The Vicious Deep by Zoraida Córdova

Author:Zoraida Córdova
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781402265112
Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.

I wake up in my bed with the taste of iron on my tongue. My chambers are bright with floating butterflies. One lands on my arm, and I swat it away. It leaves a sticky neon trail.

“Morning, sire,” someone says. She’s the color of orchids with slick silver scales covering her breasts. Her hair is braided and twisted with shells, piled atop her head.

“Who are you?”

She bows. “Hannah. I’ve come to deliver your armor.”

I feel the back of my head. There’s nothing there. Yet I know I didn’t dream being hit hard.

Hannah holds up a gladiator outfit like the guard was wearing the day before. I think I’ll pass, but I say thank you anyway. She bows low and gives me her white smile. I jump back when I notice how sharp her teeth are.

“I’m sorry, sire.” She stands back up. Her teeth are fine. It’s me. The dreams have started again. I have to talk to my grandfather. Maybe he knows the deal with this sea witch and can tell me I’m not crazy.

“No, no, it’s me. I’m just a little jumpy.” I take the clothes from her and set them on the bed.

“You’ll be fine,” she says warmly. “My mother used to be your mother’s handmaiden. She really loved her. Your mother was a kind princess, the loveliest of them all. Not like these other girls.”

I laugh at that. “Thanks. Have you seen—”

“She’s getting fitted for something a little more fitting for the tournament announcement.”

“Right. Good.” I don’t know how to tell her to go away. “I’m just going to get dressed.”

She looks startled, as though I’ve just caught her doing something she shouldn’t be doing. And that’s undressing me with her eyes. I know that look. I give it to girls all the time. Hannah bows again and this time winks at me. “Are you sure you won’t be needing any help?”

I cough into my hand.

“I’m sure Lord Sea will be fine, Hannah.” Kurt saves me. He stands at the entryway wearing a chain-link metal skirt. His violet scales decorate his forearms.

Hannah bows her head low as she walks past Kurt.

“Unless you want her to stay,” Kurt says with a mischievous grin.

“Really, I’d like to live another day.” I go over to the pool of water and splash the cold and salty water on my face.

“What’s that you got there, Kurty?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Just trying something new.”

Kurt holds a long wooden box with moss growing over it, looking like he went to the bottom of the sea and dug it out of a pirate wreck. Really, he shouldn’t have. “I am to give you this as a symbol of your house. It will let the court see you are the true heir of the king.”

I set the box on my bed. “You haven’t seen Layla, have you?”

“She’s got a new dress,” he answers.

“Yeah, I heard that. But where is she?”

“You asked if I saw her, not where she was.” He can’t keep the smirk off his face. “Come, open it.

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