Caresses Between the Sand: Royal Secrets, #3

By Aleera Anaya Ceres

The secrets of the kingdom are finally unravelling, and now that Maisie knows the truth of why Kappur and Thalassar are at war, she will do everything she can to make it right. Starting with finding out where the missing royal is.

To do that, she'll need to retrace Princess Odele's every move, and she knows she can't do it alone. Not with the queen monitoring her every move. Not with the royal advisor's cruelty following in her shadow. Not when courtiers are vying for her attention at every corner.

She'll need the help of shadows, dragons, power, and three mermen who despise each other. Of the Black Blade, Prince Kai, and Captain Saber. But will the mermen she's come to love put aside their differences for the good of the kingdom?

Or will their hatred for one another doom them all?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Aleera Anaya Ceres
• Release date: Nov 4, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223361411

Book preview

Contents

Trigger & Content Warnings

Pronunciation Guide

Fullpage Title Image

Map of Lagoona

Map of 7 Kingdoms

Maisie

Tiberius

Maisie

Kai

Maisie

Tiberius

Maisie

Tiberius

Maisie

Kai

Elias

Maisie

Elias

Maisie

Kai

Maisie

Tiberius

Maisie

Maisie

Tiberius

Maisie

Kai

Maisie

Tiberius

Maisie

Elias

Maisie

Maisie

Tiberius

Maisie

Her Alien Merman FREE NOVELLA

The Hybrid Trilogy FREE NOVELLAS

Want a Fae romance series?

Mershifting Bikers in an MC

Monster why choose standalone

A mermaid princess switch

Mermaids fighting the patriarchy!

Cheesy romantic vampires

Bloodthirsty sirens

A dark morally gray mer romance

About Aleera Anaya Ceres

Also by Aleera Anaya Ceres

Trigger & Content Warnings

This series contains content, themes, situations, and tropes that may not be suitable for all readers.

Some of the triggering concepts include:

-Abelism against disabled main character.

-Classism

-Violence

-Attempted murder

-War in a fantasy setting

-Poison

This book also features themes, situations, and tropes such as:

-Virgin FMC

-A slow burn romance

-Bisexual mermen and MM relationships

-Cliffhanger ending (the series is complete, don’t worry!)

-Group sex scenes

-Angry sex scene

-There is a scene where the FMC has sex with one of the MC’s in a case of mistaken identity. This could be considered dubious consent. Please proceed with caution.

Pronunciation Guide

Thalassar: Tal-uh-sahr

Kappur: Kay-purr

Draconi: Dray-cone-e

Iol: Yo-l

Ventlaer: Vent-lair

Gvulis: Vool-liss

Brague: Bra-aag

Eramaea: Era-may-uh

Malabella: Mahl-ah-beh-yaw

Oriana: Or-ee-ah-nuh

Fraema: Fray-muh

Ytgar: Eet-gahrr

Valmundur: Val-mone-doorrr (heavy R roll)

Maisie

On this Moonsday, New Moon, nearing the sixth year of the Malabella Oriana reign, Queen Odette Malabella Sanitorum was found deceased in her royal chambers. Having been feeling unwell for nearly a month, she finally succumbed to the sickness that ailed her and passed.

The voice in this conch was so unlike the other one I’d grown accustomed to. This one lacked depth. It was curt, quick, and simple, different from the honest precision that had been delivering bad news and answers from conches for the past hour. It had been a baritone that inquired, studied, and gave the best possible answers to this whole confusing mess that was now my life. I suspected he’d been changed, replaced by a mer who was less sympathetic to death and who gave vague answers that left me with more questions than answers.

A life I never wanted, but still found myself sunken deep into it. Like falling into a darkened abyss with an anchor tied around my stomach that was hauling me down... down...

When I’d first come to Thalassar—it seemed so long ago now—I’d thought it would be a simple thing to achieve my goals. I soon realized that anything you really wanted to achieve was never easy. It was something you had to fight tooth and claw for.

If I thought I would be sitting in on meetings with the queen and royal officials, chiming in with opinions and thoughts on the war of Thalassar against Kappur, I was wrong.

See, I wasn’t even the Princess of Thalassar. I was a waitress from Lagoona, parading around in her silks and jewels, sleeping in her chambers, living her life, kissing her prince.

