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leaving to speak with someone else. Jacob remained quiet as the eyes of the other mermen watched her with glaring mistrust. In Azor’s absence, she felt vulnerable—like she was the enemy. Would they lock her up eventually and say it was for her protection?
    Without another word, she swished her tail and escaped past Ms. Sea Urchin and her tatas to the second floor. Unsure where to go, she hid in her room. If she could have locked the door, she would have.
    Alone, she drifted to the window, reality sinking in, and the tears came. Since she was a little merling, she’d dreamt of the day she’d promise to the love of her life. Never did she imagine a war would stem from that union. A terrible war that pit brother against brother and her lover, not even on her side, wouldn’t find time to comfort her.
    She sobbed into her arms until she drifted off to sleep, exhausted.
     
    : : :
     
    Hours later, Tatiana’s eyes popped open and she shook her head to gain her bearings. Never had she slept this much in her life.
    Sunlight dimly filtered into the water outside her windows, but she couldn’t be sure of the time, or even the day. Alone in her room, her heart sank like a stone. The lonely quiet of the house hit even harder. Where was Azor?
    She swam out of her room and peered down the empty second-story hall. Identical rooms like hers lined the corridor, ending at a set of double doors. The master bedroom, perhaps? She wondered why Xirene hadn’t put her to sleep in there yesterday. She swam forward and bit her lip, carefully pressing open one side of the massive doors.
    “Azor?”
    The huge room loomed before her. In the center was a large dais covered with bright green moss—she assumed the Prince’s bed, but no Azor. Scary carved faces of snakes and demons lined the walls and looked down on her in disgust, like an intruder. She slithered slowly inside and ran her hand over the back of the door to close it. Something sharp cut into her hand and she pulled away, biting back a scream. On the back of the door, carved into the iron, was a leviathan’s mouth, jutting out at her. Cradled in its teeth was a human baby. The monster’s snakelike body, thick like a redwood trunk, trailed along the walls of the room ending in a tight coil wrapped around a human woman as she reached for her child in desperation.
    Tatiana’s chest clenched tight in hysteria. Her eyes darted back and forth, processing the meaning of the dreadful carving. In a flurry of terror, she fled from the room, unable to handle, let alone witness, the frightful sight. Tatiana froze in the hall, gulping to catch her breath. She’d known Azor hated humans, but this? His true disdain shone in all its horrific teeth and snarls—in his bedroom of all places. She closed her eyes, clutching the neckline of her gown, and willed her thumping heart to slow.
    Logically, this would be enough evidence to bolt—swim through the Scotland gate, or even through the sharks to the Pacific—and never come back. Before the promise, she’d never stay with such a monster, one who’d had such disregard for humans and for his own kind, and yet the promise wouldn’t let her fathom leaving him now, blackmailing her and rendering her useless when bathed in the beauty of his glorious presence. How could her mind and body be at such odds with one another?
    She pressed her thumbs against her temples, trying to force her brain to think straight. At entertaining the thought of running away, her skin broke out in gooseflesh, her heart rate accelerating. Never. She couldn’t. She was bonded to him, hook, line and stinky sinker.
    “Oh, dear Poseidon. Why?” she whispered before she slipped down the porthole.
    Downstairs guards snored, slumped onto the floor with spears dangling loosely in their hands. She traversed farther down the forbidden hall, cautious not to disrupt the current. On her left was a big meeting room and farther down, the archway leading to the barracks. To her