Chapter 1
Punished. Once again. Floatation devices are strapped around my arms, my bare chest vulnerable to the sun.
“What did I do this time?” I lament, unable to wipe the drying hair from my face. Why humans invented these air-filled arm-sleeves is beyond me. And sharks? Ugh, they’ve got to be somewhere nearby; I can sense their presence.
I sigh and turn over so that I’m face-down in the water. I blacked out. That’s all I remember.
Hours upon hours, I’m stuck in this Poseidon-forsaken wasteland of endless water, frying like a crab on the beach.
The surface moves unnaturally near me and panic rises in my chest. I watch for a fin to break the surface with bated breath, clenching my fists in a weak show of aggression. I’m no strand of kelp, but I’m no boulder either.
Something grabs my shoulders.
“Snap! You’re dead.”
Although I’d never admit it if anyone asked me to recount this moment, I let out a shrill scream and whip around, my tail nearly tangling with itself. The face of my best friend nearly breaks in half with a sharp-toothed grin, and he falls into the water laughing, releasing my shoulders.
I whip my tail around to smack his body. He resurfaces, still laughing and holding his stomach.
“I thought you were a shark,” I grind, snapping my tail at him again. He dodges, treading as his cackles trail off.
“And I thought they’d kill you on the spot. Not send you to float again.”
“I don’t even know what I did this time.”
He snorts and shakes his head. “Yeah, okay. Sure. You weren’t that drunk, Merrick.”
“And you don’t believe that because…?”
“Because you were talking perfectly fine. You had all these plans and ideas, and then you—“ he cuts himself off with a sharp laugh, pushing his hair back like he can’t believe I did what I did—whatever it was. “You were lucid, dude.”
“Cuda, I—“
My eyes sink downward as red pools around me, darkening the water as the sun slips below the horizon. Cuda’s jaw slackens and he shrugs. “Don’t worry, Mere. I got your back.”
“What?”
He nods his head and grins, pointing at me and winking before dipping back into the water and disappearing into the depths. Ice cold tendrils of magic wrap around my tail and tug, and for once I’m glad I never sharpened my teeth, or I’d be tongueless.
The red continues to expand like blood, creating symbols and images at the edges. I feel another tug and thank whatever god is listening the sharks weren’t hungry.
I’m yanked under.
My hair catches under my jaw, feeling ready to slice through my skin. I descend until the red turns black from the ocean’s tint. And then, as if I hadn’t been sucked through a vortex, a room manifests around me. A courtroom, my father at the head, my mother missing from her seat. She must be running late. Her disappointment of a son’s ended up in court again.
The floatation devices are removed and iron shackles appear around my wrists, pulling me toward the ground. I pump my tail to stay upright, coughing as leftover bubbles climb my throat.
A particularly buff merman that’s never liked me drags me by my arm to my seat—next to Cuda.
“You’re my lawyer?”
He grins. “No one wanted to do it, and I need the practice.”
“You sent a mermaid to her death because you misread—“
“Doesn’t matter. I learned from it and now we’re here.” He clears his throat and turns to the front, dismissing anything else I have to say.
I hit my forehead against the table. Cuda. A lawyer. He’s two pearls short of a clam. Always has been. But, unlike me, he likes the way we’re living.
“Okay,” I whisper to the floor beneath me, a hermit crab scuttling by. He shakes his claw at me as my tail narrowly misses him. “Apologize for whatever it is, take the slap on the wrist, and promise to never do it again. Works every time.”
“All rise.”
My father’s voice rings true across the courtroom. I hear the motion of maybe hundreds of merpeople, their whispers incomprehensible. I do the same, using the weight of the shackles to keep me steady against the table as I prepare myself to “Yes, and?” my way through this trial. But they’ve never been so formal before.
My hair parts as I prepare to meet my mother’s eyes, and find myself confused. A part of me breaks. She’s finally given up on me, hasn’t she?
Anger cauterizes that wound. She’s never given a moment’s care for me. Not after I told her what I thought of her so-called “policies” and “laws.” She’s a tyrant. An honest-to-Poseidon tyrant who will one day find herself on the other side of a blade. And maybe she deserves it, what’s coming for her.
But she’s still my mom, isn’t she?
I swallow down the conflicting emotions as the judge swims in. Her octopus limbs wrap around each pew to pull her forward—cephalopods believe an upright stature is more appealing than sideways. It shows status. Wealth. All that junk meant to keep the caste system in line.
She slides to her podium, avoiding my eyes until she’s properly still. She laces her fingers together and sets them atop the flat, and pins me with her gaze. There’s more hatred there than normal.
“You may be seated,” she says.
Not a word reaches my ears from the merpeople rapt with awe. For this many people to be here… What did I do?
“If this were a usual case, I’d be formal. However, this is no usual case.”
She addresses the room as if I’m not here. Cuda leans over to give me a pep talk I can’t hear over the rush of blood in my ears.
“We are here for the hearing of Merrick Nalu’s trial.” She pauses, letting the words hang in the air. “And the murder of Queen Reyna Nalu, his mother.”
The courtroom explodes with sound. I hear cheers. I hear boos. But most of all, I hear the world stop. My heart drowns out every other sound. I struggle to grasp what else the judge says as I desperately try to recall the night before. My vision grows hazy. Vignette creeps in from all corners. This is what Cuda was joking about on the surface?
I stare at my hands shackled in iron. There’s no trace of blood, but why would there be? The water would wash it away like nothing ever happened.
“Your honor, if I might—“
The judge interrupts my friend as he tries to vouch for me. “I’ve already declared him guilty, Mercutio—”
“Merricuda,” he corrects, the stupid nickname he’s given himself making me hang my head. I’m a dead mer treading.
Judge Laria grimaces, an ugly thing. Her face is like a blobfish; has been since she was born, from what I’ve heard. But she’s the farthest thing from stupid. She would only give me a pass for my behavior because my mother would pardon me. But my mother isn’t here.
And the judge says I killed her.
Part of me wants to scream out, “It wasn’t me! I was framed!” But I don’t remember anything from last night. And I’d spoken with her that morning. More like fought. Argued. Whichever is less violent.
“He has the right to a fair trial!” Someone shouts from the back. I don’t dare meet their eyes, as I’m certain Judge Laria’s gaze has shattered them to pieces. Metaphorically, of course.
There are some people who find my disobedience to the crown worthy of some kind of praise, then there are those who’d give their life for my parents. In truth, I’m no better than some snobby merling looking for—
Looking for what?
“Fine.” Judge Laria smacks her gavel on the podium. “Mercutio, give me one good reason not to send Merrick to his death.”
“Well, for starters, you’ve spent so much time with him in this courtroom, you might as well be his second mom.”
The only people who laugh are behind me. Me, I hit my head on the table once more, ready to seep into the floor.
Judge Laria swivels her head to the jury. Half seem to be holding in laughter.
She frowns. “If not death, then I propose a newer option. One for murderers, traitors, and thieves. Convicts. Criminals." She pauses. "One that could potentially bring in a steady income for the king, especially with his exiled son participating.”
She catches my father’s eye, who nods in approval. The whole exchange sends a cold wave of nausea through me. My mother mentioned something like that, but never directly to me. She called it a game. Only...
“Should he win the game, he will save his own life.” She points the gavel at me. “But the wicked always reap what they sow.”
