by D. K. Combs
“Ambrose?”
He opened one eye, meeting the mortals terrified gaze.
“Your…your tail. It’s back,” she said, voice dripping with remorse.
Joy spread through him. The ocean greedily stroked its way up his fin, to his hips. For the first time in thousands of years, there was no pain. There was no fear or aching. Everything felt perfect.
And all because of the mortal…
He rolled onto his arms, grabbing her wrists. She was kneeling in front of him, right off the shore, her supple breasts pressing together right in front of his face.
Ambrose couldn’t help the smirk, nor could he help dragging her forward. This was his element, and he hadn’t felt this strong in…forever. The powers that Ceto had stolen from him were returned through his connection with the ocean.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” she asked.
He pulled her in so close that he could see the vein thumping in her throat, could see the way she swallowed thickly, and could smell her strange scent.
“Mortal,” he murmured, sliding his hands up her arms. Whatever possessed him to touch her, he wanted to thank. His stomach was not revolting at the action, which was good, because he had to touch her for what he was about to do.
“Yeah?” she asked, her voice but a wisp of air, worry laced through it.
“Tell me your name.” He willed the akrina to dim, making it float around Mari in a soothing, compelling motion.
Her lashes fluttered with confusion. Such long, dark lashes, sweeping over lightly freckled cheeks. He almost smiled.
“Marisabel, but I go by Mari…”
‘Of the beautiful sea,’ he thought, suddenly having no qualms over what he was about to do. Her name and its meaning was proof enough that Fate was pushing them to escape, and this was the only way to do it.
“Well, beautiful Mari, I think it’s time that we leave this place, no?”
She blinked, seeming to snap herself out of a stupor. “Yeah… Yeah, it is… Your tail is glowing really bright, did you know that?”
He did, but he didn’t say so.
Instead, he pushed his hand behind her neck, threading his fingers into the thick blonde locks and dragging her face next to his. “Take a deep breath, Marisabel, and close your eyes.”
She did as he said, following blindly. Her lashes swept over her cheek bones, and he slowly pulled her closer, his shoulders coiling, muscles bunching, getting ready for the attack.
As a burst of light shot from behind him, he jerked Mari into the water, wrapping her in his arms, propelling them into the deeper part of the exit. She didn’t say a thing, her head falling back limply, body sliding against his.
Swallowing, expecting some form of revulsion to shake him, he pushed his hand into her hair again, tilting her head upwards. As his breath feathered over her lips, he felt nothing except predatory completion.
Her lips parted on their own accord, and he closed his eyes.
His mouth covered hers with a groan, and the water around them began to bubble, frothing and foaming. The salty water heated, stinging his skin. As he pressed his open mouth to hers, her tongue met his—
And a tiny part of his soul, the smallest of slivers, left his body with a sigh…and entered Marisabel’s.
Still pressing his mouth to hers, he submerged them under the surface of the ocean…and didn’t pull back until he felt the change begin.
Kai, Servant of the King, and Shepherd of Souls, picked up the water-resistant, leather-bound book and watched as the pages floated open. The ink, magically protected by the powers he contained, glistened. The inscription was delicate and elegant, the words of thousands of years spaced on the waving pages.
The words of kings, knights, and law. All contained in the book.
Stringing from the back of it, the Soul of the Sea undulated behind it, connected to the stone perch that it was bound to. It would forever connect the Book of the Sea to the pillar; should anything happen to it… A shiver slid down his back. Well, he wouldn’t think about that.
His eyes traveled along the walls and entrance, making sure no guards were peeking in on what he was doing.
The marble room was closed-off from the public, the temple created in honor of the Gods and the Book of Souls. It was as big as the throne room, but filled with jewels and gold, adorned with teal and silver curtains in honor of the God that had begun the Book. The ocean floor was covered with white marble plating and lined with teal inscriptions that spoke of the Ancient Warriors, the first of the Atlanteans. At mid-day, the sun shone the brightest through the diamond dome that was in the center of the ceiling.
It was a dazzling sight, one that he was surrounded with at that moment, but it did not take away the urgency or anticipation he was feeling.
“Arigslo magnacia.” He murmured the ancient words, awakening the Book, air bubbles wrapping around the it like a lover’s caress. It thrummed in his hands, light pouring from the pages. His arms heated from the strength of it, but he ignored it. The task at hand was too important to worry about such small things.
A rift had occurred somewhere. He’d felt the change only moments ago when sitting beside his Lord and Lady. It was a chilling feeling, one he had not experienced in ages.
The King had understood and given him leave. Now Kai stood there, above the Book of Souls, and he could only pray that it contained the answers he sought. The sensation had been one of pure menace, a threat to the sea that he recognized all too clearly.
Whatever had caused it, however, was another matter.
The pages flipped open, back and forth, pushing through the water with a speed that showed its worry. Many thought that the Book of Souls was just that…a book. A book given to them by a stranger, a book that held the fables of old and the lies of knights.
He knew differently.
The Atlantean Gods had graced his people with this book in the hopes of keeping a repeat of The Destruction from happening. They’d placed inside of it the greatest known tales of the Atlanteans and their law. They’d given their new king direction, and the Royal Family was once again restored to its true power.
