He’d seized her chin, gently but firmly tipping her face up to the light. Heedless of her muffled protests, he tilted her head first one way, then the other, staring at her features as if seeing them for the first time.
How was I so blind? How could I not see it before?
The elegant arch of her brow, the strong set of her jaw, the glory of her eyes…it was not merely the fact that she was his mate that made every line of her face shine with noble beauty.
“Why are you staring at me?” Neridia jerked free from his suddenly slack hand. “What’s going on?”
“Where is he?”
Neridia took a half-step back, eyes widening in alarm. “I, I don’t know what you’re saying.”
He’d spoken in his own language. He fumbled for human words, tongue half-numb with shock. “Where is he? Your, your father, where is he now?”
Neridia’s hand crept up to close around her pearl pendant. “He died four years ago. He-John!”
He’d crashed to his knees, not gracefully, but as if felled by a sword-stroke.
“The Emperor is dead.” Shaking in every muscle, he bowed his head in the full genuflection due to her. “Long live the Empress.”
Chapter 10
Neridia stared down at John’s bowed head. “What?”
“You are the one I have been seeking, Your Majesty,” he said to her shoes. “You are the Heir to the Pearl Throne. Your father, may he rest in the ocean’s hear
t, was the Pearl Emperor, King of Atlantis, Ruler of all the Shifters of the Sea, Commander of Wave and-“
Neridia had a suspicion the list of titles might go on for some time. “My father? That’s ridiculous. My father was no sea dragon!”
“Look, Your Majesty.” John unfastened one of the charms from his braided hair, holding it out to her without lifting his head. “Look at this, and then at the painting.”
Neridia took the small golden disc, squinting at it. A minute sea dragon’s head was engraved on one side in exquisite detail. Something about it struck her as terribly familiar.
It was exactly the same profile her father had painted in the picture. Exactly the same as the way he’d always drawn the "Loch Ness Monster."
“Coincidence,” she said, trying to convince herself. “He was an artist, he had a good imagination. Or, or maybe he just saw a sea dragon some time.”
John shook his head, gaze still fixed on the ground. “Your Majesty-“
“Don’t call me that!”
He ignored her interruption. “I saw him in human form once, Your Majesty. I was no more than a mere child at the time, but I could never forget his imperial face. I should have recognized you at once. I would have done, had I not been blinded by…what else you are to me.”
“This, this is…” Neridia clenched her fist around the charm, her hand shaking. “This is nonsense. You’re wrong. My father couldn’t even swim! He was terrified of water!”
That jerked his head up at last. “What?”
“He wouldn’t even go outside if it was raining. My mom always said it was just a phobia, something he couldn’t help, and that I mustn’t upset him by asking questions about it.”
“And the lake told me that no sea dragon had visited its depths,” John murmured, his eyebrows drawing down. “I do not understand. How could he bear to never take his true form?”
“Because being human was his true form! He never went near the lake. He liked to look at it from a distance, but he was paranoid about getting too close.”
John’s blue eyes widened in sudden realization. “Because if his reflection crossed water, he could have been seen.”
“What?”
“It is one of the sea dragon arts. Scrying, seeing what is reflected in the surface of distant bodies of water.” John’s brow was furrowed in thought. “It is not my chosen art form, so I do not comprehend more than the very basic principles of it. But I know that our most talented Seers have been searching for him ever since he vanished. If he did not wish to be found, he could not risk going near open water.”