Archer waited for her, deeper out to sea. He floated in the sunlight where the sand gave way to darkness. Spears of light heated his shoulders with splashes of yellow. His long hair floated around his head and the tattoos on his arms appeared even darker in the water.
His billowing white shirt shifted, revealing flashes of skin and hard muscles that would have made her cheeks heat if she wasn’t already chilled. His pants were plastered to his strong legs.
The man was mostly muscle. If any of her friends from school could see her now, they would be so jealous.
Not that she cared what they thought. Those girls had made fun of her so much when she was a kid. The webbed fingered freak now had a handsome faerie king who begged her to return to his arms. Because she set his soul ablaze.
She could get used to treatment like this.
River swam toward him, awkward in the waves trying to help her along.
He grinned, his teeth flashing brilliant like the scales of a fish. “You’ll get used to it, I promise.”
“How do you swim so easily? You’re not even kicking your legs.” She’d watched him when he’d first taken her into the ocean. He barely even tried to swim, he just... moved.
“Faerie magic,” he replied. And then he did it again, floating toward her like he strode upon the currents.
Archer waited for her, hovering just out of her reach.
Trust. Again. He let her decide even though she wasn’t certain that was such a smart idea. What if she made the wrong choice? What if this would ruin him because he was with a half-breed?
Another voice whispered in her mind, the one that came straight from the ocean itself. “What if you’re just scared?”
River reached out and grabbed his hand. She was ready. Ready for adventure, for dangers, for whatever he would show her because life wasn’t worth it if she wasn’t living.
And he made her feel alive.
The moment her hand touched his, a zing of magic spread through her entire body. Her skin glowed with it, like the glitter of morning light on the surface of the ocean.
He took her far away, running on the currents, pushed by magic until she couldn’t tell how fast they were going. Only that everything was a blur. Did they pass a whale? She wouldn’t have known until he finally slowed them down.
They were so deep in the ocean that light didn’t touch them. She couldn’t see anything at all, but his hand was still wrapped around hers.
“Are you ready?” he asked, his voice echoing in her mind.
“For what?”
He chuckled and tugged her back against his chest. “Watch.”
Archer cupped the back of her hand with his and reached them forward. She touched something that felt like a balloon. He drew back their hands and thumped whatever the strange texture was and all of a sudden, the entire ocean lit up with light.
Pinks, purples, blues, all dancing through the tops of a thousand jellyfish. Even their tendrils lit up in a thousand unique colors, all elegant and glowing like stars.
Now that she could see, Archer released her to float on her own. “Don’t touch anything but their tops,” he warned. “They’ll give you a zap.”
River tucked her arms into her sides. The last thing she wanted was to get electrocuted by a jellyfish.
He swam through them, carefully avoiding any of their dangling limbs, tapping their tops as he went. They glowed different colors every time he touched them.
“What are they?” she asked, fascinated by the rainbows. She’d never heard of a jellyfish that could change its color. Or even jellyfish that could glow.
“We’ve always called them faerie lanterns,” he replied.
One of them got too close to him and she flinched when he almost touched a tendril. What would happen to him if he was electrocuted? He made it sound as though it would stop his heart and he’d float down to the bottom of the ocean. Or maybe that was just her own worries coming through.
She must have made a sound of warning, because he glanced her way with a bright grin. “Don’t worry, I won’t let them touch me.”
She wasn’t so certain he had a choice. The more she looked, the more jellyfish she saw. Thousands of them, all floating in the middle of the sea like they were just waiting for something to happen.
“Are they faeries then?” she asked. River shifted forward, kicking her feet and making sure none were too close.
“In a sense. They’re an animal who has faerie magic deep inside them. Sometimes, faeries affect the world around them. Changing things.”
So the magic didn’t just stay with faeries then. One of the jellyfish floated a little too close to her, but she could see the color pulsing inside it was magic. It had the same luminescent glow he had when he let his power flow through him.
Magical creatures as well as magical faeries. She could deal with that. Right?
“Okay,” she said. “They’re beautiful.”
Someone tapped her shoulder and River was certain she had a heart attack and died on the spot. She couldn’t whirl around in the water fast enough, only to realize Archer must have swam up behind her without her realizing. A wave of bubbles floated out of her mouth, and the last bit of air in her lungs from the surface escaped her lips.
He laughed, the sound muffled by the ocean but still beautiful. Archer placed a hand on her hip and tugged her close to him. “Is this not beautiful enough to change your mind?”
“What is my mind supposed to be changing about?”
He narrowed his eyes. “You haven’t changed it yet then, I see. Shall we continue?”
There was more?
River let him whisk her away from the jellyfish field and ran along the currents with him again. Where were they going? And what was he trying to change her mind about?
Was he trying to convince her to move to the ocean? She couldn’t do that. Dad needed her far too much for her to pack her bags and live in the water like some kind of demented Little Mermaid.
