Page 163 of Storm and Sea

Others joined in agreement.

“You should have told us!”

“What do they eat!?”

“Are they the ones taking our fish?”

“How can we trust anything with claws like that?”

The voices overlapped with one another, tumbling into an angry crescendo. Marina’s arms dropped a few inches, a defeated expression coming over her face. But just as quickly, she raised them again. “I won’t let you hurt them!”

“Get out of the way!”

“Stand aside, girl, let us decide.”

They were too close now. Atreus worried Marina would soon be yanked from her position. He shifted his feet, ready to push Nyel into the waves.

“SILENCE!!!”

A lion’s roar tore through the crowds’ squawking, and all fell silent. The assembly parted for the larger-than-life figure as Giovanni made his way forward.

Atreus wanted to throw up. Wanted to melt and become one with the salt and sea.

I’ve failed him. After all he’s done for me… he knows I’ve been lying to him for years. He hates me. He hates me. He hates me.

The golden light sputtered and dimmed, fading like a dying ember struggling to hold on. Nyel let out an almost imperceptible whimper, and Atreus couldn’t tell if he felt the same hollow ache in his chest—or if Atreus was merely projecting his own. But then he realized his hand was clenched around the sireno’s fingers hard enough to hurt.

He loosened his grip but couldn’t stop his entire body from shaking. With fear. With anxiety. With the awful certainty that he was about to be abandoned. For the second time.

Giovanni approached his daughter, but she didn’t lower her hands. Marina jutted out her chin in defiance as tears spilled onto her cheeks.

“I won’t move, Papá.” Her words were determined, but the way she said them sounded like a plea.

“I know bambina mia.” He stroked a wayward strand of hair, and Marina’s lip trembled. “But as your father, I ask that you step aside.”

Atreus’s heart nearly broke in two, watching Marina come undone before a father she loved.

Forced to choose.

“It’s okay, Rina,” Atreus said loud enough for her to hear.

At the sound of the nickname she’d always wanted, Marina let out a sob. She lowered her arms dutifully and stepped aside.

Atreus stepped fully in front of Nyel as Giovanni approached. The weight of Giovanni’s gaze bore down on him. Atreus couldn’t bring himself to meet it, couldn’t face the disappointment etched in his eyes. Instead, he bowed his head, bracing for whatever punishment Giovanni saw fit to deliver.

He deserved it.

For the lies.

For the deceit.

For almost a decade’s worth of memories, laughs, and lessons… all in the company of a creature Giovanni never knew.

He stopped only inches from Atreus, his feet hidden in the surf.

“Lift your head,” he commanded, and as though Giovanni had physically forced his muscles to work, Atreus obeyed. The wind blew through his hair. He’d partially dried since surfacing, and Marvassa slowly transformed him. What Giovanni saw now was half the human he knew as Atreus— and half a stranger calling itself a Mer.

“Do you understand where you are?” he asked.