Mermaids Never Drown by Zoraida Córdova

Author:Zoraida Córdova
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

* * *

Dismanda gives us ten minutes to refresh ourselves before we are to meet our handlers. We are taken to a changing room inside the palace right above the hallway where I am to meet my accomplice. I am itching to go searching for him, but I make myself wait five minutes.

“I need some fresh air,” I whisper to Estella, who is too busy reapplying makeup to look at me, and slip away.

I quietly make my way down the stairs, praying that I don’t encounter anyone. I have the map clutched in my hand, but I’ve pored over it for so many months that I don’t need it. I turn right, looking for the corridor holding the portraits of all the sugar monarchs. I force myself not to run as I spot the double doors I’ve been looking for. I just need to slip inside and my ally will be waiting. Just as I reach them, the right door opens and Prince Ix’ciel steps in front of me.

I clap a hand over my mouth to keep in the scream threatening to explode out of me. For an instant I indulge in a fantasy where I leap at him and scratch his eyes out. It helps, but not enough to make me sound anything but furious when I open my mouth. “What are you doing here?” I ask, jaw tight as I send him my most hateful look.

“It’s my palace,” he scoffs, and my already ramrod straight back stiffens further. “And I should be asking you why you’re here.”

His body is blocking the doorway completely, his wide shoulders almost brushing the wooden frame. After five failed pregnancies, the queen had given up on more children, but in her fiftieth year she brought Prince Ix’ciel to the light. Unlike his brother, who has always been frail and of ill health, Ix’ciel is the pride of Isla Mayor Oeste, strong like an ox with the face of an angel.

“You look nervous,” he tells me as he looks down at the floor—or not at the floor. At the hem of my dress. When he lifts his gaze, I see something that had not been there before. Surprise and something else I can’t quite pinpoint. “I was not expecting you,” he tells me.

The prince is my contact? It can’t be. I was supposed to meet with one of the Sea Wolves, with one of the prince’s personal guard. This must be a trap. He’s been made aware of our plan somehow and his guards are coming for me. I hear them, their heavy boots coming down the hall at a purposeful clip.

Run, Somi, I tell myself and try to get away, but Ix’ciel grabs me by the arms as the sounds of the guard get louder and louder. My heart is beating painfully in my chest as his strong arms lift me up from the ground, except instead of throwing me to his guards, he tugs me inside the room with him.

“Please. Follow my lead or all of this is over,” he whispers in my ear as he sets me down against a wall.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.