Farther into the currents they went, this time closer to shore. A kelp forest rose beneath their feet, stretching up in long, leafy tangles. Beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. Although, she supposed that was a good way to describe her life with him in it.
“A kelp forest?” she asked.
River couldn’t imagine what kind of faeries lived here until one streaked past her. The grey body barreled through the waves after a small fish who screamed as it swam. She might have laughed at the high pitched voice if she hadn’t then heard it cut short by snapping jaws.
She looked into the kelp forest again, and this time she saw eyes staring back at her. Hundreds of dark eyes, large and watery in faces that were familiar.
“Seals?” she gasped. Were these her pod? The ones she’d drawn a thousand times?
Archer wrapped his hand around her ribs and held her at his side. “No, not seals, River. They’re selkies.”
She remembered the stories when she was little. Women and men who walked through the human realm but hid a secret seal skin that allowed them to return to the waves. Intelligent eyes stared back at her, their faces grinning in the darkness.
The smallest of the seals, barely more than a baby, swam toward her. It barked out a sound, then surfaced for a lungful of air.
She could see its tiny fat body floating about them and beneath the skin, the image of a human child. Just the barest of hints, but it was there all the same.
A larger form emerged from between the kelp fronds. The largest male seal she’d ever seen, with blubber rolling around him as he swam to a stop in front of her. She was absolutely terrified he’d attack until she looked into his eyes and recognized who it was.
These really were the seals she drew every day. Only, the male who led them wasn’t a selkie. Maybe they were a mixed pod, or maybe she simply hadn’t realized who they were. But these were the seals she’d spent so many hours with. The ones who had calmed her when she was sad.
Her eyes wide, she watched the male nod his head
and then dart off after a fish. The other seals and selkies followed, their laughter echoing in the waves.
Archer squeezed her side, drawing her close to his heartbeat and pressing his lips against her hair. “You didn’t know you were surrounded by faeries your whole life, did you?”
She didn’t have an answer for that. She’d only experienced a life wishing magic was real. Now, she realized it existed right underneath her nose.
River tried so hard to keep her emotions in check. She tried so hard to blame him for all the nonsense that had happened. Now, after all these gifts and experiences he’d given her, she realized she’d been foolish to push him away.
Archer didn’t want to hurt her. He didn’t want to see her sad or to tease her for whatever blood ran in her veins. The only thing he wanted from her was to see the beauty in his world, and for her to enjoy herself.
Why had she denied all those things? All that support and adoration?
Turning to his chest, she pressed her cheek to the flat planes of his pectorals. “Thank you,” she thought in her mind, pressing the words against his revealed skin with her lips. “Thank you for showing me all this, and for not giving up on me.”
“Giving up?” His laughter promised that would never happen. He’d follow her to the ends of the earth and convince her a thousand times that the sea was perfect for her. This place was her home.
River could only hope she wasn’t being fanciful. She hoped he really thought those things that made her heart soar, and that she wasn’t just being a romantic.
She never thought to fall in love with the ocean like this. It was dangerous. Bad for her. All the things her father feared.
And yet, floating in the waves with the laughter of selkies dancing in her ears, tucked in the arms of a faerie king, only made her see the world for all its beauty. She was happy. Truly happy for the first time in a very long time.
River pulled back to stare up into Archer’s eyes. “What else is there to see?”
He grinned. “Everything.”
17
They spent weeks exploring the ocean. River met him on the shore every morning at the same time. He showed her so many wondrous things it made her head spin.
Sea nymphs played with her hair, each one made of something different in the ocean. One of seaweed. Another built like a jellyfish. One was entirely invisible in the water, made of saltwater and bubbles.
She met some of his court as well. Faeries who were stoic and noble with their noses in the air. They looked like mermaids, although she didn’t dare call them such a plain name.
Still, one of the females approached her the first time they met. Her tail was a lovely deep purple and her hair matched the color. She looked deep into River’s eyes and then touched a hand to her cheek. The mermaid stroked just underneath her eye for a moment before flicking her fins and returning to the others.
River didn’t know what that meant, but it felt as though they had just accepted her. After that meeting, the other faeries she was introduced to seemed more interested in her.
Now, she swam beside Archer for another day of adventure. A faerie floated past them, and she looked like a giant squid. Her long tentacles were twelve feet long and her top half was that of a beautiful woman. When River gasped and tried to pretend she hadn’t been staring, the faerie grinned and pointed down.
Three other giant squid faeries swam below her. They moved in a graceful dance as one, their tentacles twisting together and unraveling as they twirled around each other.
And the longer River stayed in the ocean, the more she realized it teemed with life and sound. Sometimes there was so much noise it was like she was at a concert.
Some of the faeries sang constantly. Others mimicked the whales as they called out.
“What is all the sound?” she asked Archer as they ran across the currents to the next exciting thing he wanted to show her.
“The faeries sing to keep track of each other. Also because the ocean likes to listen to their songs.”
