We reach the outside of the training centre and suddenly something reminds me of my other charge. Nika and Cain disappear.
“I need my horse. Philippe.” She looks surprised.
“How awfully sweet. I don’t know many rulers so attentive to their steeds,” she smiles, trying to be sweet, fluttering her eyelashes. She’s definitely not one for subtlety; I’ll give her that.
“He’s special. I need him nearby,” I command, not leaving her any option but to do as I ask.
“Okay, well, Cage took him to the paddocks. Let’s go see where he’s at.” She’s instantly moving, flurrying in trail of bubbles ahead. Damn she’s fast. She’s at the end of the street before I can blink. She’s calling me, continuing in her feminine laughter, “Orion, come on!” I follow her, moving down countless nameless streets. The chill bites at my skin and I shudder against all voluntary response.
“Alright. I’m coming,” I mutter. She’s so enthusiastic. So happy despite the fact she’s living in a wasteland. I clench my tail muscles together, resisting the urge to collapse against fighting the cold. Eventually I catch up, and as I do she halts. We’re near a stable I think. I’m not sure because it’s not like any stable I’ve ever seen. The stalls are too small for horses, as is demonstrated by the fact my steed can be seen tied to an icy bollard at the end of the stout building. I swim over to him, giving him the once over. I run my fingers through his mane, calming myself. Sirenia touches my back.
“He’s beautiful. Such a unique animal.” Her eyes are alight with excitement. She’s enthralled by me. I think back to Callie, have I ever seen her so intrigued? I don’t think so. When I first introduced her to Philippe she was afraid. Sirenia doesn’t seem afraid of much. She reaches out to touch him with a delicate palm.
“Thank you. We call him Equinox,” I explain.
“You must be quite the warrior with a horse like this,” she compliments me, pressing her shoulder against mine, not hiding her intention of proximity.
“I have been around a long time. I’ve seen my fair share of battles,” I don’t hold back. I’m not afraid she’ll run.
“I have too. I mean all the Adaro are fighters.”
“What are the stables for?” I ask her.
“Narwhal,” she smiles.
“Seriously?” I laugh.
“Yes. Would you like to ride?” She suggests, moving past me in an ethereal rush of cold.
“Are you kidding! That would be great.” I watch her unbuckle the paddock, revealing a narwhal that sits within the stable. The structure is a fusion of thick ice and wood. I peer inside, examining the mammal, It’s an odd looking creature to say the least, with a greyish purple body and a long unicorn looking horn protruding from its bulbous face.
“Don’t they mind being tied up like this?”
“This pod in particular prefer the enclosed space. We rescued them. They were being picked off by a demon,” Sirenia explains.
The Narwhal moves from the paddock slowly and I place a hand gingerly on its face, smiling. It doesn’t frighten or falter, not afraid of my touch. It reminds me of when Callie had looked at the whale, heard it speaking with her. That kind of joy comes only from looking into the soul of another and finding innocence and grace.
“He’s beautiful,” I try to be complimentary, despite the creature’s strange appearance.
“She,” Sirenia corrects me. She places an odd looking saddle over the creature’s spine and invites me to hop on. “This is Leia. Treat her well.” She strokes the narwhals face and then makes an acute whistle by bringing her forefinger and thumb up to her white lips.
The narwhal jerks, with more speed and less weight than my Equinox, launching herself forward and taking me high above the city. I can hear Sirenia laughing, probably at my startled expression. The narwhal beneath me is a nippy little thing; more manoeuvrable and streamlined than Philippe. I let Leia take me where she wills, urging her on, the cold water rushing past my ears and making me laugh with a wildness I thought I had lost. I haven’t felt this free in a long time, and by the time she returns me back to Sirenia and the paddock, I’m grinning from ear to ear.
“That was fun!” I exclaim.
“Jeez, it’s just a little narwhal ride. You clearly don’t get out much,” Sirenia laughs at me and I realise that she’s right. It’s been a long time since I just enjoyed myself.
