Page 5

5

Kai

“ H ey man,” I said, giving Leander’s arm a nudge. “We’re about to land, see?”

Leander’s gaze remained fixed, not following where I pointed out the airplane’s window. He remained slumped in his seat, his vacant, icy eyes staring blankly at the back of the seat in front of him.

He’d been like this for days. Numb. Devoid of emotions. I’d hoped leaving the island would help, but there seemed to be nothing I could do to shake him from it.

“We’ll get off this plane, and then we’ll find my father’s trident and use it to get Claira back, okay?”

Leander’s eyes darkened. “Claira…” Even as his expression shifted, the rest of him didn’t, like he was too fatigued to find the strength to move. “She’s with him now…”

“Uh-uh, nope! None of that,” I interrupted, giving his shoulders a firm shake. “I told you we’re not going to trust anything that dark spawn said to us, remember?”

I pointed out to the California skyline once more, nudging his chin to direct his gaze toward the window. “So, let’s just focus on the plan, okay? Because we’re going to get her back! And if we want to make that happen, I need you to believe in the mission, got it?”

He gave me nothing. Not a nod or a shrug. He didn’t even let out a growl to express his irritation with me for moving his chin.

“Leander?” I pressed.

“Yeah, sure. Got it.”

I let out a relieved sigh and retreated, sinking back into my seat.

This right here was why Laverne had been so insistent that we leave Leander behind. It was hard to take care of someone so utterly… lost. But how could I have ever left him alone while he was like this?

I had a feeling Leander didn’t have much in his life, and there was even less now that he’d abandoned his kingdom. With Claira gone, I had to wonder if he believed he was wholly alone.

But he wasn’t alone in the slightest, even if he couldn’t see that obvious truth right now.

We shared a mate—Leander, Barren, and I. That bond made us a family, didn’t it? Laverne would never understand it, but the three of us were basically brothers. And it was a brother’s job to have their brother’s back.

Well, except when it came to my brothers. They had nobody’s back aside from their own. But in other families where siblings weren’t pitted against each other, things were different. They stuck up for each other. Or so I’d read.

Either way, right here and now, I was making it official. I was going to be the type of brother who had Leander’s back, no matter what.

And that, no matter what, included what he was going through right now. After all, he really wasn’t alone, at least not with all of those feelings inside him.

With a confident grin, I gave his knee a reassuring pat. “Don’t worry, man. We’ve got this. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Because there’s no way I’m going to let that dark spawn get away with taking someone else from me. I gritted my teeth, my thoughts momentarily drifting to that dark spawn.

Abyssal…

I was the only one fully aware of the evil that monster was capable of.

I never expected to see him again. But now that he’d resurfaced, my blood boiled with thoughts darker than I ever thought possible.

I’d find him, and then I’d make him answer for everything he’d done.

Not even Laverne knew the truth of what had happened the day Freechia went missing. I hadn’t found the courage to tell her.

The two of us had searched for her tirelessly, but deep down, I knew my sister’s disappearance had something to do with the deal I’d made before my first walk on land.

And then, while Laverne and I were still searching, the fish curse had struck—mere hours after I’d signed my name in blood.

But what did it mean? How was Freechia connected with the curse? I still didn’t know, but surely it wasn’t all a coincidence.

The chaos that followed once all of us washed up on shore lasted for days. In the end, the curse took the blame for her disappearance, but my truth never stopped haunting me.

If only I remembered more details from the contract that I’d signed, then maybe I’d know with certainty if all of it had happened because of me. Either way, one truth remained unchanged: Abyssal had deceived me.

Now, he’d come back to take away someone else important to me. But I wouldn’t let him get away with it a second time.

My hands clenched tightly, shaking over my knees. “We’ll get Claira back,” I said, nodding to myself. It was a promise I intended to keep.

Leander might have lost his rage, but I’d never felt so angry. That dark spawn wanted fire, so I’d give it to him. Because now that he had Claira, fire flared inside me, growing hotter with every thought, every breath. It wouldn’t stop burning until our mate was with us again.

And once Claira was safe, Abyssal would pay for all that he’d done. Then, I’d finally learn the truth of what happened to Freechia.

Leander glanced my way, his gaze landing on my shaking fists as he sighed. “What exactly makes you think this isn’t a giant fucking waste of time?”

“Because I know it’s not,” I said, fidgeting in my seat. “I can feel it.” Returning to the Pacific was the right call, even if Barren had been against it. Soon, we’d land, and I would prove it to him. Then he’d be on board, wouldn’t he?

After all, my father’s trident would give me the power I needed to stop that dark spawn from ever hurting anyone again. With the power of creation, my only limit would be the amount of my energy I could pour into the trident—and energy happened to be one of my strongest attributes.

I could send scouts. Raise an army of my own creation. And I could even turn the ocean against him.

“You better hope your pet knows what she’s talking about,” Leander mumbled, redirecting his attention out the window.

