Part of Your World (Disney Twisted Tales) - Liz Braswell Page 0,60

father the Kmg of the Sea, would have stormed your castle, drowned all the inhabitants, and dragged me back home. He's a bit controlling that way." "Drowned? Everyone?"

"I mean stormed quite literally," Ariel said with a tight smile. It was a power she now controlled, by means of the trident disguised as a beautiful and ostensibly harmless hair comb. Eric took a moment to digest this.

"I guess falling in love with mermaids is pretty dangerous," he finally said. "Did you?" Ariel asked m a small voice. "Fall for me? At all?"

Eric gave her a measured look, treating the question seriously as she had his. "I did fall for you, just not m the way I expected it would happen. And maybe not in the way you hoped. It wasn't a lightning bolt. As I got to know you, I realized you were the most., .energetic, fun, enthusiastic...alive girl I had ever met." He smiled at the memoiy—and Ariel felt her breath catch. "You know, for a boy who's all about sailing and running around with his dog and explormg, you were just about as perfect a companion as he could ever want. Arid beautiful, to boot. I would have been very lucky."

He said this wistfully.

Ariel wasn't sure when she was going to start breathing again. What if, what ifs...

"...So yes. I think I did," he said, taking her hands and squeezing them. "No, I know I did. You were one in a million. Even an idiot like me saw that. But then...Vanessa came along...." He looked confused.

"She had my voice," Ariel supplied. "And you remembered the song."

"Yes! But...it was more than that. Somewhere between Wait, that s the girl who saved me! and the next moment, everything went... fuzzy."

"Ah. Well. She cast a spell on you. On all of you, I think, somehow. But primarily you," Ariel said bleakly. "I think she knew her stolen looks and voice wouldn't be enough when coupled with her, um, very original personality. So she..."

"Stolen looks?"

"That's not what she looks like. At all. Even as a cecaelia. She's much older. And shaped differently. Her arms are shorter." "She's... half... octopus?"

"No, she's half god," Ariel said impatiently. "And what's wrong with octopuses? You don't seem to mmd girls who are 'half fish,' as you say. What's the difference?"

"There is a difference," Eric said, lookmg a little sick. "It might not be logical, at all, but for some reason, there's a difference."

"Well, you're married to a person who is old enough to be your grandmother—at least," Ariel said with a smirk. "With or without tentacles."

He looked sicker.

"Besides/' Ariel said. "Octopuses are some of the smartest creatures m the sea—only dolphins and whales and seals surpass them. And dolphins have frightfully short attention spans. Octopuses are creatures of great wisdom, and ancient secrets."

"All right, all right. Octopuses are great. I'm a bigot with tentacle issues." He leaned against the boat for support, restmg his head on his arm. "I knew my marriage was a sham, but this... surpasses all of my nightmares. I guess in my clearer moments I just figured she was a pretty and somewhat vicious enchantress."

"She is a witch. She is incredibly vicious. I can't speak to her looks objectively..." Ariel replied crisply.

"Oh, you're much more beautiful than Vanessa."

Eric probably really meant it. But he was still breathing funny and his eyes were turned inward. Contemplating marriage and tentacles, no doubt. He ran a hand through his hair and looked like a wild creature for a moment, trapped and ready to bolt. To go mad and die quietly m the wilderness.

Ariel felt a wave of sympathy for the anguished man. If her life had been hell, at least she had been aware of what was going on. He was just now dealmg with truths that were even uglier than he expected, and that had been his life for the past few years.

She put a hand on his shoulder. He immediately took it, like a lifelme. He didn't look at her yet, though, still staring mto space.

"Octopodes," he finally said.

"I...beg your pardon?"

"Oc-to-poh-dehs." Eric took a deep breath and finally looked up. "The real plural of octopus. Because it's third declension m Latin, not second. Pus,podisz podes."

"All right," Ariel said uncertainly.

"There was a thing going around last year. Everyone was—well, all my old university mates were—talking about it. Hard to explain. Latin jokes. Volo, vis, vulture, and so on.. .oh, never mind/

"Romanorum linguam scio, " Ariel said mildly. The look on Eric's face was very, very