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36

Claira

W ith a sudden shift, we reappeared behind the peaks of the central palace, far removed from Jagati and his spears.

The moment the sea wizard drew me closer, I couldn’t stop myself from throwing my arms around his neck. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you.”

Even if he’d only pulled me closer to prevent me from drifting off, I clung to him with all my strength, pressing my cheek against his cold chest. “Thank you, wizard.” My heart thundered with relief. “Hari’s brother is absolutely insufferable. I don’t think I could have handled another second alone with him.”

The sea wizard’s body tensed under my embrace. For a heartbeat, he hesitated, but then his arms drew around me, finding the perfect spot to settle against my lower back. The moment they did, a wave of security enveloped me. It was a comfort I’d sorely missed since coming to the Undersea.

I let myself savor the moment until I noticed the rising and falling of his chest was growing increasingly unsteady. As I leaned back to look at him, my face warmed with a blush.

That jarring white stare, which might have seemed cold to anyone else, held me captive. His lips were drawn together, a tight line that didn’t give even a mere hint of his thoughts.

“What?” As soon as the question left my lips, I became hyper-aware of my arms, still wrapped loosely around his neck. Embarrassment crept in, my nerves bundling into a tangled net in my stomach.

I’d hugged him without a second thought—sought comfort in his presence without even asking.

He didn’t say anything about it. He just continued to study me with that same unreadable expression. Then, in that dark, intoxicating voice, he murmured, “Your hearts are beating so fast.”

My hearts? I blinked, processing that statement. “What do you mean, ‘hearts’?”

The faint smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth was dangerously handsome, the first glimpse of emotion since he’d rescued me from Jagati’s iron grip.

“Ah, I suppose you wouldn’t have known.” His gaze drifted to the center of my chest, lingering there a moment longer than necessary. “But you have more than just one heart—four, to be exact.”

I studied every facet of his face, trying to gauge whether or not he was teasing me. “You’re joking,” I said, half-expecting him to break into a chuckle and admit just that.

He didn’t. His gaze remained steady, almost tender now, as he shook his head. “I’m not.”

Four? “Why on earth would I need that many hearts?”

He shrugged, a tentacle casually curling up to flick a stray lock of dark hair from his forehead. “It’s a matter of simple physiology. Your human half may be content with one heart, but your other half requires three more to function sufficiently.”

I looked down at my cursed tail, trying to wrap my mind around it. “So, you’re saying there are three more hearts crammed in here somewhere?”

When I glanced back up, there was a hint of amusement in his eyes. “Indeed.”

“But merfolk only have one heart,” I countered.

“Correct.”

Four whole hearts, and I hadn’t even known? Damn . What else did I not know about myself?

It was madness. Before returning to the ocean, I thought I knew exactly who I was—just Claira, a fisherman’s daughter, capable enough to manage Lady Ochre and handle all the gritty tasks that came with being a fisher.

I’d taken pride in doing it all on my own. Gram always said I was made of sterner stuff, and I’d believed her.

But now, every new revelation felt like a storm crashing over the reality I’d so painstakingly crafted for myself. Four hearts. A cursed tail. A sea witch. Royalty.

Four potential mates?

I let my lashes fall, sneaking a glance at the sea wizard from beneath them. After our last lesson, I’d been confident I had felt it—the same magnetic pull toward him as I did with the others. The thrall . But not knowing if he felt it, too, or if he would even accept it if he did? That was potentially a wound I feared would never heal.

If it hadn’t been for him, would I have perhaps already crumbled under the weight of this new reality? I could hardly process what was happening to me, after all, let alone handle it without his support.

“Do you… think I’m soft?” I asked, hating how my voice trembled.

In a moment of pause, the sea wizard’s eyes widened. “Soft?” he echoed, still taking me in. Out of nowhere, his thumb resting against my back flexed, a gentle brush across my spine that I was far from prepared for.

“I mean, like weak,” I choked out.

Too late. That delicate touch had already sent a shiver of awareness through me, one that was settling deep within my core.

