Free Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch by Serena Valentino

pet.” She looked at all the souls she’d collected. “How are all my little darlings doing today?” She was trying to pretend she hadn’t noticed her brother standing just beyond the garden.
    “I see you’ve been keeping yourself busy, Ursula.”
    “I suppose you think you can enter any domain you choose, but I daresay you’ve overreached. You are, in fact, trespassing, sir!”
    “I see the extent of your exile wasn’t sufficient, Ursula. Clearly you are weaving your dark arts with those brave enough to venture into the unprotected realms and look upon your revolting visage.”
    Revolting visage.
    Ursula choked back her pain, swallowed it, and turned it into malice.
    “Your subjects wouldn’t come begging me for help if you didn’t oppress them with your lunatic standards of beauty! Dear, sweet, lovable, stupid Harold here is a prime example. All he wanted was to impress the ladies with the virtues you and your court hold in such high esteem rather than being his dear sweet self, and look where it got him.”
    Triton tried to interrupt his sister. “Ursula…”
    But Ursula kept talking.
    “My contracts with your subjects are fair and binding. There is nothing your magic can do to help them,
Brother
.”
    “Do not call me Brother. You foul, murdering, ugly monster!”
    Foul.
    Murdering.
    Ugly.
    Monster.
    That was what her brother had thought of her since the day they met on the shores of Ipswich. She wished she had memories of her brother from before that day. To imagine them young together only made her feel the loss of him more profoundly. Perhaps it was better to think their origins lay on the shores of Ipswich. There was nothing she could say or do to make him soften to her. He would always see her as a monster. No amount of love or support of his kingdom changed his view of her. Even when she hid within that false aquatic form he demanded of her, in the guise of what he deemed beautiful, she could sense him looking straight into her heart, which he saw as cold and black.
    The way Ursula saw the town of Ipswich.
    Ursula laughed.
    “There was a time when your words hurt me beyond measure. Now they only fuel my hatred for you.”
    “You’ve violated the laws of the seas far too many times, Ursula. It’s time you return to the shores so you can dwell with those pathetic humans you love so well!”
    “Is this about the princess Morningstar?”
    “Yes. You know the law. Her father’s coffers have grown fat on fishing these waters! I won’t have you protecting his children while he puts mine in danger every time his men cast their nets into the sea!”
    “I am not bound by your laws, Triton. I do not live in your waters. This realm is mine! I make the laws in the Unprotected Waters! Besides, you might be happy to know his coffers are now empty after some bad dealings with the Beast prince. Perhaps that is punishment enough? I don’t see why his daughter should suffer any further for her father’s choices.”
    “Clearly you know well of daughters who’ve suffered for their fathers’ choices.”
    “Don’t you dare speak of my father! Not ever! You don’t have the right!”
    “That human wasn’t your true father, and he deserved his fate for surrounding himself with those repugnant murdering humans! You’ve become the thing you hated, Ursula, just like your victims in Ipswich.”
    “Get out! And go back to your simpering, mealymouthed subjects! You have no power here, Triton! These are the Unprotected Waters. Your rule does not extend here or to me!”
    “I have the means to take the last shreds of your power, and I shall do so at my pleasure if you extend your support to another human. This is your final warning, Ursula. Keep to the shadows, where foul ugly creatures belong, so no one may suffer the sight of you!”
    “If I am this foul creature you describe, it’s by
your design
!”
    “You’ve always been this way! You refused, even as a small child, to take the proper form.”
    She