Chapter 19: : Chapter 18

ERIC RACED from his quarters to the beach. The back stairs were slick with drizzle, and his boots slipped down the stone until he stumbled onto the beach. It took five minutes at most, but it felt like there were hours between the first note hitting his ears on the balcony and his feet sinking into the sand. He ignored his exhaustion and confusion, intent on finding the source of the voice. The melody was exactly the same as it had been the day of the accident.

Thick fog blanketed the beach. All he could see was the shadow of the waves against the sand, and all he could hear was the song. His legs carried him after it on their own accord, each step bringing him closer. A pale golden glint caught his eyes.

“Hey!” He trailed after the voice, but the singer kept just out of sight. “Wait! Please!”

He could barely make out a figure in the fog. She sang endlessly, never pausing for breath, and Eric stumbled after her.

“Please stop,” Eric said. “Where did you learn that song?”

Finally, the figure paused and turned to face him. She was a young woman, and through the fog Eric could see that her white skin was pale and even, not a single scar or freckle marking any part of it. She had curls of dark hair that twisted in the ocean breeze. Beautiful violet eyes met his.

“It’s an old family tune,” she said. She looked at him, her gaze filled with catlike curiosity. “I’m sorry. Do I know you?”

Eric hesitated, taken aback. Most people in Cloud Break Bay knew him, but he didn’t recognize her, either. “Eric. You can call me Eric.”

“Vanessa.” She inclined her head slightly and took a step toward him, offering her hand in greeting.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Vanessa,” he said, and moved out of her reach. It was like a dream, meeting her. He feared his hand would pass right through her and she would vanish if they so much as touched. “This is an odd question, but were you singing on this beach yesterday?”

His voice wavered, and Eric took a deep breath, trying to brace himself for the answer. For either answer.

“Oh!” Vanessa’s voice was clear as a bell, and her questioning tone struck a chord in his chest. “You’re the boy from the beach? The one who nearly drowned?”

“I am,” Eric said.

He searched her face, waiting to feel a spark or flutter, anything to confirm what he already suspected—that Vanessa was his true love with a voice as pure as her soul—but he felt nothing. Was it only because he didn’t know her yet?

His thoughts drifted to Ariel and the way his soul came alive at the sight of her on the rock. How her smile broke through his fear. How passionately she acted without a care for what others thought.

“If not for that song, I would never have recognized you.” Eric shook his head and forced himself to smile. He shouldn’t be thinking of Ariel now. “Why didn’t you stay?”

“I was scared, to be honest. I didn’t know if you were alive or who you were, and I’m not even from here, so I didn’t know who to go to,” Vanessa said, and laughed. “Strange girls found kneeling over corpses are rarely believed. I’m surprised you even remember me.”

“Of course I remember you. You saved my life,” said Eric.

“I was simply doing the right thing,” she said. “What anyone would have done.”

Vanessa reached for him, and Eric leaned away, the hair on his arms standing on end. She pulled her hand back and touched the shell necklace at her throat. She had to be his true love—a voice as pure as her spotless soul.

“Would you like to talk about it?” she asked.

Talking. Yes, that was good. Eric had spent a whole day with Ariel before realizing how much he had enjoyed her company. Maybe he just needed to get to know Vanessa, and that would make his path forward clear.

“Talking is an excellent idea,” he said. “Perhaps we could get to know each other better? It would be nice to know more about the woman who saved my life.”

Vanessa peered up at him with a thin half smile. “I would like that very much.”

This time, when she tried to touch him, Eric let her. She was cold, cold as the sea when you dove too deep and too dark. Her fingers, smooth and soft, slid across his palm. She paused.

It took him a moment to realize she was waiting for him to kiss her hand. A traditional greeting. A sign of affection.

Something he could do with .

But Eric didn’t. It was so intimate, and he had never been able to do it with his friends whom he trusted and loved. How could he with a girl he barely knew, even if she was supposedly his true love?