“Ah.” He cleared his throat. His gaze shifted away, a rare hint of something almost shy coming over his face. “Absolutely not. Quite the opposite, in fact. You are anything but weak.”

I could have questioned him—asked him what it was he’d seen in me to make him think that way. But I was just so grateful, so relieved that he saw me differently from how other cecaelia did. “Thank you for saying that.”

He kept his gaze averted. “No need to thank me. I merely spoke the truth.”

And Hari’s brother thought the sea wizard wasn’t charming. Pfft .

“So, you mentioned needing to borrow me?” My thoughts were half-caught on the soft tickle of his dark hair against the hand I had resting on his shoulder. “You know, I wouldn’t mind if you decided to keep me.”

I expected a playful response, a smooth chuckle. Instead, his jaw tightened, his gaze returning to mine. A flicker of something like pain crossed his face.

“Regrettably, I will have to return you.” His touch lingered on the small of my back. “Very regrettably.”

The words hit me like a wave, stirring an unexpected ache. “Well, if that’s how it is,” I murmured, struggling to mask my disappointment and not quite succeeding. “So, what exactly do you need from me?”

He shook his head, releasing the word like a man admitting his own defeat. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” I raised an eyebrow, unconvinced. “Then why are you here? It’s not to collect spoils of war, I hope.”

“I came to see you,” he said softly.

“Oh.” The simple admission sent a flutter through my heart—no, hearts. I apparently had four. “Well, you found me. So, hi, I think.”

A slow smile curved his lips. “Hello.”

He reached out without warning, tucking a stray section of hair behind my ear. His fingers brushed against me with such deliberate care, lingering in a way that felt like an unspoken question. One I wasn’t sure how to answer, but my chest pounded like it already had.

My breathing stilled as his caress on the side of my cheek shifted to an unhurried slide down the curve of my neck.

He seemed on the edge of speaking, the words hovering on his lips. But then, just as abruptly, he pulled away. “It seems I’m not the only one here to see you,” he added with a knowing glance.

Before I could react, a figure rushed toward us.

“Cyre,” I breathed out, recognizing his sleek shape and the vigorous swish of his tail.

The sea wizard remained unfazed as my shark familiar reached us, swiping an affectionate line across my back that pushed me further into the wizard’s arms.

“HAPPY,” Cyre announced. His emotions flooded into me until it was impossible to tell where my excitement ended and his began.

He circled around us, and on his second pass, I couldn’t help but reach out. The sea wizard didn’t try to stop me. Instead, he guided me over, passing me off to Cyre’s back.

I greeted my familiar with a tight hug. “I missed you.” Delight rippled through me as he took off, swimming at full speed again.

“MISS,” he agreed, the connection between us thrumming like a magic all of its own.

The sea wizard drifted back, a satisfied grin playing on his lips as he watched Cyre swish me through a dizzying circle.

I was thoroughly enjoying myself—until I remembered the cecaelia swarming the kingdom underneath us. “Oh, wait. What if someone sees?” I asked, glancing at the sea wizard as we rounded one of the palace spires.

“No need to worry.” The sea wizard’s trident marks bled away as he summoned his trident into an awaiting hand. Dark magic rose over the weapon’s surface like a vapor, rendering the distant water blurry and distorted.

A grin spread across my face. “An invisibility spell.” It was a large one, too, covering enough space for Cyre to swim freely. Show off . But I couldn’t deny my gratitude. “Well played, wizard. You’ve almost impressed me.”

The sea wizard chuckled, the last wisps of magic still rolling off of him. “Oh, I’ve almost impressed you?”

“Yep. Almost.” With a teasing grin, I tightened my arms around Cyre’s body. The rough, abrasive texture of his skin scraped against my arms as I leaned into the sensation of the water rushing by. Even amidst the rushing current, the phantom touch of the sea wizard’s fingertips against my neck lingered.

“Cyre TAKE?” My familiar’s abrupt mention of our mission swiftly brought me back to the present.