She backs the narwhal into its stall, talking about how she trained Leia. It’s a fascinating process, but for some reason I’m not listening. My blood is still rushing around my body, energising me from my narwhal flight. I turn and look up at the city, no longer cold. When you forget it’s made of ice, that everything is so cold and barren, it really is beautiful.
“This is my place,” Sirenia swings open a porthole and we emerge into yet another icy sphere of an apartment. It’s close to the stables and it’s taken us all of one minute to arrive within its chill interior. If one can call it that.
It’s minimalistic, with a giant four poster bed draped in lilac velvet and snowy white furs. There are bookshelves, a weapons rack, and several punch bags strung from the curved dome ceiling. There’s a chandelier formed from ice that glints throwing light across the domed ceiling and walls. In each of the places where a lightbulb or candle would usually reside, is a jar full of bioluminescent algae. This method of lighting reminds me of home. Or what had been home. There’s a sofa too, lined with furs and more velvet.
“Where do you get all the furs?” I ask. I remember showing Callie around our apartment once before. How many questions she’d had. I know now I was harsh in treating them as interruption. I had wanted our first week together to be a romantic fantasy, but instead she’d been so unsure. Now I think about it my expectations were completely unrealistic.
“The Inuit make deliveries via sled and dog. We catch them fish in return. It’s all about balance here. They bring weapons too,” she explains it, bored.
“I see.”
“Gideon carves each of us the furniture we desire. He’s been busy,” sighing she waves her hand through the water, as though brushing the subject aside. “You know, you’re asking me all these questions and all I really want to know about is you. I’ve been waiting for someone like you. A mysterious stranger from a far off sea. I want to know everything,” she’s moving in, fluttering those white eyelashes like the feathers on a peacock’s behind. She’s so gorgeous; I inhale slightly, feeling my heart start to pound.
“Well, the pacific is beautiful.” I say, thinking of the warm waters wistfully.
“And you’re King?” She floats, gracefully landing on top of the bed on her stomach. Her tail flicks from left to right, distracting me.
“Yes. I was crowned recently.” I say, remembering the ceremony and how nervous I’d been, how quickly those nerves had shifted into boredom as I sat in my throne, facing the ballroom of the Lunar Sanctum, giving in to the fact I could no longer escape the ball and chain of regality.
“But you’re so good at it!” She makes a faux gasp of surprise. I laugh.
“So the mer, we can go on land beneath the full moon…” I begin to ask but she answers before I can finish.
“We are aurora bound,” she whispers slightly.
“The northern lights.” I sit down on the couch, making sure to keep distance between us.
“Yes, when Sedna is visible, his aura lights up the northern sky and we may walk again among the humans. We rarely venture outside the ice castle above. It’s nice. There’s a party.” She’s lacklustre, sweeping my questions away with explanations that are lacking in detail. Almost like I’m boring her with my personality and yet she’s imagining me to be someone else in her mind’s eye.
“I see; you don’t sound so sure,” I enquire, flicking my tail once for good measure as I stretch out along the icy three seater.
“Everyone here is… they’re all so harsh. I’d never admit this in public…. But sometimes I just want to be taken care of. You know?” She cups her ch
in in palm, and sighs dramatically. She shakes out her lilac hair and looks at me, content.
“I’m the Crowned Ruler. You’d think that would mean I’m taken care of. It’s true, I have a soft bed to lie in, but I also have the responsibility of keeping a lot of people safe.” I admit, looking up at the ceiling and observing the fissures in the thin icy dome above.
“That must be so stressful,” Sirenia is looking at me, I’m wondering if she’s for real.
“It is,” I am slightly snappy. I’m beginning to think she’s just telling me what I want to hear.
“I’m sure you’re amazing at it,” she sighs.
“I got hundreds of people killed,” I reply, she blanches slightly. The fantasy of my being a stranger, a King no less, from a foreign land shattered.
“I’m sure it wasn’t your fault,” she purrs, trying to slick over the jagged edges of my shortcomings.
“How would you know? You weren’t there,” I close my eyes, remembering the death. Remembering the slaughter. Sirenia rises from the bed and drops to the floor, bending her long tailfin beneath her.
