Page 33

33

Claira

T his was exactly what Queen Javalynn had explicitly warned me not to do.

But as I watched Barren slip into the water a second time—much more gracefully now that he had a tail instead of legs—I couldn’t help but want to let him carry me away.

My breath caught as the ocean lights flickered back to life around him, washing him in a soft blue light.

When we’d fallen into the water, I’d thought of the lights as a hundred tiny eyes watching us in the darkness. I’d screamed, reminded of the queen’s threat of what would happen if I dared to leave land, and the next thing I knew, Barren had pulled us back onto the deck.

From up here, the lights really did look like stars, or something even more enchanting. Miniature sprites, perhaps, suspended in liquid darkness.

“They’re beautiful,” I whispered into the night air. The sea of stars, I believed he’d called them.

It occurred to me now why there were so many tales of merfolk luring sailors to their demise. A mythical titan in the flesh, bathed in magic light. No one could have denied Barren’s invitation to join him in the water.

“We have no use for lanterns here,” he said with a nod. “The lights follow us into the deepest water.”

I reached down to dip a hand into the calm ocean. “Is it… magic?” I asked, cupping underneath a glowing dot, separating it from the rest. I pulled it close with great care, studying the cold blue light swirling lazily in the water trapped in my palm.

It was certainly unlike anything I’d ever seen in the Atlantic.

Barren leaned against the edge of the dock as if studying the light, too. “Humans call it bioluminescence.” He gestured out to the coast with his chin. “Many travel from far away, hoping to glimpse the glowing trails along our shores.” Then he cleared his throat. “In truth, the plankton in these waters react to our magic.”

“So the lights follow you as you swim?” I asked, releasing the glowing speck back into the ocean. It certainly seemed easier than the manual method the Atlantic relied on to make organic matter glow. “That’s amazing.”

“The trails they leave behind are works of art.” Blue light glittered in Barren’s eyes as he adjusted his grip on my hand. “I would show you, if I could.”

The corner of my mouth lifted. “Well, you’ll just have to make it up to me by telling me this secret of yours.”

“Mmh.” His hand tugged at mine, and I let him use his strength to pull me into the water. This time, I was prepared, and the first salty breath went down smoothly.

We started descending, and my stomach fluttered as Barren pulled me close.

His long frills swished underneath us, knocking against my useless tail as he held me tight to his chest. “Nothing will harm you,” he assured me, his deep voice penetrating the water. Even without the words, his arm around me was enough to make me feel safe and reassured.

Just as Barren had said, bioluminescent plankton lit, dancing around us. Even the tiniest disturbances in the water seemed to produce breathtaking effects, and I watched in awe as the stars twirled, illuminating our surroundings with their soft light.

“Sorry that I screamed,” I whispered, pulling myself higher on Barren’s chest. “I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but your sister threatened to order you to execute me if I went into the ocean.”

I’d expected Barren to tense at that, but a deep laugh rocked through him instead. “Did she?”

“Yep.” I met his laughter with a nervous one of my own. “And if you refuse, she said she’ll execute both of us. So, that’s fun.”

It hadn’t seemed like such a terrible threat earlier, because how would she have known if I were to go into the water? Now that I realized we were to be followed by hundreds of tiny beacons…

“Don’t worry,” Barren chuckled, as if he’d read my concerns plainly on my face. “My sister doesn’t know where I live.”

“I’m not worried,” I said, feeling all the strength in Barren’s chest as he moved us deeper into the ocean. “I’m not an expert at reading people like you are, but I think she’s afraid of you going after her trident. She didn’t believe me when I told her you’re not interested in wielding magic.”

I thought Barren would laugh again, but instead his jaw tightened, his lips compressing.

Strange . He wasn’t interested in the trident, was he?

We stayed silent for a moment as a school of fish cut through the lights in front of us, leaving a shimmering trail in their wake. They scattered around a mountain of plate coral forming over the sand as Barren pulled out of a dive.

