Chapter 7

"How did this happen?" Yara asks me.

My grandmother holds me in her arms. I'm tearing up. The nymphs have surrounded her. Only in Atlantis could tragedy hit and every single person around you gives you some sort of support. People are stroking my hair. There are some people crying that never even met or knew Blue. There is a sadness that has come over Atlantis.

Blue was dead.

Sebastian keeps shaking his head. Reign is pissed. He's walking around. There are no tears but I've never seen Reign so pissed. He's cursing up a storm and Marina is following him attempting to calm him down. There is no calm when it comes to Reign though. Yara has been asking questions. I explained in detail how it happened so many times but Yara always asks me to explain it just one more time.

"I don't know. We were attacked."

"By who?" My grandmother questions me in a gentler tone than Yara.

Her guards surround us as though it would make a difference now. It's too late. I was already attacked. Blue is dead. You didn't even have to look too hard at him to know that he is dead.

"I'm not sure..." I respond.

"The sisters..." my grandmother says before calling out to the guards, "Guards. We need to retrace the steps and form a barricade around the city. They said they would attack all the children until they got to my grandson. Blue must be the 2nd victim."

It would make sense if Scylla killed Blue as their second victim. That was the most logical conclusion. The guards of Atlantis seem to be putting up their guards. Amphitrite's warning puts the entire city on full alert. Still, I didn't think that was the case. The last thing I remembered was being hit from behind. Something about how it happened was off.

Yara is the one who seems confused, "Why were you not killed?"

"I don't know," I respond, "They hit me from behind. If they wanted to kill me they could have honestly. I don't understand why I'm still alive but Blue was killed."

"Think!" Yara responds, "It doesn't make sense."

"Because it was the sisters," my grandmother responds.

Yara doesn't seem to agree. She is not going to argue with the Goddess but I can tell Yara has something else on her mind. She is so goddam weird and strange. She is suspicious about something but right now I don't know what. Everyone is looking at me to explain. They are looking at me to say what really happened back in that cave. They are looking down at the Blue's body and no one seems to really get it.

"I don't know," I tell my grandmother, "He seemed to recognize the person almost. As though he knew them?"

"Like a brother?" Reign asks.

We all look over at Reign when he suggests this. Deep inside my mind, I thought about what Reign is thinking about. Wade. He wasn't here right now. He was the only one not here. I had no idea where he was.

"Where is Wade?" my grandmother asks.

Blue was dead. His body was still lying there. The nymphs had come and wrapped it in cloth. They wrapped his tail up. It seems ceremonial how they do it like they are preparing him for something. All you see is these beautiful mermaids tending to him. It's kind of sad. It's even more sad when soft music is playing in the background of the forum. It sounds like funeral music. They were ready to burn his body completely. Yara is leaning over Blue. She is acting like some sort of detective. She is actually smelling his dead body for some reason. I think it's weird but I don't care. Everyone was dealing with this in a different way. Marina was quiet. Sebastian looked judgmental. Reign looked beyond mad. I had been actually crying about this. There was one person missing from all

They were ready to burn his body completely. Yara is leaning over Blue. She is acting like some sort of detective. She is actually smelling his dead body for some reason. I think it's weird but I don't care. Everyone was dealing with this in a different way. Marina was quiet. Sebastian looked judgmental. Reign looked beyond mad. I had been actually crying about this.

There was one person missing from all this, though.

Wade.

Wade was nowhere to be seen.

"He supposedly went into a room to cool down after a fight I had with him earlier," Reign explains to his grandmother, "He was also alone."

The way Reign says supposedly kind of pisses me off. I understand Reign and Wade weren't on good terms right now but there is an undertone he is using that I don't really appreciate.

"They locked him up," I state. I don't know why I'm defending Wade but I feel like I need to.

Reign crosses his arms, "If you haven't noticed, there aren't really a lot of walls or doors around here. If Wade wanted to leave he could have. Atlantis isn't exactly a jail."

There is silence at that moment. No matter how much I want to defend Wade I have to realize that it isn't my place. Wade isn't my man. And honestly, Reign had a point. Reign might have been acting out of emotion but right now Wade was the one who had the motivation. Why would anyone else want to kill Blue?

