A Queen Among Tides

Chapter 5: The Faux Animai - Sebastian

I make my way to Eisa’s room, trying to shake off the adrenaline coursing through me. My animai, my soulmate; tried to reject me. I saved his life, and I didn’t even get so much as a thank you. Instead, I got a grown man throwing a hissy fit and trying to break our bond before he even took the time to know me. This is not how my dream scenario went.

Growing up with parents who refused to accept me, I found comfort in knowing that one day I’d find my soulmate and at least he would accept me as I am, but instead, I get an attempted rejection. I guess I should thank Zarseti for finding a way to stop him from doing so because if you ask me, he’s being childish. You know what? Not just childish, but selfish. What about my feelings? What was that crap about me being happier once he’s gone? Why the f**k would I be happier being rejected by my perfect person? Why are all the drop-dead gorgeous guys, jerks? Is it hardcoded into their DNA or something? And yet people think being gay is a choice. Who would choose to be attracted to men? They suck. Not me though, I’m amazing.

I make my way down the corridor and let myself into Eisa’s room as she sits in the sitting area going over some paperwork.

Eisa looks over with sympathetic eyes, “You’re finally home. I was told you stormed out of the palace and went for a swim yesterday. I take it your talk with your parents didn’t go well,” she says compassionately.

“Just the usual bullshit. That I need to get over my gay phase and pick a Queen,” I say dismissively as I walk over and lay on her bed with my arms behind my head.

Eisa’s brows dip into a scowl, “Malákas! They need to pull their heads out of their assess and realise we’re not living in the dark ages anymore.” Eisa gets up, walks over, and sits on the bed beside me placing a comforting hand on my thigh, “I’m sorry they keep treating you this way. You don’t deserve this,” she says softly.

I smile and take her hand giving it a gentle kiss, “At least I have you, and I come with gossip,” I say cheerfully.

Eisa rolls her eyes and gets up, “I don’t want to hear it.”

“Why not? It’s really good gossip.”

“The last time you said you had really good gossip, it was to announce that you’d gone and gotten highlights,” she says, jutting out her hip in annoyance.

“Hey, that was a big deal for me, and a terrible mistake, one you should have talked me out of. That’s your job as my best friend and future advisor,” I point out.

She snorts, “Talking you out of dumb s**t is a full-time job, and frankly I’m working overtime.”

“Anyway, I promise it’s really juicy.”

“Not interested,” she says as she walks back over to the sitting area.

A sly smirk creeps across my face, “I’ll make you a deal. If you don’t deem my gossip to fit your standard of juicy, I’ll do your paperwork for a week.”

She looks over quirking an eyebrow, “All my paperwork for a week?”

“Every last piece,” I promise.

“And if it is as juicy as you claim, then I’ll have to do your paperwork for a week?”

“Precisely,” I say cheerfully.

She nods folding her arms, “Alright, you’ve got yourself a deal. What’s this allegedly juicy gossip?”

“I found my animai,” I announce proudly.

“Gamó,” she cusses under her breath making me smile with glee, “I walked right into that,” she says, shaking her head when suddenly a bright smile lights up her face making her emerald eyes twinkle, “You really found your animai?” she asks, jumping on the bed beside me as I sit up.

“And he is hot, hot, hot!” I squeal.

“What’s his name? When can I meet him?” she asks excitedly.

“His name is Lemuel,” I say dreamily. Guaranteed I heard his name by him trying to reject me, but I couldn’t help feel a tingle when he said it. Lemuel. I’ve never heard of anyone with that name before. The Goddess bagged me a one-of-a-kind guy from head to toe, and based on the outline I could see through those briefs, I think once I talk him around I’m going to be a very happy man.

“How exotic,” she smiles, “Is he a sirna?”

I shake my head, “You’ll never guess. He’s a visum! Can you believe it? Talk about wishes coming true,” I chuckle.

Her eyes widen in surprise, “A visum?” Her brows dip into a frown.

“Yes, and he’s very uppity about it. He even tried to reject me.”

“He what?!” she shrieks.

“Don’t worry, turns out he is unable to reject me because he is bound to me until I make a wish, so I decided I won’t be making any wishes,” I say proudly, “Brilliant plan isn’t it?”

“Let me see if I’m following this correctly. You meet your animai, he tries to reject you, and your solution is to keep him trapped and bound to you. And all of this seemed like a good idea to you?” she quizzes.

