Chapter 6: Princess Marilla

I can’t keep my gaze from his profile. His long lashes starkly contrast the gray sky. His silky hair flutters along with his satin clothes. His ears are bedazzled with earrings. One bar across the top, and a line of diamonds dangling freely from his lobe. Tiny studded gems line up the side.

But it’s the silver serpent around his neck I keep peaking at.

When we arrived on the ship, I thought I’d have a moment to myself. But since we’ve gotten here, it’s been introduction after introduction. And all the faces and names were starting to blur into a migraine. Only his face brings a secretive smile to my face.

“Islet,” My father calls in a hard tone. I stand bolt-straight and stop hanging on the railing of the ship. The drop to the sea surface would probably hurt me severely if it doesn’t kill me. I’m sure he’s going to give me a lecture. So I prepare all the excuses I can before turning around.

I almost frown when my eyes meet those of Princess Marilla. I take a deep curtsy as she is my princess and not Loreilei’s.

Princess Marilla barely inclines her head in my direction. But even the slightest movement is all I need to catch sight of the earrings dangling from her ears.

My body burns with fury. I clench my teeth and stuff my hands into the many folds of my skirt. Maybe she won’t see my fists.

In her ears are the last remnants of my past. My last desperate clutch to a woman I can barely remember. My mother. Mine. And she so boldly took them from me, and now wears them with sickening confidence.

The phoenix earrings were made of pure gold, with ruby wings. The line used to hold it together was made from muscle, one of the strongest materials in the sea. And the backs were made from pearls that were shinned by my mother’s own hands.

Unlike my sister’s keepsakes, my mother made them just for me.

“Do you remember me?” Princess Marilla asks. Her honeyed tone is full of the same salt in her heart.

I can never forget when we met.

The first time I went with my father to the palace we bore gifts for the princess who had just made her debut. It was her tenth birthday. The day after mine, I wore my mother’s keepsake since it was the finest thing I owned.

When we arrived, we gave her all our valuable necklaces, rings, and bracelets but she so blatantly ignored them all. Princess Marilla claimed she wanted my earrings.

I told her they were fake, hoping she’d leave them alone. But she insisted. I told her that she couldn’t wear fake jewelry because she was a princess.

All Princess Marilla had to do was cause a scene. She cried and kicked and pointed and the King, demanded I give them up. Father told them that my late mother gave them to me, but to no avail. Even after learning its history, she shunned our other gifts and took mine.

But it wasn’t that which killed my hope to get them back. When the whole debacle had finished and she had her nanny place them in her ears. She smiled.

I’ll never forgive her for it.

“Islet,” my father called. I am brought back to the present. Where my mother’s phoenix earrings sit with the wrong girl.

I do not plaster on a fake smile for the princess. I no longer bow my head.

“You must forgive me. The air around here is making me sick.” I say and walk around her. I hear her mutter something under her breath.

I do my best to run off. Keeping my head down until I make it below the deck.

A cold hand grasps mine. I spin to tell them off.

Azure eyes stare back at me.

“You alright? You look like you're going to cry,” he says in a winded voice. I can tell he ran to me.

‘Why? Why are you doing this?’

“Prince Cerulean.” I start. I clear my throat and wipe at the tears gathering in the corner of my eyes. “Please leave me alone.”

He gently lets me go. But when I walk, he walks.

I glance over my shoulder at his cold expression.

“Have I offended you?” I ask him. My head is spinning and my heart hurts. I can no longer resist the tears collecting in my eyes.

He wraps an arm around my shoulder and hurriedly brings me down the winding hall to my room.

“You have not offended me. I just want you to be okay.” He says quickly. I unlock the door and step into the warm air.

“Why?” I ask. So many questions in my heart, in my head. But I don’t have the answers.

“Because…” he hesitates.

I wait patiently for him to say it. I know he knows. I want him to confirm that I’m his Twin Ray. I want to hear it from his mouth and no one else's.

Someone down the hall calls for him and he frowns. He looks at them and nods.

“We’ll talk again.” He says and darts down the hall.

He left again without a proper goodbye.

Some manners the prince has.

I close the door and lock it. My father has a key so he should be able to get inside. Without eating anything, I finally settle down to sleep. It’s already morning but I feel as if the gloomy weather is enough to fake the night.

When my head hits the pillow, I fall asleep instantly.

In my dreams, I am a mermaid. I live along the sea bottom collecting pieces of coral reefs and seaweed.

And he is a sailor. Who is bound to find me when he fishes me from the ocean. On that same sea, we fall in love. But it’s just a dream.

Reality is, that no matter what we feel, there will never be an us.

Because I’m a commoner and he’s a prince.