Into the Spotlight: A Little Mermaid Remix

Chapter 23

A/N: The coral dagger and my... attempt at Mareena's necklace ^

Kayden laughed bitterly and humorlessly in his father's shocked face. If he didn't laugh, he would have screamed.

As it was, he no longer had the shadow boy to defend him... or torment him. Standing here, in front of the man he'd once thought the greatest, had him feeling more alone than ever before.

Petreine Kestral stood still, staring at Kayden like he was a ghost.

"Why Dad?" Kayden took a step forward, as his father took a step back, away from the king and toward the door. "Why did you go down this path? You said the Kestrals were meant to be more than murderers and usurpers. Look around you. Look where you are now. Just how much of a hypocrite are you?"

Anger, and sudden fury, became unleashed through Kayden's words.

"You made me hide in the shadows, like it was my fault my voice had the potential to be hypnotic. You refused to recognize me for who I was! And everyone followed your example! Even Mark, for a small period of time. I hid everything from everyone because of you, and now you try and pull something like this? For what? The throne? Something that was never ours and never will be?"

"For justice, Kayden." Petreine replied quietly, his face slowly regaining color. "You would not defend them so if you knew just what they had done."

A single tear trickled down Kayden's face. He was three steps away from Liam, five from the king, and seven from the Commander.

If he could get to the Commander, he could hand him the dagger, before trying to free Liam with his voice. Then, the Commander could fight his father.

The Commander had high resistance. It would not be easy to control him. If Kayden had to, he'd hypnotize the Commander himself.

He just knew he'd never be able to fight his father directly himself. Even Mark hadn't had the courage to do that.

Kayden kept his focus, asking the question that would be sure to keep his father talking.

"Enlighten me then. What did the royal family do to us?"

"What they have done to every single siren that ever existed! They suppressed us! Forced us to the shadows and then forgot we ever existed. Oceania said it wouldn't have to be that way anymore! I prayed to her, realizing that though she betrayed us all, she could be easily persuaded. A hated goddess is relatively powerless but more powerful than either of us. She told me the future would be bright! That I had the power to help bring the sirens out of the shadows. We could be seen again! We could sing again!"

Kayden remembered what the voice had said. That it was partially their fault this was happening.

Oceania...

His father continued. "It wasn't until I went on a business trip to Nazeen that I received an actual vision from the goddess."

That made Kayden pause. Nazeen? This can't be what I think it is...

"While on the business trip, I was in my hotel room, when suddenly there was a knock on my room. I opened it, and suddenly I was thrust into a vision, a potential for what Alleba could become! Oceania was there, telling me if I wanted this future to become a reality, all I would have to do is kill the king. I struggled for years with this. I was tasked by a goddess-"

"What did Oceania look like? Sound like? Hell, what did she smell like?" Kayden interrupted.

His father blinked. "Why does that matter?"

"It matters." Kayden said in a low voice. "Don't you remember what Uriel and Mom said?"

He didn't wait for his father to reply.