“Apologies, but I thought I’d take the issue in hand. I’m sure you’d agree it needed to be handled swiftly.”
“I should have been informed!”
“It’s done now, Solustus. Calm yourself,” Saturnus cocks an eyebrow and I want to slash his abdominals open and watch his guts fall out.
“I’ll calm myself when you stop taking goddamn liberties! This is my army, my destiny! You’re just… my sidekick,” I spit. Saturnus looks at me and blinks. A mask of cool composure rolls in across his features.
“Very well, brother, I apologise. You are, of course, in charge,” his expression remains still.
“Yes. That’s right… Now go and get that beast handled. The Psirens are failing miserably.”
“Of course…” Saturnus smiles.
“Of course… what?” I demand, feeling myself inflate at my defeat of his attempt to take my power away from me.
“Of course… sir,” Saturnus cocks an eyebrow once more, surprised. Then turning away, he swims over the top of the ruined city into the distance to do my bidding.
Something stirs within my psyche as I watch him go. A memory, something that would have troubled me once. For now, I am too impatient to care. I want my power. I want the death of the mer. I want what is rightfully mine. The wrath of Poseidon behind me; and mine for all eternity.
CALLIE
The water of the whirlpool thunders around in cyclical motion, like a race car speeding around a track. It’s unstoppable, the momentum too great for me to even think I’ll be able to survive going in, let alone coming out the other side somewhere totally random. The pod is at my back and I can hear their anxiety.
I turn to my father, his large aquamarine eyes full of concern for me.
“Goodbye,” I whisper, trying not to cry in front of the other mer. I don’t want to leave him though. It feels like I only just found him.
“Don’t cry. I’ll see you again before you know it.”
“I know. It just feels like I only just got here,” I explain my frustration at having to move on. He nods.
“I know, but be strong now. I have to prepare the army for war. We’ll see each other again, I promise.” He lets me go, letting his lips fall on me gently, kissing my scalp. I’m covered in armour provided by the Adaro, so it’s uncomfortable, but I’m not about to leave without a hug. I back away and Orion moves forward taking my place. He holds out a hand. Gideon looks down at it, before taking it and shaking a few times vigorously. “You take care of my daughter! If not there’ll be hell to pay,” he tries to seem stern, to put on a frown, but there’s no mistaking the fondness in his eyes for the young ruler.
“Of course, sir, I wouldn’t have it any other way Orion turns away from him.
“Come on everyone,” Cole calls back to the mermaids. They’re in armour too, but they’ve covered it in glittering diamonds and strings of pearls. I have no idea where they got them, but they look ridiculous.
Orion and I approach the whirlpool. I grab his hand, turning and looking at him, drinking in his face before we take the plunge. He’s plated and sporting bracers as usual. The trident I took from the Cryptopolis is pressing flat against his spine. Our bracers clang together as I knot my fingers through his, feeling my pulse heighten.
I turn back. The Adaro are watching us intensely and I know there’s no backing down now. We need to show them we’re not afraid of anything. Even if it is huge and spinning and terrifying.
“Okay. On three…” I say to Orion. He breathes in, moving us still closer to the whirlpool.
“One…” he kisses my hand.
“Two,” I smile back at him.
“Three!” We’re ripped apart as we meet with the force of the spinning water, finally getting close enough to be swept up in its devastating wake.
It’s not the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been, I mean, I have died twice, but it isn’t far off. I feel my joints pulling from their sockets and my skull rattling around, the water pounding it. I can’t see anything, can’t hear anything except the rush of the cold icy water. I try to pull it into my lungs, to breathe, but even that hurts. I try to look for Orion, but all I can see is a melding of colours and faces, one running into another. I would scream but the rush of the water, the pushing and pulling of the spinning currents, takes my breath and all noise with it, chucking us into what feels like a vacuum outside of time and space.
Suddenly the spinning stops. Everything rights itself in the blink of an eye and I’m hurtling toward something. A hand grabs me and I feel hard muscle against my back as I’m pulled to a stationary upright position. I sigh, relieved. Orion must have caught me.
I look as the whirlpool dissipates before me in the new and murky waters. Orion comes into view. I inhale, shocked as a blade finds itself shoved beneath my throat, threatening to slit my carotid and leave me for dead. My captor speaks.
“And what, in the name of Loch Ness, is a pretty wee lass like you, doing in a place like this?”
