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“And more,” the mermaid said as he led the two males from the door.
“I assume that with your desire to hold a meeting, you have chosen to enlighten us about your plans with Maeve Cruinn?” Rainn crossed his arms over his chest, amusement painting his features.
“We need to find the nymph first.” Cormac pressed his hand to his head. “He’s going to want to hear this.”
“You’ve gone mad,” Shay said, his color-changing eyes racing through a rainbow so quickly they appeared to flicker. “Absolutely mad.”
Cormac smirked, though inside he felt anything but smug. His head pounded, and his mouth tasted like a latrine. “You think so? I think that we need to start looking into the High Throne.” He shifted his tail in the chair, trying to get comfortable but failing. “The gods chose the Cruinn bloodline to sit on the High Throne. What’s to stop Maeve from taking the Undine crown?”
“No woman can hold the High Throne.” Rainn’s eyes narrowed.
“Your mother is the Selkie queen,” Tor pointed out. “If she heard you say something like that, she’d push spikes under your nails.”
Rainn shuddered. “My vicious mother aside, the Mad Queen lost her sanity to the High Throne. Do we wish Maeve to do the same?”
“Maeve knows more about the High Throne than she lets on,” Cormac grumbled.
“Maeve knows more about everything than she lets on,” Rainn replied, flinging his hands in exasperation. “She isn’t going to reveal Undine secrets to us. She doesn’t trust us. The only people that we can blame for that is ourselves.”
Shay and Tormalugh nodded in unison.
A heavy knock came from the door, and all four men turned to look at the intruder. One of the Tarsainn guards, his face hidden by a helmet and his trident strapped to his back. The guard rushed into the room with an urgency that made every one of the princelings sit up and take notice.
“Sire,” The guard dipped his head in greeting.
“Yes?” Cormac leaned forward.
“Your mother and Maeve Cruinn have disappeared.”
Cormac didn’t bother going to his chambers: the last place where both his mother and Maeve had been spotted. Instead, he raced to the dungeons like a shark was nipping at his tail. Cormac didn’t bother to check if the other princelings followed; he didn’t bother to think much of anything as a single-minded red patina stole over his vision.
He had to find Maeve. She was the centerpiece of the entire plan. He hadn’t risked the gods’ wrath on the frosted sands only to walk away empty-handed. Maeve Cruinn had been insurance. He had hoped that King Irvine would not level a city if his niece resided in its walls.
Maeve Cruinn was naïve. Quiet. Even with several opportunities to escape, she hadn’t. Cormac knew she was easily controlled at her core, but if Maeve Cruinn had managed to escape, it would all be for naught.
Perhaps she was not naïve at all. Maybe that had been her plan all along. To lull Cormac into a false sense of security and then rip it all away.
She had been in his mind. Cormac didn’t know the extent of what she had seen, but he couldn’t allow her out of his sight. He couldn’t allow her to escape.
Cormac ignored the iron bars and their poison leaking into the water. He ignored the guards and raced for the upper levels of the dungeon where the more important prisoners were kept.
The ones the Mer wished to keep alive.
The prisoner Cormac sought was in the last cell at the end of a row. As the Undine paced the cramped space, bioluminescent paint flaked from his skin. His fists clenched as if he was about to reach for a weapon that was nowhere nearby.
Cormac banged on the bars of the cell. “Tell me where she is right now,” he said through bared teeth. “Tell me where Maeve Cruinn will run if she has nowhere else to go.”
The Undine male allowed his cracked lips to pull to the side in a knowing smirk. His eyes flashed as he turned to the wall, ignoring the Mer-King.
Cormac growled. His eyes narrowed as if he could will the prisoner to speak. To divulge his bride-to-be’s secrets.
The Undine prisoner said nothing.
“Fine,” Cormac sniffed, his tail flicking in irritation. “Guards. Ensure Liam Cruinn doesn’t eat until he’s ready to be more cooperative.”
Chapter 1
I didn’t touch the water, save for a few drips as the oars sliced through the sea and our boat rocked with the lull of the waves.