I lost sleep many nights over the mystery of Princess Odele’s disappearance. I’d found her hidden cove, a secret passageway behind a tapestry in her rooms. I’d watched hundreds of conch recordings she’d left behind, and yet none of them pertained clues to why she had left.

It wasn’t until the threats against my life that I finally started to understand. Death followed me—her—and her whole lineage. I’d discovered evidence these past few days that could change my fate, the fate of the kingdom of Thalassar forever.

It had started with the marriage contract. A piece of kelp parchment hidden in a shell in the cove. A contract that promised Princess Odette of Thalassar to Prince Dorian of Kappur, and Princess Odessa of Thalassar to Prince Xristo of Brague.

These marriages never took place. Because Princess Odessa had died, and then Princess Odette had married Prince Xristo instead of Prince Dorian. And then Thalassar had been plunged into war with Kappur.

Why? The obvious answer was because of the broken marriage contract. But royal secrets had so many layers I couldn’t even begin to fathom. Just when I thought I had the answers within my grasp, more secrets unraveled, leaving me with far too many questions and very few answers.

Like the fact that Princess Odessa had a child before she’d been killed by the same poison that had almost ended my life. Or that Queen Odette had a child before Odele.

Somewhere out there was a missing royal. A cousin to Princess Odele. A bastard child, yet with royal blood nonetheless. A cousin I assumed Princess Odele had gone in search of.

That would certainly explain her disappearance. All this time I’d thought she had abandoned her duties, selfishly leaving behind a kingdom that needed her, when the reality very well could be that she’d gone to find her family.

This didn’t change the fact that she was an awful mer, and it didn’t eradicate the cruel things she’d said and done. It hardly made up for anything, really, but it was an explanation. And that was a start.

It didn’t explain the death attempts I was now experiencing either. Could it be related to this? It must have been, if the whole Malabella lineage was dwindling due to ailments. The lines were all connected somehow, I just couldn’t see how yet.

I stared down at the timeline I’d made. It started with the marriage contract and ended with Odele’s disappearance. On my kelp parchment, I’d scribbled in the deaths of the royal family, the missing royal, and the war, adjusting things as I remembered or discovered them. I ferociously drew a circle around the words: ‘missing royal?’

I had no way of knowing if the baby that Princess Odessa had given birth to before her death had been male or female, or if it was even still alive. I wanted to hope that it was, given Odele’s absence. In order to find both missing royals, all I had to do was follow Princess Odele’s fin strokes. If I found her, I’d find the missing royal.

And then what?

I dropped my head unceremoniously onto the table, winced at the pain, then sat back up, rubbing my forehead. Then what? What could I do? I couldn’t even get anyone to listen to me about the war with Kappur. What did I expect to happen if I found Odele and her cousin? If he—or she—was brought to the palace, I doubt they’d be welcomed with open arms. Bastard children of royals were rarely cared for or even acknowledged.

But I’d already decided hours ago that I was no longer going to feel sorry for myself. I would no longer allow other people to tell me what I could and could not do. I decided to take control, and after all this information, I was determined now more than ever to unravel every single royal secret in Thalassar.

Someone was killing royals. I wasn’t one, but I’d been pretending to be one long enough that I was starting to take it personally.

Someone had poisoned me. I’d gotten shot at in the gardens. Prince Kai had almost gotten killed by a poisoned arrow that had been meant for me.

I was done playing the victim. Done looking over my shoulder, done with guards trailing after me, done with waiting for someone to attack and end me. No longer. To end this, I had to solve the mysteries, all while trying to stop a war...

I suddenly missed Elias, cripplingly so. He’d been the only one in the palace I could trust. The only one who had been willing to help me. The only one who knew my secrets. It’d only been two days since he’d left, but I still felt his loss like I was missing a limb. He had said that he was going to meet up with his mysterious contacts, but I wasn’t sure if I believed that. I should have trusted him, but I couldn’t deny the ache of sadness he’d left behind in my chest.

I’d wallowed in self pity for hours after he’d left, wondering if he’d left because of me, because of what had happened between us. I’d given myself to him. He’d been inside me, and then he’d left. The thought of betrayal was soon shaken from my head. I knew Elias. He flowed with current and shadow, went where he wished and didn’t owe anyone an explanation. Not even me, even if we had been intimate.

It appeared as though, for the time being, I was alone.

