The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) by Kristy Nicolle Read Free Book Online Page A

sticky with dried blood that won’t wash away.
    “I know. I saw Saturnus a few seconds after he apparently saw your fist,” she informs me as her eyes flick to my knuckles and then back to my face in a movement so small anyone who didn’t know her wouldn’t notice. Her magenta scales are shimmering wildly and her long white blonde hair flips over one shoulder as she moves her head slightly in disapproval.
    “I shouldn’t have hit him,” I relinquish despite feeling satisfaction at the memory of Saturnus’ stunned expression.
    “No. This isn’t like you. I know father’s death has been hard on you but…” She starts to go off on a spiel about repressed grief but I cut her off with a wave of one hand. I sit back into the clutches of the armchair pressed against the left wall.  
    “It isn’t father,” I admit. It’s the first time I’ve said it aloud.
    “Oh?” Starlet corrects her position in the water, waving her tail in delicate minute movements and moving so she is suspended in front of me.
    “It’s Callie.” The images come at me again, her limp form, porcelain face, and empty eyes.
    “I don’t understand.” Starlet looks at me with a reserved expression and I wonder what she’s thinking.
    “She just… died and I stood there. I let her. I let it happen.” The words drop from my lips like lead. Heavy with self-doubt.
    “Yes, but she came back,” Starlet says with her eyebrows raised in surprise.
    “What if she hadn’t?” I ask her and she shrugs her shoulders.
    “I don’t like Callie, but what she did… what she did was heroic, Orion.”
    “Dying is a lot of things, Starlet. Heroic is not one of them,” I bite out, feeling anger rise within me again, a tidal wave waiting to crest.
    “Callie looked at the situation and realised that the needs of the many outweighed what she wanted. She didn’t want to leave you Orion. She chose what was right, not what was easy. I’d call that heroism.” Starlet looks, for the first time in a long time, calm with an unbreakable resolve.
    “You hate Callie. You don’t even know her,” I remind her, spiteful in my intent but she, regardless, disarms me as she crosses her arms and narrows her eyes.
    “True, but hate is a strong word and I don’t have to like her to respect her.” She doesn’t deny anything and it leaves me off balance. She continues, “You know it’s funny. I don’t like Callie, but right now I can see that she is prepared to do what you are not. She is prepared to put the needs of this city before her own. That’s why I voted for you as Crowned Ruler. We need someone like her now more than ever.” Starlet makes this spiel and my stomach falls in horror.
    “You voted for me?” I ask her rising from the chair.
    “Yes.” She bats her eyelids.
    “You knew I didn’t want this job.”
    “Yes, but suggesting Callie as crowned ruler wasn’t going to fly. No-one around here is going to vote for a maiden.” She locks eyes with me.
    “That doesn’t make you trapping me in this stupid regal façade okay, Starlet. You know I didn’t want this job!” I whine at her. I may sound like a small child but I’m so enraged I lack the ability to care.
    “You need to calm down. Whether or not you wanted the job, it’s yours now. There’s nothing you can do.” Starlet looks at me and sighs, turning towards the door. “I’ll see you later,” she says wistfully, leaving in a flurry of sickly sweet pink sparkle. I run my fingers through my tousles trying to calm my nerves and move back over to the bar where I was hanging before. I start to take out my frustrations on my body, sculpting each muscle to the point where I am unbeatable. To the place where, finally, nothing and nobody but me can touch my maiden.

    CALLIE

    As I descend through the Alcazar Oceania I see the bloody red mane of Saturnus beneath me. I let myself fall through the central column of the shard like building until I am before him. He has a lovely fist shaped