She made her way to the stairs, and he didn’t follow her. Every step felt like her heart was breaking. Just being this far away from him didn’t feel right. She wanted to run back into his arms and beg him not to leave.
Infatuation was a deadly beast. She was strong, though. Stronger than her need to feel loved by someone other than her family.
She could survive this without the handsome faerie king who had stolen her away in the night. Like she said, it had been fun while it lasted. Like a fairytale she’d conjured out of the storybooks her father used to read to her.
All good things ended, however. And now she needed to lick her wounds.
She padded up the stairs, clambered over the locked gate, and then plodded to the glass door that would let her into her childhood home. The one she’d lived in her entire life.
Was that weird? Should she be considering leaving, or becoming someone else? She didn’t know what she was supposed to do with her life.
But then again, River hadn’t even realized she was floating in a sea of nothing here. Not until a faerie boy had wandered into her life and turned everything upside down.
Sighing, she opened the door quietly, stepping into her home that always smelled like sea spray and sunshine.
“You’re home late.” Her father’s voice interrupted her sneaking.
She should have known he’d stay up. She’d disappeared with a strange man he didn’t know and then stayed out all night. Her phone was still in Archer’s car.
Damn it.
River sighed and closed the door firmly. “Hi, Dad.”
“Care to tell me where you were?”
No. She wanted a few moments to herself so she could break down as she processed.
Her mother.
Archer.
Dad.
Faeries.
All the lies and the secrets that had turned her into the person she was. The secrets she should have known since she was very little.
He deserved to know. But she wasn’t ready to tell him, not yet.
River didn’t respond. Instead, she plodded toward her room.
“Where do you think you’re going, young lady?” Anger made her father’s voice even deeper, and it was the first time he’d ever used such a tone with her. “I’ve been up all night worrying about you.”
“Dad, I don’t...” The words stuck in her throat. She couldn’t talk about this. Not right now. Not when all she could think of was breaking up with a faerie.
“Come here.”
She was twenty-four years old. She shouldn’t feel like she had to jump when her father said so. But she did.
Tears in her eyes, she walked to the sunken living room. The couches were grey, just like the rest of the house. Dad sat in the sectional's corner with an empty wine glass in his hand and his shoulders stiff with tension.
Instead of sitting next to him, River sat down hard on the ottoman right in front of her father. She leaned on her knees and stared down at her hands. “We have a lot to talk about.”
“I should think we do.”
“Not like what you think.” She took a deep breath and dove in. Why not make today worse? “I met Mom.”
Going right to the point might have been attacking his jugular. But she needed to make the anger disappear from his eyes so he understood this conversation wasn’t about her leaving in the middle of the night. She was a grown woman, she was allowed to do whatever she wanted. This conversation was so much more than that.
The anger visibly leaked out of her father. He lifted the empty wine glass to his lips. “How did you meet her?”
“I met another faerie,” she replied. “It’s such a long story and I should have told you from the beginning. But I didn’t know who he was, and I thought it was just something fun. I liked him and then...”
When she stopped talking, choked by emotion, her father reached for her hands. He squeezed them tight in his. “And then he let you down. The man at the party?”
She nodded, chin quivering. A few heartbeats passed before she got herself under control. “I know you said to never go into the sea. I thought if I was with him, then I might find out where I came from. Who I am.”
“You came from here, this town. And you are my daughter, that’s who you are.”
“No, Dad.” Twin tears slid down her cheeks. “I feel like I’m lost. I don’t know who I am, and I wanted to know. I thought if I knew my history that I could find out all the answers. Instead, I met her and I think I made it all worse.”
He sighed. “Yeah, she, uh... She had a way of doing that to people.”
“Why doesn’t she want me?” River asked, sniffing through the tears and the heartache. “Why did he lie to me, just to get me into the ocean? And why didn’t you tell me what I was?”
“You’re my daughter,” Dad replied. He shrugged. “It doesn’t matter that you’re only half me, and half the sea. You’re still mine.”
“That’s not fair,” she said. Every part of her ached. Her heart, her soul, her body. “I should have known what I was. That I was different for a reason not just because I was some medical marvel or freak. I should have known about the fae.”
“You always knew what you were. You have the world at your feet and whatever you want to be, I will make sure you get it.” Dad shifted off the couch and onto his knees in front of her. He tugged her into his arms and held her against his chest.
Just like when she was a little girl.
River burst into tears. She couldn’t remember the last time she actually hugged her dad. They didn’t have that kind of relationship. Business was business.
But it felt so good to have him holding onto her like he used to. His hands were warm and solid, his shoulders capable of carrying the weight of the world. Just like she used to believe.
Her father could do anything. He was the hero in her story. The superman who could save the world.
She wiped her tears on his shirt. “Is this what you felt like when Mom left? Like your heart had been ripped out of your chest and left to bleed out?”
He nodded. “Falling in love with a faerie is unlike loving any human. They take your heart and they own it forever.”
