Page 16 of Cruel Tides (Queen of Tridents #2)
16
Claira
“Y ou’re here to save me? ”
Kai nodded with enthusiasm, and his clear eyes somehow beamed even brighter in the night. Was it a trick of the shadows, or were his irises actually lilac? “Yep! We came as soon as we heard about you.”
Was this dude serious? Like I was really going to hop from one abduction right into another.
“Wow, that’s really… nice of you,” I murmured, eyeing the surrounding space. Not a soul was around now that Papa had been carried off. Fantastic.
Squaring in front of him, I sized up my aspiring captor. Kai had barely an inch on me and sure didn’t look strong enough to take me with him by force. But did you really need strength when you were friends with a freaking titan? That merman from earlier sure wouldn’t have any trouble stuffing me, or an entire warehouse full of merfolk, in the back of a trunk if he wanted to.
“Why don’t I go grab my… stuff and meet you back here?”
Kai’s eyebrows lifted like I’d just presented him with an exceptionally sugary slice of cake, but I wasn’t going to stick around to watch him salivate over the thought of using my tail for his own kingdom’s gain. Swerving around him, I retreated toward the warehouse.
As long as I could get inside, everything would be okay. Leander would finish his meeting soon, and he’d know what to say to keep me here. To keep me safe.
Wait—what was I thinking? Since when was it Leander’s job to keep me safe?
I turned the corner and barreled right into some solid, immovable mass that knocked the breath right out of me. “ Oof .”
I reared back, and the freaking titan was in front of me, his colossal head and dark eyes glowering down at me like I was some unbidden squirrel who’d attempted to climb his massive tree trunk of a body. Poseidon’s fury . He was huge. Even a squirrel would know better than to think it could handle the size of one of his nuts.
“S-sorry,” I said, chucking the disturbing mental picture I’d just conjured up as far from my mind as possible.
He took a step back, and I noticed a peculiar strap of leather fastened around his chest. Driven by curiosity, I traced the line of dark leather with my eyes, starting with the thinnest part wrapped underneath one arm. From there, it ran over his well-fitted dress shirt, tightly hugging his chest like a second skin, as the leather broadened into the place where it hit his right shoulder.
The place where a right arm would have been.
Instead, the brace rounded out, covering the side of his shoulder with a smoothly polished circle of leather that replaced the space where a deltoid muscle would have formed. Astonishingly, the illusion it created almost balanced out the size of the muscular shoulder on the opposite side.
I shouldn’t have stared and certainly hadn’t meant to. But when my eyes flicked back up to his, the tortured look waiting for me nearly knocked the breath from my lungs again.
“I… I didn’t mean—”
“So does this mean Queen Javalynn won’t be coming?” A hand clapped against Barren’s leather-bound shoulder as Leander stepped beside him. “My father is going to be pissed when he—Claira? Why aren’t you inside?”
I opened my mouth to fire something back at him, but my eyes caught sight of his jeans. He had rolled them up into a rather odd-looking pair of shorts. And was that blood smeared over his legs?
“What happened to you?” I gasped, reaching out for one of his scrapes, but his hand caught my wrist.
“No, don’t touch them.” When my mouth snapped back open, a mouthful of questions at the ready, he pressed a finger up to my lips. “Things got a little heated with my father, and I kicked a box of plates or something. Then bam , the whole fucking line of boxes came down, shattering all over me.”
He gave a nervous little chuckle as I spun around him, scoping out the damage. There were even little red beads of blood soaking their way through the back of his shirt. Had he rolled around in the shards, too?
“Oh, Lee,” I said, lightly running my fingers over the red stains between his shoulder blades. Something didn’t seem right, but before I could press Leander further, Kai turned the corner, and I froze where I stood.
Crap. So much for my escape.
“Whoa, dude .” Kai stopped, flashing Leander a friendly grin. “I was going to say you look better with clothes on, but you kind of look worse. Are you okay, man?”
