Chapter 22: : Chapter 21

ERIC CAME to on the beach. The sky was oddly bright and clear, and he rolled onto his back, then up into a sitting position. Cloud Break’s streets were filled with people, none of them screaming in terror, and even from the beach he could see the distant white pillars of the wedding ship. He sighed and dropped his aching head into his hands. At least those on board had gotten back safely.

How much time had passed? If the storms had stopped and people weren’t running in fear, Ursula had to be dead, but did that mean her magic was gone? Were all her deals null and her curses broken?

“Ariel?” he called out, but his voice cracked. He couldn’t even lift his head.

A splash came from the sea as if in answer. Eric looked up, breath catching in his chest. Ariel rose from the waves, a dress the pale blue of seafoam clinging to her and glittering with pearls along the cloth, and walked toward him. She smiled as their eyes met and dug her bare toes into the sand.

Toes!

Relief washed over Eric. He stumbled to his feet and raced to her. Ariel laughed and smiled, holding her arms out to him. He took her by the waist as he had when they danced and spun her around. Her laughter chased the last of his worries and pains away. He pulled her close.

Eric had waited an eternity for this moment. He raised one hand to her cheek and traced the line of her jaw, and his other arm curled tightly around her waist. She grinned up at him, a little crinkle in the corner of her eyes. He had thought about it when they danced under the stars that first night on the beach, her body pressed against his and her hair tangled in his fingers. He remembered how it had felt to lean in to her when they nearly kissed in the lagoon, before his fear got the better of him. He had wanted to take her in his arms when she dove off the ship after his mother and gone with him onto the Isle of Serein. He had always wanted her and been too afraid every time. This time, he’d be brave.

Eric kissed her.

Ariel tasted of salt and smoke and triumph. She gripped the back of his neck and moved her lips against his hesitantly. They were full and warm, and the whisper of her breath against his mouth blotted out his thoughts. He never wanted to part from her again, not for the sea or curses or politics or magic. This was his choice. Ariel was his choice for as long as she would have him.

Ariel broke the kiss first, gasping and pressing her forehead to his. Eric licked his lips, tasted the sea, and kissed her once again. She giggled against him.

“We did it. Ursula is gone.” Her fingers curled around his hair. “And I think I owe you a story.”

“Only if you want to tell it,” Eric said. “Although it would be nice to know more about you, and I certainly wouldn’t mind learning how you ended up in Cloud Break with no voice.”

“I’ll give you the short version, I think,” said Ariel. Her smile softened and she squeezed his hand. “For now, anyway.”

Eric’s heart skipped a beat.

meant that there would be a later. They had time now.

“I’m the youngest of seven,” Ariel started. “I love my family, but they don’t understand me at all. I always wanted to be human, and I saw you on the ship before the storm.”

“You were near the ship?” he asked, trying to remember that night. “Oh no, did you see that statue?”

Ariel grinned. “I kept the statue after it sunk… At least, I kept it for a while. I used to collect human things—pipes and forks and statues—and then my father banned me from venturing to the surface. I was supposed to be perfect. A good singer, obedient, and decidedly unadventurous. It made me feel like a something, though, not a someone. When he found my collection, he destroyed it. So I went to Ursula, knowing she was a witch.”

Eric’s heart broke. “You went to Ursula to escape him?”

“Not exactly. I had always dreamed of what it would be like to live on land. When Ursula made me her offer, it seemed like the right choice,” she said. “I should’ve figured it was a trap. She just wanted to use me to get to my father.”

Eric squeezed her hand to keep her from wading into other thoughts, and Ariel took a deep breath.

“My deal with her was that in exchange for my voice, I would be human for three days, but if I didn’t convince you to kiss me by sunset on the third day, my soul would be hers,” she said.

“She played us like fiddles.” Eric groaned and leaned his forehead against hers. “She knew I would never kiss you because of my curse.”

“And the worst part,” Ariel whispered to Eric, “is that I didn’t even consider reading the contract.”

Eric couldn’t help laughing.

“Laugh all you want. Your books turn to nothing in the sea.” She poked him in the shoulder and turned, laying her ear over his heart. Suddenly, her face fell, and she looked down at the ground. “Eric, with Ursula gone, you’re no longer cursed. There’s no way to know if I’m your true love or not.”

“I don’t care.” Eric kissed her again and relished how her heart thrummed against his chest. “It doesn’t matter if you were my true love or if you weren’t. You’re who I want. You’re who I am choosing to love. And I do love you.”

Ariel yanked him back down to her. Eric laughed against her lips, unable to stop. She smiled against him.

“I won’t swim away this time,” said Ariel.

“If you do, I’m following,” he said, and spun her around again, memorizing the sound of her laugh. He kissed her again—he would never tire of the feeling of her lips against his—and pulled her into a tight embrace.

Grimsby’s raspy voice echoed over the beach, and Eric pulled away from her.

“I think we have to stop hiding,” he whispered.

Ariel laughed into his chest. “Were we hiding?”

“We are never not hiding from him.” Eric took a deep breath and shouted, “Over here, Grim!”

Grimsby rounded one of the larger rocks. He looked better than he had after the wrecked, and his only wound was a spectacular bruise shaped like a starfish on one cheek. He raced to Eric, tackling him in a hug. Eric barely stayed standing and returned the grip with a laugh.

“Grim,” he said, “is everyone safe?”

“Safe as houses. Not a single casualty,” said Grimsby. He pulled back and clasped Eric’s shoulders. “Never again, lad. Never again. Vanni and Gabriella are at the docks. We’ve been looking for you and Ariel all night.”

Eric sighed, and the last tension in his sore mus-cles leaked out from him. “I promise I won’t make this a habit.”