“Uh huh,” I smile nodding.

“You’re an i***t,” she says as she gets up.

“I am not an i***t,” I protest, getting off the bed.

“You can’t force someone to be with you, Sebastian. He wanted to reject you for a reason, and he has the right to do so,” she argues.

“He was being unreasonable!” I say in exasperation.

“Did you even stop to ask why he wanted to reject you in the first place?” she asks pointedly.

“I… no,” I say feebly.

“Uh huh. So instead of trying to get to know him and understand why someone would be determined to reject their soulmate without even getting to know them first, your ingenious brain thinks it would be far smarter to keep him chained and bound. I repeat, you’re an idiot.”

“What the hell was I supposed to do? I saved him from drowning. My first time meeting him he was unconscious and going to die. I saved him and brought him here, next thing I know he’s waking up refusing to let me near him and trying to reject me and run away. I panicked, okay?” I shout, that gross feeling of adrenaline returning to my system as I continue to freak out. How would she feel if her animai tried to reject her?

She lets out a deep sigh, “Sebastian…”

“Don’t. I know that tone, it’s usually followed by some life lesson, and I’m not interested,” I say as I walk towards the door. Suddenly I feel a tight sensation around my waist and look down to see a stream of water wrapped around my waist. I look back to see a ring of cobalt blue glowing around Eisa’s emerald eyes as she controls the water around me like a whip. I usually find her signature move impressive, but not when she uses it on me.

I feel myself yanked across the room and thrown onto the bed as she withdraws the water and sends it back to a large bowl she keeps by the bed in case of an emergency. Water magic is an ability only few sirna are blessed with. It used to be all sirna, but as generations of cross-breeding occurred, water magic began to fade out. Only those of the royal bloodline and usually high-born sirnas still possess water magic.

“I hate it when you do that,” I grumble.

Eisa sits back down next to me as her emerald-green eyes return to normal and look down at me softly, “Sebastian, I love you like a brother, and I hear what you’re saying. If I thought I was about to lose my animai I don’t know what I’d do, so I can understand your panic. But in panicking, you made a few blunders,” she says delicately.

“I’m not making a wish,” I say adamantly.

“Okay, no wish. No one can force you to do that, but this has to be give and take or you’re already off to a bad start.”

“He’s the one who jumped to rejection!” I shout in aggravation.

“A d**k move on his part; one he owes you an explanation for. Talk to him, get to know him, and find out why he would jump to something so drastic. You two need to communicate, and you forcing him to stay here is not communication,” she says disapprovingly.

“No, but at least we can have the chance to talk if he’s here. I can’t talk to him if he runs away never to be seen again,” I argue.

She nods, “That’s a fair point. Okay, how about you do your best to not make him feel trapped here? Let him roam the palace a bit.”

“I never said he was locked in his room, I’m not a monster. Besides, he said he can only go so far away from me before the magic of his curse pulls him back to me,” I say smugly.

“Don’t you dare go using that to your advantage, that’s not fair,” she says in warning.

“I haven’t done anything!” I say defensively.

“I know you. I know how your brain works, which is terrifying. And for the record, your animai wasn’t going to die,” she says, getting up and grabbing a hair clip from her vanity and tying up her long strawberry blonde curls.

“He was literally drowning.”

She sighs, “Sometimes I fear for the future of this kingdom. Don’t you remember anything from our supernatural lessons?”

“I remember plenty,” I say haughtily.

“Like how visums are cursed with immortality?” she says slowly.

“Yes,” I sing out.

“And how, as part of their curse, they can’t die, and the only thing that can kill them is exposure to bitterwort?” she asks, folding her arms and giving me a pointed look.

I chew the inside of my cheek, “I might have forgotten that part. What was bitterwort again?” I ask in confusion.

“Dandelion.”

“Ah, that’s right! So I had a temporary brain fart, was I supposed to just let him continue to drown whether it would kill him or not?” I argue back.

“No, I suppose not.”

“Maybe I didn’t go about this right, and I can work on that but… why did he have to try and reject me too?” I say brokenly. I sound so pathetic, and that’s not me, but I just can’t understand why he doesn’t want me.

Eisa walks over and sits beside me, snuggling up to me and pulling me into her arms. I don’t hesitate to curl up against her and seek the comfort only my best friend can bring.

