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39

Leander

“I ’m done waiting.” I stormed back toward Barren’s bedroom for the hundredth time. “It’s too damn quiet. We haven’t heard a sound from them since we woke up.”

Kai popped up, letting the weight he’d been lifting clatter down beside him. Sweat streamed down his face as he panted. “Dude, you were the one who said we should give them some space.” He swiped an arm over his forehead. “A little alone time to bond, right?”

I shot him a sharp glare that immediately caused him to back down and resume lifting. “That’s ten more repetitions for arguing with me. Laverne—spot him.” I jabbed a finger in her direction, then pointed firmly to Kai.

Her head popped up off the couch to snort her disapproval. “What? ME?”

“You heard me.” It was less about her getting off the couch and more about pushing Kai. If he believed I thought his pet could handle the weight, maybe it would motivate him to work harder.

“It’s fine,” Kai blew out. “I’ve—I’ve got this.”

He was damn right he had this. Kai was surprisingly sturdy for a merman of his size. “All right, I’m heading in,” I said, turning back to Barren’s bedchamber door. “Barren’s had more than enough time to find out what happened to her back at Javalynn’s place.”

I cracked my knuckles, visualizing what I would do to the poor soul when I got my hands on them. Oh—I was going to enjoy it. I couldn’t deny the madness that tinged my voice as I added, “I’m ready to know whose throat we need to rip out.”

Kai wheezed out a nervous laugh as I pushed open the door to the bedchamber. But I wasn’t joking.

“Claira? Barren?” I called, not bothering to knock. My cock strained against the front of my pants as I took a step inside. I was more than ready to handle whatever state I might find them in and unopposed to offering my assistance if needed. With how quiet things had been, it seemed Barren could use the help. “I’m coming in.”

Light filtered in from the back window and doors. “The fuck?” I muttered, getting a whiff of the room. Instead of sweat, the heavy scent of salt filled the air.

The next thing that caught my attention was Barren’s massive figure, solid and bare, sprawled out over the bed. His breathing was steady, and although I couldn’t see his face for the arm he’d thrown over it, what I could see of him was more than enough to have me turning right back around.

Fuck, he’s huge.

I’d never given much thought to Barren’s cock, but now I had to shake my head to rid myself of the image. Maybe he didn’t need my assistance after all.

I cleared my throat, trying to make my presence known, when the bed creaked with movement.

Barren’s voice, low and hoarse, gave away his confusion. “Leander?”

“Yeah, sorry. I couldn’t wait?—”

“Where’s Claira?” he asked, and I found myself staring blankly at the wall ahead of me.

“What do you mean, where’s Claira?” I turned to see Barren’s massive frame bursting out of bed with the force of an enraged bull shark.

His eyes darted around the room, and his breath came out in a ragged snarl. “Is she with you?”

“What do you mean, is she with me?” I snarled right back. “Don’t tell me you fucking lost her again!”

A dazed look came over his eyes, and he stumbled, catching himself with a hand on the bed. “I must have fallen asleep,” he grumbled before shaking off his stupor to charge toward the washroom. When he stuck his head inside, I knew something was deeply wrong by the way the wall of his back tensed to stone. “She isn’t here.”

“Then where is she?” I growled, fighting not to grab hold of him. All this time, I believed she was here, safe with Barren. “You were supposed to be with her!”

But I didn’t strike out at him. Instead, I took a step back, clenching my fists until my knuckles ached, as if that might somehow hold back my rage.

I couldn’t afford to summon another storm. Not with how things had been going. I was already feeling the effects of the trident wearing on me, draining my energy, and perhaps more. No—this wasn’t the time to panic and lash out with anger. Not yet. “She probably stepped outside,” I offered, imagining what Kai would say. “To clear her head or something.”

“Her head .” Barren groaned, slumping against the doorframe.

Then, in a sudden switch, his eyes went wild with panic. He charged past me. He headed for the back of his chamber and threw open the doors. I followed after him, nearly tripping over the first fucking plant I came across outside.

