Page 14

14

Leander

S omething was happening inside of me—a searing pain that twisted my insides, causing my vision to blur and my equilibrium to shift.

One moment I’d been laughing, watching Claira’s panicked expression as she scrambled to hide us from her dad, when an ache began slithering up my arm. Then a terrifying tightness seized my chest and my lungs constricted. The air had turned so thin it was like I was inhaling nothing at all. Next thing I knew, bam . Fucking fish gills.

And although Claira’s touch had brought me back to a merman, that intense pain that sent me tumbling off the damn boat hadn’t let up. All eyes were on me as my arm burned and my temple throbbed, not from oxygen loss or from Kai’s pet scooping me into her jaws, but from something I couldn’t explain.

Not that I wasn’t grateful Laverne had caught me—I was. Better snatched up by her than a predator who wouldn’t be so keen to spit me back out. But whatever had happened to me was still happening. And that fucking terrified me.

“Enough floating around,” I snapped, sharper than I meant to, and drew closer to Claira and the others.

Now that I’d joined them, our bodies formed a ring around her slender form. Barren’s arm was firmly around her waist, helping her stay afloat. He stared right at me, his usually emotionless eyes filled with a challenge that I could feel even in the water. One that dared me to take her from him. To try to take her.

I’d noticed his possessive hand on her as soon as I transformed. I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t worry about that now. Not with the mystery pain I was battling and the possibility of cecaelia looming close by. “Let’s get moving,” I said.

“Hold on.” Claira looked up, right at the underside of the boat. “I want to talk to Dad first.” Her eyes softened as she looked over to Barren next. “Please?”

Barren reacted with the swiftness of a captain following his queen’s command. His broad tail cut through the water, and Kai and I were forced to hold tight to Claira’s arms or be left behind.

I’d always admired Barren. His strength, his unique position within his kingdom. They kept him at a distance for reasons I would never fully understand, and whenever Barren had spoken of his solitude, it sounded like welcomed freedom to me.

Freedom that I’d always wished for, away from my father’s watchful eyes and expectations.

During my darkest nights, when I shook with a rage that I knew I had to keep hidden, I’d imagined being someone other than myself. I’d wished that someone was Barren. I couldn’t imagine a time when I hadn’t admired him.

But now, I was irritated by his unshakable strength as he supported my mate through the water. It was more irritating, more grating than any mysterious pain or unrelenting headache could be.

As soon as we emerged, Claira gasped in a big breath of air. “Dad!” she called, but he was already leaning over the edge of the boat as if he’d been searching for signs of us in the water.

“Y’all sure took off in a hurry.” He frowned, and there was deep worry apparent in his eyes. The sort of worry I imagined a parent should feel for their child. “I thought I might set anchor here and wait.” His face tensed with fear. “Then I wondered about the whereabouts of where that anchor might land. Wouldn’t want it dropping on your heads… Or tails.”

Claira’s arm trembled underneath mine. “No, don’t anchor. You’ve got to get the boat out of here in case…” Her voice trailed, and when she started gnawing at her lower lip, I realized she didn’t want him to know of the dangers we might face in the water. She gave me a desperate look.

“We don’t know how long this will take,” I said. Despite the skull-splitting pain, I managed to work up a reassuring smirk. “Claira will worry about you wasting your day here. Won’t you?”

Relief softened her shoulders. “Yes. Exactly.”

Nodding, I turned up to Claira’s dad. “We thank you for getting us this close,” I said, taking it upon myself to speak for all of us. Then, remembering all that I owed this human, I added, “Sir.”

Claira’s dad brought a thoughtful hand under his chin. “Hmm, if you’re sure.” He leaned against the railing. “I do have a lot to get done today.”

Then he straightened up, and I swore there was a sheen of moisture in his eyes. “You keep our Claira safe now.” My chest tightened when I realized he was looking at Barren while he said it. Then his glossy gaze was on me, and before I could risk irritating my headache by bowing my head, he’d moved on to Kai. “I mean it.”

