The Sea Siren

Chapter Fifty-Two

Vivian

This isn't how I expected this would happen.

Surely, it would happen at sea. On our own ships, with a body of water to separate us.

Not here. Not on my island.

I'm so sure of it that my head shakes in denial, a disbelieving scoff escaping through my lips.

Antony couldn't be here.

Not drenched as I see him now, his unrestrained black hair dripping over his face. Not dressed for war in his kingdom's colors, a looming cape draped over his broad shoulders.

My mind is powerful, indeed.

Still conjuring up hallucinations. I've made him more beautiful, which I surely thought impossible. It sets me back, momentarily, and I'm unsure whether I welcome the reminder.

The cruel prince's lips are parted, his breath faintly stunted. His skin has been tanned by the sun, noticeable even in this darkness. Transfixed, my eyes wholly drink him in, every inch of his face.

Right now, I can't bring myself to remember who he is... what he's done.

I'm in a haze, moving closer to him instinctively, until our bodies meet. Before I know it, I'm raising my arm, my fingers brushing his lips, feeling him exhale shakily against my skin.

Once I reach his eyes, I hesitate.

I've seen the princes gaze throughout countless circumstances. Before I even knew him, even when he patched me up that very first night we met outside of the tavern, I found myself studying him, curious to know more.

I saw him endure conflictions.

Saw him when he was violently angry and when he was blindingly full of joy. When he felt desire or pain or confusion, I knew it. I knew all of his expressions... or I thought I did.

Because this one is new.

This one is terrifying.

And it's what drags me out of daydreams... straight into a nightmare.

Eye's that never looked at me with true malice, even when we were driven together as enemies at our initial meeting, are blazing now with a look that chills me to my core.

Hate.

That is what I see in them. Eyes that are sunken in, hollow. The deep blue within them surrounded by dark, malnourished skin.

That look, so unlike the man I knew, brings on the trauma I faced running for my life like a flood.

I realize that there is no way this is a dream... no way my mind could have conjured up such detail. The love I remember, that is the lie. Him, before me now, with eyes that could kill, I'm only just meeting my true adversary.

His voice, harshly low, hits me with a visceral reaction. "You dare to touch me?"

My hand drops like a weight to my side.

There is no sound around us, as if the wildlife has stopped altogether to watch the spectacle. The wind blows the fog through us, rattling the dead leaves at our feet.

Looking in his eyes, my chest swells with fear... fear to be back in that palace.

To be beaten again within an inch of my life.

To be bound in the bowels of a ship like an animal, unable to move.

I'm barely recovered, my strength nowhere near what it once was.