The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (36 page)

SOLUSTUS

Something stirs behind me, prickling my acute senses. I turn, as though pivoting on a knife’s edge, irritated at the intrusion. The throne room isn’t somewhere you just decide to visit. I really need to get some guards up here. After all, I am ruler.

“Solustus,” Vex is inching around the doorway, a look on his face familiar to me only in one respect. I smile to myself slightly, amused.

“Yes?” I move back from the mirror where I’ve been hovering, going over the conversation with my brother, intrigued as to the girl’s new role in events. Who would have thought someone so pure looking would have the devil in her, so to speak? Who would have thought she’d be the one communicating with the Necrimad?
 

I let myself drop, stretching out in the water as I fall, draping myself sideways across the throne of bones. Vex hovers above the floor a few feet, his tentacles pluming outward, curling and recoiling as they propel him through the bloody dim light.

“I’ve just left the girl, but I have to admit, she’s not as powerful as you indicated, Solustus. I find myself… disappointed.” I almost snort at this statement. What does he think I am, stupid? It amuses me that he thinks he’s less than completely transparent.

“Oh I see… what a shame,” I faux pout, playing it up for the smitten man in front of me. What the hell had that girl done to him?

“So that’s what you came to tell me?” I ask him, stroking a long fingernail along my scales, it makes my internals whir with satisfaction.

“Yes…”

“Very well, there’s no reason to keep the girl here if you don’t see any usable power in her. Tell her to come to me. Tell her… it’s about Gideon. She’ll know what I mean,” I find myself playing this casual character rather skilfully. Vex’s face falls and I almost want to exhale, hysterical at the mere thought that he could outwit someone as old as I. Stupid boy. Surely, someone with the dark magic of Poseidon running through their veins doesn’t think the first of his kind wouldn’t see right through him.

“Vex…” I begin, wanting to give him some indicator that I know his game, rattle him.

“Yes?” He looks back over his shoulder as he turns to leave.

“Remember… Psirens can’t love. It’s not who we are.” With that, his eyes narrow and an angry flash passes beneath the darks of his lilac irises.

“I know that,” he snaps, leaving with increased speed. I smile to myself, thinking of the one person who I know had learned the truth of love the hard way…

The door creeps open, a draft from the sea spilling into the stagnant air. I watch under the crack… relieved that Saturnus is finally home. Caedes is asleep behind me, his hair ratted and his body bruised. He could be dead for all I know. Father’s beatings were taking their toll and he has found a deep unconsciousness that I pray will, at some point tonight, be mine.

“Father… We need to talk.” What’s this I wonder? A stand… has Saturnus come to take us away from all this? To somewhere better.

“What is it boy? Have you got my money? I’m out of spirit,” my father is drunk, as usual. Saturnus stammers.

“No… I’m leaving… I’m marrying Delphine tomorrow. We’re leaving,” he almost vomits the words, like he’s been waiting to spew them for months. My heart drops, how can he leave us? How can he leave us with him?

“Listen here, boy… You’re responsible for this family. Your brothers need food in their bellies and I need spirits in my tankard. You’re not going anywhere,” he barks it, not as angry as he would be if he were sober.

“No, I’ve had enough. You treat us like dirt. I’m leaving father. There’s nothing you can do.”

“Oh really?” I see him get to his feet, swaying slightly, massive in every attribute. From underneath the door I can see Saturnus’ feet lift off the floor. I know my father has him by the throat.

“You’re going to get married? Leave us? Why would some bitch ever want to marry you? You’re worthless… Everyone knows it. Your mother knew it, too.” My father is vile when he’s angry, worse when you mix in alcohol.
 

I wince as I hear choking coming from my brother. I want to cry out from behind the locked door, say something, but nothing can stop my father. I hear something smash, glass I think, and then see the evidence as several green fragments tinkle to the floor.

“Father… please…” I hear Saturnus choke out and I want to cry out, but I’m too scared to make a sound, fearing I may make things worse and make myself a target in the process.

“You want out? Is that what you want?” My father spits the words. I can hear his hurried breathing from lack of physical exertion and drink.

“Please…” Saturnus begs.

“Fine… I’ll give you an out!” I hear a muffled blow, a gasp, and then I see Saturnus’ body fall to the floor. His head lolls sideways, his open, terrified, and blood stained face peering under the door.
 

I want to scream, but can’t find the breath. He’s gasping out for breath that will never come as his carotid lays weeping scarlet from the bottle my father has shoved in his throat.
 

I lay there, staring out into the light at the dying face of my brother. His blood reaches under the crack, filtering in among the cobblestone, as my father sits back down and begins to whistle a merry tune, the murdered body of his eldest son at his feet.

The throne holds me as I find myself feeling something I hadn’t ever felt when recalling this memory. Superiority. I would never have fallen for something as fleeting and weak as a woman, let alone have found myself in a state such as love. Love has no place in the heart of a King.

