“Well, yes,” said Serena, pricked again by that little needle of guilt, questioning if she had in fact been a needlessly rebellious daughter, if Moira really had always had her best interests at heart. “But murder isn’t a small favor.”
“It is if no one will ever know it was murder, never know you did it. It is if it will also help you. Really, it’s a compromise, not a favor. And you do want your love potion, do you not?”
“Yes, but I…” said Serena, wringing her hands, the waves of conflicting emotions still crashing in her head, “I need to think about it.”
Moira’s jaw clenched. Hazel’s eyes darted back and forth between her mother and sister, waiting for the eminent explosion.
“Alright,” said Moira. “Take your time, darling. Just remember, every day you wait is another day that handsome prince is under his mother’s influence.”
“Thank you, Mother,” said Serena with a sigh of relief.
Hazel scowled and swam to her room, her chest rising and falling with the start of fresh sobs.
“Mother,” said Serena, “I have a friend I would like you to meet. He was the one who brought me to Arcanus. I think you’ll like him. He encouraged me to start using my magic. He’s waiting outside in the kelp.”
“Well, by all means bring him in, darling,” said Moira. “I owe him a thank you.”
As Serena swam out of the cave to fetch Casius, Moira smiled. Serena was already on the hook; she just didn’t know it yet. Moira’s chuckle was a silky purr deep in her throat. I’ll be in the palace in no time, she thought.
— — —
Serena’s old boss, Marissa, was a stocky mermaid with fawn-colored ringlets and a flushed face. She was stern and lacked a sense of humor, but she was kindhearted and fair. Serena went in search of her the next morning, resolved that she would not accept her mother’s deal. She couldn’t. She would get her job as a maid back as a temporary source of income (and as a way to be close to Triton again) while she tried to apply to nursing jobs in Adamar. It would be harder for merpeople to turn her down now that she could prove she had knowledge of the field. Perhaps if she could make something of herself, Triton would take notice, and a love potion wouldn’t be necessary. It won’t be enough, said a little voice inside her that kept growing stronger as she approached the palace and swam through the open atrium doors. You need something to make him see past his engrained prejudices, his mother’s opinion, and his preference for reed-thin redheads. And even if you somehow manage to do all of that without magic, Amphitrite will do everything she can to make your life hell.
But what else could she do? Take the deal, the little voice whispered as she searched the palace hallways for Marissa, praying she wouldn’t swim into Amphitrite. You deserve to be happy. Amphitrite is unfit. She deserves to be dethroned. Triton needs you.
“Serena!” said Marissa, appearing around the corner. “My goodness, when did you get back?”
“Just yesterday,” said Serena, her smile sheepish.
“I heard about what happened,” said Marissa, her voice low, her face morose. “That was just awful of her.” She looked around nervously, afraid someone might overhear her speaking badly of the queen. “You didn’t deserve that sort of treatment. Yes, maybe you lost your head there for a moment, but there was no need for her to be so…” her head swiveled around again, searching, “so cruel.”
“Thank you, Marissa, but I’ve put it behind me. I’m sorry I swam off without giving you any notice. It was childish of me. I hope you can forgive me.”
“You put me in quite a fix,” said Marissa, her face settling into her usual stern expression, “swimming off right before a big party like that.” Serena hung her head. “But I forgive you. I was your age once. I understand.”
“Thank you,” said Serena. She bit her lip and glanced at Marissa from beneath her eyelashes. “I was hoping that maybe I could get my job back.”
Marissa put her hand on the top of her purple tail and looked Serena up and down. Serena tried to look her sweetest.
“Oh, alright,” said Marissa with a huff of breath. “I can always use another hardworking maid. The one I hired to replace you is useless.”
“Thank you so much. I promise, no more swimming off. I’ll give you notice next time I quit,” said Serena with a wink. “I’m not going to be a maid forever, you know.”
Marissa put Serena to work right away. She sent her up to the fifth floor to clean up broken cutlery. Triton had had a party and, according to Marissa, “It looks like a whale swam through there.”
No sooner had Serena swam over top of the fifth floor balcony when she heard a familiar voice below her that sent a tingle of excitement all the way down to her tail fins. She clutched onto the balcony and looked down into the atrium.
“Mother?” Triton called again as he swam into view.
The sight of him after such a long time took her breath away. Her fingers ached to touch his face and feel the roughness of his blonde, short-trimmed beard. Her lungs ached to speak to him. Her ears ached to hear him say her name.
“Mother?” he called again.
Amphitrite appeared from another corridor. “Right here, dear,” she said. Serena’s blood began to surge, tingling her skin as the magic in her blood awakened with the sudden anger brought on by the sight of Amphitrite.
“What did you need me for so urgently? I was in the middle of an audience with a mollusk farmer,” said Triton.
“By yourself?”
“Dad’s letting me do audiences on my own sometimes now. He says I need to start learning how to do other royal duties besides battle training. Now, what is it? I told the farmer I’d be back in just a moment.”