That, I could agree with. Leander looked way worse than he had on the boat. Even when I’d woken him up, his bed hair was—at worst—artfully unkempt. He was never as disheveled as this. Heck, he looked more beaten now than when I’d plucked him up out of the ocean half-dead and freezing.
“Yeah, well, you know how it is dealing with royalty.” All three of them shared a look, and Leander let out a long sigh. “I’m good. Just let my emotions get the better of me, that’s all.”
“Hmm. If you say so, man. Hey, you gonna go grab your stuff, Nerida?” Kai asked brightly. Leander threw me a quizzical look before snaking an arm around my waist and pulling me up beside him. I opened my eyes as wide as they would go and gestured to the warehouse, hoping he would get the message. By the way his eyebrows sank, his eyes narrowing in confusion… clearly, he had not.
“Her name is Claira,” Leander corrected, a bite in his tone. I laughed nervously, trying to edge him back to the warehouse, but he stood firm beside me. “What’s this about grabbing your stuff? What stuff? Why does he want you to get stuff? ”
How could someone so beautiful be so clueless? And also, why was Kai giving away his kidnapping plan right out of the gate? Did any of them have any sense? I turned my focus to Kai.
“It’s Claira now?” he asked, scanning my face with a look that said he was deciding whether the name suited me. When his eyes dropped to my mouth, I watched his own lips widen into a heart-piercing grin. “She’s leaving with us,” he said finally, his smooth voice as casual as if he was saying we were just going for a quick trip to a drive thru.
I wet my lips with interest as I veered back to see Leander’s reaction. Oh boy, he did not look happy.
“Whaleshit she is,” Leander spat, raking a hand through his hair as he raised his chin in the air. Then his arm tightened possessively around my waist, eliciting a startled squeak from my throat. “It was nice seeing you again, Barren, but your friend here can fuck off. She’s not going anywhere with either of you.”
“And why not leave that up to her? She sounded like she wanted to leave with us a second ago.” Kai reached for my hand, his bright eyes practically overflowing with foolish optimism, but I tightened my hands into fists. “It’s all right, Claira. You don’t have to stay in a place where they don’t appreciate you. A place where they keep you in a cage. We—”
“Fuck off!” Leander cut in. “We’re not keeping her in a cage. She’s staying with me.”
He pulled me up against his chest, and I tilted my head back in disbelief.
Oh, so we were lying now? Just going to forget all about the cage thing?
His words suddenly sank in, and I stood there blank, amazed, and very shaken.
Staying with him? Like, in his room with him, with him? When had I agreed to that?
“Oh, really? Look at her face, dude. She looks terrified,” Kai insisted. Suddenly, all eyes were on me, forcing me to hide my burning cheeks behind my palms.
“See, you’re making her uncomfortable.”
Nearly too embarrassed to think, I broke out of Leander’s arms and whipped around to face him. “Can we go somewhere? Talk about this in private for a minute?”
I nodded toward the warehouse, but he spun me back around, pointing to the gas station off in the distance. “Since you had to sneak back out here, I think we’d better let my father cool his head before he sees us again,” Leander mumbled, and I couldn’t help but notice the slight quaver in his voice.
He straightened up, suddenly raising his tone so the others could hear. “As for you two, feel free to go inside and talk your plan over with King Eamon. See how he feels about it. I’ll be back to shovel what’s left of your carcasses into the ocean later.” He ushered me forward and locked on to the titan’s shoulder, leaning in close. “Though if I were you, I’d stay out here and let your little friend here weather the storm alone, Barren.”
I kept my eyes angled up at Barren’s expressionless face as I passed, observing the tightly wound coils of dark hair dusting his masculine eyebrows. It hadn’t escaped me how his jaw seemed to relax when his eyes were on Leander and tense up when they slid back to me. The thought made my pulse surge with conflicting emotions, but I couldn’t fathom why. We were complete strangers. Plus, he was sort of trying to kidnap me. Why should it matter if he liked me or not?
Leander growled curses under his breath as we walked through the gravel. “They’re following us, aren’t they?”
I glanced back, and sure enough, both mermen were a few strides behind us. “Mmm, yep.” So much for privacy.