“Barren?” I waited for his mmmh before asking, “How far away is your kingdom?”

We passed a circle of coral and Barren dipped low, bringing us close enough to the seafloor to make out the vibrant tapestry of shapes and colors in the light. I was about to ask if he was deliberately ignoring my question when he took a deep breath of salt water.

“I believe I owe you a secret.”

… He was definitely ignoring the question.

Still, I was curious. “You’ve kept me waiting, so it better be a good one,” I teased, my lips curling.

The strokes of his tail slowed as he hummed a deep note, setting us drifting above the reef.

“I have an ability passed down through my father’s blood,” he said carefully. With a solemn expression, his hand loosened its grip like he might let go altogether, and I felt a wave of unease. “It often scares those around me.”

An ability?

“Like how I can see in the dark?” I asked, barely realizing we’d stopped moving.

His chest filled slowly. “Although it’s frightening, it’s a part of who I am. Do you remember when I tried to teach you to swim?”

“Yes,” I whispered, my throat feeling tight at the memory. I’d barely known him then. The Barren that had placed a hand on my neck seemed as good as a stranger to me now.

I looked into his eyes, desperately searching for a glimmer of the reassurance he’d shown me earlier, but there was nothing. Only sadness.

“Remember how you realized I’d seen into your thoughts?” A look of anguish settled over him. “That is my gift,” he whispered, his eyes averting. “Or maybe, my curse.”

I felt the force of his heart thudding against his chest as I tried to process his words.

My head swarmed with more thoughts than even a seasoned mind reader could pull apart. “You… know my thoughts?” I whispered, and Barren’s wince told me it was true.

His mouth hung open a moment, as if he were collecting the right words to say. “If I cared to listen, yes,” he said finally, and my heart sank.

I barely believed it—Barren could read minds?

And Leander knew. He had to, with the way he always started to mention how Barren had a knack for reading people before quickly changing the topic. Why hadn’t he told me? Was it their friendship?

This whole time, had Barren really known these silly thoughts I had whenever he held me in his arm?

Was he listening now?

The moment was tense, heavy with unspoken words. Barren’s eyes fixed on mine. It was as if we both knew something was about to happen, something inevitable.

He hesitated for a moment before he spoke, his voice low and strained. “Claira, I…” he trailed off, a mix of emotions flickering in his eyes.

“You what?” I rasped.

“I didn’t want… you to look at me like this,” he said, his desperation clear in the broken tone of his voice.

“Like this? Like what, Barren? Confused? Shocked?”

“Afraid,” he said gruffly, his face crumbling as if he were coming apart inside. “You’re afraid of me.”

Afraid of him?

I stared up at him in disbelief, my mind suddenly clear.

“I’m not afraid of you, Barren! It’s just—I’m embarrassed .” I resisted the urge to hide my face against his brace. “You knew what I was trying to do when—when I…”

Poseidon help me . Barren must have known what I’d set out to do when I’d put the bikini on for him. How I’d planned to straddle him in the hot tub—back when I thought there would be a hot tub—and tell him that his voice called to me.

Nausea hit. It wasn’t my fault his dick was so big that I couldn’t help but think about it when it had brushed against me. Did he know how intimidated I’d felt, yet oddly curious if I’d be able to take it?

“Oh, no—I can’t control it. Why would my mind go there? ” I groaned, pressing my forehead to the leather spanning his chest. “Please tell me you’re not in there now. Please, Barren . I might die if you are.”

Without saying a word, Barren’s tail coiled, encircling me in a full body embrace I wasn’t ready for. When I looked up, an odd smile had broken through his previously solemn expression.

Poseidon’s balls —he’d heard all of it. Barren was aware of every dirty thought I’d had about his titan cock.

“Dammit,” I yelped, my face really on fire. I couldn’t stop myself. “Just drop me off somewhere. Let me wither away down here.”