“Oh, forget the peasant, dear,” said Amphitrite with a wave of her hand and a tinkling laugh. “You’ll soon learn they’re always whining about something or other, and it’s hardly ever over anything worth our time. I sent for you because I need to know what sort of party you would like for your twenty-first birthday.”
“Mother, my birthday is over a month away.”
“Yes, but it’s never too early to start planning. It needs to be perfect.”
“Mother, I’ll talk to you about it later. I really need to get back to the audience hall.”
“Nonsense, dear,” said Amphitrite, grabbing Triton’s wrist when he tried to swim away, “the peasant can wait. You’re a prince, Triton. If the peasants want your help, they must wait for you; you don’t have to rush and worry yourself into a tizzy about them.”
“But, Mother.”
“Don’t argue with me, Triton. You know how it gives me a headache. Please, just make your mother happy and tell me what you want for your birthday. Don’t you love me, dear?”
“Yes, of course I do, Mother, it’s just that…”
“Well then act like it and make me happy, won’t you?” said Amphitrite, pouting like a child.
Triton sighed heavily, his muscular chest visibly rising and falling. “Alright, Mother, but only for a moment. Then I really have to get back.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” said Amphitrite, dragging him along by the wrist as she swam back down the corridor she had come from. “Now, would you like a theme, or do you just want something classy?”
When they were out of sight, Serena wrinkled her nose and made a sound of disgust with her throat.
“That spoiled, wicked little sea snake,” she said, a growl in her voice.
There was a loud crack, and Serena pulled her hands off the balcony as if it had shocked her. There was a long crack in the stone where her hands had been. She raised her hands and stared at her palms in wonder. A wry smile lit her face, and if she had had a mirror at that moment, she would have been shocked to find how much she looked like Moira.
— — —
“I accept the deal, Mother,” said Serena, swimming into the cave and startl
ing Casius and Moira out of what seemed to be a deep conversation.
Moira rose from her starfish chair, adjusting her coral crown, her eyes alight with a glimmer that made Serena uneasy. She swam towards Serena with her hands outstretched.
“That’s wonderful, darling, just wonderful,” she said, clasping Serena’s hands in hers. “Casius and I were just saying we hoped you’d make the right decision. It really is the only way.”
“Well, actually,” said Casius, “I simply said I hoped she would embrace her magic.”
“Same thing,” said Moira with a dismissive toss of her head.
Serena looked over her mother’s shoulder at Casius and searched his pearly eyes.
“It does seem to be the only way,” he said after a moment. Serena nodded solemnly.
“Let’s get down to business!” said Moira, alarmingly cheery.
She snapped her fingers and a large, thick role of paper made from pressed kelp leaves appeared in the water beside her head. The contract agreement was already etched on it in ink. Serena had seen Moira do this many times, but Moira raised her eyebrows and smiled like the trick was brand new.
“You’ll be able to use magic for small things like that without potions or spells once I teach you how to control it,” she said.
With a flourish of her hand, a quill pen made from a gull feather appeared between Moira’s fingers. Serena knew no ink bottle was required. Extracting ink from a bottle underwater was tricky and messy business, so Moira had enchanted the pen to draw ink for itself from seemingly nowhere. Serena read the contract carefully, looking for any of Moira’s signature hidden clauses tossed in amongst boring legal jargon so they would be easily overlooked.
“Oh, come and get on with it, Serena,” said Moira, the familiar snarl back in her voice for a moment.
Serena said nothing and calmly finished reading while Moira heaved theatrical sighs, and then she signed her name at the bottom with a shaky hand, her stomach in knots, her breathing shallow. She had pitied and even sometimes hated the merpeople who signed such contracts, and yet, now she had just finished doing it herself. She swallowed hard and looked at her grinning mother like a child who had been caught doing wrong.
“And of course, it’s completely unbreakable, dear,” said Moira in a single breath, snapping her fingers again and making the pen and paper disappear, “and there will be dire consequences for breaking it.”
“Yes, Mother,” said Serena with a roll of her eyes. “I actually read it, remember? I won’t break it.”
“Let’s get started then, shall we?” Moira grabbed Serena’s wrist and pulled her to the empty cauldron. “It’s really quite simple. It will be for you at least.”
Serena looked up at the remark and saw exactly what she had expected—Hazel lurking in the corridor like a wounded animal. Serena almost asked Moira to let Hazel help, hoping it would bring a smile to Hazel’s face, but realized it would only give Moira an excuse to give Hazel another snide, hurtful dismissal.
“There’s really not any magic involved until the end,” said Moira, hovering over Serena so closely that her long, black hair tickled Serena’s arms. “Just add the ingredients that I tell you to, and only in the amounts that I tell you to, or the whole thing will be ruined and you will have proven yourself to be as useless as your sister.”
Moira was testing Serena as she had done with Hazel when she first started learning. She hovered and barked orders and threatened that one tiny mistake would ruin everything. It made Hazel go all to pieces. She had failed all Moira’s tests miserably, and now Moira just did it to her for the fun of it. Serena took a deep breath. She was not scared of her mother, but she was scared to use her magic.
“Ten whole oyster shells,” said Moira suddenly and loudly. Serena flinched. “For lust and desire,” added Moira with a wink.
