"Tell me where the heck she is!!" Ace growled at Hira when he pulled her back.
Hira threw up water and glared at Ace. She was now wearing her own face and got her mermaid tails back. "Why are you so eager to know where she is?"
"I'm asking the questions here." Said Ace. "Now you tell me where she is or you're going back into the water until you will forget that you could even breathe underwater."
"You are not getting her to make her your slave!!" Hira screamed at him.
Ace's brows drew back in anger. "You think I'm doing this to make her a slave? She can barely do anything helpful without causing any problems! If it wasn't for the fact that she was the one who's about to choose the future king of Thalia then I might never have put up with her in the first place!"
Something about the way that he said it hurts. He's putting up with me just because I have the power to choose the future king of Thalia? Really? I thought we...if not a friend then maybe an acquaintance. But this, really? He made it sound like I was a tool.
Sensing me for the first time, Ace looked up and spotted me. Once he did, I half expected him to be apologetic or at least look guilty, but he hardly seemed bothered at all. "Were you standing there the whole time?"
I heard a slight shift in the bushes to my left and turned to see golden brown fur jumping into it. Well, my furry friend just left. "Sort of." I answered.
Ace let out an annoyed grunt. "Well, why didn't you say something? You made me suffer by touching this fish girl over here!"
"Hey!" Hira protested but Ace didn't say anything to it.
His lack of guilt for what he said somehow angered me. "Oh, so now it's my fault? I didn't ask you to come!"
"Well, you didn't give us a choice because you were gone for so long and the twins could not track you!!"
"I can take care of myself."
Ace gave me a once over and snorted. "Yeah. You look great." He said sarcastically which only infuriated me more.
"Well, at least I was able to make it out on my own." I said and left out the part about the little wolf helping me.
"Thank goodness you were able to do something right." He said. "For a second there I thought you were useless. You volunteered to fetch water for us and you didn't come back."
"Eeeer...."
"Well, I don't really have a choice since someone made me feel guilty for being the only one having anything to do."
"Um..."
"It's not my fault. I'm not the one who fed our food to my horse you know."
"Seriously you two. I'm still here."
"And it's not my fault that you are here with the purpose of helping me for your own benefit." I retorted.
"Hey. Are you guys even giving a shit about me?"
"What do you mean?" The bastard asked, making me roll my eyes at his fake innocence.
"Hey!"
"Oh don't pretend to not know. I heard you say it."
"Excuse me."
"Say what?!"
"That you're keeping me alive so you can have a chance to become king of Thalia!!"
"I SAID EXCUSE ME!!"
"WHAT!?!?!" Ace and I both growled at the mermaid who kept inserting random comments in between our arguments.
She pointed at the hand that was still around her throat and looked at Ace. "I hate to break it but you're kind of squeezing too much." She said.
"So?" Ace said. Geez! What an insensitive brat!
"You're going to kill me." Said Hira.
"Like I said." Ace said. "So?"
Monster, I thought.
"She's now standing over there." Hira pointed at me.
"I thought you don't want us to have her?"
"I can see that she has already been influenced by you men with her violent words just now so I don't want her." She said and glanced at me. "No offense."
"None taken."
Then she looked back at Ace. "Aren't you going to let me go now?"
"No."
"No?"
"Not unless you cure that drowning vampire over there." Ace said and pointed towards Nate's direction, who was still having a battle of either killing himself or saving himself.
"Thank you for finally noticing me!" Called out Nate.
The mermaid huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Her mermaid tail flipped once in annoyance. "Why should I do that?"
Uh oh. Wrong word, girl. Wrong word. One should not question him if he/she does not wish to die.
Already predicting what he was about to do, Ace unsheathed his sword from his belt and pointed the tip at the mermaid's chin. "I could kill you right now."
The mermaid stared fearfully at the sword before looking back up at Ace. I kind of feel bad for her, but yeah, she had it coming for talking back at him. "T-Then you won't get your vampire friend back." She said.
She better shut up. Like, right now. She's only making things worse for her.
"I don't really care. Let him die for all I care if I kill you. You both annoy me and getting rid of you will be like hitting two birds with one stone. So either you save him and save yourself or kill him and kill yourself. Choose."
The mermaid gulped and shifted her gaze at Nate. "Back on land. Now." I heard a shift in her voice as she spoke to Nate.
Suddenly, Nate stopped struggling and paused for a moment behind turning around and swimming back to us. Once he was able to pull himself on land did he lay down on his back. Panting. "I'm-I'm alive!" You could hear the relief in his voice as he said it.
Meanwhile, Ace was still holding the mermaid by her neck and stared at her. "What did you do when you kissed him?" He asked.
"Nothing." Replied Hira. "I only did it to get him caught off guard to make it easier to control him."
"Hang on." I said and made them both look at me as I fixed my gaze on Hira. "You kissed Nate? Please tell me you didn't do it with my face."
"She did." Ace.