I got up, spending a few minutes organizing everything back into place with shaking fins and fingers. Finished, I folded the kelp page I’d been writing on and tucked it neatly into the bodice of the dress I wore. With everything neatly in place, I swam out of the royal records room and to the front desk.

There was a glowing merman there, his skin giving off a slight yellow hue. He smiled as I approached, pushing a quill, ink, and ledger towards me. Find everything you needed, Princess?

I was too distracted to gift him with a smile. I pulled the ledger towards me, dipped the quill into the vial of squid ink, and signed Odele’s name and time on the ‘sign out’ side of the kelp page.

Unfortunately, no, I answered slowly, looking up to find his eyes staring at my hands. I tightened my fingers self-consciously.

His eyes rose, eyebrows creasing. Really? Well, maybe I can help you with something.

I tapped the quill against the edge of his desk before sticking it back into the vial. I was listening to a few royal death conch recordings that were made during the Malabella Sanitorum reign. I was wondering if the merman who recorded them was still around...

He stroked his rounded chin with wrinkled fingers. "Hmm. Well, I am not sure who recorded the conches, as no one but royalty is allowed in that room. I’m merely a keeper of the keys, you see. Yet if it’s royal deaths you wish to inquire about, I would suggest the royal morgue."

The royal morgue. I wondered why in gods’ names Thalassar just threw the word royal in front of everything. As if that made it any more special than it really was. Royal library. Royal morgue. Royal lavatory. As if they weren’t just rooms for reading, dying, or...

Of course, thank you. I pushed the ledger back to him and swam from the library and into the hallways. Everything in the palace had gone dark, though that was no surprise. The capital of Thalassar, Eramaea, was located in saltier waters. My freshwater home, Lagoona, was located in the northern parts of Thalassar and surrounded by two-legger territory. Here, sunlight did not completely reach down below. We relied on phytoplankton, lava globes, and jellies for illumination. The soft glow of floating jellies guided me through the halls now.

I had no guards following me. They should have been, considering the fact that hours before I’d been nearly killed. Somehow, Prince Kai’s advisors had convinced them to let me be alone for a while. That was more due to the fact that I had risked Odele’s reputation by visiting him in his chambers.

He’d just been shot protecting me and I’d wanted to see him. High with fever, running on the adrenaline of battle and poison, the dragon entity that lived inside him had controlled his actions. The whole interaction had been unlike the prince I’d come to know and like. He’d been a new being entirely. Someone I’d only caught glimpses of in passing. Daring. Dangerous. Sensual. That fervent sensuality had been a contagious sensation. For weeks I’d tried to ignore that I felt something for him. Something that was similar to what I felt for the Black Blade, yet a feeling belonging innately to the Dragon Prince.

They were both completely different mer. Elias was as mischievous and secretive as the shadows of the night. His actions were unpredictable, exciting. Beyond that, we understood one another. We knew our struggles. We wanted what was best for the mer of Thalassar.

Prince Kai was a mystery. Unlike other royals, he was kind and quiet, and I liked both sides of him. The gentle prince and the vicious dragon.

What I felt for them was so intense, it was overwhelming.

I wondered if it was too late to pay a visit to the morgue. A stifled yawn answered that question for me. I was exhausted, body weary. It had been a day of surprises, revelations. I should sleep and then visit the morgue in the morning.

I swam in silence, until the silence broke in shards of whispering. The smallest breath of a rushing current pushed past me, chilling my bare arms. I turned sharply, looking for an open window but saw none. The whispering continued. One voice, deep and eerie, repeated one word over and over again.

Princess...

I felt the word like the tips of claws sliding down my spine. I shivered, bumps rising over my arms. I stared into the darkness of the hallway behind me, but the jellies didn’t illuminate anyone there. Maybe I’d imagined it.

I started to turn, but the whisper stopped me mid-action.

Princess...

My heart pounded. I’d never actually roamed the palace at night. I didn’t believe in ghosts and the like, but right then, I was frightened enough to be convinced that apparitions were real.

But then something unfurled from the darkness. Elias? His name stuck in my throat, not daring to push past my lips as the figure seemed to materialize. A merman in sinister shadows, covered entirely in black. I took a frightful stroke back. And when the figure moved, I caught a glint of something shining silver. Steel. A blade.

I turned and swam.