When we reached the gas station, I stared at the broken chain and lock lying on the ground where we’d left them. Leander didn’t hesitate, shouldering right into the closed door just like he’d done the first time. “Fuck,” he cursed, rubbing his shoulder.
I couldn’t help but snort as I pulled the other side open. “Come on, before they decide to follow us inside.”
Too late. Kai lined up right behind us like he was patiently waiting for his turn to go inside.
“You don’t get it,” Leander growled, rounding in front of Kai and stopping him with a firm hand to the chest. “We—as in, her and me—need to talk. You’re not coming a single step closer.”
“Oooh, I thought when she said we needed to talk in private, she meant…” With a hopeful look in his eyes, Kai gestured vaguely to all of us, and I pressed my lips together in response. “Well, this is awkward.” He smiled at me coyly and threw his hands in the air in a dramatic shrug. “But we might as well stick around now that we’re here.”
Swooping underneath Leander’s arm, he slid right through the open door. “Oh, wow, look how gross it is in here!”
Before Leander could pull him back out by the neck, I barricaded the front of the door. “Just wait a second,” I mouthed, beckoning to Barren with a wave of my hand. “All right, you guys win. You want to join us, too?” Moving aside, I held the door wide open.
Barren took a moment, and my body seemed overly aware that his eyes were on me. He stepped forward and threw me a dark, unreadable look that had me rethinking my plan as he crouched to fit through the doorway.
Well, he already hated me, so what did it matter?
When his massive shoulders were through, I let go of the handle. Dropping to my knees, I scrambled for the lock and chain. The door slammed shut, and I was already threading the chain through the handles, hooking what was left of the U part of the lock to secure the surrounding chain. There.
Almost certain the doors would hold for a bit, I relaxed my back against the side of the door. A force hit the glass, and I jumped.
Then came the muffled sound of Kai’s overly animated voice. “Can you believe it, Barren?” The door rattled against my back again. “Dude, she actually locked us in here!”
“Ruthless,” Leander chuckled before offering me a hand up. From down here, his legs looked even worse than before. Minor scrapes worked their way around his ankles and feet. Could a box of plates really cause this much damage?
“I don’t know why I keep letting you surprise me. Is there any fish out there you can’t catch?” Leander’s silky voice reached my ears, pulling my attention away from his legs.
Taking his hand, I got to my feet. “Yeah, well, I figured this was the only way we’d get some privacy. I didn’t expect the big guy to fall for it so easily, though. A friend of yours?”
“Yeah, I know him.” Leander’s arms naturally fell around my hips, and I found myself thankful for the support. So much had happened today that it was getting harder to think with each passing minute.
“So, what is this about me staying with you? You, uh, you want me in your room with you?”
He cleared his throat, and I couldn’t help but grin as color rose over his pretty boy cheeks. I could get used to him looking at me like this. Letting his vulnerability show.
“Well,” he mumbled, breathing hot air across my neck, “I can go back to the cage with you, if you’d like.”
Goosebumps rose over my skin as his words washed over me like a caress. Like he’d woven some magical spell to get me to agree to stay with him. Only, he didn’t need magic to convince me. I didn’t want smooth words laced with artificial merman magic. And for some reason, it bothered me that he thought he needed to use it on me at all.
“You don’t need to do that,” I said, pulling his hands off my waist.
“You know I was joking, Claira.” Although clearly confused, he grinned, swerving my hands to ease me closer to him again. “We wouldn’t really go back to the cage—”
“No, not that. That thing you keep doing with your voice.” With that, he looked even more confused. “You know, that magical glamour thing you mermen do to your voice to seduce people? I know you’re probably used to doing it, but you don’t need to use it with me anymore.”
“Claira,” he started, but then his voice trailed. The next words that came out of his mouth were the most serious I’d ever heard. “You do know mermen can’t glamour their voices like mermaids can, right?”
I definitely did not know that.
Suddenly nervous, I let out a small laugh. “Well, uh, you’re pretty good at pretending.”
The deadpan look on his face told me he wasn’t amused.