“I’m sorry, Sebastian. I always hoped you’d find your animai and finally have that support you need, and that maybe then your parents would back off,” she sighs, gently stroking my hair.

“I do have support, I have you,” I say sincerely as I hold her close.

She holds me tighter, “You’ll always have me, but you deserve to find true love. At the very least so I can have a shot with the guys when we got out.”

I chuckle, “You’ve got plenty of guys who swarm after you, stop fishing,” I tease.

“Says the world’s greatest fisherman,” she teases back.

Our banter is helping me to relax and quiet down the panic in my head. Eisa is right, as usual. You can see why she’ll be my advisor. I let myself get so scared by Lemuel’s rejection I didn’t even stop to understand why he did it. Why would he think us not being together would be the better alternative? I have to try and understand him and get to know him. God, I really did f**k up. He told me someone pushed him off a f*****g cliff and I didn’t even stop to ask why, not that the why matters. Someone tried to kill my animai and for that, I hope to give them a punishment fitting of the sirna kingdom.

New plan. I’ll give Lemuel some time to get settled, and then I shall begin attempting to woo and get to know my animai, but first, there’s something I have to do.

“Eisa?”

“Hmm?” she hums.

“I have to tell my parents about Lemuel. Aside from just in general wanting them to know that the Goddess blessed me with a male animai, which further proves there’s nothing wrong with me, but also because they might wonder who the new hunk wandering around the palace is.”

She softly chuckles, “All good points. So is he really that hunky?” she asks, wiggling her eyebrows.

“The most delicious chunk of chocolate I’ve ever wanted to bite into,” I sigh dreamily.

She laughs harder, “Of course, you’d get a hottie. So typical,” she says, shaking her head as she gets up, “Come on, let’s go bust your parent’s balls.”

“You’re coming with?” I ask hopefully as I get up.

“We both know you were going to ask me anyway,” she says, waving a hand dismissively.

I nod in agreement, “This is true.”

Together, Eisa and I make our way through the palace and find my parents in the courtyard. It’s one of the most beautiful spots in the palace. Exotic trees stand tall and proud against the structure of the palace walls, while vibrant green vines weave their way around every piece of stone. Fountains of dancing water are scattered throughout the courtyard separated by gardens of birds of paradise, burgundy gladiolus, blue hyacinth, pink crocus and… f**k, dandelions. s**t on a brick! I completely forgot. Note to self, have the gardeners remove all the dandelions, and keep Lemuel as far away from them as I can. As I recall, dandelions are an excruciating poison to visums. No tacky flower is killing my animai, no ma’am pam.

We make our way through the stone path and find my parents happily embracing my least favourite person on planet Earth. The ever-annoying and perpetual pain in my ass, Circe Sarkis. A high-born sirna who has been obsessed with me since she was old enough to walk. At first, it was amusing and flattering, but it got disturbing and f*****g annoying fast. I’ve tried to have her banned from the palace, but she managed to worm her way into my parent’s hearts and now they adore her like the daughter they never had.

As we approach, Eisa clutches my arm and as I look down at her I see rage and trepidation swimming in her emerald eyes.

“Remember I said there was something I’d fill you in on later?” she whispers. I nod. “I need to fill you in now,” she says in urgent warning.

“Oh, Sebastian!” my mother cheers, racing over and wrapping her arms around me. I’m taken aback by the sudden affection, but nevertheless, I return my mother’s hug. “We just heard about the wonderful news,” she gushes.

“What news?” I ask in confusion.

“That you found your animai, of course,” she says, pulling back with a broad smile that shows off her pearly whites.

I blink in astonishment, “How the hell did you find out about that?”

“Circe here was telling us all about it,” my father chimes in, walking over with an arm around Circe who is looking at me with an unusual level of excitement. Shouldn’t she be in a corner crying into a drink or something?

“And how the hell did she find out?” I ask, further confused. Circe is beautiful, I won’t deny that, but she isn’t remotely my type. She has sandy-blonde hair that passes her shoulders with a subtle curl to it, sun-kissed skin, and rather impressive curves. She’s 5’6 naturally but appears taller since I don’t think I’ve ever seen her not wear a pair of heels – certainly never anything below 5 inches.