“I must say,” Grimsby said, peering around him to Ariel, “terribly sorry about your having to swim to the ship. We rather thought you wouldn’t want to be there, but I can’t say anything we were planning at the wedding went as we thought it would.”

“What exactly were you planning?” Eric asked. “You cut those vows close.”

“We figured Ursula must be involved somehow, given how powerful the magic over you seemed. We were hesitant to act too quickly and risk losing others to her magic or losing you completely. The plan was to wait until you said ‘I do’ and her guard was down to act. Most of the guests were Sauer’s crew, and we figured there would be a fight once she was challenged. But Ariel and her squabble of gulls arrived before we could enact our plan.” Grimsby drew himself up and clapped Eric on the shoulder again. “It’s over now, though, thanks to you two! We’ll need to contact the Vellonian council and the other kingdoms, of course, but without Ursula’s storms and with the evidence Sait was conspiring with her, we should have some leverage to work with now.”

His gaze caught on something behind Eric and Ariel, and Eric turned.

At the edge of the water, a tall, imposing figure with a powerful blue tail and a golden crown atop white hair rose from the waves. He held the trident Ursula had taken with practiced ease. Eric took a few steps forward until the waves lapped at his toes and bowed.

“Thank you, King Triton,” said Eric.

Grimsby choked and bowed.

Triton inclined his head to Eric. “So you’re the human my daughter’s been chasing after.”

“I wasn’t chasing him,” muttered Ariel.

“I recall a statue,” Triton said, and Eric winced. That was not an ideal first impression.

“Daddy, be nice. He saved my life.” Ariel took Eric’s hand and led him into the surf. “Eric, this is my father, King Triton. Daddy, this is Prince Eric of Vellona.”

Eric bowed again, deeper this time, and said, “It’s an honor to meet you.”

“And you,” Triton said after Ariel narrowed her eyes at him. “Thank you for helping my Ariel.”

“Of course. She helped me first. I don’t think I’d be alive without her.” Eric glanced at Ariel. “She’s wonderful.”

“Well,” Triton said, clearing his throat. “I haven’t always trusted her opinions on the human world, but I was clearly wrong. You’ve both saved many lives today.”

“I’m glad.” Eric straightened up, Ariel’s hand still tightly gripped in his, and braced himself. “May ask a question about Ursula’s magic?”

Triton nodded.

“The souls Ursula trapped as ghosts or fuel or polyps or whatever it was her magic did—can they rest now?”

“That rather depends on them,” Triton said, lips twisting up to reveal a smile identical to Ariel’s. “They’re not ghosts. The souls Ursula used were not gathered from the dead but the living.”

Something deep and dark in Eric broke, and he tensed. That couldn’t mean what he thought it meant. Ariel laced their fingers together.

“The ghosts, whatever they are, they’re not dead?” Eric asked.

“Not at all. Once she died, their souls—the ghosts—would have reverted back to how they were before Ursula’s magic took hold of them. They’re wherever she kept them prisoner, I imagine,” said Triton.

“It was an isle out in the middle of the sea,” Ariel said, glancing at Eric. “But we had to use her magic to get there.”

“Ah, she still used that old place?” Triton swept his trident through the sea. “I believe I can be of some help, then. Consider it a thank-you and an apology.”

Magic bubbled in the water. A thin line of red shot out across the waves, vanishing into the north. It widened and split until dozens of little paths led from the horizon to different parts of Cloud Break. Triton hummed and nodded.

“That should do it,” he said. “Ways for those stuck on the Isle to return home. They’ll follow their own path.”

With a shaky breath, Eric asked, “The ghosts will return home?”

Triton didn’t bother to answer. He moved aside, and Eric saw a figure walking across the waves toward Cloud Break. They were still far out at sea, but even from here, Eric could tell it wasn’t a translucent ghost but a real person. And it wasn’t just them—more people began appearing out at sea.

“Eric,” Ariel whispered and kissed his cheek, her eyes full of understanding. “Go.”

He took off running. The roads were crowded with people all eager to find out what had happened. Eric shoved through everyone, not even stopping when he passed Gabriella and Vanni trying to explain what had happened to a group of folks on the docks. There were more and more figures walking across the sea, and people were taking notice. Eric pushed on, catching sight of a single person sprinting down a blood-red path of magic that led to the beach beneath the castle. Eric raced to meet them there.

The running figure was a tall woman with saltand-pepper hair cropped short. The moment her feet touched the sand, the red path that had led her back to Vellona vanished. Eric skidded to a stop a few steps away and stared. Her clothes were waterlogged and torn, a few cuts clearly from swords, and the long blue coat hang-ing haphazardly from one of her shoulders still bore his family’s sparrow crest. Until the fight had ripped it from him, Eric had been wearing an identical coat.

“Mother?” he whispered.

“Eric?” Her head whipped to him. Eleanora of Vellona had not aged in the two years since Eric had seen her, and the shock of her voice brought him to tears. She stared at him as if she had never seen him before, tears gathering in her eyes. “Oh, darling. I’m so sorry.”

Eric’s mind went blank. Not the haze of Ursula’s magic but true emptiness. His mother had been dead. He had mourned her. He had recovered.

And now here she was.

Eric’s knees gave way. His mother caught him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Eric tucked his face into her shoulder and sobbed. His fingers gripped her shirt tight.

“How long?” she asked once he could breathe again.

Eric pulled back but kept hold of her. “Two years. Two extremely long years.”

“But you saved us,” she said, and sniffed, brushing his hair from his face. “I remember flashes, bits and pieces, and you were there for some of them. Is Ursula dead? I feel like she must be, but we all just awoke on this isle, and…”

“She’s gone. It’s a long tale.” He pulled back, overwhelmed, and laughed. “But most importantly, I had help, and I would very much like to introduce you to Ariel, my true love.”