In Deeper Waters

by F.T. Lukens

“I’m Tal,” he said. Not Prince Taliesin of Harth. Not Tally, youngest son of the queen. Not Tal, last mage of the royal line.

This journey was about learning to make decisions, and this would be his first one. He would use his magic for a good deed.

There would be other boys. And there would be other people who would live or die based on his decisions, based on his influence as a member of the royal family. Athlen was merely the first.

Tal offered a weak smile. At least in Garrett’s stories Tal would be the hero, and not the villain he was so scared of becoming.

“I’m sorry,” Athlen said. “I didn’t know you’d be upset. No one has been upset before.” “What? Why?” Athlen shrugged. “There’s no one to be upset.” Tal’s throat went tight. “Are you the only one too?”

Then Athlen smiled, his cheeks dimpling, his brown eyes shining, and Tal couldn’t conjure poetic metaphors anymore.

It was wonder and awe at being someone Athlen trusted with such a paradigm-altering secret. It was the explosion of possibilities he might find in the world now that a fairy tale had come to life before his eyes.

Tal shook his head. “You are a wonder.” “As are you,” he replied, voice somber, free of teasing.

Someone would find him—Athlen or Garrett or Kest or Isa.

Okay the fact that he lists Athlen first-

He might be as soft hearted as his siblings claimed, but he was stubborn.

All his life he’d hidden his magic—under guard and under threat. He’d denied his true self, tamped the flames down, smothered them until it hurt, until smoke rolled in his gullet and his tongue burned with ash, all in the name of protecting his family. And it had been for nothing.

Tal thrust his hand to the sky. Magic burst from him, raw and uncontrolled, as he unleashed a pillar of fire. He poured his spirit into it, willed it higher, hotter than the breaking sun, and brighter than the watchful moon. It tore through the air, a beacon to his brother’s ships. The intensity of his innate fire sliced through the predawn sky like a flaming sword, rending the very air, a signal flare proclaiming proof of life and magic. In his abandon he singed the mast and set the sails ablaze.

"Magic user who is unable to do magic for one reason or another finally lets all their power loose and sets the world alight" is a top tier trope

So this was what it was like to be feared. People who had heard the rumors had always been suspicious of Tal, wary of the possibilities of his blood, but they’d never cowered before him. They’d never shouted in panic and scurried away like they did now. The pulse of power was heady, warm and filling, a match to his pounding heartbeat. Intoxicated, Tal finally understood the appeal. He’d never felt as close to his great-grandfather as he did right now, with embers fluttering on the hot wind and terror seizing the minds of those who’d hurt him. He was no longer powerless and weak. He was in control.

his ears flooded with the rushing sound of water mixed with his own heartbeat, a tattoo of fear.

Except nothing about his recent decisions made him feel like he deserved loyalty or respect. Yet Athlen was still here, supporting him, believing in him. Perhaps whatever small part of Tal that had shown kindness to a stranger was still there, deep inside. Perhaps a small part of him was still good.

“You saved me,” Tal said. Athlen mustered a grin. “You saved me first, remember? I was returning the favor.”

“The tooth?” Athlen asked. “You kept it?” “Yes.” Tal’s mouth went dry. “It helped me when I was captured.” “Oh?” Athlen’s gaze flitted to Tal’s hand, then to his face. “Oh.” His lips curled into a small smile. “Really?”

:')))

“I do, actually.” Athlen rested his chin on the crown of Tal’s head. “I know you saved me when you didn’t have to. I know you love your family. I know you care for the people of your kingdom. I know that something that is a part of you could never be bad.”

Yet in the face of it, cornered with no way out, the choice was startlingly clear. In a game of kill or be killed, Tal would live, and he would ensure anyone he loved would as well, by any means necessary. He wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt him or Athlen again.

“I forgive you.” Tal didn’t know why he’d said it. Kest didn’t need forgiveness from him. But maybe it would help him forgive himself.

🥺

Since that moment in the cave, when his heart thumped, and his middle dropped, and his skin burned with the fiercest desire to be touched by Athlen’s fingers, he’d wished for a way for himself, a magic prince, and Athlen, an orphaned merman, to live together in the castle by the sea.

I know we’re both the last, and we’ve felt alone. But we could be alone together.”

“You love him.” “I do.” “Enough to let him go?” Tal wiped his sleeve over his cheeks. “If I must. Yes.”