The carriage pulled up behind the tavern precisely at ten. There was only one driver.
Easy, the Queen of the Sea told herself.
But the driver was staring at her.
Leering at her.
In a strangely familiar way.
Ariel fell back, suddenly realizing who it was.
Run! she told herself.
Somehow she didn’t.
The door to the carriage creaked open, pushed from inside by the footman—who was the driver’s twin.
Out stepped Vanessa.
For just a moment, Ariel saw Ursula. Grinning and sharp-toothed, surrounded by her waving black tentacles. All predator, all evil. Sharks killed to eat. Ursula enjoyed the pain she caused.
Then the moment was over and the princess of Tirulia stood there, “disguised,” wrapped in a long, flowing shift that made her look like an actor playing a foreign priestess in one of those operas Sebastian conducted from time to time. Her eyes were large and doe-like, but her smile was vicious and exactly the same as the sea witch’s.
Ariel felt a cold rage settle on her shoulders, and the world narrowed down until it was just the two of them.
“Were you expecting something from the postman, maybe?” Vanessa purred, in Ursula’s voice. “A package, perhaps?”
“Very amusing, Ursula. You’re so…funny,” Ariel said, trying not to let her anger show.
“Thank you. Nice legs, by the way.”
“Thank you,” Ariel said. “I made them myself.”
“Oh, yes…you’re ‘Queen of the Sea’ now. With all the powers and privileges thereof. And the trident.” Her eyes flicked greedily over Ariel, looking for some sign of the weapon. “Isn’t it funny…？ Your father could have turned you into a human any time he wanted to. But he didn’t. Withholding his abilities so selfishly…trying to keep you locked up at home…”
“He was trying to protect me,” Ariel said flatly. “It’s not the choice I would have made in his position, but he thought he was doing best.”
“But you are in his position now,” Vanessa said, eyes wide and innocent. “Are you telling me that if you had a daughter, you would just—let her go?”
“If I had a daughter I would make sure she had every opportunity to do what she wanted to enrich her life. Sometimes being a good parent means knowing when to let go.”
“Well, well, isn’t that a thoughtful and mature philosophy,” Vanessa said, looking at her nails. “Never really had the inclination for children myself—except as dessert.”
Ariel just gave her a look, and it wasn’t one of horror. One of the most tiring aspects of Ursula wasn’t even her villainy; it was her constant bid for attention, for shock value, for turning the conversation back to herself.
“I believe you took something of mine,” Ursula said.
“I believe you took something of mine,” Ariel retorted.
“I believe I traded that from you fairly, in return for something of mine. My magic to help you win your man.”
“It wasn’t a fair trade. You were preying on my desperation and knew that I would fail.”
“I believe you were, as they say, of sound mind and body when we made the deal. No one forced you into it and you knew exactly what you were doing.”
“I was a dumb, innocent girl!” Ariel snapped, disappointing herself.
You’re a queen now, not that innocent girl. Do not sink to her level. She is beneath you.
“And it’s been—what? Five or six years since then?” Vanessa asked innocently. “Nothing in the span of a mermaid’s life. The tiniest fraction of a percentage. But I suppose you’re all grown up now?”
“I have grown,” Ariel said frostily. “And I am queen. And I suspect that if we were to go back and reexamine those three days from all sides, like a god, we would see that you had cheated somehow. Even before you used my own voice and someone else’s body and your magic to steal Eric from me!”
“There was no noncompete clause,” Vanessa said, almost reasonably. “I never said I couldn’t go after the same lovely human. He is lovely, by the way.”
Ariel knew the witch was trying to get a rise out of her.
…and she was succeeding; the mermaid could feel warmth rising to her cheeks.
“Please. He has no tail or tentacles. I doubt you find him attractive at all. He’s just a pawn in an elaborate game to punish me and my father.”
“You got me there,” Vanessa sighed dramatically.