It's clear to everyone, including me, that Reign is making a lot of sense. My grandmother is the one who gives the orders to her guards.

"Find him."

Her guards leave at that moment to scour the city for Wade. The awkwardness at that moment fills up the room. I think everyone is thinking the same thing.

Marina looks confused, "You really think Wade would do this?"

"Why not?" Reign asks.

"That's his brother," I explain to Reign.

Reign doesn't seem to care, I've never seen him so mad when veins pop out of his neck and he goes off on me, "No. Fuck that! STOP DEFENDING HIM! My friend is dead and Blue was like my brother for years. Wade doesn't get to come back into our lives and claim that he has been there for Blue for all this time. I am more Blue's brother than he is."

The tension between Reign and Wade extended past me. I can see that now. Reign felt like he was closer to Blue than Wade was. I guess all these years Reign and Blue had gotten really close. Now that Wade was back though, Blue was put into the background. He was pushed to the side by Blue.

"It is kind of weird. If he was alone. He didn't have an alibi," Sebastian adds in, "Plus who knows what the sisters were capable of doing to Wade while he was gone."

A few onlookers nod in agreement including my grandmother. People are suspicious as hell right now of Wade. I wonder if I am as well. They make sense. Everything kind of makes sense. The last look on Blue's face was a look of surprise. Whoever had followed us was someone that he did not expect to be there. Whoever had followed us had shocked him. Wade would have caused that shock especially if he had told Wade to stay back in Atlantis and not to come.

But would Wade really kill Blue?

My grandmother is the one who asks, "Krill is there anything that would have made Wade turn on Blue in that cave?'

I hesitate.

Reign raises his eyebrows, "What is it, Krill?"

Fuck. If I tell everyone that I was kissing Blue when I was attacked then it would definitely make it seem like it was Wade especially after what happened with Wade attacking Reign.

It could have just been a coincidence that I was hit right after it happened. Maybe it wasn't a fit of rage. Maybe this was something that was planned. The trident was gone after all.

"What's going on?" Wade appears interrupting me right before I am going to answer the question. He has a list of guards behind him.

At first, I feel lucky that I don't have to throw Wade under the bus, but then I realize this is Wade's introduction to the fact that his brother is dead.

Wade damn near collapses when they expose Blue's corpse. It's the saddest thing I've ever seen. My tears come back almost immediately. A circle has surrounded us since I've brought the body of Blue back. He is laid out in the forum. His body is in mermaid form still. His scales are drying up. Being that Blue is dead he is unable to change back.

I'm the only one who runs up to Wade. I put my arms around him. I allow him to cry. Wade is going in at that moment. He's letting all the tears roll down his cheek. The last time I saw someone so upset was Blue when he thought that Wade died. The feeling of complete sadness right now is more than I can bare.

The emotion that Wade is showing right now is clear as day. There are some people who might have been suspicious but I don't know how possible it is that Wade could be showing this kind of sadness and be the one responsible. It seems impossible to me.

"Let's give him time," my grandmother says to everyone, with some sincerity behind her tone. I'm hoping that she doesn't think this has anything to do with Wade either.

~

I walk into throne room later that night. My grandmother is talking to Yara and a few others. I wait the entire time and watch these beautiful blue flowers next to these pretty yellow ones that my grandmother always keeps near her throne. I sit next to her throne and zone out. I'm thinking about Blue. The flowers remind me of him. Reign's brother Atlas is there as well as some other older mermen. I wait until they leave and my grandmother comes up to me next to the throne.

"They are called the Ocean's tears," she says referring to the flowers.

"They are beautiful."

"They grow at the bottom of the ocean."

"That's impossible," I respond.

"It should be," she smiles, "The myth of the Ocean's Tears is that a mermaid once loved a sailor so bad that she grabbed him from his ship to be with him forever. She was unaware that humans couldn't survive underwater and by the time she got to the bottom of the ocean he had died."

"That's tragic. I guess the story shows that some things aren't meant to be."

Some things like me and Blue. Just when we were showing each other that there was something more he was taken away from me.

"No. It shows the opposite. See even though she thought he was dead the gods took mercy on her. One god made the ultimate sacrifice and brought the sailor back to life. When he was brought back the Ocean's Tears grew. The flowers are symbol that some things that may seem dead and gone may still have a shot at life."

