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My mind went in panicky circles as we ascended the platform steps. I barely even registered when my eyes slid over the smooth rod of metal tucked underneath the Rook’s great mass. Even without being able to see the golden hue of the metal, I recognized it at once.
King Eamon’s trident.
I took back what I said before. Perched atop a polished weapon, perhaps he was somewhat like a crow.
That thought was quickly forgotten as the delicate touch of the tentacle carrying me became increasingly aggressive until the sea wizard practically hurled me across the room. I yelped as I touched down on the platform, bouncing a good three times before landing where the tail of the throne had once been.
Leftover coral frags, the only remains of King Eamon’s throne, bit into the side of my cheek, but the pain barely registered. Terror had me trembling. This was it. I glanced up and immediately regretted it.
The Rook was huge. Even bigger than King Eamon. Dark eyes glazed with a milky film squinted down at me, focusing intently on the side of my face not pressed against the platform. Movement drew my attention down just as the trident slid from underneath him, rising with the help of a dark tendril. The last thing I saw was the Rook’s devious grin before the ocean spun out, my body suddenly caught in a violent whirlpool that shot me up in the water.
The resistance of the water stung every inch of me, skin and scales alike, until a tendril caught me by the hair and ripped me straight out of the spiraling vortex.
Pain shocked through me. My vision blurred, and my neck twisted in agony as the Rook brought me to eye level.
“You say this mermaid slayed one of my knights?”
There was a thoughtful pause before a smooth voice came from just beside me. “So the reports say.”
Through the vortex, I hadn’t even realized the sea wizard had moved up the platform.Damn creep. I swung my bound arms out behind me, hoping to whack him with his damned gift, but my hands were met with only water and a dark chuckle of amusement as he leaned just out of my reach.
“That’s enough,” the Rook boomed, instantly bringing my focus back to him. Milky eyes slid to the sea wizard beside me. “Be gone, puppet.”
Puppet. I struggled to glance over at him, wondering if he would take such an order. Sure, he didn’t have a circlet on his head, but he had a trident. From what I knew about trident wielders, they thought they were above everyone and everything else.
Maybe that was why I felt so confused when I found the sea wizard’s gaze already on me. One of his dark eyebrows arched subtly in question, as if he were seeking my permission to leave. But why?
A stretch of silence passed between us before his head bent forward, dipping into a low bow. “As you wish.”
The blunt end of the black trident tapped down on the platform, and magic washed over the room in a dark sheet. He hadn’t even fully disappeared before I’d turned my attention back to the Rook.
“Who are you that you can command—?” My words stalled mid-thought as a soft pressure stroked over my wrists. They flexed on reflex, but the feeling was already gone. As the last bit of magic evaporated with the sea wizard’s retreat, so did the tension around my wrists. The binding had dissolved away.
“Who amI?” the Rook roared, and I felt all the blood drain from my face.
My hands… they were free.
Had the sea wizard freed me because he knew I was about to die? Because even with my hands, without a weapon, there was no way I could survive? Ah—he’d noticed my tail. That must have been it. What good were hands to a mermaid who couldn’t even swim?
“Iam royalty, chosen by Queen Sagari to rule alongside her until the day Poseidon returns to swallow up the seas. Thatthingis nothing more than a cursed puppet. A pawn for my dear queen to move as she pleases.”
Eyes rounding, his fat fingers seized my chin. He leaned in closer, dragging a gray tongue over his lips, and my stomach coiled. “Now that I’ve got a good look at you,” he said, his body shifting and chest broadening in a way that seemed almost predatory, “you do favor my dear queen. Not in the face, no, but your hair. It feels so similar wrapped up, wound around me.”
He eased back on the platform, his thick tendrils parting wide in leisure, and the tentacle in my hair jerked, tugging me forward.
“It has been lonely here, so far away from my beloved.” He sighed over the sound of coral frags crunching under the weight of his oversized back.
“Play with me, mermaid,” he rumbled, attempting a seductive purr that sounded more like a crackling cough. Before my mouth could open, he was already dragging me on top of his great belly. “Show me all your pretty tricks, and I might just—”
Whatever it was he was going to say, I would never know, because when my tail touched down between his parted tentacles, I threw the fist clutching the bulky seashell forward, delivering a punch aimed at the bridge of his nose.
Only—last time I checked—punches weren’t supposed to slice. They weren’t supposed to bring about clouds of blood that spread so fast and tasted so thick, either, but here we were.
What. The. Heck.
The weight I’d put into the punch was still on him, cutting a gash far past his nose, down through his cheek, sinking deep enough I could feel the sickening vibration of his teeth grinding against the surface of the seashell.
An otherworldly howl of pain erupted along with the blood pouring from his mouth, but I kept my weight on him, too shocked to do anything else. The shell finally caught on the hinge of his jaw bones, and my hand slipped, throwing me off him.