The sound of waves crashing against the dock filled the air, and I blew out a breath before calling, “Claira?”

She was nowhere in sight, and it was growing harder by the second to keep my emotions in check. Fuck .

With no other options left, I turned back to Barren.

“Tell me what happened,” I demanded, but he wouldn’t turn around. He kept gazing out at the water, as if he knew so little about Claira, he thought she might have plunged right in it on her own.

I clapped a hand on his shoulder, ready to spin him around myself, but the moment I touched him, he shrunk away. When he finally turned around, his eyes were filled with a deep, unspoken sorrow.

“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” This wasn’t the Barren I knew. Barren was a warrior. Unmovable. Not this sad, withdrawn version of himself he’d been since taking Claira to see his sister.

“This is my fault,” he said, and I knew that tone well—self-blame and regret. “I told her about me. About my arm, and now…” He lurched forward, his body swaying as though the wood beneath him had given way.

“ Barren .” His weight bore down on me as I steadied him by his shoulders. “You know Claira’s not that kind of mermaid. She wouldn’t care about something like that, so let’s take a breath and focus on finding her.”

But all he did was shake his head, his eyes glassy and unfocused. “I shouldn’t have let her leave my sight. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep.”

“Barren!” I shook his shoulders, hoping to snap him out of it. “Even if you’d kept an eye on her, Claira has a mind and will of her own. We can’t control what she does, believe me—Now, we need to find her. You read her mind, right? You know which bastard took her last time?”

Barren’s head tilted upward to stare hopelessly up at the sky, the veins in his neck bulging like thick ropes. “No,” he grunted through gritted teeth. “I didn’t read her mind.”

“ What? ” I growled, releasing his shoulders. “Why the fuck not?” Rage churned up inside me like the waves crashing against the dock. “You knew someone was after her, Barren. You knew she wasn’t safe.”

Shame was scrawled all over his face. “I can’t. I won’t. It’s not safe, I could—” Eyes wide, Barren turned down to his palm. His fingers flexed as he stared at his hand like it might betray him. “I could hurt her.”

“ Hurt her? Fucking hell!” I barked, seizing his shoulders again. “You’d never hurt her. I know you better than that. Once we find her, you have to?—”

“I can’t,” he shouted, stumbling steps away from me. “Her mind isn’t safe for me. I can’t risk it. I won’t.”

What in Poseidon’s Deep was wrong with him? He was acting crazed, as disturbed as Claira’s father had been before he’d attacked me during my last trip to the warehouse. Only Claira’s father had been just as worried about me having hurt her as he was about himself hurting her.

I took a deep breath, trying to force my emotions down. It wouldn’t help to lash out now, to sink this whole fucking island down around us. Claira’s safety was the only thing that mattered.

“Hey, guys?” Kai’s voice came from back inside the bedchamber. “What’s this note about?”

I glanced up, and Kai was waving something in the air.

“Just stay here and don’t fall off the damn dock,” I grumbled to Barren before stalking back into the bedroom.

Kai was clutching a square of white parchment in his hand. “I finished my repetitions,” he said, the sweat soaking through his shirt proving it. I could tell from the way his face pinked that he’d spotted Barren stumbling around in his naked daze outside. “Where’s Claira?”

I snatched the note from Kai’s hands, my heart sinking as I read over the scrawled message. “Don’t worry?” If Claira had written this, then too fucking late, beautiful. The words were circled, but what were these other pictograms?

I turned the note around, trying to make sense of them. “Do you think Claira wrote this?” I asked.

“I found it on top of her luggage, so… I think it’s a drawing of Laverne,” Kai proclaimed, pointing at the flippered blob scribbled next to the note’s edge. Then his finger slid over the four identical symbols next to it. “Getting ready to eat four clams.”

“Sorry, I’m doing what now?” Laverne waddled into the chamber, a fishtail dangling from the corner of her mouth. However, just as she entered, Barren staggered in as well. Laverne’s jaw dropped, and the fish slid out, plummeting to the floor.