Barren shook his head. “I’ve given you the wrong impression,” he said, his arm hooking around me like he wasn’t about to humor my dramatics and let me go. “I can look into minds, but more times than not, I choose not to.”

“Wait—why?” I gawked up at him, my eyes narrowing. “If I could read minds, I’d do it all the time.”

The thought of being one step ahead of Laverne was too tempting to ignore.

Suddenly, everything clicked into place, and it was like I was looking at Barren in a new light. This was why everyone in his kingdom looked at him like they did. Was it also why they’d chosen his sister as their ruler, for fear of his ability?

“I’m not fond of my gift.” The pressure of Barren’s tail slowly fell from around me, and moments later, we were drifting through the water again. “When I was a merfry, my father wished to develop my ability,” he said, his eyes on the light in front of us. “So, he forbade those around me to speak.”

There was a catch in his voice, and he paused for a moment, letting a ray pass across the sand before propelling us through the water again. “It’s a difficult gift, one that he never truly mastered himself, so he did all he could to… encourage me to use it.”

I didn’t know what to say. “No one spoke to you?” I asked softly, and the heartbreaking way Barren’s mouth fell made me wish I hadn’t asked it at all.

“No,” he said, his eyes never leaving the open sea ahead. “Not with spoken words, at least.”

“That’s horrible,” I managed, wondering what it must have been like for a merfry. The maids often ignored me, but I still had Papa, Leander, and the occasional other merfry.

“Mmh.” We fell back into silence until I noticed Barren’s tail strokes getting faster. “We’re almost there. Do you see the gates?” he asked, and I focused ahead.

Dark seafloor spread before us, dotted with clusters of flat coral. Even in the blue glow, the sand… didn’t look right. I shuddered, my body squirming against Barren’s.

“What is this place?” Even though I was typically immune to the cold while in the ocean, a shiver worked through me, all the way to the frills at the end of my tail. “A graveyard?” I asked, squinting out at the black sand. There were no bones, but there was an ominous dip in the seabed, like it was waiting to swallow up any who dared swim too close. “It doesn’t feel right.”

Although I wanted nothing more than for Barren to turn back, his tail shifted, sending us even closer to the dangerous dip. The water thickened, clinging to my lungs like soot laden with the harsh brine of death and decay.

“Barren,” I pleaded, and my panic eased when he halted completely.

“Hold on to me,” he said, a gentle request that I complied with. He released me carefully, and when he reached out, I gasped as his hand vanished to his wrist.

Completely gone.

Before I could react, he pulled back, revealing his hand was still whole. “What the heck?” I mumbled, reaching out to try out the illusion for myself. Only whatever force had caused his hand to disappear didn’t seem to work for me, and I waved my hand in vain.

Soon, the weight of my tail caused me to slip, and Barren’s arm yanked around me. “I told you to hold on,” he mumbled, settling me back against his chest. His jaw worked as he looked out at the water. “I take it you don’t see the gates.”

Gates?

Weariness settled over me as I looked out, taking in the strange seascape. “Uh, no. No gates. Just a bunch of dark sand and a creepy atmosphere. Even more unnerving than the ocean usually is.”

Barren nodded, his eyes scanning the area with a strange intensity. Like maybe he saw gates. Or something out there other than a sand trap. Then he whipped us back around, and my unease abated as he started swimming back in the direction we came from.

“Wait—that’s it?” I asked, turning back to the lights trailing our tails. “You asked me if I see gates, I say no, and now we’re leaving the creepy sand graveyard?”

I paused, a sudden thought hitting me. “That’s not some gateway to the underworld, is it?” I whispered.

Barren muttered something to himself with a hum. “Sorry, I’m thinking.”

“Oh. Well, okay,” I mumbled, holding tight around his waist as he swam with his thoughts. “I’ll be here when you’re done thinking. Stuck to your chest like a whalesucking remora.”