My mother chuckles, “I think Circe would be the first to know if she was your animai, you silly goose,” my mother teases, swatting my arm.

“I’m sorry, she’s my what now?” I ask stupidly. I’m pretty sure I misheard them.

“I think I’m going to throw up,” Eisa comments with a look of revulsion on her face.

“When were you going to tell us that Circe was your animai?” my father asks with delight written all over his well-aged face.

“Um, I wasn’t because she’s not. I did find my animai, that’s what I came to tell you but it sure as hell isn’t Circe. My animai’s name is Lemuel and he’s currently in the guest room in the Royal Suite recovering from a nasty drowning accident,” I say, staring daggers at Circe and watching as the colour begins to drain from her face and her hands bunch up into fists at her side.

“What did you just say?” my mother gasps.

“Your Majesty, Sebastian is telling the truth, we were just discussing his excitement over having found his animai,” Eisa says diplomatically.

“That can’t be,” my mother says in confusion.

“Why? Because it’s not a woman? Circe is not my animai for several reasons. Item one, I am not now, nor have I ever been attracted to her, I like c**k not p***y, especially not hers” I say icily watching my mother’s face wrinkle in disgust while my father looks enraged, “Item two, being that I am as gay as the fans at a Bette Midler concert, there is not a chance in hell the Goddess would fate me to a woman, and item three, Circe is a hundred years old,” I point out.

“So?” Circe pipes in. God, she’s dense.

“So, what the Prince is trying to say is that if you were truly his animai, the bond would have clicked into place decades ago when you came of age, not on some random day of the week eighty years later,” Eisa says confidently, having my back as always.

This glaringly obvious fact suddenly dawns in my parent’s eyes as they turn their attention to Circe, while I fold my arms and watch on with a smug smile on my face. Check.

“Circe, explain yourself,” my father commands with authority.

Circe lets out a deep sigh as tears fill her hazel eyes, “I’m sorry Sebastian,” she whispers.

“You’re damn right you are,” I snort.

“I tried to keep our secret like you asked, but it’s been too much for me. I’m tired of you keeping me a secret from the world, not even doing me the kindness of rejecting me. I’ve held out hope all these years that you’d come around, that you not rejecting me meant part of you still wanted me, but I can’t live like this anymore. I want the world to know what we are to each other. Why are you so ashamed of me?” she says as crocodile tears slip down her cheeks.

My jaw hangs open as I stare in stunned silence at the bullshit she just spewed. I’ll hand it to her, that’s one hell of a performance.

“Oh, you poor thing,” my mother coos, rushing to Circe’s side and taking her in her arms. My mother looks at me coldly, “Sebastian, how could you treat your own animai so shamefully? We raised you better than this,” she says with deep shame.

“Since you’re not man enough to do the right thing, we’ll do it for you. We’ll be announcing your engagement to the kingdom. We will let the kingdom know you have found your Queen and she will be coronated by your side, and once you have both taken your seats on the throne you will be married,” my father decrees with a deep voice that leaves no room for arguments.

“Your Majesties!” Eisa cries in shock.

I place my hand on Eisa’s shoulder to calm her and suppress every impulse inside me begging to lash out at my parents and Circe, but I know how this works. They’re so desperate to believe I’m not gay that nothing I say will convince them. Circe has them wrapped around her bony finger, so the more I fight this, the worse it will become to the point I worry what they might do to Lemuel. I have to go about this another way.

I maintain my composure as my mother quickly switches from comforting Circe to gushing about the coronation and now my f*****g wedding.

“Oh, Haemon, it’s everything we hoped for. Come, we now have a ball to plan and changes to make to the coronation,” she says, tugging my father’s hand, “You’re going to make a wonderful Queen, Circe,” my mother coos with tears in her eyes.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Circe says with a curtsy.

My father continues to look at me with hard eyes, but I remain unfazed. I stare back at him emotionlessly, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me get upset.

“We will discuss this more later,” he promises, turning and leaving the courtyard with my mother.

The moment they are out of sight, I lunge at Circe, grabbing her by the shoulders and shoving her against a pillar with enough force to make her cry out. I just hope this isn’t something she’s fantasized about.

“What the f**k do you think you’re doing?” I spit venomously.

“Sebastian, you’re hurting me,” she cries.

