The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (15 page)

Falling through the waves so deep, I close my eyes and beckon sleep.

I hear something stir beneath the earth. It is hot to touch underneath my fleshy mass. I can hear it, whispers crawling over me with arachnid softness, a tingle moving across me with wicked intent. Tremors are moving through the dense rock and heat is breathing in and out of all the fissures of the ocean’s bedrock. I close my eyes, scared to know what is encased in a timeless coffin. I see black slashes, symbols flash across the back of my eyelids. Something I’ve seen before but cannot quite remember. I hear a cackle as I writhe with terror in a place unknown to me. I know not what surrounds me but only what lies beneath, the jaws of something old, something dark, stretching open in a grin, a grin that will swallow me whole. I don’t think this is a memory… or at least… it’s not my memory.

I wake with a start, curled up on the ocean floor, alone. Or not, as I look up into the eyes of Cole.

“Callie… what are you doing here?” He looks at me, something unmistakably horrified in his eyes.

“I… I ran away,” I stutter, shaking off the dream that had not belonged to me. I wonder if it was a reaction to the stress of everything that’s going on around me. But then again, mermaids aren’t supposed to dream, we are only meant to consolidate our memories into a flawlessness that time cannot erode.

“I don’t think you ran… more like swam,” Cole presents a hand to me, helping me up from the sand. His onyx tail is moving impatiently and it aggravates me slightly. I don’t wonder why he is here. I know Orion has sent him.

“So exactly how much trouble am I in?” I ask him and he shakes his head.
 

“I don’t know. It seems to me like Orion is pretty worried. I think he’ll be glad you’re safe.” His armour is shimmering around him. I turn from him, feeling the pressure of his presence. “Let’s go back to the city. I can call off the search and the rest of the Knights can return to their proper duties. Keeping everyone safe,” Cole speaks the words and I can’t help but feel they’re directed at me. Like I’m causing some huge inconvenience for everyone. My heart is stony in my chest, emotion from the night before, much like the storm in the midst of which I had sobbed, is clearing, vaporising into nothing.

“I don’t know if I want to go back,” I whisper. Faux weakness sounds throughout my tone. I want him to pity me, but I no longer feel sorry for myself. This wasn’t my fault and I’m not going to deal with it on anyone’s timescale but my own. Cole opens his mouth to retort but I turn and start to swim away from him. He follows me insistently.

“I cannot go without you. If I have to stay here I will. It’s not safe to be out here alone. You need protection,” he implores my fear to engage an understanding of his logic within me. This only makes my anger grow.

“No. I need to be alone. I can protect myself. I died and came back to life remember?” I continue to move away from him, something catches my eye and an abhorrent feeling of rising vomit follows. We are still close to the shore and I can see its proximity to the human world now more than ever. A turtle is caught in a plastic bag, throttling itself within the rungs one would use to carry groceries home. Next to the poor creature is a discarded soda can and several candy wrappers. The remnants of a sugar binge. I move down through the water and rip away the plastic bag. The turtles brown leathery flippers beat against my arms as I free it, desperate to be back, swimming free. As I pull the tacky plastic loop from its neck the big beautiful black eyes connect with mine in a moment of thanks, a second of mutual respect. It swims away, slowly, gracefully through the azure hue of the water and into the distant morning light. I realise Cole is now beside me.

“Must have thought it was a Jellyfish. They eat them you know. It’s good this one got caught up in the bag and didn’t eat it. That can kill them,” he speaks like this is common knowledge. I feel bile rise up within my throat, thick and sweet.

“You’ve seen this before?” I query him, horrified.

“Near the coasts, yes. We try to help wherever we can. But sometimes it’s not enough.” His royal blue eyes fill with a kind of melancholy knowing. I wonder why it is Orion and I are working so hard to save a world full of people who are so goddamn ignorant and disrespectful to the needs of their own planet. I feel something stir within me, that tiny voice at the back of my skull, growing louder with each instance.
Exactly.
 

“Humans suck,” I exhale and Cole nods.

“They are… young even still I suppose. Evolution takes time.”

“This isn’t evolution, its common sense and a lack of care,” I shake my head, the anger not fading but reverberating through my every thought. I clench my fingers into my palms.

“I think we should go back, Callie. I can tell you’re stressed out. Maybe you need to talk things out with Orion. It isn’t safe out here,” he reminds me once again of the Psirens and my anger crests. I roll my eyes and he frowns.

“It’s not my fault you know, that he’s like this with you.”

“So I’m not overreacting about him being so overprotective?” I ask him and he looks deeply uncomfortable.

“Look… I shouldn’t really be talking to you about this stuff, it’s not my place to…” He trails off and I glare at him, erect as a poker in the body of the sea and determined to know another sees my point of view.

“Cole. Spit it out.”

“Well…
 
My soulmate, Jack, he’s with the Knights of Atargatis all the time, and I love him. But, I can’t stop him from going out there and doing his duty. He’d kick my ass.” He looks at me and his mouth twists into a smile at the thought. I can see the love there instantly.

“So you’re saying Orion should suck it up and let me fight if I want?” I look at him hopeful, warming to him slightly.

“I’m saying if you weren’t a woman, he wouldn’t have much of a choice. You may look small and dainty, but I saw you that night over the city. You’re stronger than he thinks. You’re stronger than even you, yourself, realise,” he smiles at me and I feel confidence grow within my chest, blooming outward from my sternum and crawling around my ribs like vines, reinforcing my bones, protecting my heart.

