It’s funny, though—maybe funny isn’t the right word, but Nik and I are both trapped. I’ll forever be the fisherman’s daughter, caught in a web of whispers and lies spread by those too scared to open their eyes and see beyond what’s in front of their faces. And Nik—he’ll be locked in by royal traditions, forced into a loveless match with someone only out for the crown. Nik will always be in the shadow of the castle. And nothing I can do will save him from that.
Except, if the queen already believes Annemette’s story, surely Annemette is better than these komtesses flocking to our shores. She does seem to make Nik happy. I know it’s only been a day, but even I’ll admit that I’ve never seen Nik smile as much as he has with her. It’s not everything, but it’s a start. And she’s not after his crown. That I know. She genuinely cares. She saved him. Besides, it might serve us all well to finally have some magic in the palace, to perhaps bring an end to Queen Charlotte’s brutal warnings and doll burnings. Maybe as a trusted friend to both the crown prince and princess, I wouldn’t be relegated to the kitchen door. My family would not have to live in secret. If Annemette makes Nik truly happy, we can both be free. Stop, Evie. You’re getting ahead of yourself. But a smile pulls on my lips all the same.
“Let’s go inside,” I say to him. “Everything will be okay. Annemette is waiting.”
13
I WAKE IN THE BLUE LIGHT OF THE MORNING AND SIT straight up. I thought a night in the royal wing, on the most comfortable mattress I’ve ever slept on, would do me well, but it hasn’t. I’m anxious.
I’ve smuggled a mermaid into the palace, for Urda’s sake!
In the bed across the room, Annemette sleeps, a ruffle of blond waves piled about her face. One foot has escaped the bedspread, five toes stretching lazily toward the ceiling.
It’s easy to forget that she’s never slept in a bed before. I throw off the covers and tiptoe to my trunk, left by Oleg next to the double-sided wardrobe. And there, beneath my underthings, is the book I threw in at the last minute. Though the name isn’t too suspect—Myths of Maritime—I suppose it’s lucky we arrived so late in the evening that the maid couldn’t unpack the trunk. I should’ve been more careful, though.
I crawl onto the plush red window seat and hold the book up to the new day’s light, thumbing through the pages for anything about mermaids. I know all the lore from childhood, of course. I can still hear Tante Hansa’s voice reciting the tales over the campfire.
Mermaids call sailors into storms, their siren songs and beauty too difficult to ignore. Probably a myth. Annemette is beautiful, but she didn’t force Nik into the sea, and I’d be able to tell if she was using magic on him now. I think.
Then there’s Mermaids can conjure storms with a blink, sacrificing sailors to please the all-powerful sea. I hope to Urda that this is not true. A shiver runs up my spine as I think of Father and Iker.
But the one that always made me and Anna scream was: Mermaids steal naughty children and feed them to the sharks for protection. Ha! I’ll let Tante Hansa have that one. It kept me from making lots of unwise choices, though I suppose not nearly enough. If only Anna and I had truly listened.
None of this lore is easing my rattled nerves. The only positive mermaid tale I know is the one I saw with my own eyes: A kind mermaid may swim you to shore.
But there has to be more written about mermaids than a few childhood warnings.
After much reading, I finally find a section on mermaids, following an intensive discussion of the kraken. It doesn’t say much—there’s just slightly more detail than the descriptions I know by heart. I focus in on one paragraph.
Accounts of mermaids at the surface often come with tales of rescue—the saved sailor opening his eyes just as the mermaid dives back into the waves. The maids are always described as staying within the water, unable to leave the sea completely.
That was exactly how it happened. Maybe there will be more on what happens next. I turn the page, expecting a section on a mermaid’s ability to change into human form. But there is nothing. No description, no account, no guesses at all.
I stare at Annemette. She can’t be the first mermaid to change into a person. She can’t. It just must be so rare there’s not an accurate tale to pass on.
Possibly feeling the weight of my eyes on her, Annemette shifts, her arms stretching high above her head. Her eyes blink open and she sees me watching her. I expect her to startle, to forget where she is and what she is, but she doesn’t. Instead, she just yawns.
“I could get used to this.” She rolls fully toward me. A slim finger points to her calf. “But is it normal that this part just aches? Burns. And my toes are . . . tingly.”
“Pins and needles?” I offer.
“More like knives,” she replies without hesitation. “But I’ll be fine.” She pushes herself up a little and yawns again.
I set my book between my nightdress and the windowpane. “Maybe it’s a side effect. You know, of your transformation,” I say. And now’s my chance: “Have other mermaids ever turned into humans before?”
“I’m not the first,” she replies. She stands and turns her back to me as she opens the wardrobe, revealing a closetful of dresses.
“Where’d those come from?” I ask, my mouth agape as I walk over to the wardrobe.
“I conjured them last night while you were sleeping.”
I want to scold her for doing something so reckless, but they’re incredible. Silk day dresses in pink, cerulean, and deep purple, each with little white collars and pearl buttons. I clutch at my necklace and wonder if those pearls pulse like mine. The evening gowns are even grander. Full skirts and long trains, gold embroidery, and even beading. They’re going to think she is the wealthiest friherrinde in the whole region.
“Do you like?” she asks. “Hopefully they will do the trick.”
I nod eagerly. “What trick?”
“Allowing me to stay,” she says, clutching a Havnestad-blue dress with mother-of-pearl inlay. “Don’t you want me to stay?”
“Of course I do, Mette,” I say, trying out the nickname for the first time. And I realize I mean it. Not only so she can save Nik from his mother’s misguided intentions, but to have a friend who knows magic, who knows the real me. I didn’t know how much I wanted that until I met her. “How long do you have?” I ask, hoping she’ll give me a real answer this time. “I want to help.”
“The magic lasts four full days,” she replies. “I have three left.”
My face falls. “That’s it?”
“But three days becomes forever if, before midnight on the final day, my true love has fallen for me, too.”
Too.
Nik.
Forever.
“I love him, Evie. I really do.” Annemette flops on the bed, no longer the shifty girl holding everything back. More like the girl I used to talk with about boys and gossip in her own grand room. “He’s why I came back. I know he can love me. Didn’t you see us last night?”
“But what if he doesn’t?” I ask. She turns and stares out the window, out at the sea far below.
“What is it?” I come to her and sit on her bed. “Tell me, Mette.”
She shakes her head and buries her face in her hands. When she responds, it’s as if she’s repeating something she read in a book—and maybe she is.
“To come to land in human form a mermaid must complete a magical contract—her life as a mermaid for four days on land.” She pauses and shudders, her chest heaving slightly. “She may not return to the sea after those four days, for she can never again be a mermaid.”
My stomach practically tumbles to my feet. “Wait . . . you die?” What kind of dark magic did she do? Nik is wonderful, amazing, the best guy I know—but to risk her life for someone she barely knows?
She sits up and nods. “I know. It’s crazy. But you don’t get it. He’s what I’ve been missing. I knew he was mine when he fell into the sea. Into my arms. And to be human? Evie, you don’t know how lucky you are.”
I don’t even know what to think. Of course I want her to live, and I want them both to be happy, but how can this work? Falling in love in four days seems . . . unrealistic, to say the least.
I temper my words carefully. “How can you tell when he truly loves you?”