This Drowning Kingdom

Chapter 4

Ariel spent the majority of the two hours collecting coins from around her room and going over what she already knew about the ancient artifacts of the merfolk. She also looked over some history, just to be sure.

It was just after she'd finished reading a paragraph on the merfolk's ancestors, the sirens, that she'd heard the knock on her door. Ariel wouldn't have bothered answering—would have assumed that it was just the guards, telling her she only had fifteen minutes left before she was expected in the throne room, but the knock had been quiet. Hesitant.

Leaving the seaweed scroll open on her desk, Ariel eased the door open and peered through the crack. Her eyes widened at the sight of Althea.

"What are you doing here?" Ariel hissed, quickly pulling Althea into her room and shutting the door swiftly behind her. "You should be in your room, you know what'll happen if she finds you here."

Althea gulped, nodding. "I know."

"So why did you come?" Her heart was pounding, quickly going over the guard's rotations in her head. Maybe she could sneak Althea out across the grounds, get her to her room before someone noticed she was missing. Ariel gripped her sister's arm. "Althea, why are you here?"

But Althea only looked up at her and whispered, "Don't go."

Her sister's voice echoed around the room, despite how quiet it had been, and Ariel froze. "What?"

"Don't go," Althea repeated. Tears fell from her eyes and mixed with the water around them. "Don't leave me here, don't leave me with her, don't leave me alone." Her breaths were shallow, her voice panicked.

On instinct, Ariel pulled her sister into a hug. Ariel's heart shattered as Althea held tight, sobbing into her shoulder. "Don't go, don't go, don't go," she cried.

"You know I have to, Thea," Ariel whispered. It was all she could do to blink back her own tears, to stay strong. For Althea—she could be strong for her.

She had to be.

"Then take me with you," Althea begged, pulling back and looking at her with red-rimmed eyes. Her auburn hair floated in the water behind her, so rarely out of a tight braid that it nearly knocked Ariel off-kilter. "I can—I can be your apprentice, I can help you. I'll be good, I promise." She bit back a sob.

Ariel struggled to keep her own breathing even, and her voice shook as she said, "I want to, Thea, believe me." Her breath hitched. "But you know I can't do that."

Althea wept, tears streaming down her face. "I need you, Ariel," she wailed. "You can't leave me here, please."

"I'm coming back," Ariel said softly, and she would do anything—anything—to keep the despair, the terror, from ever returning to Althea's face. "You know that, right?"

But Althea only shook her head.

"I'm leaving when you get back," she said bitterly, still choking on her tears. "I heard you—you want to get rid of me."

Nausea swept over her at Althea's tone. "No," she said quickly, begging Althea to hear the truth in her words. "No, Althea, I would never—"

"Then why are you sending me away?" Althea sobbed. "I don't want to live with humans. I like the sea—I like to swim!"

It was getting harder and harder for Ariel to hold back her tears. She cupped Althea's face in her shaking hands. "Althea," she breathed, willing her sister to listen. "Thea, look at me."

Hiccupping through her tears, Althea did.

"If—If it means this much to you, I'll make sure you can stay here, with me," Ariel said. Gods, she hated lying to her sister, but the despair, the emptiness in her sister's eyes... she hated that even more. "And I-I'll even get you something from the surface, if you want. Consider it a... really early birthday gift."