Kai cleared his throat, and while I expected a high-pitched sound to emerge, he kept his words steady and calm. “We will.” It was a voice that said he genuinely believed he could protect her.

Good .

Kai needed some toughening up, but I was sure that with proper training, I could trust him to keep her safe. I wasn’t sure if the Pacific cared to train their least valued prince in the art of warfare, but Kai had a warrior’s heart. I’d seen it. And I had to believe he could protect Claira, because now that I had this trident inside me, feeding off my anger and fucking up my insides, I wasn’t sure how much time I had before its magic became too much for me.

“Your room will always be ready for you.” Claira’s human father rubbed his nose, quickly disguising it with a wave of his hand.

Hearing Claira sniffle made me painfully aware that I’d been the reason she was separated from her land family in the first place. “Love you, Dad,” she said, waving the arm she was sharing with Kai. “I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

He was still watching us when Barren pulled us back under the waves. Claira squirmed in his grip, her arms stretching out to both Kai and me. Her eyes studied our arrangement before a deep, tired sigh escaped her. “I really don’t want to be strung out between you guys again, but how are we supposed to swim like this?”

She had a point. Our bodies brushed against one another, with Claira in the center. The sharp points of Kai’s spike-tail grated against my smooth scales, and my short frills were tangling with Barren’s long ones. Swimming like this was going to be uncomfortable for us all.

“It won’t take long,” Barren said.

I had to agree. A feeling completely unfamiliar to me traveled up my arm, like my flesh was filled with water on the verge of boiling. The trident inside me was twisting and tangling with my insides, pulling me toward something—either the palace or the portal, I wasn’t sure which.

But I knew there was something waiting for me. Maybe for us. And the longer I floated here, ignoring the pull, the longer I had to deal with all the whaleshit the trident was putting my body through.

“Yeah. Let’s get going,” I said with a measured beat of my tail. Barren and Kai joined in, and I didn’t even care that our fins were uncomfortably thrashing against one another or if Barren taking the lead meant Kai and I had to swim halfway upside down. We needed to move .

“Come on, pretty girl!” Kai called, and his pet came into view, diving from above.

“Wait.” Just a single word from Claira’s sweet lips was enough to get Barren to cut off our momentum with a twist of his massive tail. She looked at me, and then at Kai. “What if you guys hold hands?”

I blinked. “Excuse me?”

Kai’s face mirrored my own confusion. Claira’s red hair flared over Barren’s chest as she tilted her head. “You know, like a chain? Maybe if you tried holding Kai’s hand, Lee, my curse breaking would still?—”

“I’m not holding his hand,” I said firmly, using my tail to shove Kai’s away and increase the distance between us. “I’d rather be carried in her mouth.” When I pointed to his pet, she fluttered her lashes. Ugh .

“And while we’re at it,” I growled, irritated that something as stupid as hand holding was keeping us from moving, “keep your fucking dicks to yourself. No one wants your damn spurs rubbing up on them.” I directed that one at Kai.

His face looked like I’d struck him. “Sorry, I—I… they’re just there,” he sputtered, looking scandalized that I’d pointed it out. Unintentional or not, parts of him were still rubbing against the three of us as we moved through the water. “I can’t do anything about them!” He looked at Claira with sad, dolphin-calf eyes.

He went to angle his hips away from the rest of us when Claira pulled him in closer.

I felt her grip tighten, her gaze going defiant as she glared at me. “You really need to get over this thing you have against spike-tailed mers, Leander.” They were practically belly to belly, the bony length of Kai’s tail against the elegant line of her blue scales. Her lips softened as she turned back to Kai. “I don’t mind your tail, Kai. Let’s get going.”

His mouth fell open, and shockingly, no sound came out of it for once. Barren gulped a deep breath of water, then shot off in the direction my arm was tugging me.

The ache in my head flared, my arm burning. The trident inside me somehow knew we were getting closer to where I needed to be.

I tried to focus on that thought as we moved. Not the pain nor the way we were swimming. Now that Claira had Kai underneath her and Barren at her back, I was an afterthought, kept an arm’s length away.