“I only met him a couple times,” she whispered, turning her cheek against his shoulder and staring into the sunrise. “I shouldn’t feel like this. It was just a couple days.”
“More than enough time to show you magic exists in this world. It’s worse to know it’s there and to lose it, then to remain blissfully ignorant.”
Now she understood why Dad had dated no one else. He hadn’t just been hanging onto the dream of her mother. He’d seen the magic of the world and lost it.
That’s why he’d hung onto River for so long. Because the tiniest bit of magic existed inside her as well.
“How do you get through this?” she asked. “How am I supposed to go on with my regular life and be okay?”
“You just do,” Dad said. “We’re stronger than the loss of a single person. And I don’t know what your mother said to you, but I think it’s important you know you’re loved. I don’t care what that woman said. You’re my daughter and nothing will ever change that.”
“There’s so much I have to tell you.” And she couldn’t. There just wasn’t enough time. Sighing, she pulled away from their hug and wiped her cheeks. “You have to go to work.”
He shook his head. “I think I’ll call in sick today.”
“What? Why?”
Dad reached up and wiped away the tears still staining her cheeks. “Because my daughter needs me. And I think sometimes I forget that. You’ve always been so strong. Occasionally I think you don’t need your old dad anymore.”
Tears welled all over again. River choked out the words, “I do need you, Dad. I really do.”
And so her dad called in to work, brought her a glass of wine at seven in the morning, and she talked for the rest of the day. River held nothing back. She told him every single thing that had happened, no matter how emb
arrassing or angering.
When she was done, her father silently stood, got a third bottle of wine, and poured her another glass. “Well there’s only one thing to do, now.”
“What’s that?” she gulped the wine.
“Move on.”
13
Archer lay on his bed, staring up through the ceiling of water. A few fish swam by, their scales glinting in the dim light of his city. One of them eyed him with a surprised look before it flicked its tail and disappeared from sight.
He could admit the scene he made. Seeing the King of the Sea moping on his bed for the better part of two weeks probably startled most of his court. They’d never seen him as anything other than mischievous and happy.
Of course, he had only been that person, thus far. He’d never experienced this feeling before. This bone deep ache that threatened to drown him.
He lived in the sea. He’d never been afraid of drowning before.
Not until this woman floated into his life. Smelling of sunshine and begging him for whatever amazing adventure he could give her. Apparently, he wasn’t good at adventures. All he did was break things.
An octopus swam overhead. The great billowing body and tentacles would have been beautiful on any other day. Instead, all he could think about was how her hair had floated just like that in his arms.
Her eyes had been so wide with wonder even as he took her somewhere dangerous. She hadn’t cared then. River had said she trusted him.
He’d ruined all that.
How?
Archer wracked his brain for anything he could think of. He’d taken her to the sea, just as she wanted. He’d shown her the most historical place he knew of in the entire ocean, other than Atlantis itself.
Sure, he was the king, and he hadn’t told her that information. Why would he? He didn’t want her to think of him as a king. He was just Archer.
Was it so selfish to desire her to love him for who he was? Not just for being royalty.
He groaned and rolled over. This wasn’t how he wanted to spend his day. Just yesterday he’d promised himself to get out of bed and actually leave this room.
He could do it. All he had to do was swing his legs to the ground. He flopped over and rolled until his feet touched the floor. His back remained pressed against the comfortable mattress, however. And he couldn’t seem to force himself to sit up.
“Well aren’t you a pathetic sight,” Ebb said from the doorway. Her hair was slicked back against her skull so tight he thought she’d squeezed all the water from her kelp locks.
“I feel it,” he grumbled. “I can’t get out of bed today. I know I said I’d host court, but I simply can’t.”
“Why? Because you let a little half-breed get under your skin?”
“Don’t call her that,” he snarled in response.
He was so tired of people insulting her. Every time someone curled their lips around the term, he wanted to throw something.
She was so much more than a half-breed. It didn’t matter that her blood might not run pure. That only gave her more qualities to adore. More questions he wanted to answer.
Ebb rolled her eyes and pulled out a scroll from her back pocket. “Listen to me, Archer. A kingdom doesn’t run without its king.”
Light blazed from inside his chest. Deep and powerful, it lit the room with its glow. The elemental inside him had awoken, again.
The creature had been doing that more often since River left. Almost like the elemental missed her as well, although he knew that couldn’t be possible. The creature didn’t like anyone. It didn’t even like Archer.
Still, it rose to the occasion when Ebb insulted his little human and faerie woman. It spoke using his tongue, warping the words with power older than the ocean. “You will refer to her only by her name, naiad. And I know a kingdom doesn’t run without a king, that is why there are others who can help us in this hour of need.”
“Hour?” she snapped. “It’s been longer than an hour. I hate seeing you like this, and if tough love is what you require to get your ass out of bed, then that’s what I’ll give you. Up. Both of you.”
The elemental hesitated, then surged forward ever stronger. The light burned through his skin until he was nothing more than liquid. “You dare threaten me?”