“Tell me, do you ever try to glamour me?” he said suddenly, and I wasn’t sure what to think of the question. I stared at him for a moment, wondering why he even thought to ask it.
“Of course not. Why would I? It’s not like I even know how to do any of that mermaid stuff. I don’t know any of the magic. I’ve never been in touch with my… my nature .”
He didn’t look the least bit convinced. I waited for him to say something. Anything.
When he didn’t respond, I turned to the gas station. “So, uh, that one merman, Kai, told me he was here to rescue me.”
“Yeah?”
“How do you think they found out about me? King Eamon?”
At the sound of his father’s name, Leander flinched, and he looked at me with a face that told me he clearly hadn’t heard the question.
“Are you even listening? What do you think we should do with these guys?” I gestured to the inside of the gas station, and when I didn’t immediately see them, I pressed my face up to the glass.
“Well, isn’t that something,” I mumbled, focusing on Kai, who was running around with his arms full of empty bottles. He’d invaded the beer cave and seemed to be constructing a pyramid. My eyes scanned for Barren, and a rogue flip of a bottle cap gave his position away. Looking uninterested compared to the merman hopping up and down on his toes beside him, Barren flicked another cap, aiming at the center of the tower of bottles like he was playing some sort of carnival game. I could just barely make out Kai’s cheers over the sound of glass as half the tower collapsed to the floor.
What the heck?
And some kingdom had really sent these silly mermen to abduct me from my abduction?
“My father is a fool,” Leander said suddenly, pulling my attention away from the game inside. “Of course the other kingdoms would send princes out here to get you. Now that royalty from the Pacific and the Indian oceans are here, they know we can’t legally keep you to ourselves.”
“Wait. These guys are princes?” I whipped back to inspect them through the glass again. Kai was setting a bottle on the top of Barren’s head now, and by the time Kai had it balanced, nearly a third of the bottle had sunk into Barren’s thick mop of curls. Barren did not look entertained in the least.
“Prince Barren Arwa, the eldest brother of Queen Javalynn. And the short one is Kai Corentine, the ninth son of King Darias,” Leander recited simply. Like their names and titles were information that all merfolk were supposed to know. Yeah, well… Color me surprised.
“Okay, but what do you mean by ‘can’t legally keep me’? King Eamon seemed to think otherwise. You know, when he arrested me and threw me in a cage for treason.” Something clicked in my mind, and the words Kai had said as Barren carried Papa away suddenly came to me. “Is it because, according to your records, I’m technically dead right now?”
Leander’s mouth dropped open, telling me that was exactly the reason. “Something like that. But ultimately, that’s for my father to decide. He might not have the trident, but the royals are trying to at least pretend we still have some sort of—”
Without realizing it, I cut him off with a long, drawn-out yawn.
“—authority. You know what? I think someone needs some sleep,” Leander said, pulling me away from the door. “Let me and my father deal with them while you get some rest.”
“No, no, I’ll be okay until tonight,” I lied, blinking my eyes wider. They felt so dry, like salt and sand had worked their way into them. Honestly, they probably had.
“Uh-huh.” He grinned, steering me back in the direction of the warehouse by my shoulders. “At least try to rest some. Don’t worry. No one’s allowed to come into my bedchambers. Not even the captains.”
“Is that right?” I let out another yawn. “Sure didn’t stop me,” I teased, but the thought of Papa being forbidden to enter sounded almost too good of a deal to pass up. Maybe a tiny nap wouldn’t hurt. It was that or stick around for the princes to argue over which kingdom got to use me first. I knew in my gut that there was no way Leander would let them take me. Especially not now that he knew how easy it was going to be to use me to get King Eamon’s trident back. With the magic from one trident, they could use it to break the curse and wouldn’t need me for the rest. At least, I hoped.
“Okay, fine. Just a little nap. And then you can fill me in on what King Eamon says after you’re done with your boring undersea politics.”
Leander chuckled as he led me into the warehouse, heading for a certain cheerful, plastic printed dolphin. “Sure thing.”