My tail moved erratically in the water, desperate to keep up with Barren’s pace. And it took everything in me to tamp down each wave of sadness that reared up inside me.

I couldn’t ignore it. Being held away from the others. The heartbreak from being disregarded by the one soul in this entire ocean I loved.

From a young age, my father had conditioned me to believe that I needed to be superior to everyone else. He’d taught me weakness was unacceptable for his offspring. For royalty. For the Atlantic. And any weakness he perceived was swiftly beaten out of me.

Or so he thought.

My father’s methods were flawed, and surviving his treatment hadn’t meant I was without weaknesses. Each hard lesson hadn’t only wounded my body but also left holes in my mind that neither time nor magic could heal.

Panic. Fear. Rage.

And now I was full of weaknesses.

Some days, it felt like I had so many holes in me, so many vulnerabilities, that I might collapse in on myself—a crown prince too weak to withstand the weight of his title.

And to survive through the days, I did whatever it took to distract others from the truth. That I wasn’t superior, that I wouldn’t ever live up to my father’s expectations.

So now, as pain worked through my head, magic pulled at my arm, and the fear of seeing the kingdom I was meant to protect overrun plagued my thoughts… Well, it all felt like it might finally break me. Like the holes in me were suddenly far too large. And that was why I’d deflected, shifting the attention to Kai. I knew he could handle it, and I’d been successful in my efforts.

But the price had been high. Kai was in Claira’s favor now, and I was on the outskirts. She’d felt some sympathy for me when she’d learned that I’d somehow fallen into the water, but that sympathy had vanished now that I’d made an ass of myself by unfairly berating her other mate.

The uncomfortable sensation in my arm gradually heightened as we moved, distracting me enough that I was only half listening when Kai whispered, “My claspers might not withdraw into my tail like their dicks do, but that doesn’t mean they feel any less.”

Claira’s eyes opened wider, and Kai waited before moving again, like he thought she might wish to push him away, but she didn’t. Then while Barren did the strenuous work of moving us through the water, Kai’s tail started swaying rhythmically, lightly brushing against Claira’s.

Claira leaned in as if to mumble something against his ear when a shudder worked over Kai’s shoulders and down his spine, ending at the sharp tip of his tail.

A few days ago, this would have made me rage like Laverne was raging, her nose pitched and eyes narrowing on the two of them as she swam wide circles around us. But not now.

I’d known something might happen between them the moment I’d left Claira alone in Kai’s rented bedchamber. I’d feared what would happen if Kai woke up and they came together, but now I knew it was mostly a sense of relief.

Kai would keep her safe if there was a time when I couldn’t.

I’d make sure of it.

Even if the trident inside me wasn’t an issue, one day I would be expected to rule, and Kai was the ninth in line for his throne. Claira could be happy and be provided for when my duty kept me bound to the Atlantic. And then, one day, when the trident’s power tore me apart?—

Claira’s gasp pulled me from my thoughts. “I left my shell in my bag!” Her head smacked against Barren’s chest as she struggled to look back. “Do you think Dad left yet? We have to go get it.”

Rather than jumping to obey her, Barren’s tail beat harder against the water.

“Your phone, too,” she said, her chin tilting to look up at the bottom of Barren’s jaw.

Barren’s voice was as hard as rocks clashing against steel. “There’s no need to rely on the dark spawn’s magic when you have us.”

Claira’s expression shifted to dread. “Well, yeah, but…” Then she sighed. “I guess you’re right,” she mumbled, though she didn’t look any less worried. “I hope Dad doesn’t accidentally touch it when he brings my bag inside.”

“He’ll be fine, Claira,” Kai soothed, but she looked too deep in thought to be listening.

“No, no, no.” The hand at the end of the arm I was holding balled into a fist. She bit her lip, her head shaking. “We didn’t bring any clothes with us!”

“I never bring clothes with me,” Kai’s pet chimed in, unhelpful.

