The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) by Jovee Winters Page A

rock him to my breast. And not for sex at all. But to hold him.
    Hold him!
    I tapped my breast. “I am a goddess. I am not to be chained down. I am not to feel these trivial, sentimental, mawkish—”
    Calypso , she warned, you’re doing it again.
    “What?” I frowned, and then realized in an instant that the furniture in the room was shaking violently from a swift, rolling current.
    Blowing out a heavy breath, I pinched the bridge of my nose. If I didn’t watch it, I’d kill all my children. The only things precious to me in this world were them, and some (I thought of Nim) more than others.
    “Bloody poop, I’m in a foul mood.”
    Linx wrinkled her nose.
    Why did you offer to take him with you to the castle today, then?
    Plopping my fishy butt down on the clam-shell bed, I planted my chin on my fist and stared broodily at my sister.
    She was so pretty. Why couldn’t I have been born her instead of me? Instead of this volatile, emotive crazy woman who could hardly make sense of her own emotions half the time.
    “I wish I were you,” I murmured. “Do you not suffer from loneliness ever, my Linx?”
    Shaking her equine head, she delicately nibbled on a mound of crab apples.
    I have you. I need nothing else. But you were never like me, Caly, and that is okay. You are you, and I adore you for who you are.
    I curled my lip. “I am a scatterbrained nitwit. I offered to take Hades with me last night because I missed him. Can you imagine? He’d just given me pleasure, and I was satisfied. Why was that not enough? Suddenly I miss him and want to be where he is and wonder what clothes he wears today and whether I can taste his cock as he tasted my pearl and—”
    Linx’s laughter flitted through my head like sea bells. Seems to me you’ve developed quite an attachment to him.
    “Yes, but I didn’t want to!” I knew I was acting petulant, but I neither cared nor desired to act adult at the moment. There were some days when being a grown-up sucked. Today was one of them.
    My heart ached. Literally ached in my chest. And how was that possible? Why had sleeping with him made me feel all these violent, maudlin emotions?
    Hades was a horrible man. He’d schemed to keep Persephone by tricking her with his pomegranates, and he’d basically admitted to me to having done something nefarious to her. He was known to be rude, dismissive, cold, and calculating.
    Of course, the last few qualities I found rather charming, as I, too, had my moments.
    Stupid, perfidious heart. I couldn’t even list his flaws without wanting to defend them, even if only to myself.
    Gnashing my teeth, I glowered at my sister. “I like him.”
    The words were ripped from me.
    Yes, I know, love, it’s quite obvious. She slurped down an apple that’d tried to wiggle away. I frowned. Apples didn’t wiggle, and then I realized a couple of hermit crabs had hidden themselves in with the batch of apples.
    I had to swallow my gag. Linx and I were both vegetarians. I found the thought of eating my own a little on the cannibalistic side. If she knew what she’d done, she would vomit, and I would have a major mess on my hands. Hippocampus vom was far from pleasant; it smelled a little like horse dung and looked like putrid soup. But...as she hadn’t seemed to notice, I wouldn’t tell her.
    Getting up, I pretended to swim toward my vanity but instead accidentally on purpose flicked my tail at her bowl, causing the other hermits to scatter out and disappear.
    Linx blew out an agitated breath. She knew I’d done it on purpose. She didn’t know why.
    Caly.
    “Linxy.” I rolled my eyes and patted my silvery hair back into place. I looked so sexy this morning. There was a flush to my cheeks, and my thick hair was caught up in a plait that danged like a horse’s tail across my bare shoulder.
    I’d worn one of my prettier outfits, really just strategically placed pearls of differing lengths wrapped around me, so that each time I moved it highlighted my