My eyes widened. I froze and cried out, but the sound was lost in a flurry of bubbles that raced back to the surface.
Twice, magic had undone my body and woven my flesh back together, leaving me forever changed. I was no longer looking at the sleek, graceful tail of the merfolk, but rather the dark, oily body of a serpent.
“You are no longer one of us,” Lorindel said, one lip curled with disgust as he inspected my serpentine body. “You do not belong here, Nerit.”
All around the crystal throne room, merfolk tittered at Lorindel’s spite and my chastisement. In my absence, the old king had died and Lorindel had ascended to his throne. Predictably, he had taken Beldine for his wife. She sat beside him nursing a newborn child—their sixth daughter, I was told.
I tightened my hands into angry fists. I yearned to scream at him, to tell him that this was the only place I could possibly belong. But then, no, maybe I had never belonged here at all, and maybe this was his fault, and those like him. Those whose minds were too small to appreciate my talents. Those who had treated me as an outcast long before they had cause to.
“Where would you have me go, Your Majesty?” I asked with no effort to mask my derision. “For you say I do not belong in your kingdom beneath the sea, yet I do not belong to the world above, either.”
Lorindel snarled. “Where you go is not my concern. You are an abomination and a disgrace. I will not have you sullying my kingdom with your presence. If my people choose to seek you out for your dark talents, I cannot stop them, but I will take no part of it. From henceforth, you are not welcome here.”
Not welcome here.
Fury burned in my chest, clawing its way to the surface of my skin. Who was this man to decide where I was or was not welcome? Who was he to belittle what I had gone through, the suffering I had endured, when he could have prevented all of it with nothing more than a smile and a word of kindness?
Not just Lorindel. All of them. Samuel and Beldine and the entire kingdom and the entire world. They had all shunned me, belittled my work, mocked my dreams, betrayed my heart.
There was no kindness to be found here. Not for poor, pathetic Nerit.
I narrowed my eyes and my gaze drifted back to the newborn child. She was wrapped in a seal pelt blanket. A shining tail swished drowsily, prettily from the swaddling.
I turned my attention back to the Sea King, a smile sharpening over my teeth.
“Cast me out, then, if that is your wish. For you are right, oh, my wise king. Once they know what I can do, your people will seek me out for my dark talents. The innocent ones and the desperate ones. And help they shall receive, though great misery will come to all who do not heed the warnings of my terrible magic. My own misery is proof enough of that.”
I turned away. The gathered merfolk parted to let me pass, their eyes following me with wary distrust. This time, for the first time, they had every reason to be frightened of me. I was the stuff of their childhood nightmares, after all. Those sickly, slimy creatures that lurked in the depths, drunk on their own wickedness.
Never mind their fear. They would still come, those innocent, desperate fools. They would come to me for gifts and blessings and curses. They would come for poisons and cures, and I would fulfill their wishes and deliver to them their miserable fates, as my fate had been delivered to me.
I was an abomination, undone and rewoven back together. I was the sea witch.
ZO? HERDT’S VILLAIN CHALLENGE TO MARISSA MEYER:
What If the Sea Witch Had Previously Been in the Little Mermaid’s Shoes but Decided to Kill the Love Interest and Turn Back into a Mermaid Instead?
VILLAIN OR HERO? YOU DECIDE!
BY ZO? HERDT
I’ve been thinking about our villain, Nerit. She faced life-altering decisions every step of the way—when her love potion plot was outed, when she fell in love with Samuel, and when she left her kingdom for the very last time. She chose to take her life in her own hands rather than blindly follow the norms of her society out of fear. Even though it cannot be said that Nerit made the kindest choices—I mean, she did murder someone—she always stuck to her own beliefs, and that is admirable.
We all dream about doing something larger than life. The difference between the hero and the villain is that the villain always takes that dream and forcibly tries to make it into a reality, no matter the obstacles in the way. Nerit dreamed about being loved by someone who was as equally unashamed of her as she was of herself. When the opportunity arose twice, with both Lorindel and Samuel, she went against moral and social conventions to try to make it come true, performing powerful and illegal magic that could—and did—result in morally questionable consequences. Nerit didn’t focus on the cons, however, as she had faith in her own talents and was willing to go to the ends of the earth to get what she wanted. Say what you want about her, but Nerit is fearless.
Now, I think I’m a relatively good person. I brake for squirrels that run into the street, and I’m proud to say I’ve never cheated on any of my school tests, though that’s not to say I’ve never given the latter much thought. While staring down at a blank Scantron sheet during an AP calculus test that I was totally unprepared for, you bet I was dreaming how great it would be to sneak a little peek at the test of the student next to me. She was flying through those questions with ease, and the right answers were there for the plucking.
The problem is, I am a coward. Despite how desperately I needed those answers, I could not and would not dare try that sneaky maneuver. I just knew in every fiber of my being that the moment I turned my eyes even a fraction of an inch to the left, my teacher would pounce on me and that would be it. I would be thrown out of school and forced to live a wandering life on the streets, out of work, because who in their right minds would hire a seventeen-year-old who can’t solve a simple derivative? Oh, and on top of that, it was wrong, against the rules, and did I say wrong?
Okay, that might be a tad dramatic, but honestly, that’s what passes through my mind every time I toy around with the idea of doing something bad. My focus always jumps immediately to the consequences, usually overdramatizing them to the point that I believe this one decision, no matter how small, will dictate how the rest of my life plays out. I then decide that it’s better to play it safe and do the right thing rather than follow that inner voice that tempts me to take the other path.
Are you like Nerit? Find out if you are a hero or a villain with this quiz.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
1)You are traveling on a path when you pass an old woman begging for food. She looks hungry, but you have only a small loaf of bread and need something to eat for the next day of your journey. You . . .