“We’ve only got Kai’s shirt and your brace, Barren. That’s it,” Claira explained, but I wasn’t seeing the issue.

“So?” I asked, shrugging.

“ So ,” she shot back, “you guys are going to be naked the second we dry off on land.”

I shrugged again. “That’s fine.”

“That’s not fine, Lee! Humans don’t just walk around beaches naked.” She paused then, her lips twitching. “Well, okay. Some do. Most don’t.” She turned up to Barren, her face flushed. “Or does your island palace happen to be surrounded by nude beaches?”

Barren’s jaw tightened as he considered the question. “Mmh,” was the last thing I heard before the sea whirled around me, and everything went black.

The next thing I knew, we were stopped, and Claira’s sympathy for me was back as she frantically called out my name. “Lee! What’s wrong?”

I glanced around the dim water, my vision returning to find all three of them staring at me. “How long… how long was I…?” My world turned on its axis, my up and down switching as the flesh of my arm boiled. The trident in me fucking burned .

And then I realized what was happening. Its power— my power—was being sucked from me. My magic was ripping from my flesh, tearing me apart from within.

I felt my eyes roll up, my sight sliding to a bright white. I clamped my teeth together, using all of my strength to hold back a scream.

Claira’s body shook over mine, jostling my shoulders and my chest. “What’s happening to him? Lee? Can you hear me?”

I couldn’t open my mouth to answer. The rush of whatever was happening was too great, and I couldn’t risk letting a scream rip through me.

“It’s the portal. We’re here.” Barren’s voice. I kept my attention on the sound of it while the dizzying vortex of water spun around me.

My arm was going to break off. Snap into fucking pieces. Disintegrate.

My blood turned to hot lava, my insides glowing with a fire that would consume me, burning the magic in me away until it left nothing.

Until I was nothing.

Something in me finally did snap, and everything reversed. Weakness became power, and pain became… something more.

An unexplainable burst of magic rushed into my arm, a sensation like nothing I’d experienced before. So much power flowed. Endless magic. More than one body could possibly contain.

It flowed from all around me, above and below, and my head was still reeling, my body alight as I marveled at how still the others were and how they could float so evenly when the ocean was a seething maelstrom of magic around them.

“The portal should be here,” Barren said, “but there’s nothing.”

“It’s gone?” In the middle of the tumultuous spinning, Claira’s sweet voice wrapped around my ears. “But look at Lee’s arm, it’s—something’s happening. The black line, it’s glowing .”

One final rush of magic surged into my arm, and the pain, the dizziness, everything, was gone.

Pure, vigorous power radiated through me like it was my lifeblood. Like whatever had been flowing through me all my life hadn’t been good enough.

I wasn’t sure what had happened—if I’d been gifted with or cursed with something. But I suddenly knew that I could undoubtedly take on anything.

I opened my eyes to a face full of worry, but it wasn’t the face I’d been hoping to see. The brilliant purple hue of Kai’s irises shone straight at me, nearly blinding my vision that had only just returned. Why did Pacific mer’s eyes have to be so damn bright?

“Dude, what happened?” Kai asked, his eyebrows drawing closer together. “You okay, man?”

I might be if you’d turn your fucking eyes away from me, is what I wanted to say, but my tongue hurt from bearing down on it through the pain, and all I managed was a muffled groan.

My body shook with energy. So much so, I didn’t know whether to swim in tight loops like Laverne had or to create a tumultuous whirlpool with the water around us.

Every scale, every hair on my scalp, all of me, was vibrating with a power that I ached to unleash.

Claira pushed in front of Kai, her face caught up in a similar expression of worry. “What’s wrong, Lee?”

Panic bounced over Claira’s features as her eyes scanned over my face, my chest, my arm. Poseidon help me, she was adorable when she was flustered. I wanted to drag her to the seafloor with me right now and kiss her all over. Then I’d slide my hands down the swell of her scaled rear, and?—

Claira shook my arm. “Has the trident done something to you?”

