The Demon And The Siren [Completed]

|Chapter Forty-Nine : Awakening|

"Because Heather was my mate. Because the merfolks eventually realized that Mariane had lied. Mariane wrenched Heather away from all of us." Ursula said emerging from her hiding place, "And we wanted to take revenge from her."

"How'd you know about Mariane's schemes?" Poseidon asked to calm the air as Marilla breathed fire up at Ursula.

"After Heather was sent away, the former king and queen died soon. We never knew what happened to them exactly. When Mariane took the crown, she forbade the entire kingdom from mentioning Heather. She went as far as beheading the ones who spoke of her. Naturally, everyone started doubting. We all liked Heather much more than we did Mariane, but the woman had made such a convincing ploy that we couldn't quite not believe what was in front of us. Everyone knew in heart Mariane was the wrong one. But the cowards just accepted the vile queen out of fright for their lives," Ursula eyes blazed with anger.

"You didn't accept her, did you?" Zander parroted rubbing Marilla's shoulder in a comforting way.

He knew what she was upto with just a glance at those anger and pain filled eyes but he wanted to make sure they knew everything before Marilla unleashed herself on Ursula.

"I could never." Ursula agreed, "After Mariane found her mate, got married and had a child, Layla was the most important thing to her. I knew if I wanted to truly hurt Mariane, it would be through her daughter."

"So you decided to use Layla?" Marilla asked in disbelief, her fists clenching, "She didn't even do anything!"

Apollo's glance slowly slid to the green-haired mermaid who sighed as if it were an old tell-tale for her. His eyes narrowed but he stayed put. He had no say here.

"But her mother did." Ursula retorted nearing Marilla, her sight drifted to the cold lifeless Layla and she smiled. She fucking smiled.

Apollo's jaw ticked. He had the immense urge to dislocate the woman's wrist as she leaned down and tapped Layla's cold cheek harshly.

Marilla swatted Ursula's hand away, her blue eyes glaring at the woman, "Don't touch my sister." She gritted through her teeth.

"Not sister. Cousin sister." Ursula corrected before standing back on her feet and casting her gaze on Layla, "I killed her once, you know. I waited till Mariane grew attached to her daughter before I couldn't wait anymore and drowned the child when her mother wasn't paying attention. I wanted to see her agony over her dead child but instead of wallowing, she—"

"Came to me." Poseidon completed, "You were the one to kill Layla that day."

"But imagine my surprise when I see Mariane enter a house with a dead child and return with the child very much alive and another newborn in her arms." Ursula beseeched, "I was curious. I sneaked in to check what or who was inside that house who'd bought a dead child back to life. Only to find the Sea God himself crying, holding onto the mate I've been searching for years and clinging onto her dead self."

"As Marilla grew up, I understood just whose child she was because of the similarities. She looked like Poseidon but she behaved like Heather. Marilla was the living proof of what Poseidon and Heather shared after she left me. I wanted to hate Marilla. But I just couldn't. Even Mariane had come to grow fond of her despite Marilla being her rival sister's daughter, then who am I?

"I swore since I couldn't protect Heather from Mariane, I'd do anything to protect Marilla from Layla. To keep her away from danger, I let Layla live as an upfront to the assasins who wanted to kill the crown holder and convinced Mariane that the court should know her daughter would be the future Sea queen. Mariane had objected but when I pretended in front of the court to doubt what would be the reason she wouldn't want to declare, Mariane had no choice then to go with the flow. She let Layla believe the lies. She couldn't kill the entire court now, could she? She'd already killed so many people to hide Heather's trace. . ."