Kicking my tail, I put in as much speed as my limping form would allow. I wasn’t fast, and the sudden strain caused me to swim jerkily. I rounded a corner and slammed into a wall. A portrait of a royal shook from its hinges and came crashing to the floor. I winced, heart pounding, breath coming out in heavy pants. I swam as if gators were behind me ready to tear through my flesh. My mistake was chancing a glance backwards.

The knife-wielder stalked behind me, steel glinting beneath the glow of jellies. It followed, hot on my fins. I kicked my tail. In my fear, I had no sense of direction; I barely knew where I was going. But I pushed forward with all of my might.

An involuntary sob burst past my lungs. My fins could barely keep me upright anymore. I rammed into another wall, knocking over a vase. Still I did not stop. I could feel the shadowed merman closing in on me, reaching out to take me.

I rounded the corner and rammed into yet another wall, but this wall gave out a soft noise of surprise from my collision.

Heavy hands clamped down on my shoulders. A scream almost tore through me, but I refused to give the stalker the satisfaction. I kicked my tail and jerked away, thrashing about.

His voice tore through my panic. Princess? What’s wrong?

I stopped struggling and looked up into the eyes of Captain Tiberius Saber.

Relief was instant. I forgot all about my anger with him and all that he’d done, the hurtful way he’d treated me. It didn’t matter. Nothing did except the safety of his arms. I threw myself into them, willing the sobs to go away before they could embarrass me in front of the ever-demure and strict captain. Never before had I been so happy to bury myself into a military jacket. The gasps and thundering of my heart, I couldn’t control.

What’s wrong?

I pulled away from him, turning around, but nothing emerged from the shadows. As if it had been entirely my imagination. But I knew I hadn’t imagined it. Shadow and steel had been as real as Captain Saber was before me now.

Princess?

His fingers pushed into the roots of my hair, near the back of my neck, pulling my gaze back to him. There was genuine worry there that I didn’t have time to ponder at the moment. He was looking at me like he really cared. And I wanted to believe that he did.

What’s wrong? Talk to me.

Nothing came from the shadows. My mind whirled. Had Captain Saber’s presence scared it off? Had it even been there to begin with? What should I even tell the captain? He would believe me, but the worry on his features would be accompanied by a lecture and his everlasting disappointment. Then more guards.

I let out a shaky breath. Nothing. I just— It was hard to speak past the lump in my throat. It was nothing. I panicked because I got lost. I hoped he couldn’t smell the lies on my breath.

He did. His eyes flashed with hurt before he shuttered his gaze, every feature hardening.

Of course, he said coolly. Let me escort you to your rooms, then.

Despite myself, I felt suddenly safer because of the offer. I had this maddening urge to loop my arm through his for extra protection, but held myself back. He, of all people, would hate that the most. Captain Saber appeared to be one of those mer who despised contact with others. He was too cold for that.

Of course, hours ago he’d held me close as I wept for Prince Kai’s safety. I thought it was more because he thought I looked like the princess he was in love with, rather than to comfort me.

I pulled away, putting distance between us.

He accompanied me down hallways, and I scarcely paid attention to the path or how far I’d veered away in my panic. My thoughts were plagued with that shadow, the steel of the knife. If the captain hadn’t shown up, I likely would have been captured. Killed. Just another royal dead.

Fear had made me lose myself. I’d forgotten everything I’d vowed and had given in to helplessness. I was going to have to start carrying my blade around with me for protection. It wasn’t conventional for a princess to do such a thing, but I needed to feel safe. I needed to feel like I wasn’t going to be killed at every turn because of what I knew or because someone wanted the lineage dead.

After tonight, I’d arm myself.

Never again would I be helpless.

Never again would I let a murderer in the shadows try and get the best of me.

Tiberius

I could see the pulse beating on her throat like the thrashing of a fish caught within a net. The rapid thumping of it made me want to interrogate her, but I didn’t want Maisie to know that I was staring at her, that I was concerned. Last time I had, she’d promptly pushed me away. Though what else had I expected? I’d treated her so badly that she didn’t care for my touch.

It was easier this way. Easier to balance ourselves on the edge of the line that separated us in the sand. Friends? Enemies? We were neither, yet we were both. It was just blurry right now. Everything was a mess; it was chaos.

I’d promised to protect her like I’d not protected Odele and I was failing. No wonder she couldn’t stand