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Claira

“Y ou could just wrap yourself in a towel,” Leander suggested from the other side of the bathroom door.

I vented a huff as I pulled on one of Kai’s shirts. Did he really hate the idea of me wearing another man’s shirt so much? The doorframe creaked, and it was easy to imagine Leander rolling his forehead against it on the other side. Even though I’d told him I needed a minute alone, he’d been pouting since the moment I kicked him out of the bathroom.

Yeah—sorry , not sorry. With the way things were going earlier, neither of us was ever going to get clean or dressed or out of this bathroom.

“So you want me to just go around naked,” I answered, buttoning up the front of the longest button-down Barren had brought for me to try on. “Maybe that look works for you, but I think I’ll pass.”

I definitely needed something on. Now that Leander had his energy back, he couldn’t seem to keep his hands from roaming. Not that I was complaining—well, not until he’d summoned a freaking thunderstorm and forced enough water out of the plumbing to drench the entire bathroom. That warranted some complaining. So I made the call, and out he went.

Plus, there were some things a girl just had to do in a bathroom alone. Like taking the necessary after-sex pee. Leander seemed to enjoy looking at me, and that certainly wasn’t a task I required an audience for.

When Gram had first given me the talk and told me about this necessary peeing after the deed, I’d wondered why the cleanup portion of sex was never talked about or shown in movies or books. Now I knew. No one needed to see or read about the stuff that had just worked its way out of me. No—gravity was a cruel mistress, and thanks to her, there was a lot of stickiness down there to clean up.

Thank goodness I was about 99% sure I couldn’t get pregnant. There were so many things about being a mermaid I’d never learned, but that was one thing I’d managed to figure out thanks to the maids that worked in the palace.

One of the things they liked to talk about the most was what they would do when they were old enough to deliver a merfry and be free from their service to the kingdom. I hadn’t known quite what they meant then, but the memories had stuck with me because of the way the maids giggled together as they schemed, arguing over which captain would be easiest to seduce when the time came. Naive as I was back then, I’d thought that they were looking forward to finding love and starting a family of their own. Now that I was older, I knew it was never a family they were after. Mermaids wanted their freedom, and leaving a merfry behind for a captain to raise on his own was apparently the easiest way for them to get it. Disgusting.

Looking down at my bare legs, I hoped the no-merfries-until-you’re-older rule applied to the reproductive organs of mermaids in their human form as well. Like really, really hoped.

“I’m okay with you coming out naked,” Leander’s low voice rumbled from the other side of the door. I couldn’t keep from rolling my eyes again. Of course, he was Team Naked. Leander hadn’t even bothered asking for some of Kai’s or Barren’s clothes to try on—though it would surprise me if either fit.

While Kai’s shirts fit me well enough, it was his pants that were the problem. My hips were just too wide. So while I wasn’t quite Team Naked, I was yet again a member of the No-Pants Club. I swear, I needed to start hiding pants like I hid knives.

Maybe we should get T-shirts, I thought with a snort. If any club deserved a T-shirt, it was the No-Pants Club.

Although making light of the situation helped, Barren was probably still out there—not to mention Kai and Laverne. And though Kai still hadn’t awoken, Laverne would no doubt have something to say about me parading around without pants. I could almost hear her shrieks of disapproval knocking into my head already . “Shameless!”

But what choice did I have? I’d like to be dry for once, and thanks to Leander’s new water tricks, everything I’d worn into the bathroom was soaked. Apparently, he was now a thunderstorm god—or something. So that was fun. Definitely not the outcome I’d expected when he stabbed himself in the heart with his father’s trident.

I’d even cracked the door open to ask Barren for more towels, and one long, awkward pause later, he’d brought us a couple of fresh towels from his room. I’d been grateful, but it was hopeless. After a second in the literal water closet, they were soaked, too.

My hand rested on the doorknob as I cast a quick glance at my reflection. The mirror was still foggy, but I could see my reflection enough to verify that Kai’s shirt covered most of my ass.

