Queen of Blood
Chapter 18

Water hit the rocks in the cave with the strength of all of her demons releasing through her magic, while Arline tried not to curse herself for not doing it with the amount of force required to break the dark stone in half.

“How much more do I have to fail before I get it right?” She asked to the shadows where her lover was watching her.

“Failure is part of learning, my dear,” he wisely said and approached her side. Merrick didn’t hug Arline nor tried to make her feel good about herself. Arline had requested him to not interfere with her anger, so he stood by her side watching her feelings consume her.

“Has he spoken back to you?” Merrick asked after some time in silence. Arline only shook her head while she hypnotically looked at the pouring rain. Since she found out he was an authentic god, Arline couldn’t look at him. She felt severely inferior to him, almost as if she was unworthy of him.

The King wasn’t letting one thing slip from his hands. Arline’s mind was a spider web of thoughts. It was a mess distributed all over the place. Lila’s recent murder, the executions around the corner, even knowing Merrick’s real status. Everything added nothing more than fire to Arline’s mood, something that made Merrick to be protective over her, even if she didn’t want him that close.

She sat on a rock and hugged her knees while Merrick sat right by her side. “I want this to end,” Arline confessed with her head between her hands.

He was about to hug her, give her the comfort she didn’t want. When a pearly white horse interrupted them. The neigh of the animal made her shoot her head up straight. Arline instantly knew it wasn’t a kelpie. The pureness of the animal standing before her hadn’t been corrupted by malice.

Merrick looked at her in disbelief, admiring her creation. “You finally made a horse on your own,” he said softly as she caressed the creature with the back of her hand. Merrick then understood.

Arline was a creature put on this Earth to create, unlike him.

“I did not intend to make one,” Arline said and the horse melted back into the water after reverencing for her.

She sighed and was ready to return to practice but Merrick extended his hand for her to take it.

“I have to stay,” she insisted.

“Practicing while you are exhausted won’t help you.”

“I won’t fail. I can’t allow myself to fail, not after everything he has done,” Arline said standing her ground.

He approached her and pulled her closer. It had been days since he last touched her. Merrick was growing irritated, almost like an addict being pulled away from drugs. ”You are allowed to grieve,” he said kissing her forehead.

“I don’t have the time to do it.”

“Don’t try to be like me, Arline,” he said and her eyes showed confusion. “You are not used to death, don’t try to accustom yourself to it. You weren’t born to destroy.”

“I need to destroy to kill him.”

“Grieve her as she is intended and I will help you destroy him,” Arline didn’t move from his hug and wrapped her arms around his neck, making their foreheads touch. “I won’t allow you to think you are not worthy of me.”

Without a second left for her to do anything, Merrick lifted her frame with ease and carried her to the exit of the cave, with a cheeky smile on his face. When he put her down on her request, they both walked in the rain, leading the horses to the stables. When they reached the hall of the castle, their clothes were dripping wet over the rock floor.

Arline sat on the copper tub whilst Merrick watched from the corner, admiring her naked beauty. “The last time we were like this I almost threw up all over you,” Arline reminded him, making Merrick laugh at such memory.

“You looked like an angel, despite your sickness,” he complimented her and she blushed. She didn’t know if it was because of the compliment itself or at the memory. “Maybe it means we will be victorious again.”

“Maybe,” she wondered.

“Please spend the night here, with me. I can’t bare being without you anymore, Arline,” Merrick begged her and sat right by her side of the tub to hold and caress her hands. And with a sad look on her eyes, she nodded and gave in to him for the first time in days.

For some odd reason, Arline believed she had to spend time away from him. From the only person that could understand how she was feeling now, regarding her surging power and her feeling of vengeance. So she had spent her past three nights on the bedroom she used to occupy while she stayed the first time around.

And yet she barely slept every night. Not many people understood how Arline wasn’t able to give herself into the dreams, when she spent most of her time awake and perfecting her craft. But the truth was Arline preferred passing out because of exhaustion, than having to alternate between seeing Pelagius speaking the ancient language of tides and the Queen of Blood whispering loud and clear how much death she wanted.

Even being wrapped around in the arms of the Dark Prince didn’t help her replace enough calm and peace to fall asleep. Her body itched and she was abnormally cold despite the wool blankets and furs that covered the large bed.

A funny giggle resonated in the dark room, making Arline’s body to separate from the mattress quickly. The silhouette in the corner of the room stepped into the moonlight that came across the window.

She saw a young man. With olive skin and black eyes, with dreadlocks that hanged from his head and the physique of a warrior. He was wearing a winter coat, fitting for the cold weather outside. His eyes lacked life, as if he had seen death straight into its eyes and sent it back to where it came from.

“How are you, Arline?” His voice was raspy. As if he had been yelling out orders to an army.

Arline didn’t answer. She stood up from the bed and began analyzing his demeanor, where he stepped a foot. The truth was, Arline was hoping for Merrick to wake up but he was deeply asleep.

Despite wearing the royal blue sleeping gown, Arline looked terrifying once she stood in front of him. “Is you, isn’t it?” She asked him with rage filled eyes, earning a smirk from his lips.“Was it necessary?”

“The kelpie did what I asked,” Pelagius said calmly.

“Murder a young girl?”

“Be the reason to come after me,” Pelagius fought back rather impatiently. “Are you stepping away from a battle, daughter?” He felt how a dagger flew past his ear and landed on the wall behind him.

“Never call me that again,” Arline said with an unsettling calmness.