“Laverne? Of course, she does!” I felt a surge of adrenaline as the plane began its descent. “And she’s not my pet, man. She’s like my?—”

“Your sister, yeah, whatever.” The plane shook, and Leander let out a slow breath. He tossed his head back, his eyes closing. “I fucking hate flying.”

Flying was always fun for me, or at least it had been. Today’s flights had been extra nerve-wracking since we were moving further from Claira. But Barren was still back at the island, and with any luck, the rest of us wouldn’t be away for long.

As the plane touched down on the runway, my heart raced with anticipation. I hurriedly unfastened our leashes and stood up, eager to set foot on land once again. “Come on, man.”

It was a struggle to get Leander out of his seat. But as soon as I stepped off the airplane, I knew the struggle had been worth it. “Smell that air… Isn’t California amazing?”

Leander grunted, his arms crossed half-heartedly over the same dingy shirt he hadn’t bothered changing for days. “Smells like the same old ocean air whaleshit to me.”

Ignoring his grumpiness, I fell into step with the humans, heading inside. At least Laverne would be thrilled to be back home.

Her shrill voice rattled in my head before her eyes had even found me through the crowd waiting to pick up their cargo-hold companions. “Kai-Kai!”

She pressed her wide moon eyes up against the bars of her cage.

“Did you have a good flight, pretty gi?—”

“I can’t believe you let them do this to me again,” she screamed, shaking around in her cage. “This was a ridiculous plan!”

“Was?” I blinked down at her miserable face as I opened the latch to free her. “That’s no way to be,” I said, shifting my gaze from her to Leander. Neither of them seemed happy to be in the Pacific. “Come on, guys, the plan has barely started!”

Laverne let out a sharp hiss as I fastened the leash the humans made her wear while we were indoors around her neck.

“Told you this plan was stupid,” Leander grumbled, and Laverne’s eyes narrowed.

“Then you shouldn’t have come along,” she snapped back as if she hadn’t just said the same thing. “Go back and cry some more on the beach. Maybe your mermaid will take pity and ? —”

“Laverne!” I shrieked, cutting between them. “That’s enough.”

But Leander’s muscles had already tensed in response. He swiped a hand through his hair, pushing his bangs out of his eyes, then pointed a single finger down at her. “I didn’t fucking cry.”

Laverne’s whiskers twitched as she stretched out in front of the other cages, delighted. “You can lie to yourself, but you can’t lie to me.” Then she snickered, adding, “Or the hundred crabs who saw it, too.”

“That’s enough, guys.” I kept my voice firm as I tugged on Laverne’s leash, signaling for her to drop it.

She did not appreciate that at all.

I nearly lost a finger as she snapped the leash out of my hand. “How DARE ? —!”

“I said, enough! We don’t treat our friends like this, Laverne.” I threw my hands up and caught a glimpse at our surroundings, realizing just how many humans were observing our exchange. “Ah-ha... You know, maybe we should take this outside.”

“Hmph.” Laverne threw her head back, still holding the end of her leash in her jaws, letting me know that she would be the one to walk her there herself. “Don’t forget that I’m the most important part of this mission. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even know where the trident was to begin with.”

“You assume you know where it is,” Leander added, sounding like he was even more done with this mission than he’d been while sitting on the plane. “You’ve been away for how many fucking days now?”

“Oh, I know it’s there,” she threw back with a pointed snort. “Albert is the strongest bull around! Five times my size—and guess what? He’s never cried, either.”

Leander scoffed, but Laverne kept going.

“Albert is a legend among us sea lions. He’s never backed down or shown any weakness, not even once. There’s no one in the ocean strong enough to challenge him!”

“There’s nothing wrong with crying,” I offered to Leander gently, telling him the truth.

He pivoted with a growl, pushing his way back into the bustling crowd of the airport.

Well, anger was something. Certainly more than he’d been expressing up until this point. Maybe he was improving.

“Come on,” I said, signaling to Laverne. “Better get to the beach before it gets dark.”

Thankfully, I hadn’t forgotten how to wave down a cab since my last visit to the airport. And when we finally arrived at the sea lion beaches, I confidently recited the numbers on the card Barren had given me to pay for the ride.

As soon as the cab stopped, I opened the door to let Laverne flop out first.

She let in a huge breath, followed by an even bigger sneeze. “Look at those waves, Kai-Kai! The Pacific is the best! Let’s never leave home again.”

Leander, however, wasn’t improving as much as I’d hoped. Now that we were at the beach, he seemed more lifeless than ever. I practically had to pull him through the sand.

His body language spoke volumes as he trudged behind us—like he was lost, unsure of why he had agreed to come here in the first place.

“His royal mopiness,” Laverne snickered, kicking up sand with her flippers.

“You know, Kaius,” Leander grumbled with a curled lip, dragging his feet. “I’m not a fan of your pet.”

I knew Laverne had a way of sometimes getting under other’s skin, but now that Claira was gone, Leander seemed particularly vulnerable to her taunts.

He was wounded, not just physically from where the trident drained him, but emotionally as well.