“There are stairs leading up to the castle just over there.” Eric pointed in the direction he had come from. “We can talk in my study.”

“The castle?” she questioned. “Don’t tell me you work there?”

“You could say that,” he said with a small smile. Vanessa truly didn’t know who he was, and that, at least, he liked. He bowed his head and offered her his arm “May I?”

Vanessa took his arm without hesitation and pressed against him. Eric held back a flinch.

So far, this didn’t feel like the stories.

“…one is a zither, and they’re completely different,” said Eric, setting down the instrument he’d just used to play her song. He was rambling. He hadn’t stopped rambling since walking her up the stairs. They had made it to his study nearly half an hour ago, and he still didn’t know what to say. She kept asking about his life, but that wasn’t something Eric ever talked about with strangers. Speaking to Vanessa wasn’t coming as easily as he expected talking to his true love would.

Vanessa hummed and touched the instrument, pressing her body against his side. “I didn’t know there was so much to know about the zither.”

Eric took a step away. It had also been an excellent shield between them.

“Forgive me,” he said. “I could talk about music endlessly.”

Vanessa laughed. “I noticed.”

Explaining who he was had been easy enough. It was obvious by how the guards welcomed him into the castle and the portraits of him on the walls that he was Prince Eric. Vanessa had explained that she was Rivan and visiting family in Cloud Break Bay, helping her brother care for his ailing daughter. But all he had truly learned about her was that she liked walks on the beach.

“Do you enjoy music?” he asked, and could have hit himself for how silly of a question that was. “Other than singing, of course.”

Vanessa laughed without smiling and said, “I fear learning an instrument was always beyond me.”

She walked around his study and touched the tip of the sword displayed on his wall. Since entering the room, she had eyed everything around her with calm interest. The edge of the sword was still sharp, but she didn’t wince. Eric cleared his throat.

“Music has always held a very important position in my life,” he said. This was the moment he had been waiting for—finding and confessing to his true love. It wasn’t as easy or joyful as he had thought it would be. Revealing something so private to a stranger didn’t feel right, but time was not on his side and he needed to break his curse. He had to tell her. “Only one other thing has been as important to me in my life, but before I can tell you about it, I need you to understand that it must remain a secret.”

“A secret?” Vanessa turned and arched one brow. “And you feel you must tell me? Why?”

“I do,” he said, “and it will be clear why once I tell you.”

She gave him her full attention and nodded.

“I’m cursed.” Saying it didn’t make him feel better. “If I kiss anyone who isn’t… who doesn’t have a voice as pure as their soul, I will die.”

He couldn’t bring himself to admit to her that the person with a pure voice was supposed to be his true love.

“Cursed?” Vanessa gasped. “Well, that is a lot to spring on a girl. Is that all?”

“Thankfully,” he said with a laugh. “But when you saved me and I heard you singing…”

She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and leaned back against his desk. “So you think—”

“That you could break my curse.”

Silence reigned while they started at each other, her eyes narrow slits of amethyst, and Eric gestured to his desk.

“I have letters from my mother to prove it if that would help,” he said, shoulders tight with anticipation.

“I believe you.” Pushing herself from his desk, Vanessa approached him slowly, like a sea snake stalking its prey, until she was mere inches from his face despite his attempts to not meet her eyes. “Princes do not approach strange girls and admit to being cursed and needing to kiss them unless they are serious.”

Her closeness was making it hard to breathe, but not in the way that it had been when he was with Ariel. There was something uncomfortable about the way she appraised him. The curse might claim she was his true love, but what if she didn’t want him? What if he didn’t want her? Shouldn’t he want her?

“How can you be sure it’s me?” she asked. He could feel her breath on his face. “Do you want me to sing again for you, Eric? To be sure?”

Eric shook his head. “No, I couldn’t forget your voice if I tried.”

Her song, so clear in his memory, was the only part of her that struck the strings of his heart. Vanessa stretched out her hand, and her fingers brushed his cheek. His skin didn’t warm or tingle. He had no desire to lean in to her touch. Was he expecting too much of true love?