“I have to say I am impressed by your change of character,” he said sitting in the corner of the room, looking at what he had created. “Sleeping with the Heir of Hazavana, your desire for killing getting stronger by the day…I should applaud you.”

“Touch Merrick and I rip your throat,” Arline threatened the Deity of Waters as if was a children’s game.

“He can protect himself… that love you two have for each other… powerful and dangerous creatures you two are,”Pelagius reassured her in a whisper, never looking away from her.

“I will kill you.”

“I know,” he said with a lost look on his face, accepting his fate. “I hope you know the consequences of it.”

Arline couldn’t think of anything bad that could come from killing the Deity of Waters. And whilst she thought, he approached her side. Only then she could clearly see who he resembled.

She didn’t want to believe that the monster that had been tormenting her everyday for the past year could be related to a person with such a kind heart like it was Tua Nui. But it all made sense when she remembered how much Tua Nui knew about Pelagius, the connection he held with him, even the location of the cave made sense. Pelagius enjoyed mind games and watching Arline’s face while realizing his connection with Tua was priceless.

“We may not share the same ideas, my brother and I, but blood unites us, we depend on each other,” he said as he lifted the sleeve from his coat, showing those odd runes that decorated his skin. The same runes that covered Tua’s body.

“A blood pact,” Arline’s realization hit her. “If you die, he does too,” these words came out of her lips in form of a whisper. A murmur that had nothing more than wrath and sadness.

“I only request you to be quick when you murder me,” Pelagius requested for her and she turned her head and directed her feet to meet him.

“Should I pity you for your suffering?” She asked him enraged. “You haven’t left my mind in months and now you expect me to grant you a wish?”

Pelagius character shifted and anger filled his eyes, and grabbed Arline by her arm, pulling her closer to him. “I am not your real enemy, Arline,” He said harshly with greeted teeth. “Once you kill me and take my crown, one person will come after you.”

“Ruang Sak,” she mumbled and he nodded, releasing her. “Why not let Alaric take your crown?”

He let out a laugh. “He was never on my list to let get close to the Palace of Tides. The waters respond to you,” Pelagius seemed satisfied at his heir, at what he managed to create and destroy all in the same lifetime. “Prepare for suffering the consequences of power and immortality, Goddess of Tides,” he bowed for her.

“Did you know I was going to be this?” Arline asked him before he left, making him turn around.

“I knew that a little girl that had always admired the sea but was deeply terrified of it could bear a crown like mine. You are not so different from me as you may believe, you will notice it with time,” Pelagius cleared her mind, letting her know she’s been part of his plan since she was a child.

Arline woke up instantly with the sun coming out of the horizon and felt the wolves breathing on the feet of the bed. A tight grip embraced her waist and caressed her softly, pulling her figure closer to his. Merrick brushed his lips on her neck.

“Good morning,” she whispered to him while she accommodated on his chest, trying to sound calm.

“Good morning, my love,” he replied. “Did you sleep well?” Merrick asked her to which she only nodded. A lie. She was lying straight into his face and chose not to tell him about how the Deity of Waters chose to torment her in the flesh last night.

The weakness in her mind was noticeable for Merrick. But the encounter Pelagius and Arline had the previous night was hidden by her with all of her little strength.

Merrick noticed the lack of concentration her eyes showed but let it pass all day. Until he saw tears forming on her eyes in the Council Room at the end of a meeting. He waited for everyone to get out and sat in front of her, gently grabbing her chin for their eyes to meet. “What are you hiding from me, my love? It seems as if you have seen a ghost,” Merrick said softly but Arline didn’t respond in the moment.

“Did you know they are brothers?” She asked and Merrick’s gaze hardened. The darkness around him hugged his body. “He visited me last night,” Arline said and lowered her head in exhaustion, letting it rest on his shoulder. “I thought killing him was going to be easy, Merrick. I don’t want to do it if Tua Nui dies as well,” she felt the tears forming on her eyes and how a knot started forming on her throat.

“Tua wants to die if it means Pelagius dies as well,” he said and she wrapped her arms around his neck. Merrick lifted her tiny body and placed her on his lap, hugging her. Trying to give her some sort of relief as she cried the anguish our of her. “Both Tua and Pelagius picked you for a reason.”

“How am I supposed to beat him? I am breaking in your arms right now,” she sobbed holding tight onto him.

“I am not letting your pieces fall while you do,” Merrick said to her as he kissed her eyebrow.

“I can’t stand their singing,” Arline buried her face on his neck as she referred to the mermaids on the coast who were harmonizing with their cursed voices. “Please, Merrick, just send them away.”

No lessons. Arline couldn’t stand the singing as it rang in her ears and Merrick felt her heart pounding on her chest. Without ever taking his eyes off her and as he caressed her hair gently, the Dark Prince sent the mermaids away with just a deep breath. Their singing voices turned into hopeless screaming for mercy as their tails swam back to Pelagius’ cave.

He felt her relax as they left for the night. “You need to rest, Arline,” Merrick hugged her waist and lifted her up. The King carried the Heir of Depths to his dormitory, where Pauline was waiting to take care of her.

While the old maid gently rubbed the Heir’s back with a soft sponge, Arline wondered through her memories. The scars that covered her back might have healed a long time ago but the feeling of the knife carving her skin, itched every time she remembered.

And then she looked back on the nourishment the water had given her that day. How it had helped her escape his grip. And for once Arline didn’t think of herself unworthy of his crown or her lover.