Brown eyes the color of the earth after torrential rains stared directly into the white light above. The sun splayed down on the sandy beach of the Mediterranean coastline, just west of where they had been staying during the summer of her twentieth birthday. She wanted to remember the sounds and the sights of the beach the most. To remember the laughter from the families peppered around them creating memories that would last a lifetime. Remember that brilliantly blue hue that had been painted across the sky with no clouds to act as smears on the perfect canvas. To remember the deafening roar of the water as the tides cascaded down to the shore before retreating back to the sea. The picturesque Spanish summer day. How beautiful of a moment it could have been if those thoughts had not been created in her mind to mask the harsh reality she had been living. She was convinced if she constructed lies that twenty year old girl would not remember what truly happened. And with the burns across her sun kissed skin and the thoughts that had been seared into her tumultuous mind, she wanted more than anything just to forget.
Alejandro Cabello held her youth like sand in his palms. Adrienne wished she could fast forward the time so she could crumble into dust to slip through his stern grip of calloused fingers. She wished that her features were not as soft, as if anytime anyone had touched her in a way that she did not consent her features would harden and make her less desirable for coin. She wished, she wished, she wished. She wished a lot of things. But mostly she wished that she was here on the beach by herself. With the rays of sun being the only thing that beat down on her skin. That the only rage she would be dealt was rumble of the ocean crashing to the shore. The only blue would be one of the color of the sky instead of the blue across her cheek, between her ribs, and around her neck. Instead she sat next to him in the sands, tethered by a leash of gold, wanting nothing else but to walk forward and let the ocean swallow every last bit of her so she could wash away to sea foam.
Adrienne remembered the lull of the sea, the static that overwhelmed her senses, every ebb and flow that continued to swell far past the horizon. She remembered how she yearned to be apart of it, to be one with the sea. To not fear the rise of the moon and the time when darkness fell like a blanket over the city. To feel safe among the vastness of the calm water as the night came. The sea whispered her name through the static. It called to her singing a song of freedom. Though she hadn’t done it then, for Madam Amalia made it very clear what would happen if someone stepped out of line, she stood up from the sand and bolted to the water. This after all was only a dream, and while she could not change the past, she could run from it in her dreams. Adrienne could create new memories, ones where she wasn’t bound to anything or anyone. So as she entered the water she closed her eyes let the tide sweep her feet from under her and let the sea drag her to its dark depths.
When she opened her eyes, the water hadn’t been that dark at all, though the sun did not shine over her now. Adrienne, still in a dream like trance, looked around her as she felt the water enveloping her like a warm blanket. It took her a moment to realize that she was no longer dreaming, that she was really in the water, letting it fill her lungs with each breath she took. Except… She wasn’t drowning at all. She found herself fully submerged into the water, seeing through it, breathing it in, and feeling like this was always where she was meant to be. Adrienne hadn’t been to the beach since that day with Alejandro. It had held too many bad memories. And yet now she felt… A sort of ease in the water. If killing the king hadn’t been enough closure for her, then running into the water in that dream had. Still she was curious why she was here, in the depths of the ocean in the middle of the night. Then she saw a brilliant flash of shining gold beneath her. It took only a moment for her to realize that she had now donned a tail, one of a mermaid. Whether it had been some horrible glamour gone wrong or she was still truly dreaming, she felt an odd sense of comfort from seeing it. While she felt at home with a strong sense of familiarity in the water, she knew that her home was with Gabriel in his court.
And if Adrienne was a mermaid, then what did that mean for the other members of the night court?