That wasn't my story. Blue was gone. Forever.

I look at the beautiful flowers and hold them close.

"I wish all your beautiful stories and quotes could help Wade."

"How is Wade?" my grandmother asks me.

"He's resting in my room still upset," I explain before realizing the serious look on everyone's faces, "Why is everyone here."

"Yara wants to go back to the scene of the crime and do some exploring," my grandmother says.

Atlas nods, "I'm leading the search party."

I watch as a bunch of the others leave including Reign. A part of me feels so useless. I had one job and that had turned completely into the worse thing that ever happened. Yara's search team is just a stab into my side at this moment. They were here to clean up my mess and a reminder that I couldn't do anything right.

"Are you OK, love?" my grandmother asks me.

I admit what's on my mind, "Blue's dead because of me, grandma."

"You know he came to talk to me one on one," my grandmother said.

"Blue did?"

"Yeah. He was having issues with his relationship with you. I think he just wanted some wisdom from someone who has lived a long time. He said he wanted to make a step towards fixing his relationship with you but he wasn't sure if it would be enough."

It must have been before he approached me in my room, the night he met me with Sebastian. Blue's eyes were so full of hope that day. He wanted us to start over. I cry realizing I even fucked that up.

"What did you tell him?" I ask tears rolling down my face.

My grandmother catches a drop off my cheek, "I told him that one step was all that was needed. There is a saying among the merfolk of Atlantis. The grandness of the ocean is made up of single drops."

I smile. My grandmother always knows how to really make me look at things differently. She pushes at the sides of my mouth so that I can smile a little bit. As I smile she gets up and walks over to one of the nymphs helping her. They give her a glass of Atlantis wine. I think my grandmother is going to drink it herself but instead she gives it to me.

"Alcohol isn't going to make me feel better about losing Blue and the trident."

"Miracles happen every day under the ocean. The ocean gives back to those who have sacrificed. Blue sacrificed to help you because he cared about you."

"He's dead."

"He's alive in here," she says pointing to my chest, "As far as the trident don't worry. Yara and her team will do their best to find what happened to the trident. She's a smart girl. I made sure she had a whole team at her disposal."

Why don't I feel good about that?

"If the sisters did have the trident what could they do?"

"You don't want to know."

"Please Grandmother."

Amphitrite smiles weakly at me, "That trident has the power of the gods. It could destroy Atlantis in a matter of seconds. It controls the current."

I shake my head. Great. I just so happened to lose the most important thing imaginable. I happened to lose one of the most powerful weapons in the world and the worst part is I had no idea who had it.

"This is all my fault."

My grandmother walks over to me, "Don't blame yourself. There is more magic in this world. The trident is a big blow to us but there is something else."

"What?"

"It's a myth. I don't know where it is. I don't know if it exists."

"What is it?"

"The conch of Poseidon. The ocean is controlled by the current and the tides. Tides go up and down. Currents move left and right. The trident controls the current but your grandfather's conch controls the tide."

That's it. If the sisters did have the trident I would need the conch. I would need that conch in order to save Atlantis.

"Do you have any clues where I can find it?"

She shakes her head, "Like I said. The conch was lost a long time ago. Your mother was the last person to have it but when the sisters attacked her..."

"Do you think they have it?"

My grandmother shrugs, "It's possible. But Krill if the sisters have the trident and the conch then there is nothing that will be able to stop them from destroying all of us."

I get a shiver up my spine as I think about it. I walk out of the room and walk into the hallway. The whole time I have one thought in my mind. I have to find that conch. I had no idea where to start or no idea how to get it but I know that if the sisters didn't have that conch then it was the only way to stop them.

The scary thing is...we were running out of time...

"You should start with the library," a voice says.

I turn around to see Sebastian standing up against one of the palace columns. He wasn't in the room when we were talking. He must have overheard us from the outside.

"Were you spying on me?" I ask Sebastian.

"I was worried about you," Sebastian says.

It's weird. It's weird because Sebastian wasn't the type to really worry about anything else but getting his dick wet. Normally that would have been amazing but I'm realizing that my mind is on other things now like saving the lost city of Atlantis from two murderous sisters and stopping anyone from dying because of me.

