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I slump back. There’s no tea or bread to comfort myself with, but I can hardly breathe in this dress, so it doesn’t matter anyways.
Nothing helps. Not fanning myself or rolling my mother’s pearls between my fingers. I push them down into my bodice, carrying them with me.
Fresh air is what I need.
I check the hall to make sure I’m alone, then take the staircase to the hidden entrance, wandering down a hill.
Zephyr stays away. They know I need this time to myself.
I cross over to the bluff’s ledge and look out to the shoreline below.
People are already gathering on the beach. When the maids come to fetch me, I’ll start the long procession down the street with Darcy, and the crowd will part for us.
We’ll stand beneath the trellis in the sand, the metal arch twisting into an intricate design of thistles and clovers. We’ll cut our palms and mix our blood as we swap our vows, the two of us becoming one.
Grey specks float in my periphery, and I take a step back. I’m too high, too close to the ledge to be this dizzy.
“Ah, you’re finally alone,” a low, male voice says. “I’ve been trying to speak to you for the past three days, but you’re always being followed around by your damn entourage.”
“Kyle the kelpie?” I spin around and nearly swoon from moving too quickly.
“In the flesh.” He grins, cocking his hip against a tree. “Your sisters took advantage of my debt and sent me here to give you this.”
He tucks his defined chin further into the collar of his charcoal wool coat as he rummages through his pocket and pulls out a dagger. He clutches the black handle, the whorl on its tip curling past the edge of his fist.
The blade isn’t straight; the steel undulates down to a sharp point.
“This is a nice wedding gift,” I remark, feeling its weight as I take it from him.
He pushes his hand back into his pockets. “I don’t think they intended it as a wedding gift. It’s a witch-killing blade, enchanted to break through any spell of protection.”
“It would take a strong enchantment to break through such a spell.” I trace the curves of the blade. Magic always costs something. There had to have been an offering, some exchange. “It would come at a high price.”
“They bargained with their hair,” he says. “Your sisters and your grandmother all sheared themselves down to their scalps.”
Mermaid hair is coveted all across the realm. We never cut it because we know every strand holds a little bit of magic.
Each one of my sisters has beautiful tresses. I think of Kólga with her icy white curtain down to her blue fin. Yara with her deep brown braids that fade to lilac at their ends. Chantara with her silver-streaked black waves.
I blink away tears at the thought of them parting with the locks they’ve spent their whole lives growing. “Why would they do that?”
“Our friend, the selkie, found Princess Kólga and explained what had happened to you,” he says. “Your sister sent a message–slay the witch who trapped you on land.”
I hold it to my chest and turn my face away, not wanting him to see me crying freely. “Thank you.”
“I’m happy to repay my debt.” He tips his hat, and then he’s gone. Shadows roll over the dead grass, and a murder of crows bursts from the thin tree branches.
I bend forward, but I can’t lift my skirt high enough to hide the dagger in my garter. Bracing my foot on a tree trunk, I slide the blade into my boot instead.
It’s uncomfortable, but between this ridiculous dress and the pain in my feet, I’m already walking funny.
“Feeling better?” Zephyr asks as my heart slows to an even rhythm.
They missed my conversation with Kyle, but I won’t fill them in until after the wedding.
I haven’t told them about my goal to kill the sea witch yet. It wouldn’t be smart to mention that without a solid plan.
Now I have one.
