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“Is that why you came here after our falling out?”

Pain flared in his chest, a familiar ache he wished he’d never feel again. It threatened his carefully constructed persona and attitude.

“I came here after our falling out, as you so charmingly call it, to protect the people your actions placed in danger. I warded the entire shoreline around Alamari to detect when merfolk left the water, voluntarily or not. Sailors craving a heavy pouch of coin hunted ferociously. So while you took the situation lightly, I’ve tried my damnedest to save those who have paid the price for your stubborn, ill-fated love affair.”

He leaned closer to her, but kept his attention on the ocean. The tension around her was enough to tell him she didn’t like the turn of their conversation.

“Do you know how the sailors smuggled unfortunate mers into the village? Folded and stuffed into iceboxes. Dismembered and descaled like fish. I’d curse those ships when they left the docks, and they found a fate worse than the torture and horror they put those merfolk through, I assure you. Those not killed before the ships returned to port were often held captive in old whiskey barrels. Those, I saved. When I could. One time, a ship had a dozen younglings, Aria. Children. Alive, thankfully, but terrorized. Do you know what happened to that ship and the sailors aboard?”

He lifted a hand, fingers closed, palm up. With a sharp breath, he flicked open his fingers, releasing a dark blue fireball from his palm. In a blink, the magical orb winked out.

“I set it on fire. Burned the ship and the crew and listened to their screams of agony with a smile while I tried to comfort those children. I entered the water that night. The one and only time I returned to the sea and my true form. To make sure they were safe. I left them at the edge of Timarra and waited until I saw an adult cross their paths.That, Aria, is the reason I came here. To these very shores. Not to make a fortune and reap the rewards of my reputation as a womanizer. That, little princess, is all a show because my priority is to protect the people of the sea, whatever the cost to me.”

Every muscle in his body had grown stiff and agitated as he unleashed the pent-up anger he’d stifled for so long. He couldn’t stop himself from twisting, bringing a knee onto the rocky tunnel floor, and turning Aria’s face to his with the tip of his finger under her chin. The color had drained from her beautiful face, and the luminescent glow dimmed behind her irises.

“Tell me, Aria. What price are you willing to pay to protect the people of sea? What sacrifices areyouwilling to make for the sake of the merfolk?”

The gentle slope of her throat moved with a hard swallow. Her gaze lowered to his mouth. If his blood didn’t seethe with anger from the injustice brought down on the merpeople through Jethro’s cruelty and infatuation with a beautiful mermaid, he might have taken that cue and indulged himself. But as he held her chin steady, her gaze shifting back up to his, he realized any hope of fanning the flames of his passion would lead to his downfall.

Without speaking, she lifted her chin off his finger, eased back enough to climb to her feet, and hurried down the tunnel toward the house.

With a twirl of his fingers and a brush of magic, he sent his next admission to her ears on a soft breeze. “But I left thewaterbecause of you.”

Aria.

His one and only weakness.

A weakness he knew would send him back to the ocean’s depths to face a demon from his past.

He was a prince. A forgotten prince. But he would sacrifice himself to save his people.

To save Aria.