The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2)

by Kristy Nicolle

  It catches the corner of my eye, glinting, heavy with mystery and power. The Scythe of Atargatis, the thing that had left me trapped, waiting for the opportune moment once more. I look at its length, not a particularly powerful weapon to behold, but then this was not like Titus’ trident, which stands next to the scythe. He had rarely used it, who needs a weapon when you personally qualify.

  I think of his pathetic attempt to raise a power like the Necrimad, my lip curling upward, what a fool. All that power and not enough control over his rage to see through the poor acting skills of Azure. I will not make that mistake. I will not be blinded by rage. I am fuelled by something far more powerful. Hate and the love of the one person I know should be ruling these godforsaken depths: Me. I am glad, of course, that Azure was stupid enough to cross the likes of Titus. Without her I never could have performed the role I had been waiting centuries for: supplantor.

  I move over to the window, slicing through the water and sucking it down my gullet, sniffing it like an opiate gas. I wonder what it must be like, getting high and communing with the Necrimad, I feel anger rise at my impotence. I suppose I will never know. It bothers me, crawling beneath my skin like scarabs, my inability to communicate with the beast. I reach the window and survey the shadowy beauty of my Kingdom under the clouds of pulse electricity, jellyfish swarming like a thick layer of neon above the crushed bone and dust of the streets. I look over the Cryptopolis. It is mine, all mine, but it is too small. I want the high shard of the Alcazar Oceania above me, I want to sit in the throne room, the mer at my fin, terror running behind a heady aura of respect and love for yours truly. Below the army teems, seethes like scum and I feel joy bubble up within me, the number of bodies exciting me at the thought of each of their glorious sacrifices. A sacrifice so I, their King, can cast my shadow on their bones as I pass over them and rise to my rightful place. Their lives will slip from them, bleed out into nothingness.

  I turn away from the light, smiling contentedly, looking back over the scythe. I run my hand through my slick hair slowly, feeling my nails bite into my scalp as my forehead furrows. I have obstacles, of course, between the Necrimad and myself, between ultimate power and myself. I need to find out more, know more about the scythe in order to possess it fully. I am sure, sure it can be mine. I run my tongue over the points of my teeth, feeling the jagged serrations pulling across the flesh of my tongue, releasing the blood into my mouth like syrup, thick and sweet.

  The scythe glints in the light. It’s the key, or should I say the lock. I need to find the key to unlock it, release all that delicious lunar energy that it absorbed. It’s clever to say the least, the Goddess creating a vessel to bind such power within the weapon and prevent it from being used by those who would sacrifice her. That blonde haired, doe eyed harpy. For who would sacrifice a mere child if they were in her service? I muse the predetermined calculations of those who have put us into slavery, running my nails across the skin of my chest, the pain giving me clarity of thought. I am sure there has to be some hoop to jump through, some insanely cliché condition, a next step to unlocking it, something laughable just like happily ever after. I feel my anger simmering, a consistent feature within me at the thought of the Goddess. That bitch. Playing with her chess pieces and manipulating us all. They said Poseidon was bad? At least his appointment of power was honest, he knew he needed those who had suffered, because that’s what we were in for in the service of the Gods: Suffering.

  I let the shadows fall over me as it flickers in and out of being, like a light on the fritz. I look down at my pale skin and silver scales, the sight of my body both disgusting and arousing me instantaneously. I need to find the key, but when I say I- I mean the fodder that was teeming below. I had ordered them, in my infinite wisdom to raid the chapels, sanctums, temples, and anywhere else we may find a clue to unlocking the power of the scythe. I can’t deny it. I’m stuck. But a man like me is never stuck for long.

  The light in the room is scarlet, coating everything in a crimson hue. I can’t tell whether it’s from the blood of the fodder I’ve sliced for their incompetence, or because of the Erenna, trapped and squirming helplessly inside a mesh cage that has been haphazardly strung from the stalactites that hang, broken, from the ceiling. I hear something stir behind me and turn, pulling my rapier beside me. Scarlette vibrates, slicing through the water with deadly vigour.