Sighing, I toed one of the soggy towels away from the door and turned the knob. “How’s Kai doing?” Cool air hit me as soon as I was through the door, but it barely had time to register. My jaw dropped. “What are you wearing?” I gasped, taking Leander in. He’d been naked when I kicked him out of the bathroom, but this … This was something I never expected to see.

“They’re Barren’s,” Leander said with a grin. He shifted, smoothing out the bottom of the pair of maroon boxer-briefs he was wearing with his palms. It was a fit loose on his legs, but the band miraculously held to his waist. “He made me put them on.”

“Barren wears underwear?” I said the thought aloud, and practically jumped out of my skin when a ceramic plate clanked against the countertop of the kitchenette across the room.

“I do,” Barren announced before clearing his throat. His expression stayed even until one of his dark eyebrows slowly rose. “Would you prefer it if I didn’t?”

My jaw unhinged, gaping open, but before I could stammer out some foolish comeback, his head inclined back to the countertop. “A joke,” he said simply, and he started picking at the grapes on his plate.

A joke . Of course—a joke. I let out a nervous laugh. “Sorry, you just surprised me.” My face felt like an inferno. “I didn’t know mermen knew about underwear.”

“Mmh,” Barren hummed as he snapped a sizeable grape from the bunch.

Something about Barren was off since our time in the water. He seemed more present, more open. Like, for once, he wasn’t trying to shrink away from us. Or that maybe he was confident or comfortable enough to finally let himself take up space. I wasn’t sure what had changed, or why, but…

Suddenly, Barren’s eyes cut back up to me as he passed a grape into his mouth. The squared edge of his jaw moved in a slow beat as he chewed it. One corner of his lips lifted into a smile, and I nearly fell over.

Barren was smiling at me?

And not a normal smile. The way he’d moved almost felt… flirty .

But there was no way. Even though he’d kissed me briefly under the water, it had been just that. A brief kiss. Nothing more. Nothing since then. And now that we were out of the ocean, he had to have known about Leander and me, and all the time we’d wasted getting distracted in the bathroom together. Sure, the shower and the bathroom fan had both been running, but we hadn’t exactly been quiet. Plus, he’d been there when Kai had declared himself my mate. It would be crazy for him to feel for me what I… I…

It took Barren passing another grape into his mouth for me to notice I was still staring at his lips. What the heck is wrong with me?

Cursing myself, I turned away to walk over to the side of the bed where Kai was still sleeping. At least, I hoped Kai was only asleep. A quick rest, and then he’d be recovered, smiling up at us, awake. He would open his eyes soon, wouldn’t he?

Laverne dozed next to him. Her whiskers twitched, fluttering against his bare shoulder. I took a mental note to offer Kai a shirt as soon as he awoke and drew a hand over Laverne to gently stroke through his hair. I was surprised by how soft the short spikes felt moving through my fingers.

Arms slid over my hips as Leander closed in, pressing up against my back. I thought he might pull my hand away, but he only held me, his chin resting on the top of my head like he was content with watching my fingers brush through Kai’s hair.

His voice came the second my hand retreated, low and serious. “You’re drawn to him. Aren’t you?”

“I—” My heart thundered, my hand closing into a fist. Was I really that obvious?

I tried swallowing the lump forming in my throat, but the more I thought about Leander’s question, the more my emotions grew. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Lee.” My words sounded weak and brittle, just like I was. Damn, I was pathetic.

“My heart, it just…” I couldn’t explain it. I didn’t know the words to say to make him understand. It was like I was suspended between them, my body pulled in different directions as my insides stretched and twisted. Toward Leander, toward Kai, toward?—

Oh goodness. What was I even thinking?

Gritting my teeth, I whipped around to throw my arms around Leander. I needed to feel his embrace, his comfort. My heart hurt—it literally hurt me seeing Kai injured and not being able to curl around him and hold him close while he recovered. But if I did, what would Leander think? And Barren? He was watching, too, wasn’t he? Would he stare at me, jaw tense, if I crawled in bed next to Kai?