"I'm fine," I respond, "I'm just headed back to my room to make sure Wade was OK."

"Wait he's in your room?"

"He said he doesn't feel right sleeping alone tonight."

Sebastian rolls his eyes tremendously at that moment, "Are you fucking with me? Really? What a load of bullshit. He's probably the one who did it. Do we have any proof besides the fact that he seems a little bit sad?"

Sebastian is trying to make the same point that Reign was making. Wade was suspicious. I knew he was. Sure Wade looked upset when he found out that Blue was dead but he could be faking for all we knew.

"Listen I'm not 100 percent sure that Wade is lying, but if he isn't lying then he really needs me right now..."

"I need you right now too," Sebastian says.

He walks up to me. He grabs me around my waist and pulls me close. A couple nymphs walking by giggle by how aggressive Sebastian is being. Sebastian is very blunt with his sexuality. He is very expressive. Right now he isn't afraid to show that he wants me and it kind of seems like he may be a little too aggressive right now.

Sebastian starts kissing me. He grabs me up from my butt. I try to pull away but he takes my hands and puts it on his butt. He wants me to squeeze his butt. I honestly give in for a few minutes to Sebastian's long tongue down my throat. The guy had the longest tongue I had ever seen in my life. It gags me and he struggles to taste my lunch every time he kisses me. We are standing in the middle of the hallway where people can see but Sebastian doesn't care.

Sebastian's finger goes underneath my kilt. He starts to finger me RIGHT THERE in the middle of the hallway of a busy palace.

I literally have to pry Sebstian's fingers out of my butthole and push his tongue out of my throat with my own tongue.

"I can't right now. Blue just died."

"I'm trying to take your mind off of it," Sebastian replies.

"I don't want my mind off of it," I respond.

I walk away or at least attempt to. I don't get far alone though. I make my way to my room but before I can open the door and get in Sebastian grabs my arm. He pulls me back towards him. His eyes are glaring at me. He has this look that tells me he wants to take this further.

"Can I at least hold you?" Sebastian asks.

"What the fuck am I? An idiot?" I ask Sebastian, "I know damn well you don't want to just hold me. Wade is in there. And he needs me. I told you that already."

"Kick him out then."

Sebastian says it with a straight face. He could care less.

"Do you care about anyone else besides yourself?" I ask Sebastian.

"Listen. This is the big blue. Big fish eat little fish out here. That's just how it goes. So no. I don't care about Wade right now. I do care about you though."

"Which parts of me do you care about?"

Sebastian is all of a sudden acting offended, "Wow. So what? I'm the bad guy now? Look, I care about you. Sure, I may not show it all the time but I care."

"You don't show it ever."

"What do you want me to do? Be like Wade and use every waking moment to tell the world how much I am in love with you. Do you want me to be like Reign, pulling you into some weird ass bisexual threesome where everytime my girlfriend is not looking I'm staring longingly at you? I'm not going to romance you like those losers. That's not me. You know what I can do though?"

"What?"

"I can fuck you. I can fuck you so hard that it'll prove to you how much I care about you."

To show just how serious he is Sebastian takes my hand and puts it on his dick. He lets me squeeze down on his swollen dick underneath his kilt. I touch the girth of the dick. It's impressive. When he realizes I'm not letting go he leans back in for a kiss but I pull back as hard as I can.

"I can't right now."

"What are you changing on me? We've been flirting since we met. This is what you want..."

I sigh.

"At one point you were right. Sex was all I wanted. Now that Blue is dead I'm realizing that I just might want something more than sex. And honestly I don't think you are willing to give that to me Sebastian."

Shutting Sebastian down must be the hardest thing I've done when it comes to boys in years. Here was a sexy man who was willing to give me the passion and sex that I craved so much back on the dry land. He didn't want all of the extra stuff. Back then I would have loved it. Now things were different. Now I felt like I deserved more. Maybe it was because of something Blue told me. Blue saw something else in me and I'm not sure what that was but right now I want to find out.

~

"Wade you here..."

"Out here on the balcony..."

I drink some wine. There are bunch of wet wash cloths around the ground. I pick them up. Wade must have been crying this entire time.

"You OK?" I call out to him.

"You know Blue used to love you," He says out from from the balcony.