“That’s Prince Sebastian. I am not your friend and despite what you’d have my parents believe, you’re not my f*****g animai. My animai is upstairs waiting for me, he is who I will spend my life with, not you. You need to get that through your f*****g head,” I say, giving her a final shove and letting her go.

“You’re wrong, Sebastian. No one has ever loved you the way I do. We’re meant to be together, and I’ll prove it to you. I’ll make you see the truth,” she says forcefully, before running off weeping.

I take deep breaths to calm myself down when I feel Eisa’s gentle hand on my shoulder.

“Sebastian, you need to stay away from her,” she warns.

“No f*****g s**t,” I snap, turning to face her.

“No, I mean it. You can’t go near her. Yesterday, you asked what was wrong. Well, yesterday a makkari visited me in my room. She and her animai had witnessed Circe talking with another makkari. Circe had instructed this woman to obtain Ocean Jasper for her and was talking about making you claim her as your animai and her being declared Queen,” she says fearfully.

“You’re just telling me this now?!” I shriek.

“I was going to tell you when we were away from the kingdom and away from prying ears, but you got called away and then you did a runner. Well, swimmer, technically,” she explains.

I run my fingers through my hair as I let this news sink in. My stalker is trying to get her hands on Ocean Jasper, a gem that was made illegal in our kingdom after a great, great, great – add in a few more greats – grand uncle used it on his brother to try and take the throne. After that, we had all the gems removed from the kingdom, only keeping a few for an emergency, which we keep safe in the palace beneath the ocean. Now Circe is working with a makkari to use it against me? I shudder at what she would make me do if she were able to control me.

“Who was this makkari who told you this?” I ask curiously.

“Well… it was the fugitive makkari, Isolde,” she says cautiously.

“What?! A magical fugitive was in our kingdom, and you didn’t tell anyone?! Have you gone mental? Did she spell you?” I ask, shaking her by the shoulders.

“Get your oversized hands off me you nutter,” she says, breaking free of my hold, “I was on guard at first and I attempted to fight her, but then I listened. She and her animai briefly explained her innocence and that she’s being framed, and I believe her. Why would she have come at the risk of getting caught just to help you and this kingdom? Serial killers don’t do that,” she says kindly.

I look deep into my best friend’s eyes, and I can see the resolve clear as day there. Eisa doesn’t make decisions lightly, if she trusts this woman, then she found good reason to. If she trusts her, then so do I.

“I want you to keep an eye on Circe, do not let her out of your sight. I don’t want her obtaining this gem. I want to find out what else she is up to and there’s no one I can trust but you,” I say, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She nods, her back straightening as she stands tall and proud before me, “You can count on me. I won’t let her do this to you,” she vows, “But I think we may need additional help,” she suggests.

“I’m all ears.”

“I could go to the Kartheca and get help from the Delegation. They’re the daughters of Zarseti, if they knew your parents were trying to force you to take someone who is not your animai; forcing you to go against the bond their mother created, they would be as disgusted as I am,” she says angrily.

I think it over. It’s not a bad idea. Irshiusts are protectors of the animai bond as well as the supernatural world. Having them on my side would be invaluable to me.

I nod, “Go, see what you can do,” I instruct.

“I’ll be as quick as I can, but Sebastian?”

“Yes?”

“We can’t tell them about Isolde,” she says carefully.

I go to argue, but I realise she’s right. If this woman is telling the truth, we’d be sending the Delegation after an innocent woman, and that doesn’t sit well with me. This woman risked her life to warn me and protect my kingdom. I mean, she was telling the truth. Yesterday she warned Eisa about Circe and today Circes got my parents convinced she’s my animai. What this Isolde woman did took a lot of courage, and for that, I owe her a debt. At the very least I can keep them from getting closer to her.

“I agree. Don’t tell them about Isolde, and don’t tell them about the Ocean Jasper,” I order.

“But Sebastian…”

“While they will detect you telling the truth, we haven’t seen her with the gem, and we don’t even know if she has it yet. Right now we have nothing to charge her with, if we go this far we might spook her and she might do something worse, and with my animai here there are just some risks I’m not willing to take,” I say, taking a deep breath to calm my frazzled nerves.

“I understand. I’ll keep the details limited. I’ll be back as quick as I can,” she promises, sprinting out of the courtyard.

I flop down on a stone bench and hang my head in my hands. This day just gets worse and worse.