  “It’s only me, Solustus. Relax,” the purring vibrations of Alyssa’s voice penetrate me and I shudder. Her femininity and sexual allure make me sick, the harlot reeks of humanity.

  “Alyssa, would you detest not invading one’s personal space unannounced?” I roll my eyes, sheathing Scarlette and she moves forward, the tentacles stemming from her waist pulsing with her momentum.

  “Why? Getting naughty were we?” She looks me in the eyes, her black hair trailing across her breasts, the rusty coloured scales look like she’s bleeding, rotting through her pale skin.

  “I was looking over your children. They disappoint me,” I say the words disinterested in her already, keeping my sharp features impassive.

  “I don’t think it’s your approval they’re craving baby,” she wraps her tentacle around my tail, or attempts to but I flex and slash, moving away from her suckered clutch.

  “My approval is what they need. Remember what happened to the last child you brought me who didn’t respect his elders?” I flex my bony fingers, feeling the absence of my rapier.

  “I liked Samuel,” she pouts at me and I cock an eyebrow.

  “So did Scarlette.” I watch her tentacles undulate where her tail used to reside. The octomaid sends shivers through me, this new breed of psiren quite the perversion of nature. “How is the boy?” I ask her, thinking back to the night I turned him, sunk my teeth into the sinew of his pectoral.

  “Darius? He is a fine warrior. He is not one of my babies, but he is a fine warrior none the less.”

  “None the less?” I bite out, anger rising.

  “I didn’t mean…” I cut her apology off, uninterested, unamused. I pull Scarlette up to her gills, imagining widening them into smiling, gaping mouths gasping for air.

  “He’s more than merely fodder. He knows the girl. He has hurt her, loved her. He may be of use,” I muse aloud, unsure of the reason for allowing her into my thought process.

  “Of course, your plan was genius… Your Highness.” She bows her head.

  Ahh at last, a little respect. Why are fear and violence the only ways to gain such subservience? I wonder, irritated.

  “I have observed them, your children from above. They are weak. They are divided. We must unite them. I assume you have explained to them our position?” I query her, feeling empowered at the prospect of my army, lowering the sword once again but enjoying its light weight in my palm.

  “I have explained to them about the Necrimad, how we need its power to take our rightful place as defenders of the sea. About how the mer live in luxury whilst we live in the darkness, shunned. They are seething with the resentment that I hoped would infect them post indoctrination. It’s easy when they feel so robbed of life, poor babies.” She moves her tentacles, stirring the sand around her, the only remnants of her insolent children.

  “They need training, you should have seen them the night Titus perished, they need proper instruction. They need to be strong.”

  “Regus would be a suitable candidate,” Alyssa muses and I nod, thinking about the bulk of the half-shark half-man concoction. I hear a crash come from the arched door and turn, a movement so pointed and fluid no man could ever perform it.

  “Bloody hell!” The voice is British and coarse. I assume him to be from England. Alyssa’s eyes sparkle.

  “Vexus, sweet child, what has happened to you?” She pulls her spawn forward, arms stroking his slender face. He has crashed into the wall, unable to halt in time from the immense speed of his violet and black tentacles. His lavender eyes are slits, his cheeks hollow.

  “What is this incompetent
doing here? Don’t we have any security?” I bark at Alyssa and Vexus laughs from the very back of this throat.

  “I wouldn’t worry about that, I mean the mer don’t seem to give a rats arse. I just walked straight into that coronation you sent me off to… no invitation necessary,” he straightens himself.

  “You… went to the coronation?” I look at him surprised, his gall is alarming.

  “Yeah. Quite the uh, shindig too. Lots of pretty doilies and… well…the ladies....” He trails off and examines his stubby nails casually. He angers me, does he not know who I am?

  “Orion is now Crowned Ruler,” I smile, the child will be out of his depth. This pleases me. I continue, “And the girl? Any other announcements?” I ask him thinking back to the conversation I had held with my brother not one hour ago via the looking glass at my back.