The tremble in her voice brought me to my senses, effectively numbing the intoxicating buzz of magic. Before I could work out my reply, Barren maneuvered, taking a dive that brought us to the seafloor.

“Look around,” he said gruffly, but Claira’s face was so close to mine, her eyes too focused on studying me to let me see around her.

That is, until Kai hissed through his teeth. “I take it the portal wasn’t supposed to look like this?” He paused like he was still taking it all in. “I’m not sure what I thought a portal would look like, but… dude .”

Laverne’s voice filled my head. “Not very pleasing to the eye, is it?”

Following Claira’s lead, I looked out expecting to see the six familiar standing stones that controlled the portal. But there was only open water around us.

Kai’s glowing eyes panned our surroundings, spotlighting the stretch of sea where the portal used to stand—where it should have stood.

It was said that Poseidon had raised the six sturdy stones himself, and for countless years, they’d rested in this very spot. Yet now there was nothing but desolation, the seabed reduced to a dark blanket of long-settled rubble and wreckage.

Whoever or whatever had done this had done it many hours, if not days, ago.

“The portal, it’s—” I tried to find the words, but my throat choked up. But what did saying it matter? The portal was gone, and nothing could bring those standing stones back.

I’d traveled here hundreds of times. Set my hands upon the stones and felt the magic vibrate from deep within them. I’d watched in awe as my father used his trident to call upon the ancient power stored here. The power that had taken us to other kingdoms.

As crown prince, I was also meant to command the stone’s magic. I had the trident within me. Knew the way to tap on the stones for which kingdom I wished to travel to. But what did any of it matter when not a single standing stone remained?

Now there was nothing—only useless rubble void of magic, as if the portal had never existed here at all.

Barren hung his head, his jaw working like he was trying to make sense of how such a thing had happened. Perhaps he was fearful for his own kingdom’s standing stones. “It’s gone,” he said with a finality that had ice forming over my heart.

What did this mean for the Atlantic? What would happen to us now that we’d been cut off from the rest of the kingdoms?

“Not just gone,” Claira mumbled, staring off at the seabed. “Purposely destroyed.”

I felt numb. Deadened. Had the cecaelia been strong enough to tear down the stones? Was this their payback for our escape?

I’d never known their kind to possess much magic at all, except for the sea witches hiding among them, but even then… Poseidon had constructed the portal. What, other than a god, could have torn it down?

I stared at the dark, crumbling rocks as if the standing stones might suddenly appear before us. Like maybe it was an illusion; the sort of mind-bending magic I’d known the Indian Ocean to use. But there was no magic left here. At least not any I could sense.

Wait …

Magic had just poured into me in an overwhelming amount, hadn’t it? I flexed my wrist, feeling the power I hadn’t possessed moments before moving deep within my bones.

As if listening along with my thoughts, Barren’s hard muscles tensed. His tail swished through the rubble, and the rocks crumbled underneath the weight of his tail, dissolving into the current. “For a purpose or not,” he mumbled, “the magic is gone from these waters.”

Even without looking up at Barren, I could feel his dark eyes on me. I knew that a part of him had been looking into my mind as well.

Then I realized Barren must have known what was happening to me from the start. The throbbing, the headache, the dizzying pull of the trident as we moved closer to the portal. With a gift like his, how could he not?

That thought thawed my heart and sent my blood straight to a boil.

Yes—he’d known, and despite those dangers, he’d brought me closer. Brought me here. Even when I was in pain and my magic pulled, ripping from my body.

And that meant he also knew what I’d only just realized—that the trident within me had drawn in the portal’s old magic and that its magic was a part of me now.

Claira blinked, her eyes squinting through the half-light. “So, did all that magic just disappear?” She searched the rocky seabed, looking over all that was left of the once great standing stones. “Last time we were here, I saw glowing symbols all over those big, black monoliths. But now, I don’t see any. Not even on the bigger rock fragments.”

“The magic must have escaped when the stones broke.” I sighed, holding my arm out to her. “And I took in every trace of magic that was left behind when we got here,” I admitted. “The trident fucking absorbed it.”

