What Lies Beneath the Water

Queen of the Fairies (51)

*Aqua's POV*

Being woken up at ungodly hours by your father saying that you have to get ready because you have ten interviews lined up back to back for an hour does not make a girl happy. And then being told after all the questions that I had to answer vaguely to remain mysterious, I had to take pictures. I had to take pictures by myself. I had to take pictures with Kai. I had to take picture with my dad. I had to take pictures with my dad and Kai. The pictures were indeed important because they were the first pictures taken of me since I was a child. No doubt some publications were going to pay big bucks for them.

But after hours, I was finally at court wearing the outfit that Nereus gave me. Nearly every man, mated and unmated were gawking at me. I made me feel powerful beyond words, so I danced around the room with several partners. All of them tried their best to get in my best interest, but my heart already belonged to another.

I was interrupted by the announcer saying, "Her Majesty, Astrid Fae, Queen of the Fairies." I quickly excused myself from whatever dance partner I had and made my way to the base of the stairs where I curtsied.

"Ah, the Princess of Mysteries herself. Well, congratulations on your recent birthday and apprenticeship marks from Tomoe and Kou. They seem to fancy you just as they did your mother. Perhaps you are less of an enigma to them." It was no secret that fairies and dragons hated each other, but due to Queen Mia Rose, the enmity between the two had lessened.

"Indeed, you are correct, but secrets are called such for a reason, and I still keep mine."

A genuine smile spread across her face and her laughter filled the room. "My, my Destin, what a princess you have raised. She looks like a carbon copy of Genesis. I just hope that she is half the woman that her mother was." Dad stood up from his throne and walked over to Her Majesty and I with a plain silver ring on his right-hand pinky finger. Her Majesty was my father's fairy.

"My daughter is absolutely wonderful just as my wife was. I am positive that Genesis is more than proud of our Aqua Marie." His face was stern until he finally cracked a smile and hugged Her Majesty. "Astrid, it is good to see you again, and I welcome you to my court!"

"I can't believe Aqua is already a grown woman! I swear it was just yesterday that she was a mischievous little toddler. She was a handful to say the least!" Queen Astrid's said, and I knew that there was going to be some embarrassing story coming up of when I was a little kid.

"Sometime I don't know how I managed to get through those years with her still alive. There was this one time that she managed to swim her way out of the castle when she was three years old! And then when we finally found her she was just giggling and sneezed and the entire room was upside down. Actually, I don't know how I made it through that time alive." He laughed, and I blushed in embarrassment. Dad always told me that raising Kai was a walk in the park compared to me.

Astrid's purple eyes showed that she was genuinely laughing and smiling, but then she decided to tell an Aqua story of her own.

"I remember there was this one time that you sent Aqua to me to take care of for the weekend since Kai was off doing some princely duties and you had to go to Vampire Court for some reason. I was all excited to take care of Aqua because she was just a vibrant toddler who was absolutely sweet. Boy was I wrong, because ten second after you left Destin, she started running amuck using her powers left and right. She destroyed the entire room, and you would have thought that I was the child because I was crying in the corner! Thank all that is good that you came to pick her up early, and when you did, the room was magically put back together like nothing ever happened." I had reduced a Queen to tears because I was so mischievous.