CALLIE

The sound of my feet pounding against the sidewalk echoes in my ears long after my legs have returned to their natural form. I’ve made the long and embarrassing journey back to the shore from the motel room at a sprint, fleeing the night that has passed, longing to feel the salt water once more claim me as its own. My black tailfin no longer glitters under the moonlight as I break the surface of the water, rather taking light in and holding it hostage. I arch out of the water, enjoying the low pressure and the freedom of the night’s rough waters. Returning to its depths with a crashing mass, I remember the last time I had rode the waves like this. The night I had fled from Orion’s proposal. I try not to think on it too hard, making the journey back to Cryptopolis about me. I have been with the Psirens too long and my intention is now to get in, find out about my father’s location, and get out. No more games and certainly no more boys. I think I’ve had enough of the opposite sex for a lifetime.
 

I approach the chasm that leads down into the darkness and propel myself deeper and deeper into the shadow. This time however, the darkness doesn’t swallow me whole. It doesn’t need to.

I’ve only just made my entrance into the city via the neon cloud of jellyfish that no longer terrify me, when I hear my name called.

“Callie!” I hear his voice, curling out toward me like the tentacles that now attach to his waist in a flurry of black scales. I feel my heart stop momentarily. I don’t want to see him.

“Aren’t you surprised to see me here?” I sigh out, narrowing my eyes as his angular face comes into view, spiking adrenaline induced flashes of the night before. His tongue stroking across my…
oh God no, please stop with the memories…
I want to erase those images so badly, but in an insane kind of way, I can’t help but find them titillating. What the hell is wrong with me?

“
Whatever do you mean, Love?” he purrs.

“Well, you left me in a hotel room, naked, with a broken door, trapped by the sun. I’m assuming you were trying to kill me… or at least get me arrested for breaking and entering,” I do my best pissed off face. I expect venom in return but instead he just strokes the back of his neck with one hand. I’ve seen that move a hundred times, from Orion when he was guilty. So what the hell is it doing here… on this man?

“I didn’t think…” he mutters looking worried. He licks his bottom lip and I roll my eyes.

“Yeah clearly not,” I bite out, folding my arms, letting myself hang above the hustle and bustle of the Psiren soldiers below.

“About last night…” he starts, but I cut him off.

“I know, I asked for it. It’s not your fault,” I admit, straightening my spine in the water. The movements of my tailfin are reserved, precise. I don’t want him thinking last night meant anything.

“My fault?” He looks at me, his lilac irises foggy. Is he confused or something?

“It was my mistake. Don’t worry about it,” I clarify and he opens his mouth to speak.

“Oh… Okay. Fine… I mean, whatever, Love,” he looks confused and I wonder what he’s expecting, does he want a declaration of love? I know love… and that wasn’t love… it was perverse pleasure… nothing more, nothing less. I turn to leave, feeling agitated at his forwardness. “Callie?” I hear him call my name again, a crestfallen beast.

“What?!” I pivot, finding myself facing him instantaneously with the quickness of my own momentum.

“Solustus wants to see you. It’s about Gideon,” his eyes are glazed over, like he’s in a trance or something. I nod and swim away once more, enjoying the feeling of moving away from him, away from what had happened. I am leaving it in the past and that’s that.
 

I move toward the central building of the Cryptopolis, taking in the palace, if you could call it that, and its towering vent made structure. I wonder who had made it, or if they’d just found an old vent and moved in. That seems more likely knowing the nature of the Psirens.
 

I look around, watching them in a pit below, toiling over anvils, practicing their manoeuvres and I wonder if the mer really are right about them. I know they have darkness in them, but maybe if they were given the right opportunity they could be given purpose. The mer don’t understand what it’s like to have darkness inside you, when you yourself hadn’t asked for it. It’s easy to let it control you; it’s easy to let things get out of control.
 

I enter the dark archway of rock, practically ashen, only a little underwater lichen hold it together. Once inside I navigate the corridors and hold my breath, heart beating fast. I can’t wait to get out of here and find my father. Who knows, maybe the open ocean will quell some of this turmoil that won’t seem to rest within my chest.
 

I move upward through a hole in the ceiling, which has collapsed, and into the next layer of burnt tunnel which leads to the throne room. As I enter the bloody red water of the throne room, I feel a dirty, pale, and cold hand cover my mouth and another pull my black hair. It yanks my head back, hurting my neck. I stiffen, feeling suckered tentacles wrap around my wrists. What the hell is Vex playing at? I see Solustus coming from around the back of the throne, where he was previously eclipsed from view.

“Come on, Alyssa. This one is going on a little trip.”

CALLIE

They begin to slide the giant boulder in place, sealing my fate, locking me in with the vents inside. What the hell is going on? Why have they brought me here?