“It what?” Claira swallowed hard. “How is that possible?”

I shrugged, feeling the tension of my skin against my bones as I ran my hand over the spot where my arm felt like it might have ripped apart from within.

“It fought for it,” I said simply. And now I was vibrating with the same magic that had once hummed through the standing stones. But what would that mean for me? “There was a push and a pull, like the portal was trying to suck the trident’s magic out of me. But then it fought back.” Bitter laughter filled my voice when I added, “The trident won.”

What would have happened if it hadn’t won was a question I wasn’t ready to ask aloud. As if by instinct, a part of me knew that if the trident’s magic was ripped from me, my life would have gone with it. That was the deal with fusing with a trident, wasn’t it?

I looked up at Barren, and his eyes averted in a way that told me he was still in my head.

Barren’s ability had the power to terrify those around him, but I’d always been fascinated by his gift and not nearly as afraid of him infiltrating my mind as I should have been.

Perhaps that was because I’d been so young when my father first warned me of the Indian Ocean’s crown prince who could pry into minds. He’d told me Barren would become a formidable king one day because of it. A threat to the rest of the kingdoms.

But to look into minds and know my father’s thoughts? To act and answer questions in ways that would keep me from being taught any more hard lessons? Foolish merfry that I was, I hadn’t feared Barren’s gift. I’d envied it.

And at our very first meeting, the young Indian Ocean crown prince had stared at me for so long I knew he must have looked into every corner of my mind. And when it came time for our parting goodbyes, he’d carefully uttered the words I would never forget.

“Not a single captain among us respects your king. ” The sternness on his face as he mumbled those words far surpassed his years, and it compelled me to believe him. “ Yet every one of them cherishes the day when they’ll finally serve you.”

He’d given me a stiff nod as he pulled away, and that was all it took to make me want to believe he could truly see into minds. And later that night I realized that, instead of using his gift to point out my weaknesses, he’d used it to build my confidence. To give me hope for my future that I’d been so desperate for.

I’d thought then that Barren was going to be the sort of king I hoped I would become one day.

And maybe that was why Barren and I had so easily chosen friendship. Because, unlike others, I’d never feared him.

He’d looked inside me and seen my insecurities, yet instead of fear, it gave me a sense of comfort to know that someone had seen all my holes. Stared into all my flaws, my fucking imperfections.

And I never had to pretend to be someone who I wasn’t around Barren, because no one could ever hide anything from him, could they? He had to be aware of the darkness inside each person he came across.

But now, circumstances had changed. We were a long way from the merfry we once were. And for once, I wasn’t sure if I could trust him.

Something passed over Barren’s face, almost unperceivable, when Claira suddenly hissed, “Kai, shut your eyes!”

“My eyes?”

“There’s something down there.” Her voice dropped, going deathly calm. “Slithering through the rocks.”

When I glanced down at the debris, there was a pair of bright white eyes set above a line of crooked teeth looking straight at us. Undulating lines tracked down the creature’s dark, slender body—at least the length of Barren’s tail, if not longer. An eel, I realized. But its coloring was unlike any of the eels known in the Atlantic.

Upon seeing our interest, the creature’s narrow body shifted, slipping between the rocks with a predatory silence that sent a shiver through my scales.

Had it come through the portal before it had been destroyed?

Kai’s eyes closed, and darkness spread over my vision until all that was left was the tension between us in the water.

“I don’t like the dark,” Laverne whimpered, her body cowering closer to us.

“Is it dark spa—?” Kai couldn’t even get the words out before Claira shushed him, her body going rigid.

Dark spawn? Apprehension coiled around my gut. Perhaps it wasn’t just an eel, after all.

Claira was always seeing things others could not. I trusted her vision more than I did my own.

“Swim,” she whispered, and even though we couldn’t see a thing, Barren’s tail thrashed through the water, sending us moving back in the direction we’d come.

I felt a weight join us as Kai grunted. “I’ve got you, Laverne. Hang on.”