Only he knew the truth, a curse that he had lived with since the beginning of time.
The pages continued to flip, reading what he felt and trying to find an answer, when he saw something that chilled him to his very soul. Never before had this occurred, not even when The Destruction had befallen them.
Black streams and blood-red splotches were surrounding the Soul of the Sea, orbiting the thread like a galaxy of threats and discord. Panic assailed him, a fear unlike any he had ever felt before causing his chest to seize and his lungs to freeze.
“No,” he whispered, shock ridding him of rational thought. “This…this cannot be. Not now, not when things are so prosperous.”
But alas, the proof was in front of him. The Soul of the Sea was blackening right before his eyes, and he had no clue—
The pages stopped flipping.
In the dim aquatic glow of the spacious room that honored the book, the pages that it had spread open to were blinding. He could barely believe what he was seeing, but as he registered the words and their meanings, the danger was prominent.
And…good. Desired.
Kai could not comprehend why he felt this way, but as the story began to unfold before his eyes, the tale of a deceived king whose life was stolen from him by the jealousy of one woman…the redemption at the end of the tale was patent.
The Book floated out of his hands. Projecting the story as clear as if he were there, he saw what was to come, and saw that the Sea was not in danger…but someone just as important was.
The sole heir, the First Ruler, and the man who had caused so much destruction and pain, that he’d been shunned by the very people he had sought to protect.
He was pressed against a strange cave wall, shoulders shredded and once-finely trimmed hair falling around his face in thick, unkempt waves. The desolation in his eyes was heart wrenchin
g, and Kai suddenly felt a need to attack something, anything. By one look into his soul, Kai knew his past, his future, and his present.
He had not deserved this punishment, or any of the things that had been done to him. His instinct to protect his people had thrown him to the darkest pits of the sea, so far back that before this sudden rift, he had been untraceable… But then, Kai was like the rest of them.
He’d shunned the man, not knowing the why or how, only understanding that he had cost them their home and their kingdom and countless lives. Shame rocked him through and through. In the mid-years of his life, the Shepherd powers had been weak, and he hadn’t been able to tell the truth from lies; he hadn’t been able to tell the mistaken from the understood.
Because of their ignorance, this man had been tortured…and still held the blame of thousands on his shoulders when it was not his guilt to bare.
Kai’s eyes narrowed as the image transformed, and long, flowing blonde hair penetrated his view, overtaking the scene and morphing it into something that not even Kai could have predicted with his years of knowledge.
Astonishment held him frozen.
The Sea was most definitely not in any danger.
As the vision progressed, he knew for a fact that change was coming, and it was coming fast. He only had to worry about the state of the man that sat on the Atlantean throne at this moment, and all would be well, in place. Kai would feel guilt at his disloyal thoughts to the man who had become his friend, but he was the Shepherd. It was his duty, and always had been, to carry out the will of the Sea.
If this was what it wanted from him, then he was loathe to deny it. All would be ready for their arrival.
That is, if the couple survived the bleak storm that was coming their way.
The Book of Souls had reason to be scared; he just prayed to the gods that they took mercy on the poor couple who had a dangerous journey ahead of them.
Ambrose inhaled sharply as he pulled back from the soft, pliant lips, eyes wide and body thrumming. She was limp in his arms, head lolling back, hair floating around her face in a golden halo.
She convulsed in his arms, eyes popping wide open as she looked through him, their gaze completely glazed over. His hands wrapped around her shoulders as they jerked; it was nearly impossible to keep her in his arms, but he couldn’t let her go. If he broke the connection with her, he knew the transformation would halt right then, killing her.
Her lips parted and she gasped, sucking in gulping breaths and then coughing right after. She cried out through her garble. Ambrose listened helplessly, barely able to watch what was happening to her, knowing that he had been the one to cause her pain.
Just like everyone else you’ve ever met, this mortal is no different, his mind whispered.
She screamed in his ear, taking his breath away. Gods, the pain—the utter agony—that he heard.
Shame flowed through him just as surely as a sliver of his soul was flowing through her. The change was beginning and the force of the shuddering was enough to nearly pitch her out of his arms. Ambrose shot forward, clenching her against him and beginning to realize that maybe this had been a horrible idea.
Ambrose stared down at her, instincts kicking in that he had believed long dead.
Protect. Hide and protect.
He had to get them to safety, and soon. If any sort of danger came upon them, he wouldn’t be able to do a thing without killing her.
“Please!” she gasped, her hands snapping around his neck, nails spearing his shoulders. He grunted as they dug into already torn flesh, but he couldn’t blame her. He deserved every ounce of pain for what he had done to her.
“Shh, just let it come,” he cooed, quickly swimming through the water. The beginning was almost complete. She was close to growing her fin and he had to find a place where she could safely complete the transformation. Thousands of years later, he still remembered the myths of the ancients, and he knew that this was only the beginning of a painful end.
