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26

Barren

T he more I found myself in the creature’s dreams instead of Claira’s, the clearer it became that he was treating our interactions as a game. He was an enormous bull shark, and I still didn’t know how his mind was connected to my mate’s.

So far, my attempts at distracting him to delve deeper into his mind had been unsuccessful. The minds of animals weren’t as easy for me to understand. Not like people. Especially not while I was already inside their dream.

But I was far from giving up.

Unlike other sharks, this one acted on his emotions as much as he did on instinct. He took great joy in catching me. Once he sensed me, his only thought was to toss me around with his powerful mouth and expel me from his dream.

Which was what he was focused on right now.

He lunged through the water straight at me, his jaws gaping open. He’d studied the patterns of my behavior just as I’d analyzed his, but he had the added advantage of bending the framework of our environment to his will.

Using all my tail’s strength, I swung left instead of right, reaching out at an awkward angle to grab hold of his snout. He was massive, but so was I. Curiosity flickered in his dark, unblinking eye as my arm wrapped around him, clamping his mouth shut.

“Calm, now. Calm, ” I soothed, hoping to pacify him as he thrashed against my grip. “I won’t hurt?—”

Too late.

The scar-roughened skin underneath my palm shivered as something dark emanated from inside of him. Caustic strings of murk seemed to seep out of his pores. Before I could move out of the way, the dark energy gathering underneath the slit of his mouth exploded, hitting me with a surge of power that threw me backward and right out of his dream.

I awoke with a gasp for water, air, or anything that could ease the pain searing through my chest. Was this the tenth time he’d expelled me? The twentieth?

Though, this time had been different.

I grasped for the trident on my lap, its weight the only thing grounding me in reality while the last remnants of the underwater dream clung to my senses. I heaved in more slow breaths, my heart racing with adrenaline as I tried to push back the overwhelming sense of dread flooding into me.

Was it… magic?

If it had been magic, it was far from any type I was familiar with. Dark and primal. As far as I was aware, sharks didn’t possess magic, but if he’d seen someone else use it, it made sense that he could then replicate it in a dream.

Was it the same magic that flowed within Claira? Could that explain their connection?

“ Alhey. ” I was exhausted, and every attempt to reach her only left me with more unanswered questions.

My mind and body were stretched to their breaking points. It wouldn’t be long before one or both gave way.

I had to keep going.

If another chance to see her was possible, I would do anything to make it happen. Even if just for one more opportunity to talk and to clear up all of our misunderstandings so she’d know how I felt.

I also had to tell her that Kai had found his father’s trident, and soon he, Leander, and Laverne would return. We would wait for her here as long as she needed, even if some of us didn’t yet understand why.

Ignoring all of my aches, I shifted, propping myself more comfortably against the end of my mattress. Every labored breath was a reminder of how far I’d pushed myself and how ready I was to do something drastic if it meant knowing Claira was still safe.

I stared at the trident in my hand, its sharp points taunting me as they had after my last few attempts. The longer I looked, the less it seemed like a weapon and the more it seemed like a choice I could no longer afford to ignore.

Whether or not I wanted to admit it, I could now see why Leander had made the choice that he had to keep the Atlantic’s trident away from his father. It was his first opportunity to strip King Eamon of power, and he’d seized it.

And if there was anyone who should have understood his reasoning, it was me.

Leander had once been my only friend in this world. I’d felt his desperation, the staggering fear he had of his father from the first moment we’d met. No merfry should have ever endured what he had. I should have understood it then.

But instead of empathy, I’d been too blinded by his open connection with Claira, too consumed with envy of the life they could have together. I thought he was throwing it all away.

Now, I understood.

King Eamon’s greatest mistake had been threatening Leander’s mate.

Even if it meant the trident would destroy him, Leander would gladly give up his future to ensure that his father could never harm Claira the way he’d harmed him.

Seeing into others’ minds had taught me that sometimes there were things you wanted so desperately you would risk everything to have them. Claira was Leander’s everything, and he’d traded a lifetime with his father for the opportunity to know a moment of happiness with her now. She was just as important to me.

Claira might have been Leander’s everything, but like a twin pair of pearls that had formed side-by-side, she would also forever be the other half of my heart, the piece that completed my soul.

And now that I couldn’t reach her, it was like she was slowly slipping away from me—from all three of us. Brothers, Kai had called us. The four of us, a family .

I didn’t know much about being a part of a family, but as I slid my hand up to the base of my trident, where its three prongs converged, I knew that there was nothing I wouldn’t do to protect mine.

And right now, that meant finding out what was going on with Claira’s mind and making sure she was still safe. If I could no longer reach her dreams, there was only one option that remained for me.

It seemed I was about to owe Leander another apology.

Releasing a deep breath, I closed my eyes, raising the trident against the wall of my chest.

Was this how my father had felt when he’d turned the trident on himself? Had it been more than greed that convinced him? Had he, too, done it with the intention of protecting those he loved?

For centuries, no king had been reckless enough to try it—until him.

The trident had changed him. In the end, I wasn’t sure if he even remembered why he’d done it.

As the cool metal pressed against my sweat-slicked skin, I could almost hear his paranoid whispers echoing through the pulse of the trident’s power.

Once, I’d been his successor. Then, soon after, I’d become his greatest disappointment. As if sharing a name with him wasn’t enough, it seemed that our fates would also be aligned.

But this wasn’t about my past, my father’s legacy, or his mistakes. It was about Claira.

My heart sings for yours .

In a life where so many choices had been taken from me, this was one decision I could make for myself. I would protect her, no matter the cost.

And it was the right decision. I could feel it. Whatever the outcome, I wouldn’t have regrets. With the trident’s power added to my own, just as my father had reached the dreams of acquaintances that were continents away, my mind could drift to the unfamiliar depths of the Undersea.

I steadied myself with a sharp exhale, preparing for the impact.

After all of this was over, we’d figured out a way to make our time together count, no matter how brief it may be. We would have our happiness.

Tension gripped my muscles as I thrust inward, driving the trident in deep.