“My offer isn’t for you.” She angled her head in my direction. Even though I couldn’t see them, I could feel the Crow’s eyes penetrating me. “It is for your granddaughter. She is a beauty. And such a fetching eye color. Are they green or are they gray?”
My gut plummeted to my feet. What kind of bargain could she possibly want to make with me? Crossing my arms, I eyed the witch.
“Donotspeak to her.” My grandmother positioned herself to stand between us.
Still, the Crow addressed me. “Do you know why I cursed your kingdom?”
I nodded slowly, momentarily tongue tied. My mother, Sarina, met a male from the outside world. They fell in love and she wanted to live with him in his kingdom, but there were two obstacles in her way.
The first was that Mer could not live without the ocean. All Mer could exchange our tails for legs when on land for precisely one day before we had to return to the ocean. Only after we had done so could we summon our legs again.
The second was that my grandmother expressly forbade it.
Foolishly, my mother turned to a witch for help. The Crow gave her a way to live with my father without ever needing to return to the ocean, but it came at a cost, which she refused to name. Instead, she insisted my mother was to give her something in return when the time came.
My mother left the ocean and my parents were married. When the Crow eventually returned to claim her payment, my mother refused. The cost, whatever it had been, was too high.
She fled from the Crow and returned to Vantillios. The Crow followed, only to find that she had died giving birth to me. In her fury, the Crow cursed the entire kingdom so no Mer could ever leave again.
As for my father’s fate? I didn’t even know his identity, let alone whether he was still alive.
“I offered your mother that which your grandmother refused,” said the Crow, resting a hand on her chest. On the back of her right hand was what looked like a wine stain in the shape of a crescent moon—the mark of the witch.
My grandmother bristled.
“But nothing comes for free, so when your mother refused to pay the price for my assistance, I was unhappy. Tonight, I’ve come to offer you a way to break the curse forever.”
A chorus of murmurs rippled through the crowd. My breathing hitched. She didn’t just have my full attention—now she had my intrigue too.
“She doesn’t want anything you have to offer,” my grandmother snapped.
“How?” I asked, stepping forward. “How can I break it?”
The Crow’s fingers ran through the drooping petals of a bioluminescent flower at her side. “All you have to do is go to the outside world and convince a mortal prince to fall in love with you.”
A sound of disbelief spilled out of my mouth. Could it really be that simple?
As quickly as hope rose, it deflated. “How would I evenmeeta mortal prince?”
Mortals and magical beings had avoided each other for centuries. We shared a complicated history, but, ultimately, mortals didn’t trust magical beings. Most mortals kept to themselves on the southern continent of Anerdor and the kingdom of Edmere, while magical beings kept to the northern continent of Amaros, or the islands of Vantillios, off the coast of Amaros.
There were exceptions like Doran, who had traveled all over the world.
The witch purred. “Don’t worry about that part.”
My skin prickled—it sounded too easy. I narrowed my eyes at her. “And what is it you want in return?”
I could hear the smile in her voice as she said, “Make him fall in love with you, then break his heart.”
I blinked in surprise. To intentionally break someone’s heart? That was cold. “Why?”
“It is a test. A test to see if you can do that which your own mother could not. Break the heart of the one who loves you.”
The idea of being freed from the curse was more than a little enticing. It wasn’t as though I didn’t have experience in breaking hearts; I’d had my fair share of romantic entanglements and had always been the one to end things. But did I have the stomach to intentionally hurt someone?
Yes, you do.The heartbreak of one mortal man seemed a small price to pay for freedom.
“If I do as you ask, you will break the curse on my kingdom forever?” I asked in a falsely confident voice.
