mother’s arms.
But the woman wouldn’t take her eyes off Kye, as if doing so would unleash his curse on her and her family too. Pressing her daughter to her, she carefully backed away from us.
“Later, baby,” she said. “We’ll look at it later. Come on, boys. Your parents are expecting you home too by now.”
Ushering the kids with her, the woman fled without even saying goodbye.
“Women used to flock to me instead of fleeing from me.” Kye lamented dramatically. “I must’ve lost my charm. Or is there something wrong with my looks?” He turned to me with an impish smile that failed to mask the sadness in his eyes.
The dying sunset streaked his hair with gold and burgundy.
His brilliant eyes sparkled with the magic he was born with as well as with the one he’d been cursed with.
A soft shimmer highlighted the dips and valleys of his perfect body, making his pale skin appear nearly translucent, ethereal.
His appearance was unusual, without a doubt.
But to me, it had the allure of a dream, far from the horror of a nightmare.
“I really wish there was,” I attempted a joke, but it came out too earnestly to be funny.
It disturbed me how easily I’d learned to read him, how deeply I sympathized with his sorrow, and how much I was drawn to him.
Running a hand through my hair, I turned toward the ocean to break the spell that looking and thinking about him tended to put me under.
A group of male sirens ran past me toward the water, laughing without a care in the world. The last of the group suddenly hugged my waist.
“Dance with me, beautiful,” he said in a soft, melodious voice that instantly put me at ease.
A low growl rumbled from Kye’s direction. But it only made me focus more on the other siren’s offer. He was a distraction. Someone who could possibly pull my mind out of the haze created by Kye.
I turned to face the man at my side. He had bright cerulean eyes, sun-bronzed skin, and an unruly mop of arctic-blue curls mussed by the ocean breeze.
“I can’t dance like that.” I tipped my head toward the siren’s friends who already twirled and jumped in the waves.
He narrowed those insanely bright eyes at me. “Ah, you’re not a siren, are you? A werewolf? I’ve never been to Sarnala. Only merchants risk going there now after Prince Kye’s carnage.”
“What carnage?” I blinked.
His eyebrows sprang up in surprise. “How do you not know about that? Prince Kye...I mean the current king, but he was a prince back when Queen Cordelia was still alive. He sent his friends to Sarnala on a full-moon night.”
“Why would he do that?”
He shrugged. “To test their courage? To prove to him how brave they were? They killed many werewolves that night. But the prince lost all his friends too.”
“That’s... That’s terrible.” Stunned, I could hardly find the words to express the horror rising in my chest.
Was that what Arnon was talking about in the great hall of the glass palace? Kye sent his friends to Sarnala on the night when the werewolves shifted to their deadliest forms. And for what? To prove their courage?
It made no sense. He wouldn’t do that.
Would he?
“It was a long time ago,” my would-be-dance-partner replied casually. “I wasn’t even born then. Did you come from Sarnala with a merchant ship?”
“No. I’m not from Sarnala. Not a werewolf. I’m a human.”
“A human...” his voice dropped.
The smile slipped from his pretty face. His gaze fell on Kye, who rose from his rock behind me, and my potential dance partner froze in his spot.
“Unhand her,” the king growled.
“I’m...uh.” The poor lad jerked his arm away from me, but I grabbed his hand before he had a chance to retreat.
“I very much would like to dance,” I said, holding Kye’s glare firmly.
“You said you don’t know how,” the stranger reminded me, hopefully. He clearly regretted his offer now when faced with Kye’s wrath.
“But I’d like a chance to try,” I insisted, not moving my focus away from the king. “Or am I a prisoner and need to ask for permission for everything I do?”
Kye glowered at the man, then looked at me. He rotated his wrist, winding another loop of the beaded cord around his arm—a gesture that shortened the cord, reeling me in to him.
I raised my chin in silent challenge.
“Go ahead, do it,” I dared him in my mind.
“Yank on the cord, Kye, pull me by the leash like a misbehaving pet, yell at me. Give me a better reason to hate you. Because I clearly don’t have enough.
Hate would be so much more logical and far less confusing than whatever it is I’ve been feeling for you all this time. ”
I waited and dreaded for his temper to snap, for him to manhandle me, now that he finally had the means to do so.
“What are you waiting for?” I dared him. “Yank on the leash. Bring me to heel.”
He worked his jaw, his diamond-sharp eyes hurling daggers. His hands fisted the beads so hard, if they were still of wood, he would’ve cracked them.
Then he moved his burning stare from me to the poor siren whose hand I’d trapped in mine.
“If even a single hair falls from her head,” he roared at the unwitting victim of our power battle. “I’ll have your flesh flayed from your bones strip by strip, then I will serve it with herbs and butter at my next dinner party.”
The man swallowed hard, probably cursing the moment when he’d decided to pay any attention to me at all. Unsure whether to feel relieved or disappointed that Kye managed to keep his temper under control, I slipped the bead cord off my wrist, then tugged on the stranger’s hand.
“Don’t worry. He doesn’t throw dinner parties,” I said to him quietly as we walked toward the water’s edge. “Teach me how you move in the water like that.”
“You’ll need fins for that.” He pointed at his friends, who had their colorful fins already open on their calves.
Color was returning to his cheeks the farther from Kye we walked. His smile was gaining strength too.
“I’m Maren,” I said for what felt like the thousandth time that day. After several days spent with only Kye for a company, meeting so many new people felt exciting if a little overwhelming.
“I’m Evis.” He grinned. “Take off your shoes, Maren. Dancing is best done barefoot.”
In addition to singing coming from everywhere, a cheerful melody filled the air. A small music band was playing in the waves farther from the shore. I spotted a lute, a violin, and something that looked like a horn made from a long, spiraled seashell.
Holding my hand, Evis waded into the ocean about knee-deep and positioned us behind a tilted tree growing from the water.
Upon a closer look, I realized it wasn’t a tree, but a crooked dead coral branch.
Hollow inside, it served as a support for seaweed that grew through it.
Mint and lavender colored ribbons of the seaweed had made their way out of the openings in the coral and now draped down it all the way back to the water.
They swayed in the breeze like some festive decoration.
Just like the people of Olathana who moved seamlessly between water and air, its plants also thrived in both environments.
“We’ll stay on this side of the coral,” Evis said, gesturing at his friends who were churning the ocean surf into a frenzy of white, foamy water on the other side. “I don’t want their fins to accidentally scratch you.”
“Thanks. I just learned today that the fins are dangerous.”
“They are. We learn not to hurt anyone by accident, but it’s best to keep away, especially since, you know...” he threw a cautious glance in Kye’s direction. “You’re a human.”
Barefoot now, I stopped to face him, and he gingerly put his hands on both sides of my waist. I seethed inside, angry with Kye for scaring my dance partner out of his wits.
Evis didn’t open his fins at all, holding himself so stiffly, I feared he’d end up stepping on my foot or worse, refuse to dance with me altogether.
He bobbed his head to the cheerful music for a beat or two, then thankfully, seemed to cheer up a bit.
“Follow my lead!” He took me for a spin in a circle.
I honestly expected to trip in the surf and fall.
But the water under our feet spun along with us.
It moved in the same direction Evis was leading me, pushing around my ankles and giving me speed.
The steps were simple, and I caught up quickly.
Soon, I was able not to stare or even think about my feet but look at Evis’s grinning face.
“Maren, is that you?” a familiar voice called.
Evis stopped spinning me, and I came face to face with a smiling Elina. She was barefoot too, which made me think that people of Olathana only wore shoes in the glass palace, for obvious reasons.