Ariella (Princesses Uncovered #3)

Chapter 9

Tobias stirred from his mat of sea-grass and seaweed, shifting to a more comfortable position.

In the end, he just stared up at the white marble ceiling, wondering what to do about Ariella. Ari! He corrected himself mentally. She doesn’t want to be called Ariella anymore. He smiled slightly, looking at the worn marble above him and wondering – not for the first time – where it came from and how it had been brought here.

But his thoughts did not linger on this for as long as they usually did. Instead, they switched back to Ari. Why did they do that? He was not in love with her. He didn’t particularly dislike her either, though. She was a puzzle. Something to be solved.

He had never known a surface life, but he had observed it, and he had come to believe that it was far better than the one he lived beneath the surface. Yet, Ari had abandoned it in order to come down to his world. Why? What could she possibly need or want down here with him?

He sat up, eyes roving the dimly lit interior of his bedroom. Ari was in the room next to his. He could go ask her. But should he? Did he really want to know the answer? Yes, I do. I need to know the answer. But why do I need to know so badly? Tobias shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. He didn’t succeed.

Sighing, he pushed off the bed and swam into Ari’s room.

She slept on the mat peacefully, her eyelashes splashes of ebony against her white skin. Her hair swayed softly in the slight current running through the room from the screen-less, un-shuttered windows.

He watched her sleep, frozen in his place beside the mat. He didn’t want to wake her then. Her day couldn’t have been easy, and she looked so restful lying on the mat asleep. But he had to know. Had to understand why she had chosen to become a Nereid rather than stay where she knew what would happen to her. Why come here when she could have remained in a place where she had everything? Maybe that was the answer. Maybe she hadn’t had everything.

He touched the tips of his fingers to her bare shoulder where the shirt’s sleeves didn’t cover. He shook her gently. Her eyes flew open, startlingly blue as she stared at him.

She pushed herself up onto her elbows. “Tobias?”

He nodded, settling down on the floor before her. “I… I wanted to ask you something.” He hesitated.

She smiled, encouraging him to continue. “Ask me what?”

“Why did you decide to come down here? Why become a Nereid at all?” He blurted. Then more quietly, “You had everything up there, right? So… Why come down here where you didn’t know what might happen to you?”

She blushed. “I… Tobias, I didn’t have everything up there on the land.” She looked away.

He moved to sit beside her, taking her hand. “What didn’t you have?”

She looked back over at him, gazing steadily into his silver irises. The blue flecks in the silver looked so much like teardrops. Beautiful, really. Ari shook her head. “I didn’t have freedom. I couldn’t choose my own life, my own path. And I…” Her voice faltered, and her gaze dropped to where his warm hand enveloped hers. “I didn’t have love. I would’ve been bound to – no, owned by a man I didn’t love. A man that – for all I could tell, anyway – didn’t love me. Not the way I needed to be loved. So I left. I came here.”

“But why here? Why not just run away to another kingdom?” Tobias pressed.

Ari looked away from him, her gaze distant as she looked out across the seafloor outside her window. “I came here because…” She paused, a delicate pink tingeing her cheeks.