Page 42 of Entangled

“Nay. That’s not true.” Anger grew within him.

“Then prove it, my lord. Take your troops to the sea and bring back what is yours.” Drell wouldn’t back down and it made Sebastian feel anxious and upset.

Sebastian truly didn’t want to look like a weak ruler. Neither did he want Merrow leaving before she’d even given him an explanation as to why she didn’t want to stay. He had to go after her, even if it was only to hear what she had to say. “All right. Prepare the troops, but no one leaves before I am ready.” He started to walk away.

“Where are you going, my lord?” called out Drell.

“I have to make a quick trip to the dungeon and then we’ll be on our way.”

Sebastian hurried to the dungeon, pushing open the door to find his guard eating a meal and drinking wine. “Open the cell door of the handmaid,” he instructed.

“Yes, my king.” The guard did as ordered.

Sebastian stepped in through the open cell door, stopping when he saw the woman hunkered down in a heap on the floor with her arms wrapped around her. She looked tired and weak and almost as if she were dying. “When is the last time she had food or water?” he asked the guard.

“Yesterday, my lord,” answered the man. “Before she escaped.”

“Why haven’t you given her anything since?”

“I figured you would want her punished, like any of the other prisoners who try to escape.”

“Dammit, I never gave that order,” he shouted. “Now, go get your food and wine and give it to her. And hurry!”

“Aye, my king.” The guard rushed away to do as ordered.

“Dee, get up,” he told the woman, walking over and pulling her to her feet. When the woman looked up at him with hollow eyes, he could tell she’d been crying.

“Kill me if you need to, but please don’t hurt Merrow,” came the woman’s plea. “She only helped me escape because she felt she needed to do so, but I am not going anywhere. Please, don’t hurt her, my king.”

“Merrow has escaped with her sisters and is heading to the sea as we speak.”

“She has?” Hope filled her eyes. “Then they have a chance to get back home after all. Thank the gods that they will soon be back through the portal.”

“What do you mean she felt as though she needed to help you? Is it because, like she told me, you were once a sea nymph too?”

“Nay, my lord, that is not the reason at all. It is so much more than that. A much deeper reason.” She looked directly into his eyes now, all her fear having left when she discovered the sea nymphs were headed back to the sea.

“Then what?” he asked, needing to know. Such devotion between Merrow and this simple handmaid was like nothing he’d ever seen before.

“I suppose it no longer matters if I tell you, my king. Before you can stop them, they’ll have made it back to the sea and they will be wary of your nets this time. Once they are in the water and in their undine forms, you’ll never be able to catch them.”

“Tell me what?” he asked, not understanding any of this. It almost sounded as if the women held some sort of secret between them.

“King Ravenwolf, there is something special between me and Merrow, as well as me and Galene and Melite. You see, I love them all deeply and they love me too.”

“You do?” he asked, having felt something that might be love for Merrow as well when they’d spent the night together.

“I do. I love the three of them as well as all the rest of my many children.”

“What are you saying? Do you mean that Merrow and her sisters are⁠—”

“Yes, my lord. The sea nymphs are my daughters.”