My heart races a little bit. What the fuck did he mean by that?

"Huh?"

"He used to love you for me," Wade corrects himself, "Back when we dated he was your biggest fan. I knew you were best friends so I just assumed he wanted you to be in the family. He used to think that I should have married you. He said you were special. He was the only one who seemed to appreciate you even more than me."

I smile at the thought of it. I have to admit that it is awkward as fuck though. What would Wade think if he knew that Blue and I had kissed?

"It'll be ok," I say starting to walk to the balcony. I open the balcony door of the palace and then see Wade STANDING on the ledge!

"I can't do it anymore," he says to me.

This wasn't happening. Wade was not about to jump from the palace balcony. We were at least 5 stories high. He would not survive the jump to the bottom. I am shocked. I don't know what to do.

"Wade get down! What the fuck are you thinking?"

"My brother is gone. I don't have anyone."

I knew that Blue dying would hit Wade hard but I had no idea that it would hit him this hard. I had no idea that it would cause him to want to jump over a balcony. Tears are running down his face like a faucet. It's similar to my wet ass or maybe Sebastian's tendency to produce so much sperm. Wade's body produces so many tears that his entire body is drenched in them. I'm shocked as I see how intense his crying is. There is a deep pain here.

"You have me Wade. Please get down."

He couldn't do this to me. He couldn't try to kill himself yet again. My heart is racing. I wouldn't be able to take it again. I couldn't lose both Blue and Wade in the same day. I couldn't face this.

"I don't have you."

"What? Yes you do."

"No I don't. Blue told me. He told me before he died that he thinks you want to move on. He told me that maybe I should let you."

Blue must have warned his brother to spare his feelings. Blue probably saw something like this happening. I always knew Wade was sensitive but I didn't know how intense his sensitivity got until he tried to kill himself because of the infidelity years ago. Now seeing Wade about to kill himself again just cements it. Wade needed help. He needed serious help and I wasn't sure I could give it to him.

"Please. Get down and we can talk about it."

"Talk about what? My life is over. Do you know that they are blaming me for Blue's death. Marina came up to this room and called me a murderer today. I have no doubt her boyfriend is spreading some nasty fucking rumors about me."

Why the fuck would Marina do something like that? She was the most disrespectful bitch I'd ever met in my life. She knew that Wade had just lost her brother and now she was blaming it all on him? She made me sick to my stomach.

"Fuck Marina. The people who matter don't believe you had anything to do with it."

"I would never hurt Blue," Wade says shaking his head, "I would never hurt anyone I cared about. What's the point of living if you are so alone, Krill?"

"I'm here for you. I promise," I plead.

"No you aren't. You want to be with Reign. Admit it."

"I don't know what I want."

"Then there's no point."

Wade turns around. He leans forward.

"WAIT! Please wait. No. Ok listen. I love you. I want to be with you."

"You're lying. You're just telling me that so that I won't jump."

"No. Seriously," I explain feeling my heart almost explode through my chest, "Blue was wrong. You are the love of my life. Wade. Please don't do this. Don't kill yourself. I'll do whatever you want me to."

"No you won't."

"Name it."

Wade turns back towards me. The tears are violent as hell. There is one way to stop this. I have to do whatever it takes. I have to do all the things I didn't do all those years ago. I had to promise Wade anything that he wanted to hear in order to make sure that I don't lose him again.

"I want the same thing I always wanted. I want the promise that we used to give to one another. Be with me..."

"Yes."

"Forever."

"Yes. Yes. Please come down Wade."

Wade steps down off the ledge. He comes down on the right side of the railing. I run into his arms and hold him. I just want to save his life right now. I'm beyond sad and emotional. I don't know why I start kissing him the way he does. I just feel like I have to prove that he is not alone. I have to prove that there is a reason for him to live.

I'm kissing him hard. He picks me up from around my waist. He grabs me and takes me to the bed. He rips off of my kilt. I'm kissing him the entire time he does it.

Wade lays me down on the bed.

"I love you so much," he tells me.

I nod, "Yes."

Whatever. I had to do whatever it took. Even if that meant getting back with Wade. Fine. We were back to being a couple. It didn't matter. None of it mattered.

