Warning: This chapter may contain depictions of violence intended for mature audiences only. 

False Reflection

Slowly, Kai swam downward, his eyes fixed unwaveringly on the mysterious mirror at the very end of the underwater tunnel. He passed the stranger and kept swimming. This time, he was being drawn by his unbearable curiosity rather than by a magical golden leash.

He was mesmerized. 

The mirror propped against the very floor of the narrow tunnel was the most beautiful mirror he'd ever had the pleasure of seeing, one that he knew his mother would kill to have hanging just above the console at their house's lobby. It was six feet tall and ten feet wide, a perfect fit for the tunnel. Its frame was made with an alloy of what he assumed was gold, silver and copper that seemed to glow very faintly, and as he neared, the frame's shine intensified, beckoning him to it like -as cliche as it sounded- moth to the flame. But what was most exceptional about the mirror was its rippling, kaleidoscopic surface. 

Once he was right in front of it, the surface abruptly stilled and the kaleidoscopic, rainbow-colored patterns that were moving across it disappeared. Even the frame's shine dimmed until it was completely gone. He began to doubt if it was even a mirror; he saw no reflection. 

Disappointed, Kai unconsiously reached out to touch it. The moment his finger pads pressed against the cool surface, the chain's glow stopped and Kai was once again swallowed by darkness. 

A second later, life erupted in the mirror and the frame glowed so bright that it illuminated the entire tunnel. A figure appeared.  

Instinctively, he leapt back and shielded his eyes with a hand, startled. Then, when he lowered his hand and saw the reflection in the mirror, he became horrified. A chill shot down his spine like a lightning bolt. He fought away something terrible that came over him and nearly consumed him. 

"What the hell." When he noticed how dry his throat had suddenly gone, he gulped, his eyes wide and and his forehead marred by a fierce frown. "Is that... me?" 

No, that could not be him. But the figure had his general features and build, but that was where the similarities ended. 

Staring back at him was a creature with Kai's face, but the figure had longer hair and the same shark-like eyes that the stranger had. Most notably, the figure had a fish tail. Rather, it was a mermaid tail. 

It was what Kai would look like if he had been born a full-fledged merman.

The figure blinked as he blinked, stared as he stared, and moved as he moved. 

Why was he seeing this in the mirror? The better question was; how was a mirror able to show him this? Was it magical as well?

He approached and touched it again and the image it was showing him changed without warning. He floated away to better take in the new reflection. 

Kai gasped. 

It was still his reflection he was seeing, but his skin and irises had turned golden. He was instantly reminded of the golden merman. 

"What's this?" 

He felt the stranger right behind him. Silently, he'd approached Kai until his chest was a hairsbreadth away. He would have moved away if he weren't trapped between two hard places, literally. 

Kai had a feeling that he was being shown things in the mirror that no other should see, but it was already too late. 

Their eyes collided in the mirror. An uncontrollable shiver raked him when he saw the expression on the stranger's face. His heart somersaulted. His breathing changed instantly in reaction and he began taking shallow breaths. 

He felt like he was on display as the stranger's predatory cerulean gaze travelled every inch of his body, or rather the untrue reflection's body with alarming interest. His appraisal was, he knew, deliberately slow, aiming to ruffle and disarm him. 

Kai was afraid he'd succeeded. 

Because the stranger was staring at him with greedy desire. 

In that moment, he recalled the last words the stranger had spoken to him right before tossing him into the sea;

I always get what I want, and you Prince Kai of Astria, are what I want.

"I was beginning to doubt that you had it in you," he said, his voice sultry and deep. He was so close that if they were above water, then his breath would have fanned Kai's right ear. "But it seems that he was right." 

"H-He?"

The stranger reached one hand around Kai and seized him by the throat, then pushed the smaller male against him so that he couldn't escape. Kai's body immediately reacted by going into panic mode. He grabbed at the hand tightening on his windpipe and attempted to pry the stranger's larger hand away. It was like trying to remove a piece of welded metal. 

Their difference in strength was beyond insane. Kai was beginning to tire from being the weaker of the two. 

"What...are... you doing?!" Kai rasped. He'd assumed that, since the stranger went to the great lengths of kidnapping him then fighting off a brigade of soldiers to keep him, the stranger would not kill him. Had he been completely wrong in his assumption? By the way he was squeezing his throat, Kai began to fear just so. 

"If you can talk, then I'm not strangling you hard enough." 

The stranger's hold tightened. 

A potent combination of dread and fear unfurled in his gut like an exploding grenade. Kai wanted to scream in protest, but this time there was no room to get any words out. Tears began to glisten in his eyes. 

Black spots appeared in his vision as he started feeling faint and his head began pounding like war drums in battle. 

He was going to die!

The stranger abruptly released his neck and Kai gasped, inhaled deeply, and then began to cough miserably. He could barely hold his head up, so he had no choice but to let it fall against the stranger's chest. 

The stranger let him. 

He closed his eyes as he waited for his breathing to return to an acceptable level, his chest rising and falling laboriously. 

"Hmm. Was that not enough?" The stranger sounded like he was musing to himself out loud. 

"You... almost... killed me," Kai breathed, too tired to give the stranger a piece of his mind, and then maybe try to sucker-punch him in the face. 

"Yes, I almost did," the stranger drawled, then added, "Yet it did not work." 

What didn't work? 

He was about to ask just that when a loud ruckus at the very top of the tunnel interrupted him. They both looked up just in time to see the ship's bottom explode, showering them with a dozen broken floorboards and countless splinters. If he were not underwater, then he was guaranteed to have been speared by one of the razor-sharp floorboards by now, or gotten a splinter at the very least. 

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't kill my Prince before I even got to meet him. I've come a long way just for him after all." 

A merman swam past the debris, glowing trident in hand.