“Handsome, it’s okay. You’re just too hard on yourself,” she’s saying everything I know I want to hear. She’s absolving me, this gorgeous woman. Then I’m brought back to what I know is true. It’s what I want to hear, but she barely knows me. To her, I’m a fantasy. It shocks me, something which I had thought was no longer possible after everything that has passed. I’ve known this woman barely an hour, she’s supposedly perfect in every way, gorgeous, adoring, happy to listen to my pain… and yet…
Sirenia is down on the floor, her fin bent underneath her, looking at me like I’m the sun, but I’m not and I never will be. She’s not attracted to me. She’s attracted to the fantasy I fulfil. The mysterious ruler from a far off land, lonely and longing for a queen.
“I’m sorry…” I look at her and she does something entirely unexpected reaching up and trying to kiss me. I grab her by the arms and push her away from me, furrowing my brow at the distasteful state of her desperation. “I’m sorry, Sirenia. The position of Queen has been filled.”
“By whom?” She’s upright with a single flick of her tailfin and looking extremely angry.
“By a real Queen,” I rise and leave the tower, leaving Sirenia behind, to find her. To find what’s real, and appreciate it when I do.
I reach the outskirts of the city, hoping Callie has headed back to the training centre to be with the others. I think she’s probably done with her father by now, knowing her she probably fled his company. I know she struggles to trust, and with someone who she thought had abandoned her, that would be twice as difficult. I wonder how I’ll ever live with the fact that Vex has touched her, tasted her, but I can’t dwell on it. I know now that I have to make things right. There is no other option.
As I round the corner I almost collide with Cole. He looks worried as he speaks, slightly out of breath.
“Orion! I’ve been sent for you… it’s Azure.”
SOLUSTUS
The city is dark, no longer a shining edifice of hope, but a mere reminder that nothing can stand against my power. The Necrimad will rise. Tonight.
“Solustus. We’re ready. Bring her,” Saturnus pokes his head around the door, commanding me as if I’m nothing more than his dog. Well, fuck him.
“No. Make Vexus do it. I’m not your slave,” I bite out, irritated.
“Very well. VEXUS!” He yells. The pale, tentacled Psiren startles in the corner. We both laugh at the fear in his eyes as they open.
“Bring the girl. It’s time. If I catch you slacking off again, you’ll wake up with less tentacles than you started with.” He snarls, the malice in his eyes immense.
Saturnus leaves the room with a flourish of one of his hands. His yellow eyes are unnerving even me in the dark. There’s something about cat’s eyes that I can’t help but find unnatural.
“Bloody prick… I’ll show you what one less tentacle looks like when I cut off your…”
“Vexus! Do shut up,” I bark. I’ve had enough of his bad attitude. I haven’t slaved for centuries only to have my shot at being one with such a beast ruined by his insolence. Vex shoots me a look, like he’s debating whether or not he should say something more. I retort, flashing him a warning glance. Starlet is in the corner asleep, or so it would seem. Vex shakes her awake. She moans, opening her eyes. The horror in her pupils grows as they dilate and the octoman pulls her upright. She looks around, startled. She’s mumbling.
“Vex, ungag her. I want to know what she’s moaning about,” I command. Vex rolls his eyes and pulls away the seaweed that’s balled up and planted firmly between her jaws.
“Where’s Oscar? What did you do to him?” She cries out, instantly annoying me.
“Gag her again. My mistake. I thought she might have something useful to say.” I order him to resume the silence I had been enjoying.
“Where is the merman?” Vexus looks to me, curious. We hadn’t returned him after we’d first commissioned the giant order for chains and manacles to hold the beast.
