Beauty and the Sea Beast: Prologue

A Four Kingdoms Fanfic

I clutched the rail on the side of our ship and closed my eyes, tilting my face up to the rain. It didn’t matter how much time I spent on or in it, I always enjoyed the ocean.

The rain pelted down, and I knew I should go inside soon to warm up, but I wasn’t ready yet. Wind whipped around me, dragging the voices of my siblings to me. I told myself I would enjoy this trip with them despite the storms.

It might be my last.

I shook my head to dispel the dark thoughts. It was true that I was one of the most likely girls to win the Princess Tourney, but that didn’t mean I would. Emmaline, Lilac, and Adelaide were all older as well.

Of course, depending on who called the Tourney, one of them might not participate. My aunt and uncle had been rather close-lipped about the details, which was strange, but there were only a few options, since only the unmarried kings or their heirs could call a tourney. Obviously it wasn’t my brother, Teddy, but that left Gabe, Jon, Oliver, or Dominic. I hoped it wasn’t Dominic.

Every one of those options meant one thing, however: if I won, I would be forced to leave behind my kingdom, my family, and the future I had worked for so long.

Teddy, as the eldest, would one day be the king of Trione, but it had always been our hope and expectation that I would be there by his side to help him. He was my twin, and I couldn’t imagine living the rest of my life without him.

You might not win a voice in my head reminded me, but ever since I heard the announcement of the tourney, a strange certainty had filled me that I would return home betrothed.

“There’s no reason to be scared.” Teddy’s voice only just reached me over the wind. I had seen a flicker of lightning cross the sky and guessed our little sister, Daisy, had been frightened. “See?”

Daisy’s scream pierced the air a second later, and I was running before I knew it. “Daisy!”

I reached the spot I had heard her and Teddy talking, and found her perfectly safe and staring down at the waves. I was about to scold her for scaring me, when I realized Teddy had disappeared.

I screamed too, and someone appeared beside me, though I didn’t get a good look at them, too focused on searching the waves for my brother’s figure. Rope fell into the sea, and I held my breath, praying he would be able to grab hold.

Seconds dragged into minutes, and I couldn’t hold my breath any longer. I gasped in a deep breath, then another, and another, and suddenly I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs.

A cry went up around me, and the man beside me began pulling on the rope. A light spot flickered in the dark water, and then I caught sight of Teddy’s face. I sagged against the rail as several guards swarmed to help him back into the ship.

“Teddy!” Daisy yelled as he half-climbed, half-fell onto the deck, but he wasn’t looking at us.

“Throw the rope again,” he ordered. “There’s someone else out there! A girl! You’ve got to help!”

I stared at him. Surely he couldn’t be serious. No one else could have fallen in without us knowing, and we were too far from shore or any other ship.

The guards exchanged glances, but Teddy kept shouting at them, so they threw the rope again. I supposed it couldn’t hurt, but I hoped he snapped out of it soon and realized he had probably only imagined the girl.

One of the guards shouted something, and I looked down. To my shock, there really was a girl holding onto the rope. Several of the guards scrambled to help pull her up into the ship.

She was unsteady when she got onboard and fell into a heap on the floor. Teddy knelt in front of her, an awed expression on his face. “Are you alright?”

She nodded but looked around as if confused by everything around her. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. Teddy just kept staring at her, without a word, and the poor girl looked away.

I pursed my lips and shook my head. You’d think he’d never seen a girl before. I pushed him aside and grabbed the girl’s arm, helping her to stand up. “Come on, let’s get you warmed up.”

She gratefully followed as I led her to my cabin. Daisy skipped down after us, apparently fully recovered from our earlier fright.

“What’s your name? How did you get into the ocean? Did you save Teddy?”

“Daisy! Give her a minute to breathe.” I turned back to the girl. “Sorry about her.”

She grinned. “It’s fine.”

I shut my cabin door behind us and turned to scan the girl’s figure. She was a little taller and slimmer than I was, but I thought my dress would fit her well enough. “Take off that wet dress, and you can wear one of mine.” I pulled a couple of everyday dresses out of my trunk, one for her and one for me, since my own dress was nearly as wet as hers by now.

She accepted the dress, and her eyes widened when she touched it. “It’s beautiful,” she breathed. I raised my eyebrows. I liked the dress, but didn’t think it was anything particularly special. I glanced at her wet dress, and realized it was more like a nightgown than an actual dress.

“Daisy, go fetch some tea from the cook.”

“But I want to–”

“Daisy!”

She grumbled, but left the room. I waited until I heard her footsteps trail away before turning back to the girl. I didn’t want to overwhelm her with questions, but there was one that was more important than anything else.

“Are you alright? Are you in some sort of trouble?” I couldn’t imagine how she had ended up in the middle of the ocean alone like this, but I was sure it couldn’t be good.

She opened her mouth to answer, but apparently couldn’t come up with anything to say because she just closed it again. She shook her head.

I nodded. I didn’t like knowing so little about this girl, but she seemed overwhelmed when she first climbed onboard, and I didn’t want to upset her. “We’re on our way to Marin. I hope that won’t put you too far out of your way, but I’m afraid we can’t delay our trip.”

She shook her head quickly. “No, no, that’s . . . that’s fine. Marin sounds . . . nice.”

I smiled, then realized I had forgotten a very important step. “I’m Millie, Princess Millicent of Trione.”

The girl’s eyes widened, then she smiled. “I–” she cut off for a second and swallowed. “I’m Isla.”

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