Serena found the shells amongst the ingredients on the many shelves with ease and dropped them into the cauldron where they landed with a small plunk. Gravity seemed to pull harder inside the cauldron, ensuring that even the lightest of ingredients did not float away in the water. Moira nodded stoically.
“The hair of a virgin maiden, for innocence and tenderness.”
Serena extracted the blonde curl from a vial and dropped it in. The cauldron sucked it down like a greedy mouth.
“Three pink pearls to make it rich and rare.”
Into the cauldron they went, the last of Moira’s supply. As they hit the bottom, Serena felt a strange current of energy tingle through her outstretched hand, and suddenly the water in the cauldron glowed lavender and Serena could not see any of the ingredients in the cauldron’s belly.
“Excellent!” said Moira. Her hair began to slither around her like black snakes and her red lips turned up in smile.
“I thought you said no magic was involved until the end. Is that the end?”
“No. I lied,” said Moira with a shrug. “I wanted to see if your powers would present themselves on their own without you consciously channeling them. It should have glowed from the moment you added the first ingredient, but it’s a start.”
Serena sputtered, unsure whether to be angry at Moira or not, and surprised by the feeling of pride swelling in her chest.
“A turtle shell to make it last,” said Moira, snapping her fingers in front of Serena’s face.
Serena concentrated on trying to reproduce the tingling surge of magic as she picked up the shell. She closed her eyes and kept her hand outstretched over the cauldron as she dropped the shell in. This time, she was more aware of the power as it surged through her. It started as a warm sensation in the middle of her torso, just below her breasts. She concentrated on it and felt it fill up her chest and make her heart race and then travel down her right arm and into her fingertips. The potion turned a rosy pink.
“And finally, the blood of a witch to make it strong and binding.”
Serena looked at Moira, aghast.
“Just a few drops will do,” said Moira with a wicked smile.
She pulled a small bone knife from the shelf and held it out to Serena, who took it with a shaking hand. Serena sucked in a shivering breath and slit her left ring finger, the one she hoped would soon wear a wedding band, and winced. When three drops had fallen, the potion rose up in a roaring whoosh of bright pink smoke. Serena flinched back, surprised.
“You’d better let me do the next part,” said Moira. “It requires delicacy and skill. Although, you should get there in no time.”
An unexpected smile lit up Serena’s face at the praise, and she blushed. Moira reached far back in one of her many cubby holes carved into the stone wall of the cave, shoving aside tinkling bottles and stone basins and clam shell containers, and pulled out a heart-shaped golden locket that had probably been ripped from the skeleton of the poor human girl wearing it inside a sunken ship.
Moira began to sing under her breath. Serena could not understand any of the words, but she recognized them as old Atlantian. The pink love potion began to slither out of the cauldron. It flowed in a long, twisting line from the cauldron, up to Moira’s hand, and into the locket she clasped in it. The locket glowed pink until all of the potion had been sucked into it and Moira quit singing, and then it reverted to its original gold.
“There you are,” said Moira, clasping the locket around Serena’s neck. The gold was cool against her breastbone. “The spell to get the potion out of the locket and into Triton is much simpler. Imbuing the locket with the potion’s powers and binding them together is the hard part. Once you’ve said the spell and the potion has taken effect, you must keep the locket on. It is what will bind him to you and you alone. Don’t ever let anyone else wear it. When you want to break the spell, simply take it off and put it away or break it. Now, let’s make Amphitrite’s poison, shall we?”
“We?” said Serena, fear gripping her heart. Using her
magic to make the love potion had been fun, exhilarating even, but she had sworn she would never use her magic for wicked things like Moira did. She had promised herself making the love potion was the only magic she would ever allow herself to do. It was unavoidable, inescapable, so she had done it, but that was it.
“Yes, darling,” said Moira, her voice cold as stone. “You remember your part of the bargain, don’t you?”
“Yes,” said Serena, hanging her head at the thought. “I agreed to poison Amphitrite, but I didn’t agree to make the poison. Read your contract again.”
Moira’s mouth was a hard line. Her hair stood on end around her. The violet flame appeared in her eyes but did not consume the irises…not yet at least. Serena knew she was going over the contract in her head, trying to member if Serena’s involvement in making the potion was specified.
“Fine,” said Moira, her voice high and dangerous, “I’ll make it myself, you ungrateful child. Get out of my sight before I decide the poison needs some witch’s blood too!”
Serena lowered her head submissively and did as she was told, swimming towards the corridor.
“Oh, and by the way,” said Moira, stopping Serena and chilling her blood with the malicious smile on her face, “you’d better hope Triton’s real true love doesn’t ever show up while the two of you are living your happily ever after. True love’s kiss will break the spell, whether you want it broken or not.”
“I am his true love,” said Serena, her cheeks burning with an angry flush.
“I guess we’ll see about that,” said Moira.
— — —
“Tatiana, wait!” called Serena, swimming full speed up to the third balcony level.
Amphitrite’s pretty handmaiden turned around, the queen’s lunch tray in her hands.
The Sea Witch (The Era of Villains Book 1) Page 8