Barren froze, his gaze fixated on the fish as Laverne took in an enormous breath. But before she could release one of her piercing shrieks, Kai leaped forward, swiftly positioning himself in front of her, shielding her eyes from the sight.

“ What’s going on here? ” she demanded, her head weaving down in between Kai’s legs to get another look. “ And why wasn’t I invited? ”

“Laverne!” Kai yelled, pushing her out of the bedchamber while she snarled and snapped at him.

This was fucking chaos.

“Do you know where Claira is?” I yelled out to Kai’s pet above the noise, holding up the note as Kai fought to shove her out the door.

“Ew. Do you think I care about that harlot?”

Kai collapsed in a heap as Laverne swung around, heading back for the main room, her nose pitched high. “Be a dear, Kai-Kai, and bring me my snack.”

Go figure that Kai’s pet would be of zero use to us.

I turned to Barren, my heart racing as I passed the note to his chest.

“It seems she really did leave us.” My voice caught in my throat. Outside, a burst of lightning cracked over the horizon, and I tensed, knowing that the storm was only just beginning. “Kai thinks she left a message behind. Laverne and clams. Does that mean anything to you?”

Barren didn’t study the note long. “Those are hearts,” he muttered. “Four hearts and Laverne.”

I could hear Kai’s breathing as he came up behind me to study the note over my shoulder. “Uh, you sure about that, big guy?” He stole the note away, holding it up in the air as if searching for a hidden message within it. “I mean, I’m not a warrior. I’ve never actually seen someone’s heart. But I’ve read a scroll or two about anatomy, and these symbols definitely look more like clams to me.”

Barren didn’t react or acknowledge what Kai was arguing.

“Hearts or clams, it doesn’t fucking matter,” I said, my teeth grinding. “If she really went off somewhere, then we have to find her.”

“Wait.” Kai’s head tilted. “Claira’s gone? I thought she was in here, uh, you know…” His face turned bright pink, the color spreading all the way to his ears. “… with you?”

Barren looked like he’d been sucker-punched.

“What?” Kai gasped, his gaze snapping between the two of us. “She wouldn’t just leave us.”

Leave us? No—she’d promised she’d always come back to me.

Still, a sharp panic ripped through me like an old wound reopening, and a burst of lightning lit up the bedchamber.

Kai’s voice trembled with similar unease. “Do you think this has something to do with why she disappeared earlier? The thing she didn’t want to tell us about?”

“We have to find her,” I growled, my voice as turbulent as the growing swell of waves outside. “Now.”

Barren had already grabbed clothes and was out the door.

“Right—okay.” Kai snatched the fish off the floor and spun, scrambling back out to the main room. “Laverne, catch! Time to go.”

“Go? Go where?” she whined, but her voice faded from my mind as I followed Barren out onto the deck.

Wind whipped my hair across my face, and droplets of beating rain stung my skin.

Fuck. It was happening already.

I’d thought I’d been doing better. Thought that the breathing exercises were working. But no, here I was, still clinging to the same anger and anxiety that had been a part of me since I was a helpless merfry.

Dammit.

No matter how hard I tried to control it, my rage was still there, lurking in the recesses of my mind. An inescapable shadow ready to rear up and take control at any moment.

Now that I had the trident, it was clear I was no different from my father. The same fury that consumed him kept threatening to take me down with it, too. But I couldn’t let it. Not yet.

The sound of thunder followed another flash of lightning as the brewing storm drew closer, frothing up the waves. And here I stood at the edge of the storm, holding on to my last threads of control, my heart rate surging as my mind raced with thoughts of revenge.

Claira was out there somewhere, alone and in danger, haunted by something or someone she hadn’t felt comfortable sharing with us.

I’d keep the storm at bay until I knew who was responsible for this. And then I’d make them pay.

She may have left, but there wasn’t any place she could go where I wouldn’t follow her.

I’d find our girl. Even if it killed me.