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“What did you do with the mermaid? You just had it,” one guard asked, lifting the barrel of his rifle and aiming it at Caspian. He whipped his arm around, holding Aria close to his back.

“Absurd. If I just had a mermaid, don’t you think I’d still have it?” Caspian asked, a cocky smile stretching his lips. He tipped his head and threw his voice for Aria to hear. “When I say go, get into that water as quick as you can. It’s deep at the wall.”

She nodded against his coat.

Caspian saw more figures emerging from the grass and pathways between his and the next warehouse. The activity on the pier had drawn attention from the burning ship as well.

The guards had almost reached them. Caspian lowered his arm around Stacia’s tail to make it look like he was pressing a hand to his stomach.

“Gentlemen, if we wish to discuss what it was you thought you saw, perhaps I could suggest taking this up somewhere that’s dry and away from the blazes happening a short distance away?” Caspian asked. He flipped his hand, palm up, in a nonchalant motion. “It would be far less dangerous, and more appropriate for this young lady.”

The two guards rounded him and Aria, their guns never lowering.

“If she’s one of your trollops, Caspian, rain won’t hurt her appearance.”

He bristled, his smile growing taut. “All women deserve respect, regardless of their choice of occupation.”

One of the guards jutted his rifle toward Caspian’s shoulder. Instead of striking him, the barrel jabbed into Stacia’s concealed body. The crease between the guard’s brows deepened and he went for another jab. Caspian twisted at the waist, pulling his shoulder back.

“What in the name…What are you?”

Guns rose as more guards reached them, and almost a dozen rifles pointed at Caspian and Aria. Palm still raised, Caspian began to conjure the elemental power of air in a translucent orb.

“Seems we might have a problem,” Caspian taunted. He squeezed Aria’s hip. “But what is a problem you can’t fix?” He uncovered Stacia’s body, using the sudden appearance of a mermaid flung over his shoulder as a distraction for Aria. He hissed, “Go!” wasting no time in drawing more power, building his attack larger and larger as the guards either gasped in surprise and backed away, or held steady in their aim. “Is this what you were looking for?”

He spun around, using leverage from the speed to propel Stacia off his shoulder and into the water. Aria was halfway down the pier when she evidently heard the splash, stopped, and turned to see what had caused it.

Her hood blew off her hair.

“It’s the one the king has been searching for!”

Caspian lunged between a pair of guards and released a blast of power that rushed from him like a bomb, leveling everything in its path.

Aria cried out.

He glanced back in time to see a red splotch spread out over her belly as she toppled into the water.

The rush of air climbed the streets of the village, but he was already diving into the water. Aria struggled weakly in the current, her dress and cloak weighing her down. He reached out, ripping off the cloak, tearing into the dress and shedding it from her body, leaving her in thin underclothing as he brought her to the surface for air. She gulped in a breath and winced, curling into his shoulder, pressing her head against his neck.

“Casp.”

“Shh.” He pressed a hard kiss to her cheek and whispered, “Sleep.”

She didn’t make a sound as she fell under his spell.

He had to get her back to the house, however long his home remained safe. The sea was no place to bleed. It had been years since he last transformed, but he gladly opened himself to his natural form. The twisting and tearing and molding of bones and cartilage, muscles and tendons could not match the intense urgency that overcame him, panic at the thought of Aria losing more blood. His hands, the partial webs between his fingers and the dark blue claws at the tips, cradled his princess as he surrounded her head with a bubble to provide oxygen for her lungs.

The waves pushed Stacia’s body closer to them. With one hand wrapped around the corpse’s arm, one arm pinning Aria to his chest, he tested the strength in his tail before maneuvering beneath the water’s surface at a bullet’s pace, away from the docks.