His first few frustrating hours with Ariel had been more pleasing than this, and, now that he thought of her, every moment had been more… everything. Vibrant. Fun. Comfortable.

Vanessa raised her brows. She seemed to sense that his mind had wandered.

“Sit, Eric,” she said, and took both of his hands in hers. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I have, in a way. I was uncertain if I would ever find you.” He pulled away from her.

“Sit,” she said again, gesturing at the chair. “Tell me whatever it is that’s bothering you. You can trust me.”

Eric sat but couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

“I have a proposition for you,” he said finally. “I would like for you to break my curse.”

“You want me to kiss you?” she asked, standing over him. “And then what?”

Eric swallowed. “I could pay you if you would like, or I could help you acquire a job in Cloud Break if you want to live closer to your family. Your brother and niece, even, I could help them in some way. Freeing me of the curse would be doing a great service to Vellona. You could have anything you wanted.”

“It’s not much of a curse—killing you if you kiss someone without a pure voice,” she said, and sat on the arm of his chair. “But there is something you could do for me.”

“Well,” he said, and cleared his throat again, leaning back in the chair.

She leaned with him, and Eric stared at the wall over her shoulder. She was so close and so enclosing. He couldn’t stand up or gesture without unseating her. Ariel would’ve at least asked first.

Ariel—she had told him to be brave and trust himself. Wasn’t that what he was doing? He had been right; his true love had saved him that day on the beach.

So why did he feel so uncomfortable? She was his true love, yet he didn’t want to tell her that. He didn’t want her at all.

“What do you want?” Eric finally asked.

“What do I want for breaking a prince’s curse?” Vanessa cupped his face in her hands, her smile never faltering. “I want to marry the prince, of course.”

Eric felt as though someone had sucked all of the air out of the room.

“Could we, um, could you get up, please?” He shifted and slipped out from under her, nearly dumping her to the floor. “I’m so sorry, Vanessa, but you want to marry me? You don’t know me.”

And he didn’t want to marry her at all. This wasn’t a choice; it was expectation and unhappiness. There was nothing true about this.

“I could get to know you,” she said, and clutched the shell necklace at the hollow of her throat. “Shouldn’t you want to marry your true love?”

Eric frowned at the last two words.

“Vanessa—”

She surged forward and pressed a finger to his lips, dragging it down his mouth to take his chin between thumb and forefinger. Eric held his breath.

“From what I hear, you are long overdue for a marriage, and Vellona is in desperate need of security,” she said. “I’m offering to be your savior twice over.”

Eric reared back.

“Why did you call yourself my true love?” he asked.

She smiled and tilted his head down to look at her. “Because I am.”

“But how do you know that?” he asked. “I didn’t tell you that part of the curse.”

She pursed her lips. Her grip on him tightened. “It was obvious you were holding something back. You’ve never married. You’ve never kissed. You nearly swooned when you heard me singing. And I’ve never heard of a curse so vague. I understand you, Eric. You’re lying to protect yourself. It’s fine, but it’s not required anymore. You found me. What else is there to know?”

All Eric had wanted for so long was for someone to understand him. He wanted someone who knew all his flaws and quirks and still adored him. He might have known Ariel for only two days, but he knew what she meant with only a gesture and sometimes felt like she knew what he meant even when he couldn’t find the words. It felt as if the last two days had been two decades, and Eric wanted that every day. He had struggled to repress it, to drown the part of his soul that wanted Ariel, but no matter how deep it sunk, it always returned. His feelings had always returned, and he would always return to her. No matter the depths. No matter the distance.

“I don’t believe you!” he said and stepped away from her. “And I’m not marrying you.”

“It sounds like you have to,” she said, and reached for him.

Fury washed over him. No love of his would disregard someone’s boundaries so casually.

“I don’t have to do anything!” Eric said.