"I did." Hira.
"Trust me, Rose. I thought it was you too." Said Nate, who was still resting on the ground.
"I'm going to murder you." I said.
"Not if I kill her first." Grunted Nate as he came into a sitting position. "You played me!" He snarled at Hira, who, in return, only shrugged.
"You were an easy target."
"No one is going to kill her." Said Ace. "I made a deal that if she helps Nate I won't kill her."
"Awwww, PRINCE Ace! You do care!" Beamed Nate and made a joking girly giggle.
Ace got up and stared down at Nate. "Don't make me regret it." He warned, which immediately muted Nate's girlish giggles.
"Now." Ace said and looked down on the mermaid. "Back to the water you go." Before any of us could guess what he was about to do, Ace bent down and picked up Hira princess style and threw her in the water none too gently making her do skips along the water's surface making Hira's scream move like waves going high and low then high and low back again until it was gone. There was a plop sound when she disappeared underwater.
Beside me, I heard Nate let out an impressed whistle. "Look at the flick of that wrist."
Ace came back to us and pointed at the bota bags, which were still where I left them. "Get those bags and let's get out of here." He said and started to turn away.
"Rose!"
"There you are!"
All heads turned to the forest only to see that the twins emerged from it. They were running and almost tripping on the process, which I almost laugh from.
Ren was the first one of the two to reach me. "You're safe." He said and seemed relieved about it. "Were you hurt? Why didn't you scream for me to help?"
"Because, she was dragged in by a mermaid, idiot." Said Nate who was sitting beside me.
"No one asked you." The twins said to Nate.
A cold breeze started and I sneezed. "Acho!"
"Bless you." Said Dan.
"Thanks."
Ren was studying me for a moment before shrugging out his coat and offering it to me. "This coat isn't thick enough unlike my other one, but it will provide a little warmth." He said and looked back at his brother. "Dan, lend Rose your-" There was a splash and suddenly Dan was in the water and swimming back onto the shore.
"Oopsie. I slipped and fell. You were saying, brother?" Despite his current predicament, Dan was smiling mischievously at Ren at bathing his lashes.
Ren sighed at his brother. "I was going to ask you to lend Rose your coat."
"Aw...sorry. I guess she'll just have to use yours then." He said while still wearing that wicked grin and looking at me and winked. What a weirdo.
"Real help you are." Said Ren and looked down at the bota bags before going towards them and retrieving them. He slung it over his shoulder.
"I can take care of it," I said.
"But I wanna do it." He reasoned and I felt Nate getting up and stood beside me.
"Nah. Let him do it." Said Nate and placed a hand over my shoulder. "You shouldn't even be doing such heavy work."
"Are you saying I'm weak?!" I said to him and then started hearing fits of coughing. I turned and looked for its source until I found Ace with his back to us leaning on a tree near Cloud. He was bent over with one hand on the tree and the other covering his mouth. "Ace?" As soon as I called his name the others seemed to pause and look at him too.
"What's wrong with him?"
"I don't know."
"PRINCE Ace, are you alright?"
Ace's coughs stopped and were suddenly replaced by a strangled cry as he clutched his head. "Argh!!"
"Ace!"
"PRINCE Ace!"
We all screamed and started running towards his side. Ace was now laying on the ground still in pain. Only when I got closer did I notice that his nose was bleeding. "Oh my gosh!" I screamed. "Someone help him! Does anyone know any healing magic!?"
They all shook their heads. "Fred does." Dan said while giving me a cautious look. Of course, Fred knows. I remember him healing the blisters behind my feet on our first dance lesson.
That was a long time ago.
"He needs immediate help and we're far from Hazel now. It'll take us days!" Ren said.
"But there is one place where we could go. We'll make it by dawn with little breaks." Said Nate while looking at Ace.
"Where?" I asked.
"Tordis. Ace's home."
"No," Ace said in a pained voice as he still clutched his head. He was gritting his teeth so hard that I was surprised that he hasn't broken them yet.
Nate glared at Ace with a hard expression. "You are in no position to order us around, Prince Ace. You're ill and unless you get a cure, I'm in charge." It was a whole new side of Nate that I haven't seen before and he looks cool. Ace was about to say something to him but was cut off when another wave of pain hit him. Nate's brow furrowed in both worry and fear. "Whether you like it or not, PRINCE Ace, we are going to Tordis to help you get fixed up. I don't know what's wrong with you but we are not letting another prince go from this group." With that, Nate turned to me and the twins. He was in charge now.
"Ren and Dan, go back to camp and pack our things while Rose and I will help carry Ace back. Ready our horses too. We're leaving."
Without a single word, the twins nodded and left. Nate bent down to help Ace up while I went to Cloud to get her. I brought her up to Nate and together we helped Ace sit on top of her.
"Tch! You're not getting any thanks from me because of this." Ace said.
Nate grinned. "I don't expect you to." He said before looking back at me. "Let's go."