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“I… I never wanted to keep anything from you. You are my daughter,” he declared, with a depth of emotion I’d never heard from him before. “You have been dearly loved from the moment I first laid eyes on you. You are stubborn and fierce, like me. But compassionate and kind, like your mother.”
My eyes grew wide and burned with feeling. I had never heard him mention her since her death.
“You are the best of both of us. Oh, what a ruler you would have made!” He clucked his tongue and looked at me, sadness and regret burning so brightly I could feel it in my bones. “I only wanted what was best for you, Ari. I saw your love for the Earth Dwellers, and I was afraid. I didn’t want you to end up like…” His words trailed off, and in that moment I saw the hard, stern lines on his face fall away, and all his love for me shone there instead. “I only ever wanted to protect you. But I can see that perhaps my way of going about it did more harm than good, and for that I am sorry.”
I could hardly believe my ears. It all felt like a dream, the kind of fantasy no one ever wishes to awake from. It would have been utterly perfect, except for the way my eyes stung. I reached my hand up to wipe them, my brow furrowing as I inspected my damp skin.
“Oh, Ari,” my nurse breathed.
“I don’t understand,” I told her as a drop of water slid down my cheek.
“Oh, child.” She chortled. “You’re crying, that’s all. Nothing to be concerned about, I assure you.”
“She truly is one of them now,” my father said, his voice breathy with wonder.
“She truly is.” Nurse beamed at me.
“Well then.” He cleared his throat and lowered his trident. “There’s only one thing to be done.”
“Father?” I asked.
But his only answer was to point the trident at my nurse. Before I could protest, before I could so much as suck in a breath, the magic was done. The years seemed to melt away from her face, leaving her as the beautiful, smiling nurse I had known, except for her silver hair which shone like a crown. Perhaps best of all, where her tail had once been she now had a pair of human legs, just like mine.
Unsteady legs, it seemed, as she quickly plopped into the water with a splash. But she resurfaced laughing, and I rushed into the water to take her hand, clasping it firmly, squeezing her for all I was worth.
I smiled up at my father, who it seemed loved me more than I’d ever realized. “Thank you,” was all I managed with tears streaming down my cheeks.
“You shall need someone to look after you.” And then, without waiting for an answer, he dove out of sight, headed for the ocean floor.
Damian
I reached out, my hand searching, and when it came up empty, I awoke with a start. My eyes adjusted to the dark and then I saw clearly that I was alone in the bed. For a reason I didn’t quite understand, panic seized my chest.
I threw back the blankets and climbed out of the bed, softly calling for her. “Princess? My little waif, where did you go?”
I’d hoped to hear an answer, but there was none. I opened the door to my bedroom, and seeing the guard posted outside it, caught his attention. “Have you seen my spitfire?”
To my relief, he nodded. “She left the palace, Your Highness.”
“Left?” I echoed dumbly. “Where did she go?”
“I couldn’t say, Your Grace.”
“Thank you,” I muttered, lost in thought as I began to walk the palace. With each step I took, my worry increased. Why would she leave?? Fear beat alongside my heart as I went over the last few days together in my head. Surely, she cared for me as I did for her… didn’t she?
She’d not said so, of course—she never said anything. But hadn’t I felt it in her kiss, seen it in her eyes? She certainly showed me with her pussy, always dripping for me, and legs eager to part to grant me access.
Could I have been wrong? Did those things not equal love?
By the time I threw the castle doors open, I was running. I glanced to my left to see one of the outside guards pointing.
And then I saw her. My heart caught in my throat and lodged there. The sun was just beginning to rise, and the water sparkled under the fresh golden rays. But it was nowhere as captivating as her copper crown. I raced toward her, feet slipping in the sand, but nothing would deter me. “Princess!”
She turned, and the shine of her emerald eyes arrested me, despite our distance from one another. Then she smiled, and the way it touched me in a way I’d never be able to describe, even if I had a hundred years to do so.
I fell at her feet, the sand cushioning the fall as I knelt before her this time. “Don’t leave, my little waif. I love you—haven’t I made that plain to you? I want to spend my life with you, however long we might have.” I reached up and clasped her hand, bowing my head over it and pressing a kiss to the back of it. “I thought you felt the same. Do you?”
Her smile widened, and when her lips parted, her voice reached my ears for the first time. “Ari. My name is Ari, Damian, and yes, I do feel the same.”