“None of your concern. You’ll be seeing him soon enough. Now move,” I draw Scarlette, having had the scythe removed from my possession by Saturnus the second we’d reunited. He hasn’t let the damn thing out of his sight. Pushing the rapier to Vex’s spine, he inches forward, pulsating in motion out of the room. He’s got Starlet by the back of the neck, nice and uncomfortable. She’s squirming in front of him. As we leave the tower which has been the captor’s place of containment, I can see what Saturnus has done with the city in such a short space of time is miraculous. Even to someone like me who is not easily impressed. I had made him, I was his elder, his maker. Why should he impress me after all? Anything he can do, I can do better.
The city is in ruin, and the Psirens are gathered, encircling the space where the seal has been uncovered by weeks of toiling over broken glass, rubble, and bone. Each Psiren holds a candle with magnesium flame, they burn in the water, releasing light that is almost too bright. These candles bring a kind of candidness to what is about to happen, and as I approach the seal I notice the fountain, which had once held a golden statue of the Goddess with palms outstretched, now lies defaced. The statue has been torn from its place and severed in two, eyes scratched out with arrows and flesh scoured with careless blades. I smile.
We reach the seal and the crowds of Psirens are radiating out from the space, cleared from the rubble of our victory, that displays the seal. It’s a wicked looking piece of architecture, as one would expect from a God with such a wicked temper. The black metal of its massive crest twists, creating a cyclical symbol containing four crescent moons. Three chains trail across the design, one from the left, one from the right, and one from below, meeting in the middle where the one who is pure of heart must bleed.
“Vexus. Restrain her,” I use my hand to make a grand motion, putting on a little show for the crowds. This is not just a ritual. It is a spectacle.
Vexus looks to me and cocks an eyebrow. I stare at him, deadening my expression. I am not amused.
“Do it. Or I’ll do it for you,” Saturnus’ voice shoots over my shoulder, the scent of blood mingling in with the water. Vex moves, forcing the blonde downward and crushing her body flat into the hard metal of the seal. He removes her bindings and places her wrists into the manacles we have forged for her sacrifice.
Finally, he catches her tail within the manacle attached to the single shortest chain, making her lie still, horizontal, looking up at the stars for which she is so named. I take my place next to my brother. This is it, my moment. I am given the scythe from Saturnus and I sweep a large circle around the outside of the seal, before diving in and making the first slit. I cut it clean across her belly. Blood plumes into the water like a mushroom cloud, red and sweet. It heals quickly, as to be expected. The exsanguination of such a creature might take a while. But it’s alright. Anticipation is so often the best part of a murder. After all, we’ve got all night
.
AZURE
The fog rolls in like an unstoppable tsunami of gloom. I cannot stop it, even if I want to. I’ve held it back too long, that was my mistake. I’m overtaken, transported and translated into her head like ancient code. I’m trying to work out what the heck is going on. I was bitching to the mermaids about their obsession with perfect hair and then bam. I’m smashing my head into the ground. Which is really cold by the way. Just my luck.
I have collapsed, I think. All I know is I’m not awake now and instead I’m staring through her eyes at the sky. The ocean surface ripples high above. She’s chained down to the earth, suffering the wrath of Saturnus and Solustus. Helpless and screaming. I can feel her pain, it transfigures into my mind, tearing through everything. I take a moment, breathe. I need to keep a clear mind if I’m to understand what I’m supposed to see. If I’m to save her. I will save her.
Caedes is hovering above. That psychopath. He’s giddy and that’s never good. He’s got blood all up his arms, on his face. Oh my God there’s so much blood. Starlet looks down at her body and I can see it’s cut to shreds. Her scales are missing. Torn from her tail and scattered across the black metal beneath her like confetti. Jesus. This must be the ritual. Starlet is chained to the seal. Above her Saturnus and Solustus are watching, with joined hands and moving mouths. Chanting. Waiting. Oh my God, we’re too late. She’s going to die. I’m going to watch. I struggle a little, but then I hear a tiny voice, echoing to me through the dark.
Azure. Sister? Is that you?
“Yes it’s me!” I reply, startled at her presence. We had never been able to talk to one another like this before. So that’s new.
It hurts so much. I’m so tired.
“Don’t give up. Don’t let them win!”
So tired… She breathes, like she’s next to me whispering in my ear.
The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) Page 40