  “I dunno mate. I got mounted and kicked out by this… spitfire. Seriously… that bird…” His eyes cloud over and I wonder who would be ballsy enough to mount a stranger.

  “Was her name Azure by any chance?” I ask him, floating seamlessly within the water stroking my fingers back through my hair again.

  “Maybe. Dark hair, yay tall, quite the black beauty,” Vexus muses and I nod.

  “Yes. You say she’s still infected with the darkness? How interesting,” I remember her abilities to see the future, the advantage they gave us… it’s tempting… I mentally slap myself. She cannot be trusted. She is too strong willed to be used. Azure was lost to the cause. For now. “Did you find anything?” I ask him, looking into his gaze with an intensity that demands honesty.

  “Unfortunately not. The Sanctum seems to be nothing but a fancy bollocks hotel to me. Besides, why would they keep anything of true value there? It’s not like they’re frequent guests.” Vex looks back at me, eyes baring into my face. His retort makes sense, he’s smarter than he appears. It enrages me.

  “So you’ve failed,” I bait him.

  “I prefer to think of it as eliminated another dead avenue, mate,” his reply catalyses a calculated, concisely controlled rise of malice within me. I strike instantaneously, moving my tail with all the muscle it can possesses. I head to hit him head on in the gut, but seconds before contact he moves upward through the water with one mighty contraction of his tentacles, leaving me to smash into the wall. He used my speed against me, is all I can think as my face meets with wall in a deafening crunch of impact. I hear him laugh and push myself upward, twisting and corkscrewing through the water as I draw Scarlette once more.

  “I am not, your mate,” I remind him, eyes slits now. He laughs again, careless. He is… Perfectly Wicked. I muse with a smile to myself, I need fodder like him. So I let him live. For now. He rolls his eyes over my form as I turn away, I feel them continue to stare, settling on my back and hear him sucking water up under his pointed cheekbones. Alyssa is watching us, amused and unmoving as I dart back over to the throne, using it to assert my dominance. I turn and drape myself over it again lazily, casually, erasing my humiliation. Vex slinks out of the room slowly. With a smirk of victory my eyes find Alyssa’s dark eyes once more.

  “I like him. He’s smart. We need more of that around here. I can’t be the only one,” she nods to me, not dismayed as to the inclination that she’s as stupid as I know she is. You’d have to be to put up with that human loving ex of hers, Gideon.

  “I’ll go and find Regus.”

  “No. Not Regus,” I muse, I think about the simple intelligence in how Vexus had bested me, not using his emotions but allowing logic to rule all. Like all great rulers I speak my mind, unafraid of the opinions of those submissive challengers. “I don’t just want raw strength. I want tactics, I want wit, I want skill and unity,” I command her, feeling the regality of my destiny bearing down upon me.

  “Then who?” Alyssa queries.

  “I will command my own army,” I make the gesture, selfless and generous, quite unlike me. It is time to start paying my debt, toiling to achieve the greatness I know I am destined for. It is true, if you want something done right. Do it yourself.

  “Very well Your Highness,” Alyssa purrs, moving to touch me. I flinch away from her, fearing her touch like poison.

  “Gather them,” I bark. It is time to make the gaggle of cursed children into an army of men. It is time to rise.

  CALLIE

  I’m staring at Orion, mouth hanging open, my heart thudding so loudly it’s the only thing I can hear. I can feel the eyes of the anxious onlookers bearing into me, waiting for the answer. My answer.

  “I…” I begin, my voice a squeak. Orion is beginning to look stony faced as we hang there, suspended in an answerless void. I look at the ring, nuzzled inside the shell he’s still holding open. A giant sparkling diamond, cushioned by tiny ice blue pearls and aquamarines. It’s beautiful. I can’t move though. Can’t move to take it, can’t move to answer. I am suspended, the silence and my blood rushing around my body, the only actualities within the awkward bubble. A voice within me says only one word. Flee.