Because Ambrose had planted a piece of his own soul inside her, he now felt the pull of the transformation coming from him, drawing on his strength. The burning sensation that was climbing up his fin, through his tail, was enough to tell him that she was beginning to transform. He had no clue how long it would take for the fin to fully form, but he knew it wouldn’t be too long.
Grasping her shoulders and adjusting her so that her legs were over his arm and her face was buried in his neck, he grimaced as her hands once again clawed down his shoulders.
You deserve it. You’ll always deserve it.
Ambrose ignored the taunting whisper, focusing on what he had to do now. It was hard, with her fingers digging into exposed muscle, but he managed to clear his mind.
Shelter. Had to find it soon.
As he swam through the water, it seemed like they’d traveled over miles of coral, but in truth it was only a couple hundred yards. Soon enough, Ceto would realize they were gone and—hopefully, by that time they would have found shelter and he’d have regained some of his strength—which even now, he could feel growing inside of him.
Ambrose grinned, reveling in the thrill of power that had been absent for so long.
Now that they were out of the cave, he felt the ocean reviving him, purifying him. Even with the mortal Mari drawing on his own Atlantean strength to complete her change, he felt the rush.
The adrenaline.
The control.
The all-consuming revival that he hadn’t felt in thousands of years. Emotion sealed his throat shut. Ambrose hadn’t been this close to freedom in all his life. With the pressure of his people, the Destruction, and then being exiled…
This was heaven...until Mari screamed, her legs jerking in his arm. He smoothed his hand down her back, trying to find some way to calm her through the transformation while scanning the garden of coral—
There! Only a couple yards away from them was a patch of black, a hole in the coral: the perfect coverage for them to wait out in. The woman in his arms screeched again, the sound ripping through the water as nothing ever had before.
His heart turned over as he forced himself to swim faster. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, tracing her twisted features with his eyes before jerking forward and plunging them into the hole. He swam with his tail pointing toward the ground, tentatively searching for the floor. Several feet down, his tail brushed against a patch of sand.
“Akrina,” he called out. Ambrose only had to wait a second before the thing popped up with a pulse of light. “There you are,” he said, making sure to add a little bit of relief to his voice for the sake of the akrina.
“Sealed cave. Bitch not there. Human and king safe.”
“I’m proud of you.” It glowed brightly with happiness, just like he’d wanted. “Will you morph and find us something to eat? Some fruit, if you can find it. I don’t want her to wake up on an empty stomach.”
His only companion for two thousand years bounced in front of him, as loyal as any creature he’d ever met before. “Bring peaches. Love peaches. Akrinos stay.”
Ambrose smiled with encouragement. “Good. Now go, and hurry back.”
The akrina split into two orbs of light, the original flouncing off while the miniature version stayed in place beside him. He touched it gently, urging it to brighten. Unlike its counterpart, akrina, the miniature light that she’d left behind was not advanced enough to speak. Encouragement and touch activated the akrinos.
It glowed and illuminated the hole.
Thick walls made of coral surrounded them, the hole long-ago settled. Starfish were the only living things in the there, sticking to the floor and walls. One of them settled right beside him, close enough that one of its tube feet reached out and latched onto him. He tightened his arms around Mari, curling his tail under his hips and floating to the ground, moving inches away from it.
The mortal withered, her body so stiff that it wouldn’t comply with his position. “Just…kill me,” she groaned. The pain
was so intense that her lips peeled back from her teeth, lines stretching over her face.
Ambrose had never felt like such a bastard in all his life. The pain he had forced on her was so great that she wished death, and he was not man enough to grace her with that demand. He closed his eyes against her pain.
“Ambrose,” she growled. Her claw-like nails dug into his shoulders again and his lips tightened.
“I’m sorry, Marisabel, but I cannot. And won’t. Just accept the change and it will hurt so much less…” It was the truth. The more she struggled, the more his powers had to work to complete the transformation, and the more they had to ravage her body to get the job done. He slid a hand down her back, willing soothing heat to spread from his palm into her body, doing what he could to soothe the pain.
For a second, all he heard from her was the ragged sound of her breathing, and all he felt from her were the convulsions of her body.
“What did you do to me?” she whispered through clenched teeth.
“I saved you,” he said simply, hiding his emotions. He would not add to her distress by expressing his own. The akrinos buzzed beside him, vying for attention, but he shied away from it. Mari needed his attention more than the akrinos.
The thing flashed him in the face as a sign of retaliation, and then settled upon Mari’s chest. She jerked in his arms, eyes widening with fear.
“It will not hurt you,” he murmured, smoothing her hair back with a trembling hand. “Just quiet down and be still. The change will begin soon…”
And it did. Seconds later, a scream ripped from her throat and her back arched to the point of nearly snapping in half. Her face was flushed to a near purple, her knuckles were white, and her legs…disappeared. No longer were her feet kicking through the water, instead laying there limply as the transformation progressed.
He watched with a mixture of fascination and horror as a web-like covering wrapped around her delicate feet, the lacy substance binding her feet together so strongly that Mari had no chance of ripping. The pain-ridden scream turned to one of panic and hysteria, and Ambrose closed his eyes, wishing he could do something, anything.
