“Of course,” Vearla chuckled. “Bet you’ll both be on your best behaviour now?” She cackled. “Now you know Auntie is watching…”
I tasted bile on my tongue. “If you want Lukas to like you, you’ll stop spying on us both immediately.” My words were firm, powerful. “And if you let us both leave now and return to Ryntook, I’ll do you a favour and not mention this to him.” The thought of her watching us made me feel ill. Lukas didn’t need this knowledge, too. The absolute invasion of privacy…
The Queen looked taken aback. “You think he wouldn’t like to know I’ve been watching over him?”
“Absolutely not.”
“But I don’t watcheverything,” she scoffed. “And recently it’s only been me using the pearl, anyway. Ever since that awful king took ill, there’d been far too much debauchery going on in that palace for me to let my darling daughters watch.” I held back a gag. “But at least he stopped all that after you arrived,” she chuckled. “Then again, some ofyourprivatemoments have been even more scandalous—”
“Enough!” I blurted, chest heaving. “If you have any respect for either of us you’ll stop any spying at once.”
A turtle drifted past while she pondered, and I steadied my breathing. Swiping up a canopy from its back, she chewed slowly.
“Fine,” she finally said after swallowing deeply. “No more pearl viewings if you think that will help. But promise me that you’ll bring him back to visit us again?”
My brow lifted. She was actually letting us go?
With narrowed eyes, I nodded. I’d never force Lukas to come back here. But she didn’t need to know that.
“Then I suppose you are free to leave.” She gestured at the ballroom floor while my shoulders sagged with relief.
Turning away from her, I searched around the room for Lukas, my eyes catching on far too many glittering skirts and long swishing tails. Eventually I found the princesses in their multicoloured gowns. But my eyebrows pinched together when I noticed none of them were dancing. Instead, they appeared to be arguing. Or at least some of them where while others seemed to be twisting their heads around, frantically searching for someone.
My breath caught. Eleven sisters. No king.
Lukas was gone.
CHAPTER 16
My breath came in rough pants as I shoved aside dancing merfolk and fish-tailed servants. Lukas couldn’t have gone far. Just moments ago, he’d been twirling one of Adriana’s sisters across the shell dance floor. If someone had taken him, he’d be close by. He couldn’t have left the ballroom. Not that quickly.
A stream of shouts tore me from my panic.
“You scared him off, you brute!” one of the mermaid princesses yelped.
“Me? You’re the one who elbowed him with every turn!” another sister huffed.
Scoffing, I charged past the group. But then I froze.There he was. A glimpse of dark brown in a sea of bright tropical colours. By the back wall, a door to a balcony had been left open, and hunched over the railing with his head in his hands, was my missing king.
Air whooshed out of me. It was enough to leave a trail of bubbles as I rushed out of the glittering ballroom. But any bubbles from my lips burst when I reached the balcony.
The secluded half-moon-shaped space looked out into the ocean. The deepdarkocean. There were no vast coral forests or multicoloured rocks to gaze out upon. No bright scaly fish or scuttling sea creatures. Only a dark endless ocean – lit up by thousands of glowing jellyfish.
I gasped. I’d never seen something so spectacular. Most glowed a soft moonlight blue, while others paraded through the ocean, shimmering in shades of pink or green. All of them drifted in time with the softened music from the ballroom.
I smiled, reaching out to poke a smaller jellyfish that’d been brave enough to drift onto the balcony. But then my gaze fell to Lukas, and my smile faded. He wasn’t watching the jellyfish at all. Instead, his head hung low while his shoulders shook against the marble railing.
“Lukas?” I kept my voice soft as I called out to him.
He flinched – hard enough to scare any nearby jellyfish off of the balcony. “Naria?” he rasped, then cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for leaving the ballroom. Are you alright? Did something happen?” He kept his back to me as he spoke, using one hand to wipe his face while the other gripped the railing.
My eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m fine. Just needed a moment.” He spoke quickly, scrubbing at his face.
“Lukas…” My voice was soft, careful. Stepping to his side, I reached up to pry his hand away. He tensed at first, his arm rigid, but after a few ragged breaths, he let me lower it to his side.
My lips parted. Tears mottled his perfect face, each one twinkling like the stars under the light of the glowing jellyfish.