“Thank you,” I smile at him and he nods, an expression crossing his face that I can’t quite read.

“Don’t mention it. As in, actually don’t mention it. I don’t fancy pissing off the new Crowned Ruler,” he shrugs and I nod.

“I think we should go back now. You’re right,” I do this to show my gratitude and smile gratefully. I know I’m doing him a favour by not putting up too much of a fight, but I also know that I do need to go back to the city. I need to go and talk to Orion. I need to go and tell him how I feel. I need to fix things between us. After all, what other choice do I have?

CALLIE

The surface of the water rolls, unrestrained and boundless above as I move through the city. I can feel eyes peering through glassless windows and watching my return in the bioluminescent dim. My body feels strong, my views definite, my heart encased in my ribs, no longer trapped like a bird but rather using the alabaster bars as a kind of armour. I wasn’t going to be distracted, I was going to put my fin down.
 

Looking back over the past few months it’s been easy to be swept away with the huge current of Orion’s love, the passion we share. But I needed to be able to swim in the current, enjoy it and not get pulled under by its intensity. I look around me at the city and its great height, the towering turrets of surface scrapers looming like huge bollards above me, trapping me within their streets. Cole and I are moving toward the Alcazar Oceania, which does not yet feel like home, accompanied by a small guard of Knights who had aided him in his search for me.
 

I can’t quite bring myself to feel bad at the inconvenience to them. Rather I choose to feel irritated at Orion for making such a fuss. It is getting embarrassing for him, how desperate he appears all the time when trying to keep me caged in next to him. He doesn’t look like the ruler I know he can be. He looks like a lovesick schoolboy with an edge of overbearing father.
 

I sigh, running my fingers through my hair, feeling the tiara that still clings within the thick, stiff locks of my mermaid tresses. It feels heavy on my head, its claws digging into my scalp ferociously.

“You can go now, Cole. I don’t need an escort. I know my way to the Alcazar Oceania,” I turn to him and he throws his fist against his chest, hard and unwavering in its trajectory.

“Of course,” he looks worried.

“I’ll be okay. Go home to Jack. That’s an order,” I smile at him kindly and he looks surprised, a tiny flame of thanks flickering into life behind his royally blue eyes. He turns from me wordlessly, taking the rest of the mermen with him. I watch him interlock his fingers with one of the other Knights who had been following us and I wonder if Jack had in fact been accompanying us the whole time. I shrug it off, feeling the weight of the fight ahead of me.
Maybe there won’t be a fight. Maybe it’s all a big misunderstanding.
The naivety of my own thought surprises me. Of course there is going to be a fight. I left the man hanging there without an answer to a proposal of marriage. More than that, I can’t even claim that I want to get married. Because I don’t.

Within the Alcazar Oceania I feel the weight of the porthole shift as I open it, rising up into our chamber. The jade crystal walls shimmer dully with memories in the wake of our pre-proposal domesticity.
 

“You came back.” I hear the voice, cracked, like a mirror reflecting back the consequences of what I had done straight at me, full force.

“You didn’t exactly give me much choice,” I mutter and Orion comes into view. He glides toward me. His face is impassive but his eyes are scared. There is fear in them. Fear I’ve never seen before.

“If you hadn’t run off in the first place then it wouldn’t be an issue,” he doesn’t snap. He just sounds tired. I take off the tiara that’s still digging into my skull and move over to my vanity, placing it in front of the conch comb. The diamonds glitter coldly.

“I needed some time,” I admit, turning and meeting his eyes. They’re dead.

“Why?” He asks me, I can tell every muscle in his body is tense as even his tail moves in calculated and measured momentum.

“To think,” I reply honestly, earnestly. Not whispering but speaking clearly. I do not want there to be any mistake of my intent.

“That’s funny. I thought you had your mind all made up.”

“What’s that supposed to mean,” I rise slightly so my eyes meet his. I suck down thick salty mouthfuls of water, letting it quench my thirsty lungs and give me the confidence that I need to get myself heard.

“I asked you to marry me.” He puts his hand through his hair in that way he does when he’s stressed, fingers bristling against the metal of his crown. I know what would calm him, stroking his hands through my hair, over my body, but I cannot let him seek comfort in me any longer.

“And I said no.” His head snaps up only moments after his eyes have fallen to the floor as my words reach him.

“You didn’t. You just fled. You always flee. So you’re saying no?” He narrows his eyes. I inhale. My heart begins to hammer but I have to confirm his claim, I have to put myself first.

“I’m saying no,” I nod and he turns for a moment, as though I’ve physically slapped him. “Are you mad I’m saying no?” I ask him, wondering what to do as I hang, limp in the water.

“Not angry. Humiliated maybe…” He mutters, waving a hand, back still to me, dismissing my existence almost.

“You chose to ask me in front of everyone. It isn’t my fault. I was kind of humiliated too,” I remind him and he still doesn’t turn around, robbing me of his gaze, like a small child refusing to kiss his mother after he’s thrown his toys out of the pram.

“Yeah, I can see how.”

“Orion, please don’t be like this…” He turns on me, finally deciding to square up to the problems that have come to a head after months of denial.

“I waited for you,” he snarls. I straighten my back and cross my arms.

“I didn’t ask you to,” I remind him, glaring.