  I turn, past the gasping figures and swim as fast as I can from the room, past a smirking Saturnus. What the hell are you looking at? I snap internally, working my tail against the surrounding water, moving from the room at a speed I have never reached in my life. Oh my Goddess, am I actually doing this? I ask myself, but I don’t have time to think it through, I just know I can’t answer him. I can’t humiliate him by refusing, but I can’t say yes! Who the hell ever heard of an eighteen-year-old marrying someone she’s known for just six months! What was he thinking?!

  I swim, out the double doors of the Alcazar Oceania and out into the city streets. They’re deserted except for the odd patrolling Knight, everyone else is inside. I move up under the heat of the morning sun, the water protecting me from its rays. I long for its heat on my skin, something familiar and comfortable but know that’s suicide. I move up through the sea, getting as close to the surface as I can, skimming in thoughtless rhythm away from the city. Away from the crushing pressure that has been mounting. Apparently proposal is my breaking point. Who knew?

  I move with increasing speed away from my problems, until I see a Commerson dolphin in the distance. It stops me in my watery tracks. The memories come at me like a tidal wave of arctic proportions, chilling me to the bone. Orion filling the buoy with air, Orion smiling, Orion laughing. Orion bending me over the kitchen counter in our beach house, Orion kissing me, Orion loving me, Orion needing me.

  “No!” I cry out, trying to stop the flood of nostalgia that is making me short of breath. I move my hands up to my throat, clutching at my gills which are rapidly opening and closing, pulling in water which floods my gullet, but still can’t quench my thirst for air. I start moving again, fleeing from the memories, the cascade of horror that is making my heart ache with the uncertainty of my return to the other half of my soul. I say I don’t believe it’s true, that I think it is all crap, but swimming out, roaming the water and the barren expanses of sand, I have never felt my longing for him more. I have never felt him so necessary and yet I cannot give him my vow of eternity. I have never felt so alone.

  The sun falls from the sky as I feel my muscles clenching, enjoying the pain of each stroke that my tailfin makes, pushing me through the water. My mind is racing wearily, struggling to put the jumbled pieces of the puzzle together. Orion getting down on bended fin, Orion looking at me, Orion asking me to marry him. It just doesn’t make sense. Or does it?

  I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve missed something, whether that’s what his aggressive desperation since Atlas’ death has been leading up to. I feel myself wilt slightly. Looking at the fish stirring around me, darting in hues of yellows, greens, and blues. I watch the moon rise over a bloody horizon and continue to ponder.

  ORION

  “I don’t care if she’s not in the city! Find her!!!! I want every stone upturned, every inch of every cave searched. I want her found!” I bellow, slamming my fist down onto the wooden armrest of my fathe
r’s throne; or should I say my throne now. It sounds wrong no matter how many times I think it. Ghazi is kneeling before me, nodding with a look of puzzled pity knitting his brow together. Cole is beside him, his eyes darting between myself and Saturnus who is floating next to me, unmoving and inexpressive. The water is stirring, vibrations of displaced air rippling in my surroundings. They look too afraid to move, afraid of what I might do. “Well? What the hell are you waiting for? GO!” I feel rage move up through me. They don’t bow in respect but instead bolt for the exit.

  “Might I suggest you calm down?” Saturnus comes before me in an effortless momentum.

  “May I suggest that you shut up?” I bite out. He looks surprised, but then the mask of calm falls over his features once more.

  “It is not my fault the girl was not as pliable as expected, Your Highness.” He takes a formal approach and I find myself unreceptive.

  “The ‘girl’ was just cornered in front of the entire city’s population on a piece of advice YOU gave me Saturnus,” I accuse him, suddenly realising with whom this fault belongs.

  “I swear to you; I have heard her speak of engagement. I have heard her long for such a vow,” Saturnus runs his hand through his hair, looking concerned but I see that it is a faux gesture. I cock my head, looking at him, suspicious. I feel my eyes narrow.

  “Yes. Well. I suppose these women can be temperamental. She is young,” I speak the words and watch him with careful intent.

  “Indeed Your Highness. Of course it is no surprise she has swum out into the open ocean. She is not a creature with much regard for her own safety, I’m sure you’d agree,” Saturnus smiles slightly, almost sympathetically toward me. I nod.