The need to cry nearly choked me, and I buried my face into Leander’s chest as I fought back the urge. His arms came around me easily, wrapping me up in his warmth, and all I could think about was what a curse it was to be born a mermaid. Leander was offering his comfort freely, but it was the same comfort I yearned to give Kai. But why ? Why did mermaids have to be like this? It wasn’t fair to them, to me. Why was my heart drawing me in different directions?

“I wish I didn’t feel like this,” I breathed out, pressing my cheek against Leander’s chest as his arms tightened around me.

Leander’s deep voice rumbled against my ear. “Don’t be ashamed of how you feel.” He pulled back, tipping my chin up with a finger, and his expression softened as he looked down at me. “Even when I thought you were dead, I still loved you. I couldn’t help it.” His damp hair shone like spun gold as he slid a hand through it, his lips drawing into an equally bright smirk. “You don’t regret loving me, do you?”

My breath caught as his piercing blue eyes looked right at me, unwavering. “No. Never.”

His smirk broadened. I’d evidently told him exactly what he wanted to hear. “And you feel the same way about Kai?”

The entire room seemed to go silent as I drew in a breath. Even Laverne’s thunderous snoring faded as my pulse kicked up in my ears.

I hadn’t expected him to ask me that. Not straight out like he had. Especially not so calmly, right after he’d given me one of his cocky grins.

“I don’t know.” But as soon as the words left me, I knew I wasn’t being truthful to him or myself. “That’s not true,” I mumbled, my head shaking.

Even if I was still confused, he deserved to know how I was feeling. He’d asked me plainly, and the only way we could work through this was if I told him how I really felt. “It’s different, Lee. Between you and me and me and Kai. No one else can rile me up like you can, and when you’re not around, driving me crazy, I find myself wishing that you were. But Kai, he… feels like an old friend.” I raised my chin to gauge Leander’s reaction. He didn’t look mad or anywhere near as upset as I’d expected. “So yes, I’m drawn to him. But I’m drawn to you, too,” I added, giving him a small, nervous smile, “though I think you already know that.”

“I’ve had my suspicions.” Leander pulled me in closer, and his grin deepened until his eyes flashed over to his arm. Although he’d already said he couldn’t see the black marks there, I could tell he was thinking about the trident. I still had so many questions. Like why he had done it, and what he was planning to do now that he had the trident instead of his father. But before I could ask, he continued, “You don’t need to change how you feel. You’re perfect how you are, Claira.”

“But, this—” I gestured to him, to me, to Kai, and before I even realized, my eyes had landed on Barren. A shiver passed through me when I found his dark eyes were already looking directly at me, and I quickly averted my gaze. Although I tried to swallow down my emotions, my voice still cracked when I said, “ Us . Just yesterday, you hated Kai.”

Leander’s body shifted against mine as he looked past my shoulder, down at the bed behind me. All his charms faded as his lips parted, a troubled look coming over his face. “I did. I thought he was a spineless fucking idiot, but it turns out I was wrong.” His throat bobbed in a dry swallow. “Even if we never get along, I’ll always love you more than I hate him, Claira. That’s a promise.”

“When did you become such a romantic?” I breathed out, feeling my face flush. It was like my heart flipped in my chest every time he said he loved me.

“Claira.” His voice dropped lower, its slow cadence wrapping around my ears and drawing me in like a somber melody. “There might be a time when I’m not around. When I can’t protect you anymore, even though I want to.”

And then the words sank in, and it was like the spell of his song had shattered. “What do you mean?” My eyes searched his. “I don’t need you to protect me, Lee.”

“I know you don’t. Trust me, I know.” His grip on me tightened. “I’m trying to say that there is a price to pay for hiding one of Poseidon’s relics away like I did. Like I had to do.”

Barren let out a loud huff from across the room. But when I turned my head, Leander tilted my chin right back toward him. “Believe me, Claira, I only did it because I was out of options. There was no other place to hide it. Nowhere safe, where my father couldn’t have reached it.”