Right —the letter to Barren. I still had it tucked in the folds of my ocean silks. But now that I’d seen the state of Malkeevo, was it even worth sending?

There was also my apology. That part was still worth taking to Barren, even if the fate of his kingdom couldn’t be changed.

“Hey, wizard?” I called out.

“Yes, princess?” he prompted, causing a warm blush to creep across my face. I used to hate it when he called me that, but now it stirred something entirely different. Something that was far, far from hate.

“Do you think you could close your eyes for me? Just for a minute.”

He tilted his head, clearly intrigued by my request. “You want me to close my eyes?”

“It’s not an order or anything, but I’d really appreciate it if you closed them.” I swallowed hard, one hand running a soothing line along Cyre’s side. “There’s something I need to do, and I’d rather you didn’t try to stop me.”

“All right.” He chuckled softly and covered his eyes with his hand, playing along. “But you should know that you’ve certainly piqued my interest.”

Yeah , that was what I’d been afraid of.

“I’m coming back over,” I announced as Cyre steered us back to the sea wizard. I latched onto his pale shoulder, steadying myself so I could reach into my ocean silks. “Eyes shut,” I warned, keeping my voice firm. “I mean it.”

“Nervous, are we?” His smirk was barely concealed behind his hand, the charm in his voice unmistakable. “Don’t worry. You’ll find I can be quite obedient.”

Uh-huh . Like I believed that. “Don’t you think you’re being a little too obedient?” I said, mostly as a distraction while I secured the parchment between Cyre’s teeth. Hm . Hopefully, he wouldn’t swallow it. “You can’t see with your eyes closed, can you? Not without Aracos here?”

He tilted his head, the smirk never leaving his lips. “Ah, but that’s the fun part, isn’t it?” he teased. “The mystery of not knowing if I can or cannot.”

I rolled my eyes. “You can’t, can you?”

“I cannot,” he conceded. Phew .

I gave Cyre a reassuring pat on his scarred head, then pushed away, anchoring onto the sea wizard’s shoulders again. “Make sure this letter reaches Barren, okay? Focus on my mind, and I’ll show you what he looks like and where he lives.”

I relaxed my mind, opening my thoughts up to him. First, I pictured Barren’s bungalow. The second I thought of Barren himself, Cyre perked up.

“FIND,” he responded eagerly, already darting toward the invisibility shield. “Cyre FIND.”

“Wizard—the shield!” I shouted, reaching out helplessly toward my familiar. But it was too late. Cyre shot straight into the spell’s wall, cracking through it and disappearing.

“He’s certainly not one to waste time,” the sea wizard remarked, and I snapped back to see if he was still covering his face.

“You peeked,” I said, frowning.

As soon as I accused him, he lowered his hand. “I did no such thing,” he defended, feigning hurt. “You really think I can’t sense when something has happened to one of my spells?”

“Fair enough,” I muttered, turning my gaze back to the patch of water where Cyre had vanished. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but something in me believed he’d be able to find Barren.

The sea wizard’s voice carried a hint of approval as he dismantled the rest of his invisibility shield. “You chose your companion well.”

“I really did,” I said, letting out a sigh. “I just wish we could’ve spent more time together.” I glanced at the sea wizard, curious. “Is it hard for you whenever you’re apart from Aracos?”

“I won’t say it isn’t difficult.” His fingers traced along the dark metal shaft of his trident before it seamlessly reabsorbed into his body. “But I’ve endured far worse.”

I supposed he had.

“He was really upset last night, you know,” I said, adding a touch of reproach in my voice. “When you told him you needed time for yourself. And then, early this morning, when I asked him to show me the way to your chamber, he flat-out refused. I had to try to find it all on my own.” I let out a small snort. “And here I thought he liked me best. I guess his loyalty to you will always come before our friendship.”

The sea wizard’s dark brows drew together. “You sought my chamber?” Had he not heard a thing I’d said about Aracos?

“Why?” he asked, as if he couldn’t think of a single reason I’d willingly come to him.

