Page 43 of Mermaid on Heels
“Called youmy Liriya?” Luke’s eyes became a sea of concern as her gaze met them. “My deepest apologies, I didn’t mean to upset you—”
“No, no, please, I did not mean it like that.” Liriya checked beneath her eyes for tears before forcing an assuring smile. “I just got a little emotional, I am sorry. I miss him so much…”
Luke frowned ruefully. “I’m so sorry. I completely understand how you feel. I miss mine, too.”
Liriya peered at his face and felt a strange urge to smooth out the frown between his eyebrows with her thumb, but didn’t succumb to it. “What happened to him?”
“I’ll tell you everything. Come on.”
Luke led her to the farthest end of the library, where an unassuming torch adored the wall. Its flame was dormant, casting a subdued glow. Liriya’s brow lifted in question, but before she could voice it, Luke’s fingers grazed the torch’s surface.
He turned to her with a half-smile. “Can you keep a secret?”
A smile tugged at Liriya’s lips at the question. “I believe I am a living secret myself.”
A soft chuckle escaped Luke’s lips, mingling with the tension that had been hanging between them all night. He turned back to the torch, his fingers rotating it deftly. As he did, a subtle rumbling hummed through the walls and Liriya’s eyes widened, her astonishment blooming into an open gasp as a section of the wall slowly began to shift to the side, revealing a narrow passage.
“Wow,” she breathed, her voice a delicate whisper.
“It’s a secret passageway.” Luke stepped into the passage and gently tugged her with him.
Liriya crossed the threshold and the world transformed. The passage was unadorned, its simplicity contrasting with the grandeur of the castle. It was dimly lit, with torches casting dancing shadows along the walls. The stones beneath their feet were well-worn, and the air was cool and musty.
Liriya’s mermaid heart, quite unfamiliar to something like this, raced. She gave a slight start when the wall behind them slid back and closed in on them.
“Don’t fret, Liriya, we aren’t trapped; the passageway can always be opened from both sides, it was designed that way. And I’m definitely not leading you into a trap. Do you trust me?”
The softness of his voice made Liriya’s heart calm down. “I think you have already earned it after the dance. Yes, I trust you, although this looks a little scary.”
Luke laughed. “And you live underwater, where it is pitch dark in comparison to this lit passageway.”
“Well, when you put it that way, I would give it to you that you are right, logically. However,theoretically, the sea is my home and the human world is quite unfamiliar to me in every turn I take. So…”
“I get that,” Luke said with a knowing smile. “Let’s get moving then. I assure you there’s nothing in here as scary as encountering a shark underwater.”
Laughter bubbled inside her at his choice of joke and she followed behind him as he led the way, still holding her hand. His steps were steady and confident, evident of his knowledge of the hidden passage.
“Where does this passage lead?”
Luke glanced back at her. “Like I said, it’s a surprise.”
The passage widened as they walked further, and when Liriya thought they were coming to its end, to her surprise, she found them nearing what seemed like the heart of secret passages—a junction.Luke explained to her that each passage led to each part of the castle, their portals hidden and untellable like the wall in the library. While the servants and the guards had access to some, only the royal family and their most faithful courtiers kneweveryone of them that existed behind the tall walls of the castle.
Which concluded in Liriya’s mind that no one outside the castle knew about them. Now except her.
“And you brought me here.” The words escaped her lips, barely more than a reverent whisper.
Luke only hummed in response as he navigated them to the second passage at his right, but the twitch of his lips made her smile to herself.
Seeing the torches lining the wall that stretched out in front of them, seemingly endless, a certain question burned to the forefront of her mind. She didn’t shy away from asking it. “Do you have your servants lighting these barely-used passages—allthese torches—every evening or just for today?”
Liriya had seen Bianca using matches or the fire from the fireplace to light candles and kerosene lamps at her house, and she couldn’t imagine anyone doing the same to light up a whole castleeveryday.
“No,” Luke said with a laugh, sparing her a brief glance before diverting his gaze forward. “They’re all magical. Every torch and chandelier you see in the castle is magical. They all light up when the shadows begin to fall over each room and hallway. As for the ones in the passages, their light doesn’t go out since it’s always dark in here.”
And it is dark herebecauseneither sunlight or moonlight could reach inside.Liriya took a mental note. “Wow, I have never heard of anything like this before.”
“It is rare. They were gifted to my great, great, great, great—I’ve lost count how many times great—grandfather when the castle was built, by a mage.”