Eric had always believed the best of the curse, no matter how much he hated it. He had clung to the idea that he had a true love, that he was destined for one person decided by fate, but that wasn’t hope. It was lies. The idea of true love setting him free kept him from living his life. He deserved to make his own choices and to have loved ones who respected those choices. His destiny was his alone.

All he had to do was be brave.

“I’ll keep the curse,” he said. “If you are my true love, I want nothing to do with you or it.”

Vanessa’s expression darkened, almost unrecognizable in the dim light of the room.

“You shackles,” she said, voice low and eyes narrowed. “You to be alone.” He stepped back, and she followed. “Abandoned when your true love dies. Exhausted by the realities that strike when true love is over. True love. You romantics are all so gullible.”

She laughed and took Eric’s face in her hands before he could move. She was strong, far stronger than he, and her eyes glowed gold as she leaned in close. Shoving him back, she pinned him between herself and his desk. He tried to pulled away.

“Oh, Eric.” Vanessa’s fingers stroked delicate lines from his temples to his throat. Her nails dug into his neck. “So pretty, yet so little going on in there.”

She flicked the side of his head and backed away.

“I mean, I get it,” she said, and looked him up and down. “The redhead’s got good taste, I suppose. Pity you’re so handsome. Such a waste.”

Eric ground his teeth together so tightly they creaked, and he tasted blood. Rage, still and calm, kept him in place as he recognized what was happening. This was not the wild anger that had taken him on the Isle of Serein but something deeper.

“Hello, Ursula,” Eric said, reaching for the penknife on his desk. Her name tasted of brine and metal. “How nice to meet you in the flesh.”

“Well, someone’s flesh, certainly.” She grinned and ran both hands down her sides. “So kind of you to believe me so easily.”

“Why not just kiss me and get it over with?” Eric asked.

“I might if you try to stab me with that little knife you’re reaching for,” she said. “You need to learn how to think bigger, lover boy.”

Eric huffed, too furious to think clearly. “You need me alive for something?”

“Oh, Eric,” she said, and patted his cheek. “Once we’re married, no matter how much I lie to you now or how quickly you die after, I’ll be the heir to Vellona on paper, and what’s on paper is all that matters. Contracts are my specialty.”

“The kingdom will hate you,” said Eric. “They’ll fight you every step of the way. You may rule Vellona on paper, but you will never truly have it.”

“Oh, I don’t want it. Not forever.” She scrunched up her nose as if there were something foul in the room and waved a hand. “Plenty of other shortsighted humans want it, though, and they can have it—for a price. Until they pay me that price, I’ll control your navy, your army, your treasury.”

Eric growled and lurched for her.

“Sit.” She tapped the shell at her throat.

The shell flashed, and Eric’s body obeyed despite his protests.

“So I’m to die on my wedding day,” he said. “Seal the marriage with a kiss that kills me?”

“A marriage is sealed with a kiss, regardless of how the kiss turns out.” She laughed. “Why? Hoping to kiss your quiet little girlfriend? It’s insulting you’re still after her when I’m right here. She’s not even flirting like I told her to. That advice was for free, you know. Rare I do that. I should’ve known better than to bother.”

A shiver of fear shot through Eric, but whatever hold Ursula had on him kept him from moving.

“What did you do to Ariel?” he asked. “Whatever deal she made, I’ll—”

Ursula held up a finger, and Eric’s mouth snapped shut. He couldn’t reopen it no matter how hard he tried.

“There is nothing you could offer me that would compare to what her deal will eventually get me,” said Ursula. “She didn’t even want you, you know. She wanted adventure on land. I just thought this”—she waved a hand at him—“would be impossible. It doesn’t matter, though. I am finally going to get what I deserve.”

Eric felt the magic keeping his mouth shut loosen, and through gritted teeth, he said, “You deserve nothing.”

“Oh, sweetling,” Vanessa dropped her hands and clutched her shell necklace. “I deserve so much more than you can give me, but you’ll do for now.”

Then, eyes glowing as brightly as the shell at her throat, she sang.