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“Snow?” the woman said, calling my attention to her.
Shock rocked me to the core as I took in the woman’s features. Rebellious and confident violet eyes. Silver hair hanging over skin as pale as cream. What the hell was the sea princess, my childhood friend, doing so far inland? And with three striking mersoldiers, the last a mountain of a man with jovial eyes and high cheekbones.
“Nyssa.” My voice came out a little choked. “Thank the sea god. You got my message?”
“What message?” Smiling, the princess got off her horse, hasty steps carrying her to me.
When she reached out to embrace me, I shrank away from her. Reminders of better days, of laughing with her, exploring the forest, and sneaking her down to the local tavern all hit me like one of my torturer’s fists. Hot, bitter tears scorched my cheeks.
Throughout my time in prison, I often imagined my friend’s violet eyes piercing the darkness of my hell as she and her father came to rescue me. Clinging to the last of my sanity, I pictured her holding me and whispering that everything would be fine. But alas, they’d never come for me. Perhaps my stepmother had fed the sea king a bunch of lies, telling him that I had fallen ill like my father and had died.
“Papa is dead,” I told Nyssa, fighting back the sobs gurgling in my throat.
Nyssa’s fine and gracious features dropped with sorrow. “I’m so sorry, Snow.”
She tried reaching for me again, but I jerked away.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
Overcome with grief, I tucked my head.
“Whoa,” said the tall, dark, handsome merman, his palms raised and a smirk on his lips again.
Hunter and Axe poked at the merman with pirates’ swords, but the soldier seemed to find them amusing.
“Take it easy there, little man,” he said.
Hunter dug the tip of his weapon into the man’s vest. “Who you calling little?”
The arrogant man stole the dwarf’s weapon and tossed it onto the ground. His actions reminded me of my torturer, picking on someone unable to fight back.
I swung my sword at him to teach him a lesson. “Don’t touch them.”
“Snow,” Nyssa said, raising her voice but clearly trying to remain calm and to reason with me. “This isn’t like you.”
She examined me in a way that said she didn’t recognize me. Well, neither did I. The same person who’d entered that cell still resided in me, but a new, darker version of me had emerged.
The arrogant mersoldier’s eyes narrowed at me, as if challenging me. “Trying to get me naked, sweetheart?”
Smartass. He wished.No thanks.Not in a million moon cycles. I jabbed him harder, warning him to back off. “You’re not my type.”
He swung his trident at me with equal fervor. “I’m taken anyway.”
Arrogant jerk. But the way a smile crept over Nyssa’s face told me something was going on between the two. Whatever she saw in him puzzled me. But I’d bet finding out his daughter was lying with someone below her rank would really piss off her father.
“Where’s Kaya?” The merman abandoned toying with me and walked amongst the shifters. “My sister. Has anyone seen her?”
Hunter and Axe strode after him.
But the arrogant merman wasn’t the only one seemingly smitten with the princess. The other two soldiers also followed her, protecting her, watching her intently. I should be jealous, but over the years, I’d grown accustomed to her stealing all the attention from the males whenever I’d been in her presence. Half the time, Nyssa remained oblivious to it. In comparison to her sisters, she didn’t care for her looks, preferring to join me getting dirty in the mud in the orchards. On the other hand, her sisters, all decked out in the finest silks and sea jewels, turned up their noses and curled their lips, as if being outside in nature was below them. The precious princesses preferred to sit in the den of my father’s manor and sew with my stepmother, who turned up the charm one hundred notches in front of the sea king. The memory of her fakery and how it had fooled many made me sick to my stomach.
The blond mersoldier—the one who’d scouted ahead for the party—dismounted his horse.
Teeny and Rake surrounded me and swung their blades at him, too.
“I mean you no harm,” the mersoldier told them. “We’re just here to retrieve our people—those who were kidnapped by the collector.”
“Lower your weapons,” I told the dwarves, replacing my blade in my scabbard. “They’re merfolk; they won’t harm you. Nyssa is princess of Tritonia and my friend.”