He puts my legs over his shoulders. He puts his dick inside of me. Wade sticks his entire dick so deep inside of me that I leave my body. He doesn't need lube. No one ever needs lube when they are fucking me. I'm far too wet for that.

My hair swallows my face face like a some sea monster's tentacles. He moves it repeatedly to stare into my eyes.

He grunts the whole time and somehow I am retreat in my mind. I do the same thing that I used to do so many times with the men up on the dry land. My body is there but my mind is there. I drift away as Wade fucks me so hard he starts sweating over me. His hard dick pummels my ass. I listen to the squishy, wet noises of his dick entering me.

Each thrust is harder. He kisses my lips but I don't kiss back. I just stare out at the ceiling. I had to give Wade what he wanted so that I could keep him safe.

Blue would want me to keep him safe. Blue would want me to be with his brother.

I am doing this for Blue.

Blue is the only thing on my mind as Wade cums inside of me after what seems like an eternity and whispers in my ear, "I love you."

"I love you too," I respond.

The sad thing is I'm not talking about Wade. I'm talking about Blue. I'm talking about my love for his dead brother.

~

I wake up to the sound of sprites buzzing around my head.

"You need to get up. You need to get up now!" the sprites are saying, "You have to stop her. You have to stop her now!"

"Stop who?" I ask.

The small water fairies clearly are panicking. Something important must be happening but I'm not sure. It isn't until someone else runs into the room that doesn't seem as desperate that it's made clear. Reign is the person who runs into the room.

"Krill come quick...your grandmother is doing something amazing," Reign says but he stops mid-sentence.

Reign stops because Wade lifts his head right next to me. Wade and I are naked underneath my sheets. It's early in the morning and the room smells like sex. I'm not sure how many times Wade made love to me last night. At parts I was asleep but Wade didn't mind. He entered me so many times. The sheets were wet. It wasn't nut. It was the juices from my wet ass. It seemed like he was making up for all the love-making we missed when we weren't together. Wade seems to realize Reign's reaction because he grabs me and holds me close.

"Are you going to tell us what's going on or are you just going to stand there?" Wade asks Reign.

Reign is surprised, "Really Krill? What are you two back together now?"

I look over at Wade. Wade nods to me. I don't want Reign finding out about us like this but I can't really help it. I know this hurts Reign. I can see it written all over his face right now. He looks like I literally just attacked him in the same way that Blue was attacked.

"Yes."

"Why the fuck would you do that?" Reign asks me clearly mad.

"Reign this isn't the time," I respond, "You had something you wanted to tell me."

Reign points out the door but he is clearly distracted, "Your grandmother is giving up her immortality. The sprites think this will leave the city entire vulnerable to the sisters if she does something like this."

"Give up her immortality?" I ask confused, "Is that even possible?"

"Yes. It is. And she's doing it right now."

"Why?"

"Come see..."

I'm not sure what's going on. I wrap the sheets around me and chase Reign down the hallway. We find the goddess at the very front of the stairs. We are all confused as fuck as to why the goddess is standing there. There is all this light coming out of her. It seems like all the light that I saw her have before is just disappearing.

The goddess is standing over something. All the light that is coming out of her goes around the thing she is hovering over. It doesn't go into this second object but it surrounds it. It seems to almost be lifting this object.

She was sacrificing her immortality.

"Grandmother...what are you doing? Why are you doing this?" I ask.

"In Atlantis we have a saying," my grandmother says, "There's plenty of water in the universe without life, but nowhere is there life without water."

I don't care about proverbs right now. My mother spoke in quotes like a woman who has been alive for far too long. If my mother sacrificed her immortality then she wouldn't be a goddess anymore. Atlantis would be vulnerable to any attack from the sisters. My grandmother had lost her spark as I look at her. She seems to already look like she has begun aging. I see wrinkles underneath her eyes where there were once none. She looks different. She doesn't look like the beautiful eternal woman that I knew at one point. What would cause my grandmother to do something so ridiculous? What would cause such a wise woman to act like such a fool?

That's when I see something move underneath her.

Someone is sitting up.

Wade pushes past the crowd first and seems to notice what has happened, "You brought him back to life."

Sure enough Blue is sitting there...alive.

"What happened?" are the only words that come out of his mouth.

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