A stool screeched against the floor, and Barren grunted like he’d gotten to his feet, but Leander kept talking, an urgency rising in his voice. “If he’d gotten it, he was going to use its power on you, on me, on anyone or anything that stood between him and the other tridents. He was going to start a war and?—”

“You could have held on to it,” Barren growled from across the room. Holy … With how thick Barren’s accent was, it sounded like he’d actually growled.

Leander’s eyes shut as he drew in a slow, deep breath. “You don’t understand. My father knows all my weaknesses, and if he knew I had it, he would have hurt everyone that mattered. Then he wouldn’t stop, even when he got the trident back.” When his eyes opened again, they were glassy, somehow deadened. Like perhaps he had seen enough horrors through the years to know exactly what his father was capable of. “Now he can’t have it. Ever. He’d have to kill me for it, but I… I—” Horror rounded his eyes as the words formed on his lips. “I finally have the power to hurt him first.”

I brushed my fingers over the dark marks covering his chest. “But the trident hurts you , doesn’t it?” I asked, feeling like I already knew the answer. “Can’t you take it back out?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Leander said, his voice suddenly soft. “But yes, it might hurt me if I use its power. That’s why I don’t plan on using it.”

“So it won’t hurt you as long as you don’t use it?” I thought of the whirlpools he’d made in the bathroom and the storm he’d apparently summoned outside. That had definitely been him using magic. He hadn’t even seemed to know he’d done it. “But how much magic do you need to use before?—”

“It will be a slow death,” Barren cut in. He came up beside us, the muscles lining his square jaw pulsing with tension. Eyes darker than coal stared Leander down as Barren bared his teeth, showing off an anger I’d never seen in him before. “One that will not only destroy you, but those around you.” My breath caught as Barren’s dark eyes dropped to mine, focusing on me like he wanted to ensure I heard every word. “You can be sure of that.”

The warning in Barren’s voice made me shiver, but before I could say anything, Leander had turned, placing himself between me and Barren.

“You don’t have to worry about that. I won’t use any of the trident’s magic.” There was a resolute tenderness in his voice. “I’m not like my father. I don’t crave power just so others will fear me. I only want to protect what’s important. You. The kingdom.” His hand came up to cup under my chin, his thumb brushing a line across my bottom lip. “At least, I hope I’m not as cruel as he is.”

“You’re not.” I pressed a kiss to his thumb, then turned down to kiss his palm. “You’re nothing like your father, Lee.”

The stiffness in his shoulders relaxed, and he let out a long breath like I’d eased his fears.

But I was anything but relaxed. “You realize you’ve already used its magic, right?” I stared at the marks on his chest. “When we, uh—” My eyes cut over to Barren. He stood behind Leander like a massive statue, anger and annoyance lining every muscled inch of his face and neck. “While we were in the bathroom .”

“I’ll learn to control it,” Leander threw right back, and I let out a heavy sigh. So it was that easy, huh? He’d just do the thing . He’d been just as certain he could teach me to swim, but last I checked, I was still as useless in the water as I’d always been.

“But you didn’t even know what you were doing until after you finished,” I reminded him.

Humor twitched at the corners of his lips. “True,” he rumbled, his hands pressing into my lower back until our hips aligned. “But maybe with some more practice…”

The rising tension between us shattered as Barren barked some word I couldn’t place. The harsh syllables struck like a curse as he stomped back over to the counter.

I was about to ask if he was okay when Leander stopped me with a shake of his head. “It’s okay, Claira. I understand why he’s upset.”

I couldn’t help but feel like maybe I understood why, too. Barren was always quiet, but Kai and Leander clearly meant a lot to him. “It must be hard,” I whispered, staring off at Barren as he rounded the countertop. “Watching your friends get hurt.”

Of the three of them, Barren was the one who kept surprising me at every turn. He’d seemed stony-hearted at first, but I had a feeling there was a deeper layer to Barren. One that he rarely let others see. Someone uncaring wouldn’t have risked his own scales to save Kai. He’d even recognized what Leander was preparing to do and tried to stop it before Leander had even turned the trident to his chest. They were lucky to have Barren looking after them.

“I hope you’re not too angry to give me a ride back to the warehouse?” Leander asked suddenly, turning to Barren.

