Free The Sea Witch (The Era of Villains Book 1) by S.J. Valfroy

the king and queen be so cruel? They
were supposed to help people. Whenever they made public speeches
they sounded so sincere; they wanted to make Adamar a better place,
a safe place, a place where all creatures were treated equally. Amphitrite doesn’t think I should be
treated equally, she thought. She
lets those rich girls hang all over Triton, and I can’t even
look at him.
    Then Serena had told Annabelle her story.
    “ That sounds just like the queen,”
Annabelle had said, her lips a snarl. “The royals are a bunch
of evil, selfish snobs.”
    “ Triton isn’t like that,” Serena
said. “He looked really upset when she was saying all those
awful things to me.”
    “ Why didn’t he say something then?”
said Annabelle, looking doubtful.
    “ I…I don’t know.”
    Annabelle’s face had softened when she’d
realized Serena was close to tears.
    “ He’s probably scared of her, of both his
parents. He’ll have to get over that, though, if he’s
going to be a good king,” she said.
    “ Or if he’s ever going to speak to me long
enough to realize we’re perfect for each other.”
    “ If you really want to be with him that badly,
you know what you should do?”
    “ What?”
    “ Get a love potion. There’s a sea witch in
Adamar named Moira, and merpeople say she’s scary powerful.
She can do anything.”
    Serena’s
face had lost color in shock, and Annabelle had misinterpreted it as
fear at the idea of magic.
    “ Don’t
look so scared. It’s not dangerous. Yeah, it’s a little
unusual to snag a merman with a love potion, but think about it. You
could ask her to make one that’s breakable. That way, you
could just use it long enough to get his attention, let him get to
know you. Then you could take it off of him, and if you’re
really perfect for one another, he will have actually fallen in love
with you anyways!”
    Serena
had just smiled and acted like she thought it was an amusing little
fantasy, and at first she had cast the idea aside as ridiculous. But
it kept coming back to her more and more, tugging at her mind as she
lay in bed each night. It wasn’t just a fantasy. She knew her
mother could actually do it, but her mother’s magic was bad
news. Wasn’t it?
    Not
long after that night with Annabelle, Serena had been casually
talking to another new friend, a merman named Alec whose blonde hair
reminded her of Triton’s, when all of a sudden, he had brought
up Moira.
    “ Have you ever gone to see a sea witch?” he
said.
    “ What? Me? No. Have you?” she said, her
voice sounding a little too high pitched in her ears.
    “ I was thinking about it,” he said, looking
down and picking at his scales.
    “ Why?”
    He looked at her with a shy smile and said, “It’s
a secret. But I have a buddy who says he knows about this witch in
Adamar named Moira. Says she can do anything. He travels a lot, and
he says he’s been to a lot of different sea witches, but
Moira’s something special. ‘A rarity among mermaids,’
he called her. ‘The most powerful witch in the sea.’”
    “ I would be careful, Alec,” Serena had
said. “Just because she’s the most powerful doesn’t
mean she’s the fairest or the kindest.”
    “ Yeah, I guess so,” said Alec, looking
slightly disheartened.
    Serena had hoped she had deterred him, at least for a
little while, but she hadn’t been able to completely ignore
the little spark of pride his words had ignited. She had never felt
that way about her mother before. It felt good. It felt right. But
at first, she had scolded herself and listed all the immoral things
she knew her mother had done.
    Now, rubbing ointment onto the last patch of fungus on
the old mermaid’s tale, that little spark of pride blazed
again, a little brighter this time. Perhaps her mother really had
restored this mermaid’s real voice instead of stealing a new
one from someone else.
    “ All done,” Serena said.
    “ Thank you, dear.”
    “ Now take the rest of this one, and