A Mermaid's Curse

Chapter 13

I drifted in and out of sleep, regaining consciousness long enough to feel a shooting pain in my temples before darkness pulled me under again. Blurry faces floated in my vision, clearing every so often to reveal eyes filled with worry and confusion. My nightmares were filled with screaming, confusion, and tears.

Every time the scene would start to clear, revealing faces, surroundings, etc, the pain would flare up again, pulling me back into darkness. This time, however, when I opened my eyes again, the scene didn't change. The same blurry faces stared down at me, eyes wide and faces pale. Hot flashes wracked my body, leaving me limp and shaking as they subsided.

I groaned as I tried to sit up, immediately regretting it as a bolt of pain shot through my head. A familiar voice began to speak, his words becoming clearer the more he spoke. "Izzy? Can you hear me?" I flinched as I felt an ice-cold hand touch my forehead, almost moaning in pleasure. Dad sighed, his brow creased in worry. "Her fever hasn't gone down."

As he spoke, I struggled to recall the past few hours. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep. "How long have I been asleep?" I croaked, my voice dry and scratchy.

Kai took my hand, rubbing his thumb over the top. His obsidian eyes—the eyes that I loved so much—were filled with such worry that it took my breath away. "Since last night," he replied softly. I took the opportunity to glance out the bedroom window into the open water. It was pitch-black outside, meaning it was probably close to or past midnight.

Images flashed through my head, so fast I struggled to make sense of them. Stella in her cell in the dungeon. Her blank face when she spoke of the attack on Pelathas. The screaming faces of the mermaids and mermen in the vision from the pendant. The concern on Kai's face as I arrived at our suite last night.

I took a shaky breath. As much as I didn't want to drag myself back into the memory, I knew I wouldn't be able to move past it until I did. "I went to see Stella early yesterday morning. I had some questions I wanted to ask her. Let me finish before you get angry," I quickly added, anticipating their reactions.

Their eyes never left my face as each of them nodded. I shivered, clutching the blanket tighter around myself. "I took the Lost Soul Pendant down to the dungeons. I thought—I hoped—it would somehow convince her to help us." I bit back another shudder, recalling the screaming and shouting I'd heard from inside the pendant. The desperation and terror in their voices.

Here, I had to stop and take a breath. Kai's hand found mine, squeezing gently. Mom and Dad were staring at me expectantly, neither of them having moved since I'd started talking. A quick nod from Mom confirmed that she was following the conversation.

When I looked at her, Stella's words resurfaced in my head, each one more biting than the former. "'You speak as though we survived some horrible tragedy. Not everyone survived, Isadora.'" "'How could you possibly think seeing that would convince me to help you? If anything, it just reinforced my hate for your mother, your kingdom.'"

A hand on my arm jolted me out of my thoughts. Tears welled in my eyes, but I hurriedly brushed them away. I was sick and tired of crying. "Apparently, she blames you, Mom," I said, avoiding her gaze, "for what happened in Pelathas."

I rubbed my shaking hands over my face. When I dared look into Mom's eyes, they were filled with tears. I had no doubt she was remembering the attack.

Dad squeezed my other hand, eyes locked on my face. "How are you feeling?"

I swallowed, taking a deep breath. "Tired. Sad. Angry."

That's when it happened. My vision blurred, cleared, then blurred again as a swell of nausea surged through me. Hot and cold flashes again wracked my body, so fast I could hardly tell what was happening. Then the faces appeared. Mermaids and mermen alike, all wearing disappointed expressions. Hate gleamed in their eyes as they stared at me.

"You don't deserve to be a princess. You're nothing but a scared, pathetic child. Just as your mother once was." "Your mother is a murderer. You should be ashamed." "My daughter was only sixteen. She didn't deserve to die." Their voices were cold, harsh.

Another face appeared before me, blank and gaunt. Stella. Gone was the thin, dirty mermaid that had been in a dungeon cell; in her place was a straight-backed mermaid, horror on her face as she watched her parents and brother die. I wanted to go to her, but I was frozen. It was just as she'd said. They'd been trying to escape when Pelathas was attacked, but got separated from each other. By the time she'd found them, it'd been too late.

Stella turned towards me, her form solid. Tears stained her cheeks, eyes red from crying. "I screamed and screamed for help, but none came. I buried them myself, in unmarked graves near Pelathas' border." She sniffed, swiping at her eyes. "This—" Stella gestured around with a shaking hand—"is why I betrayed your mother. I wanted her to feel even a shred of the pain that I had felt. I didn't do it alone, however. I had help."

I couldn't find the words to speak, much less the breath to do so. When I finally managed to draw breath, it was shaky and unsteady. "W-what do you mean?" My head was spinning with the events she'd just showed me.

With a simple wave of her hand, another mermaid appeared. I clapped a hand over my mouth to try to stifle the sob that was dangerously close to escaping. The blonde updo, the emerald-green eyes... everything was the same. Except for the expression on her face.

Aunt Naia. "Hello, Isadora. Long time no see." Her tone was biting, filled with bitter hatred.

I spun around to face Stella again. "Why on earth would you show me this? You knew that Mom had a difficult relationship with her sister. Why are you showing me this?" I repeated, growing angrier when she didn't respond.

"Because, Isadora," she snapped, tone identical to Aunt Naia's. "I'm giving you a choice. I want you to bring my parents and brother back to life."

I was speechless. Bring them back to life? That was going to be virtually impossible.

"Come to Rosewood Manor at sunrise tomorrow," she continued, as if she hadn't just dropped a bombshell on me. "Oh, and Isadora, don't tell anyone about what you witnessed here. We wouldn't want anyone else to get hurt because of you." The smugness with which she spoke told me she knew exactly which nerve she was hitting.

When I opened my eyes again (not that I had any recollection of closing them), I was in our bed, the door shut tight. Kai was laying beside me, worry on his face. "Are you okay? You passed out." When he leaned in to brush a stray curl off my face, I threw my arms around his neck, sagging against him.

After what had just happened, you'd think I'd be buzzing with energy. My eyelids fluttered, the exhaustion from the fever taking hold again. "I'll tell you tomorrow," I murmured, barely managing to get the last word out before I fell asleep.

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