I couldn’t blame him for feeling that way.

Although Claira hadn’t provided much of an explanation, I wholeheartedly trusted that she hadn’t intended for Abyssal to take her. I still believed in her—in us. I always would. I hoped Leander would realize it, too.

Laverne, relentless as ever, circled us like a predator on the hunt.

“How do you expect this to work, Big Brother, when you constantly have to worry about HIM?” she complained, her voice dripping with false concern. “It should have been the two of us. Like it used to be! When have I ever slowed us down?”

“That’s it!” I cried out, exasperated. “Can you please try to be a bit kinder, Laverne? We’re both doing our best here.” I couldn’t believe how she was acting. Okay—maybe I could. Laverne had always been a free spirit, but this was pushing it too far.

“Leander is also Claira’s mate, Laverne. He has every right to be here.”

With a pained groan, Leander dropped to his knees in the sand. “No, she’s right,” he muttered, staring blankly out at the endless waves ahead. “Claira deserves better than me.” His voice cracked with a mix of self-loathing and defeat. He slumped forward, grabbing up dramatic handfuls of sand. “I said I’d follow her anywhere, but look at me… I couldn’t even kill the fucker who took her from us.”

Laverne crackled with laughter, slapping her flippers together in a show of amusement. “Woe is me! I’m so unworthy,” she mocked, throwing her head back to the sky. “I can’t believe a grown merman—royalty, even—is wallowing around in the sand like a beached flounder!”

“Dude, seriously? ” I shot her a glare, wringing my hands in the air, but she didn’t back down.

“See, your royal mopiness, this is why you and Ren should have chosen ME. At least I wouldn’t have left you the second a better male came around.”

I could feel Leander’s anger rising at her words. “That dark spawn isn’t better than me,” he growled. Then his sharp eyes found mine. “He isn’t better than any of us.”

Laverne closed in, staring Leander down so intensely that her forehead was practically flush against his. “If that’s what you believe, then don’t just flop around here sulking. Get up!”

Leander’s gaze flickered between me and Laverne before he pushed himself up from the sand.

“That’s what I thought,” she said, satisfied with herself.

“Point taken,” he said gruffly, brushing a hand through his hair. He knocked the sand from his knees, huffing. “So, what’s the plan?”

Something mischievous sparked in Laverne’s eyes. “I’m glad you asked.” She pointed toward the sea lion caves in the distance with the end of her nose. “If this master plan of mine is going to work, first, we’ll need a bucket.”

“A bucket?” Leander’s skepticism was evident. “To fight a sea lion bull? I gotta say… Not loving this plan.”

“We aren’t going to FIGHT him, you dolt!”

I scratched the back of my neck, feeling my face flush. “I… think I know where we can get a bucket. But, uh, I should probably go get it alone.”

Laverne’s nose twitched. “If you’re talking about the campground, then you’re definitely going alone. Count me out.”

Leander raised an eyebrow. “Camp—ground?”

It was hard to keep up a smile. “The campground, yeah. That’s where the rest of my family is staying on land.” My laugh was shaky as I wondered what they would say upon my return. “The entire kingdom, actually. Queen Javalynn set us up with a place close to the shore. It’s pretty cool, actually! There are fire pits and picnic tables to sit around. The homes are held together with long poles, kind of like the ones back at your kingdom’s warehouse.”

My heart warmed a little at the memory. Even though I resented the curse, I couldn’t fully bring myself to hate all the new things I’d experienced here on land because of it.

Going to see my family hadn’t been part of the plan, though. Things had been… strained after Freechia’s disappearance. While the rest of the kingdom believed she’d been lost with the onset of the curse, my father had rightfully pinned the blame on me—the one who should have been watching her.

“I’ll go with you,” Leander said casually, dusting the last of the sand from his palms. “But I’m not sitting around a panic table, whatever the fuck that is. I’ve had enough panic already.”

“Ah—picnic… You know, never mind.” I didn’t know what made a picnic table different from a regular one, anyway. I’d just read signs in the campground that talked about keeping them clean. “Thanks, man. It shouldn’t take long to find a bucket.”

“Yeah, no problem. King Darias loves me.”

I stumbled on the first step I took. “Oh, uh… Errr?—”

Leander snorted, his mood finally lifting. “Just fucking with you, Kaius. I know your father hates the Atlantic.”

“Well, I’m staying here!” Laverne announced, squinting off into the distance. Only a small number of sea lions were relaxing on the rocks nearby. The rest of the herd must have been further up the shore.

“Good idea.” I nodded. “See if you can find Albert’s herd while we’re gone to get the bucket.”

Leander clapped a hand on my back. “Lead the way.”

“Oh, uh, sure!” I stammered, caught off guard by his sudden support. “We need to head that way,” I said, pointing to where the campgrounds sat beyond the dunes.

Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to come back to my family. This time, I wouldn’t be alone, now, would I?

I was returning with a brother by my side. Maybe, just maybe, I could count on Leander to have my back, just like I wish he knew I had his.