She pondered the strange words. The ocean liked to listen? The ocean wasn’t a living being, or at least, she hadn’t thought it was.
River tugged on his hand. “Archer? What do you mean the ocean is listening?”
The grin on his face was a little chiding, as though she hadn’t paid attention in school. “Of course it is. You haven’t felt her calling to you? She sings about you often.”
Her? River? The little half-breed whose mother didn’t want her?
She sputtered, “But why would she sing about me?”
“She’s the mother to all sea creatures, but the ocean has always had a soft place for those whose parents don’t want them.” Archer squeezed her fingers. “She just wants to make sure you know you’re loved.”
Well, that was the perfect way to make her cry.
The water surrounding her squeezed tighter around her ribcage and shoulders. As if the ocean itself was telling her everything would be fine. She was home, and that home wouldn’t go anywhere no matter how many times she left.
River took a deep breath of water and salt, driving it deep into her being and absorbing whatever magic still lingered within it. The webs between her fingers ached. Her hair stood on end. And her skin glowed like it did whenever she drank the magic from the well.
Someday, she’d ask Archer to teach her how to use it. She wanted to play with magic the way real faeries did. She wanted to see what the limits of her abilities were.
As if he knew, he stopped them in their movements along the currents and drew her into his arms. River pressed her hands against his chest, feeling his heartbeat against her fingertips, and told herself to breathe. He was perfect, yes. But she could still think when she was touching his warm muscles and the heat of his abs pressed against her chest and belly.
“River?” he asked, his voice echoing in her mind. “Are you all right?”
She meant to say yes. She was more than all right. She was perfect, wonderful, incredible. These past few weeks had been everything she’d ever wanted and shown her so many things that made her dreams soar every night.
Except, she didn’t get a chance to say any of that.
An echo thundered through the water, shaking the waves and churning the very sea. The scream burst through her ears and made her see stars behind her eyes. River and Archer released each other. Both lifting their hands to press against their ears where blood plumed in the water.
“What is that?” she tried to shout, but even her mind felt fractured. Delicate. She couldn’t focus on anything but the agony in her head.
“The ocean is in pain,” Archer replied. There was a dangerous edge to his voice that turned it into a sharpened blade.
How could the ocean feel? River had only just found out that the ocean was an actual being, with thoughts and emotions.
She didn’t have time to ask Archer. He turned and raced back to the currents that swept him away, far from her sight so she couldn’t shout for his help before he disappeared.
Had his eyes changed color? She swore they were glowing blue with power before he had disappeared.
Worry twisted her stomach into a knot. River was floating in the middle of the ocean, with no idea where she was, and no idea if she was supposed to follow him. Did he want her to? She didn’t know if he wanted her to stay put or race after him.
Tentatively, she reached out a hand and swirled it in the dark waters. “Um, ocean? I know you’re in pain right now, and I don’t know if you can even hear me. But if you can, can you help me find him?”
The most gentle of nudges pressed against her spine. It shoved her toward the current that had taken them this far, and all River could do was trust that the ocean was guiding her and not some stray wave.
What a strange turn her life had taken.
She straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and swam to the currents. It took her a lot longer than it had taken Archer, but she wasn’t using magic to help herself. Instead, she swam like a nor
mal human to the currents that then swept her away.
Riding them without Archer guiding her was a lot harder. She tumbled about this way and that, her body turning while she struggled against the strength of the ocean. Apparently it would help guide her, but didn’t care enough to not tumble her about like clothes in a dryer.
Finally she realized the water was slowing. The current spat her out upside down somewhere dark and ominous.
Waves crashed over her head. She could hear them slapping down upon each other but the water was dark. Too dark.
She lifted a hand in front of her face, only to realize this wasn’t even water. Everywhere in the ocean she’d been able to see her own hands, even in the darkest of depths. But here, something prevented that from happening.
River frowned, swirling her hands in the water and lifting them to her face.
A thick, viscous fluid clung to her fingers. In the meager light from above, she could just barely see rainbows dancing on the surface of the strange liquid.
Oil.
Looking up to the surface, she whispered, “Oh no.”
An oil spill was disastrous no matter when it happened. It decimated the local wildlife and poisoned the waters for years to come.
Archer was here, somewhere, and she had to find him. She had to warn him that oil would only hurt everyone within a mile or more, but the humans would try their best to stop its spread. They could warn the creatures, help them move, do whatever they could.
But his eyes had glowed blue with power. Power the faerie Tide thought could end the world if she didn’t stop him.
This was what the faerie had meant, she realized. All Archer needed was something to tip him over the edge, and if she wasn’t there, he might actually end the world.
“Archer!” River struggled to the surface, kicking her feet and using her webbed fingers to propel her through the water. She had to get to him. There had to be time for her to do something, just like Tide said.
If that power overwhelmed him, if it took over his entire being like it had with her mother and the undines... River didn’t want to think about what might happen. It was too much for her to bear.
King of the Sea Page 13