My eyes snapped back and forth between them. “What? Like, right now?” My brows furrowed. Kai still hadn’t even woken up yet. How could I leave him?

“Don’t worry. I won’t be gone long.” Leander chuckled. “I’ll be back here in the morning.”

“Wait—you don’t want me to go with you?”

“I think it would be better if you stayed here, don’t you? In case he wakes up.” Leander’s eyes turned down to the bed, and a torrent of emotions showed on his face. “I know his pet is here with him, but I’m sure he’ll still want to see you and know you’re safe.”

I knew the trident had affected Leander’s chest and arm, but had it done something to his head, too? This wasn’t like him. “Are you sure you need to go back to the warehouse? How can we be sure King Eamon won’t notice the marks all over you?”

“I was planning on grabbing clothes on the way.” He took a breath, rolling his wrist and watching his arm move like he was making doubly sure he couldn’t see the marks I saw. “With any luck, I won’t even see my father. But there are a couple of captains I need to talk to. Ones I would trust with my life. When I disappear, I’ll need them to keep watch for me on the inside.”

“When you… disappear?” Was he planning on leaving the Kingdom of the Atlantic now that he had the trident? Or was there something else he was planning? My heart hammered in my chest at the thought. Where would he even go?

Leander’s lips pressed against my forehead. “We can talk about that tomorrow. After Barren brings me back and I’ve worked out all the details. But you’ll be safe here for tonight. Well, as long as you don’t get too close to Kai’s fancy walrus pet.”

“Laverne,” I corrected. “She’s a sea lion.”

He gave a shrug that said he couldn’t care less what animal she was.

Although I hated being told to stay put, for once, I couldn’t find it in me to argue. I didn’t want to leave this hotel room. Not until Kai woke up and I knew he was all right. “Fine. I’ll stay here for the night.”

Leander gave a quick nod. “You ready, Barren?” he called, and Barren gave a grunt that might have been a yes. The tense way they looked at each other made my spine tingle. Something told me the ride over to the warehouse would not be a peaceful one. There was obviously a lot that needed to be said between them.

Leander leaned in to give me another quick kiss, this time on the lips.

“Wait. You’re really okay with me staying here with him?” I asked as soon as he pulled away. My eyes searched his face for even a shred of doubt. “Are you sure it won’t… bother you?”

He rubbed a thoughtful hand through his hair. “My mother was never happy to return to my father. Or to me,” he said slowly. “But you’re different. I can feel it, down deep in my bones. I know you mean it when you say you love me.”

He took my hand in his, squeezing it lightly. “So as long as you promise you’ll never push me away,” he continued, a hopeful smile forming on his lips. “And that you’ll always come back to me. Then I think that when Kai wakes up, the three of us can work this out.”

Work this out . Could it really be possible?

“It will be hard, won’t it?” I asked, feeling uncertain.

“Did you think loving me was going to be easy?” His thumb came up to smooth between my brows. Apparently, I looked as worried as I felt. “Love is a fucking mess. But it still feels nice sometimes, right?”

I snorted a laugh. “Yeah, it does feel nice. I promise I won’t push you away, Lee,” I said, meaning every word. Closing my eyes, I enjoyed the feeling of my skin soaking up the heat from his hand. “At least not on purpose. You might eventually get tired of me, though.”

He let out a chuckle. “That’s the last thing you should be worried about.” He went to pull away, but paused as his eyes fell back on Kai. “It helps that I can trust him to protect you. If anything ever happens to me, he’ll still be here.”

“Nothing will happen to you,” I said, and his lips curled as he turned for the door. Oh— hello there . I realized then that he was leaving dressed in only a pair of boxer-briefs. Ones that were barely clinging to his waist.

Barren’s car keys jingled as he fished them out of his front pocket. He waited until Leander was out the door before turning back to me. “I’ll come check on you tonight,” he said firmly, then he went for the door.

“Oh, uh—okay,” I stammered, barely able to get the words out before he was out of the room. Barren was coming back to check on me? A blush crept up my face as the hotel room door shut behind him.