I could scarcely believe it. Was he really asking me why?

Maybe it was because the way he’d pulled away from me had left me reeling? Because I’d bared my heart—at least one of them—to him, only for him to vanish?

Or maybe it was because I couldn’t let things end like they had. I’d needed to see him and to make sense of it.

“Because I solved the riddle you gave me.” The words were heavy, bearing the weight of everything I couldn’t bring myself to say. “After our lesson, I couldn’t sleep, could hardly think, and I?—”

He placed a single finger under my chin, halting my words as he lifted it. “You solved my riddle?”

I nodded, swallowing hard as our eyes locked. “Yes. I wrote the answer down on the letter you gave me. I was hoping to give it back to you, but I had some trouble on my way to your chamber.”

His gaze grew sharper, more focused. “You wrote the answer?”

My pulse quickened. “Um, yes. I did.” I didn’t understand why he was looking at me like this. Was he impressed I could write it? “It was one of the glyphs you taught me. Clever.”

Before I could say more, a burst of dark smoke filled the water, and a blank piece of parchment appeared in his hand. “Will you write it again?” he asked, almost breathless, and then there was a pen in my face.

“Uh, okay…” Tentacles supported me by my waist as I took the pen, my fingers flexing over it as I went for the parchment. I closed my eyes for a moment, visualizing the symbol I needed. Thank goodness I’d practiced so many times last night.

My hand trembled through the first stroke but soon steadied as the glyph took shape on the parchment.

There . As soon as I finished, I passed the parchment back. “It’s the abyss, right? The place where whispers dance with darkness deep. Where secrets slumber and restless spirits sleep. In the boundless void where shadows enthrall, what do you seek when you call, and call, and call? The abyss.”

There it was. Pride filled me as I thought back on the many hours of work I’d put into coming up with that conclusion.

Instead of congratulating me for my cleverness, his hand wrapped over mine. Gently, he took the pen from my hand, making my stomach tumble.

Had I scribed it incorrectly?

With a single stroke, he altered the symbol I’d carefully scrawled, connecting two of the lines.

“Wait, that’s not how you wrote it during our lesson,” I protested, my eyes narrowing at the new line. It hadn’t been there. I was sure of it.

The column of the sea wizard’s spine straightened, his expression calm but focused. “This is a different glyph,” he replied evenly.

“A different glyph?” I said, frowning at the symbol. Whatever it meant, I had yet to learn it. “But the answer’s ‘the abyss,’ right?”

“It is.”

Relief washed over me—I’d gotten it right. “Then… what does this one mean?”

“Abyssal.” He uttered the word softly, his lips brushing through each syllable as if he were telling me the most intimate secret.

“Abyssal,” I repeated, glancing from the symbol back to him, trying to etch the new glyph into my memory.

The smile that unfurled in front of me was devastatingly alluring. Pure temptation.

“I’ve been waiting so long for you to say that.” His voice was a low murmur, each word laden with a mixture of satisfaction and longing, such an intoxicating brew that I found myself momentarily disoriented.

“I—I don’t understand. You’ve waited for me to say the word… abyssal?”

His smile deepened. “Indeed, I have. And you’re welcome to repeat it.”

I did just that, whispering, “Abyssal?”

He leaned, bowing his head slightly, his voice a soft, smoky caress as he answered, “Yes, princess?”

The way he looked up at me, his gaze softening with such attentiveness, told me I’d just uncovered something profoundly important.

“Abyssal,” I uttered again, this time with the understanding that what I was saying was far more than just a word.

The sea wizard’s voice was a dark caress, a spark of eagerness in his gaze as he drew me closer, forgoing the bow entirely. “Yes, princess?”

That was his name. It didn’t even sound like a name, yet something in his expression, the way his eyes gleamed with unmistakable pride, told me it had to be.

He looked so pleased and content in this moment that I knew it couldn’t be anything else.

Abyssal.

And if the way he looked at me now was any indication, it was clear he’d been eagerly waiting for me to say it.