Sea Witch(73)

She would be crying real tears of joy soon.

“Hold your fire!” the boy called as the guards raised their rifles to the little mermaid splashing past the footstep islands on her own two feet. Behind her somewhere, Evie had taken her last breath. The approaching guards, too, dead in the deep; she couldn’t let them ruin this next part. She didn’t have much time, but there wasn’t much left to be done.

She just had to hold on for the final piece of her plan.

“Nik! Nik! She did it! She did it!” The little mermaid crashed onto the beach—the princes and the remaining guards were the only ones nearby but at the mouth of the cove was an entire ball’s worth of gawkers. An audience. This was perfect. “She did it, and I remember!”

The little mermaid grabbed his hand. Pointed her practiced smile at his stunned face. “I’m Anna. Anna Liesel Kamp. I’m Anna!”

From the sea lane above, the little mermaid heard her batty old oma, right for once. “Anneke. My Anneke—you’re sopping wet! Out of the water with you! Out!”

A few titters came after the old woman’s outburst, but then Iker’s voice thundered over them all. “Cousin, step back. She’s no better than a witch and you know it. She’s worse. Move away.”

“Not this time, Iker,” Nik said, touching the little mermaid’s face. Reading it. Confirming the suspicions he should’ve had since the moment he set eyes on the “traveler from Odense.”

“If you’re really Anna, tell me this: What happened on Lille Bjerg Pass when I was ten?”

The little mermaid didn’t blink; rather, her answer brimmed with joy and urgency. “You bashed your right leg on a rock, you’ve got a scar as long as your shin bone. Evie and I had to carry you down the mountain.”

Those dark eyes of his widened and he grinned. “It’s you—it’s really you.” But then he broke her gaze, his eyes searching the waves for the girl she would never be. He couldn’t even give her this moment of attention. Yes, he deserves this.

“Where’s Evie? There was a wave and—” His eyes broke from hers, scanning the water.

“Niklas, what are you doing? Step away from her!” The queen—the little mermaid almost smiled again. The queen and her piety. The king and his nobility wouldn’t be far behind. “What are you waiting for, cowards?” she yelled at the guards, porcelain features cracking in fury. “You have guns, use them.”

The guards advanced—but Nik was prepared. “Stay back. That’s an order.” He turned to his mother, looking over the little mermaid’s head. Holding her tight. “You too, Mother.”

“Overruled,” the king answered, his voice stern. “You are of age, my son, but as long as I am alive, your orders will still be those of a child.” He faced the guards who were left. “Seize the prince and kill the girl.”

This time, the guards didn’t hesitate to advance, their bayonetted rifles pointed squarely toward the little mermaid. The prince stepped in front of the little mermaid, shielding her from the guards. From view.

The time was finally right. And with not a moment to spare.

The little mermaid pressed into his back as if cowering. Then she swept a single hand through her hair. Her fingers wrapped around her comb, the point glistening with seawater.

“Nik!” That voice. Evie—she’d survived, the little witch.

The prince turned toward the water. Looked toward his true love.

The little mermaid smiled then—the prince had yet again made the wrong choice.

It would be his final one.

With all the strength remaining in her body, the little mermaid plunged the knife straight through the prince’s back and into his heart.





31


MY EYES OPEN TO DARKNESS. EVERYTHING ABOUT ME IS midnight. Sad and colorless. Time does not exist.

So this is the sea.

The true sea.

The only light from above is the moon. As my eyes adjust, it gives the blackness a little color—a hint of blue in so much dark as I sink beneath the waves onto cool sands. My father lies next to me, his eyes sunken and gone. The hole in his middle—it’s the size of a harpoon. From my dart gun, surely. I want to scream as my heart aches. The cove’s octopus sweeps into view, even larger than I’d thought.

Thought. Thoughts. I have thoughts.

I’m alive.

My lungs scream.

Wait.

I’m alive, and I need air.

I test my arms. My feet. Anna’s magic has somehow gone—I can move.

Suddenly, my feet are kicking and my hands are clawing at the water in an upward stroke. Pain radiates up my arm from where blood seeps into the water.

I was shot. Yes, I was shot by the king’s men. And I survived.

I survived what Anna had planned, too.

And now I must warn Nik. Anna isn’t our friend anymore—she’s something else entirely.

She is rage.

My heart quickens, pounding harder with each foot gained toward the surface. Blood clouds every stroke, my shoulder threatening to fail.

My vision breaks the surface, and with a heaving breath I’m already moving forward, swimming and then lunging toward the beach once my feet gain purchase on the submerged sand. I try to breathe in deeply, but my necklace is too tight, the pearl still throbbing. With every ounce of energy I have left, I tear at the magic thread until the pearl bursts free, landing with a plunk in the water below.