A dim part of Archer recognized the look of fear on her face. She was terrified by the creature who wanted nothing more than to turn her into a puddle of jellyfish-like goo. And he should have beat back the demon in his chest.
But he couldn’t. He didn’t want to.
Pattering footsteps echoed down the hall to his private quarters and Ebb’s twin, Tide stuck his head into the room. “Your Majesty? Is everything all right?”
“No,” he snarled. “I was reminding your sister that I am king here. And if she wishes to take a tone with me, then there will be retribution.”
Tide gulped. “Right then. Before you render her to seawater, perhaps you and I might talk?”
He didn’t want to talk anymore. Archer was so tired of talking.
Action. He needed to do something, he just didn’t know what would help him. Or her.
Tide put a hand on his sister’s shoulder and gently shoved her out of the way. They clearly thought they were getting the better of Archer, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Let them think they knew how to cool the anger in his chest.
His body solidified again, and the elemental grumbled as it retreated in his mind. It didn’t want to kill the naiads, anyway. They were both too busy wallowing.
Tide stepped into the room and drew the curtain to Archer’s bedroom. “You’ve trashed the place, I see.”
Maybe he had. Archer knew a few weeks ago the room had been clean. Now the coral bed was rumpled, the surrounding plants drooping with neglect. Dead kelp created a curtain around his four poster bed. But the ceiling was perfectly clear for him to stare up into the abyss of darkness pressing down upon him.
“Do I look like I care?” he gritted through his teeth.
Tide shrugged then sat carefully at the edge of his bed. He, too, had slicked his hair back today. Although his tangled locks hung down his back instead of twisted in a bun. “I’ve been through heartache before, Archer. I know what you’re going through.”
How could he? No one had fallen completely and utterly head over heels for a half-breed woman and then lost her because they’d been a dolt.
He curled his fingers into fists so he didn’t wrap them around Tide’s neck. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. No one has seen a half-breed in the ocean for centuries. And you aren’t that old.”
“No, I suppose I’m not.” Tide crossed his legs and rocked side to side. “But I know there’s nothing worse than heartache. Worse than a toothache.”
“What’s the point to this conversation?” Archer wanted him to leave. Out the door and out of his mind. He was done with this conversation already.
“I know how to cure it.”
Now he was talking. That’s what Archer needed. A cure, a spell, something to get her out of his head.
Rolling over onto his stomach, a first in two weeks, he stared down at his hands. He could push himself upright. That’s all it would take for him to stand up and march out of his room. But not yet.
“What’s the cure?” he asked, unsure he even wanted to know.
Tide leaned close and whispered, “Another woman.”
No, that couldn’t be right. Archer couldn’t imagine touching another woman right now. Especially not a faerie who wouldn’t have her skin, her smile, her hair. All of it would be wrong and that wasn’t fair to either of the women involved.
He frowned. “That won’t do. I don’t want anyone else.”
“See, that’s your problem. There’s a world of women out there, beautiful ones might I add, and you’re stuck on a single one.”
“I’m stuck on the most perfect one,” he corrected. “The only one out there who has chocolate hair that shines caramel in the light. The only one
with eyes as deep as the ocean. And-”
Tide interrupted him, “I’m going to vomit. Stop talking.”
Okay, so maybe he’d been a little caught up in his own emotions there. But he really felt like she’d captured his heart.
How was he supposed to let go of a woman like that?
“Look,” he finally said. “I know this all seems crazy, but she was the most incredible person I’ve ever met.”
A confused expression crossed Tide’s face. “She was just a young human, Archer. How could someone that young ever capture your attention?”
He tried to think of the best way to explain his feelings. Or her. But there wasn’t a way to explain River without also explaining her past, where she came from, and the strange way she looked at the world.
Finally, he shrugged. “Have you ever touched an electric jellyfish?”
Tide’s eyebrows raised into his hairline. “I don’t know where you’re going with this, but yes. We all have.”
“And do you remember how the mark remained with you for years afterward? The sting sometimes still aches when the storms roll in.”
“Yes...” Tide hesitated in his response.
“That’s what I’m feeling right now. I know it was wrong to touch her. I know it was wrong to even look at her, but I did. And now I can’t get the sting of her to leave me. She was so unlike any faerie I’ve ever met, Tide. Utterly captivating.”
Tide shifted on the bed, uncrossing his legs and crossing his arms instead. “I can’t say I’ve ever met a woman like that in my life.”
“I don’t know if anyone has,” he said with a chuckle. “That’s the problem, you see. I found a rare pearl in a sea of common stones and I messed up. I let her go and I still don’t know what I did wrong.”
Tide mulled his words over. Archer could almost see the thoughts playing over his friend’s features until he finally sighed. “Well that’s different then, isn’t it?”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
“It’s just hard to believe, is all. We’re faeries! We don’t-” Tide gestured back and forth with his hands. “You know.”
Amused, Archer replied, “No, I don’t.”
King of the Sea Page 10