A titan-sucking remora, my mind corrected, and just as my thoughts wandered to a place they ought not to, Barren’s voice rumbled against my ear.

“Those were the gates to Malkeevo,” he said gruffly, not bothering to look back at them. “It appears the illusion hiding the kingdom away is still intact.”

Illusion? Then I realized—Malkeevo. That was the kingdom the cecaelian soldiers had complained of searching for, to no avail, wasn’t it?

“That’s a good thing, though, right?” I asked, surveying the sea behind us, but the knowledge that his kingdom was still safe only seemed to trouble Barren further.

“The illusion needs refreshing,” he said with a grunt. “Much like your lanterns do in the Atlantic.”

“Let me guess—the trident’s power is the only way to refresh it?” I asked, and he nodded grimly.

“I had a suspicion she kept it hidden on land. Now I’m certain.”

Damn . It made sense now why Barren’s sister hadn’t wanted me to go into the water. It seemed she didn’t want the other kingdoms to know that her trident had always been in her possession.

“Well, that’s good, right? There’s no point for us to go looking for it when it was never lost,” I offered, and Barren’s jaw tensed.

“No. It means my fears are correct.” He swallowed, his tail falling into impossibly long strokes. “You’re in danger no matter where you go. At sea and on land.”

“Well,” I mumbled, my unease quickly compounding. “As long as your sister doesn’t find out about this trip, maybe I’ll be able to stay safe on land.”

“She won’t,” he said immediately. “No one will know what we saw. Not Leander, not Kai.”

He wanted me to keep this a secret from the others? Now that seemed a bit extreme. They were my mates, after all. What harm would there be in them knowing that Barren’s sister still had her trident? “But?—”

“No one can know,” Barren said firmly, the desperation in his tone hinting that there may be more danger in the knowledge than I first thought.

I relented with a sigh. My secrets sure were mounting. “All right, I suppose we can keep one secret,” I said, my eyes narrowing on the underside of his jaw. “But only because you’re my fake husband, and I’m trying to be a good fake wife.”

The tension broke as the corner of Barren’s lips cracked into a smile. Yeah—I thought that would get him. “I wasn’t sure you still wanted to be my fake wife,” he said, his voice husky with amusement.

“Of course.” A smile of my own crept over my lips. “I plan on traveling all over the world with that passport.”

Then my face flushed, because while he probably thought we were innocently flirting, I meant it. I wanted to see the world, and traveling as Claira Arwa was my first and only opportunity to make it happen.

The ocean grew increasingly shallow as we neared the bungalow. Barren took a slow breath of salt water, and I felt it to—the disappointment we both shared that we’d already returned, and our outing together would soon be over. The movement of his tail came to a stop, and the water grew more serene around us as we drifted closer to the surface.

Barren turned down to me, one eyebrow arched in inquiry. “Do you have a companion in mind for these trips?”

I bit my lip, trying to hide my eagerness. “Actually, I was hoping one of my mates would want to go with me,” I said, feeling my cheeks flush with a mix of embarrassment and anticipation.

Barren’s gaze darted away, his throat working in a nervous bob. “I see,” he muttered, his tail flicking back into motion, bringing us over to the side of the dock.

Refusing to let the moment slip away, I reached up to turn his jaw back to me. Our eyes met, and my heart fluttered as I mustered the courage to ask the question that had lingered between us for far too long.

“Tell me, Barren,” I said softly, my fingers grazing his cheek as he positioned himself to lift me back up to the dock, “Does my voice… ever call to you?”

For a moment, his dark eyes held mine, a mixture of surprise and something else, something that set my heart pounding even faster.

Then shock overtook his expression, and I must have really surprised him because he seemed to have lost all control of his strength as he hoisted me up. And instead of lifting me onto the dock, he missed the surface completely, and a thunderous crack reverberated through the water as my head met the wood with a solid thud .

A hundred glowing sprites twinkled in my vision, and when my head lolled forward, everything turned dark.