END OF BOOK 2
CALLIE
I’ve been sat down at the writing desk as the moon has arced across the sky. It’s been a while since Orion’s let me be alone this long, but I know what I have to do and I’m glad of the silence while I do it. I think back to that night as I turn over the last page of the letter that I’m writing, the amethyst fountain pen clutched between my fingers like a sword. Each stroke on the paper is a deep cut to me, but I continue to strike down black markings onto the blank white, marring its creamy purity with knowledge, putting the finishing touches on my story.
The days that followed that night have passed slowly, I’ve regained my strength, we’ve talked with Saturnus, we continue to mourn Atlas, and gladly forget Titus, who was killed in the magical stream of power just as I should have been. We are questioning Azure too, after all her secret agenda is not to be trusted immediately. It would appear that while she did fall in love with Titus (only the Goddess knows how that ever happened) she couldn’t break the most fundamental bond in her life, that bond which she shared with her sister. Starlet had been communicating with her secretly, and together they had manipulated the prophecy so only the mer knew the original version, knew that the sacrificing of the vessel would stop the Necrimad from coming forth while they thought it would cause it. We wonder now if the psirens have noticed that it is not yet present within our dimension, but we’re also worried. Worried about their growing numbers, about their ability to grow, and about our lack of one. The scythe is nowhere to be found, after all it has served its purpose and I wonder if it has turned to sand just like Atlas. It seems I, too, have served my purpose, while I still retain my ability to take the powers of others, I can’t imagine having any higher purpose than what has already passed. I have turned down being a Goddess. There has to be a price for that. The price is life, long and simple and with the man I love, one which I am more than happy to pay. I think I am free, I thought it was over, my life. Now I know it’s just beginning and I’m being left to enjoy the pleasures of Orion and the years that spread before us, years in which we can grow together, learn about each other, and explore the world which I have been so blessed to be part of. I hope one day we can meet again, sit down when you’re grown and I can hear all about your life. I hope too that you know, if nothing else, that you are the reason I’m sure that I’m doing the right thing. I want you to have a world to grow up in; even if that means it’s one I can’t be a part of. I’ve told mom to let you read these when you’re old enough, so please, take care of her and most importantly yourself.
All my love,
Calliedile
xxxxxxx
Playlist
1. She is the sunlight- Trading Yesterday
2. If it Ain’t love- Jason Derulo
3. Gabriel’s Oboe- Hayley Westenra
4. War Paint- Stalking Gia
5. Codes- Ellie Goulding
6. Come back to me- Trading Yesterday
7. Goodbye to you- Michelle Branch
&nbs
p; 8. My last goodbye- Trading Yesterday
9. Kiss the world- Catlow
10. Pour some sugar on me- Def Leppard
11. I’m not dead- p!nk
12. U+Ur Hand- p!nk
13. Centerfold- p!nk
14. Cuz I Can- p!nk
15. The Kill (Bury me)- Thirty seconds to mars
16. Stars- Noctilucent
17. Something New- Noctilucent
18. Sea Of Voices- Porter Robinson
19. Prayer- Hayley Westenra
20. Talking Body- Tove Lo
21. Animals- Maroon 5
22. Don’t need nobody- Ellie Goulding
23. Can’t move to this- Ellie Goulding
24. Extraordianry- Liz Phalir
25. Anything but ordinary- Avril Lavigne
26. Don’t worry about me- Frances
27. Alright- Kinnie Star
28. No Other Love- Heart
29. Daughters- John Mayer
30. Unforgettable- Nat King Cole
31. Isn’t she lovely- Stevie Wonder
32. You got the love- The source & Candi Staton
Want to know what’s next for Callie and Orion?
Follow the Trilogy @
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Photographs by the fabulously talented Trish Thompson
ABOUT THE QUEENS OF FANTASY SAGA
Kristy Nicolle's Queens of Fantasy Saga is a collection of 3 trilogies, following the lives of three extraordinary women and their journeys, both personal and fantastical, into three unique but interconnected fantasy worlds. The first trilogy in the saga, 'The Tidal Kiss Trilogy', captures the fantastical underwater world of the Occulta Mirum and its scaly tailed residents as their world, which seemed stable for so long, begins to shift.
The following two trilogies in the series are yet to be announced.
Stay tuned for more information.
The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) Page 46