“Get us out of here,” Claira said, louder this time. More urgent. My tail joined in, and despite the extra weight we were carrying, my fins sliced through the water twice as fast as I’d ever moved them before.

Blindly, we navigated the dark sea at a lightning-fast pace until we had gained enough distance from the portal for Claira to calm down enough to whisper, “I don’t believe it.”

“What did you see?” I asked, but she only let out another sound of frustration. Whatever it was, she wasn’t ready to say it out loud.

“Can I open my eyes?” Kai’s voice cracked with desperation. “I’m about to—to drop her.”

“Don’t you dare drop me, Kai-Kai!” Laverne trilled.

For once, I couldn’t blame him—with Barren’s and my combined strength, we were moving too fast.

“Not until I’m sure it’s not following us,” Claira said in a rush, and I didn’t like how nervous she sounded. “Sorry, Kai. Hold on a bit longer.”

We swam through the darkness for what seemed like ages before she finally relaxed enough to let Kai open his eyes again.

Little by little, our tails gradually slowed to a pace where Laverne could swim on her own again.

“You want to talk about it?” Barren asked, his chest still heaving from exertion.

Claira shivered. “There was an eel.” She paused, hesitant, before saying, “And I thought I saw—well, you guys will think I’m crazy.”

“You believed me when I said I thought the trident absorbed the portal’s magic, right?” I said, giving her a light nudge. “There’s nothing you could say that would sound crazier than that, beautiful.”

“Well, I—I think that eel might have been the sea… wizard.”

Kai opened his mouth with a question, but Claira cut him off with a groan.

“I know, I know. That’s crazy, right? But there was something strange about its eyes.” She sighed again, frustrated. “I don’t know. It looked familiar. But I do know, sea wizard or not, we needed to get out of there.”

“Mmh.” Barren nodded sternly, and she looked relieved that someone else agreed.

We only made it through a few more beats of silence before Kai opened his mouth again. “So, I guess this means we aren’t going to Barren’s island?”

“Fuck.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. I’d been too shocked by the destruction to realize that we needed a new plan. “So much for sneaking over to the Indian Ocean without Queen Javalynn noticing.”

“Let’s not talk about it down here,” Claira said softly, stealing looks back behind us. “The intelligence that eel had in its eyes… I don’t know. It feels like someone was watching us.”

“All right,” I said with a nod. “We’ll get back to shore and come up with a new plan.”

Kai gave Claira a playful nudge. “Hey, do you think this means we can go back to your place for dinner? I’ve been thinking about pie nonstop since yesterday.”

That seemed to lighten Claira’s mood. “I could go for some pie,” she said, her voice warming. “You guys don’t mind going back, do you?”

“Of course not,” I said.

“I love it.” Kai’s smile was almost as bright as his eyes. “It’s fun, staying with your family.”

Claira grinned, slowly nodding like she was pleased with the idea of us enjoying spending time with her land family. Then her face paled.

“ Oh no , your clothes.” She groaned. “I swear, if Gram sees me strolling up the beach with you guys naked, she’s really going to take her pistol out and start shooting. She thinks I’m only with Barren,” Claira said hotly, and she didn’t seem to notice the way Barren’s tail twisted, thrown off its rhythm. “Gram’s old-fashioned like that. She wouldn’t understand this whole multiple mate and thrall thing,” she added with a long sigh.

“Don’t worry.” I ran my free hand through my hair. It was amazing how much better I felt now that our swim had worked off some of my newfound energy. “We’ll resurface at one of your neighbor’s beaches. I’m sure they won’t mind the view.”

“Lee!” Claira elbowed me in the ribs. Then she paused. “Well, actually… What if we come up by the docks? I could run into the surf shop and grab you guys some clothes before we head back home.” She took a moment to work through it in her head some more. “It might work, as long as they have your sizes. Dad has a ton of store credit that he’s never going to use.”

“If covering all of this up is so important to you,” I said, gesturing down the length of my body, and I couldn’t help but smirk as Claira’s eyes rolled, “then go right ahead. Lead the way to the docks, beautiful.”