Page 9

9

Claira

S itting in the front seat of Barren’s car felt strange. Especially since Laverne hadn’t been shy in letting everyone know this seat was hers . But after Barren walked me to his car, he’d opened the passenger door for me, so I took the cue and climbed inside like a good little hostage.

Okay, maybe I wasn’t a hostage. Not yet, anyway.

But Barren’s phone had buzzed so much during breakfast, it sounded like he had a vibrator hidden in his pants. He’d somehow managed to ignore it, though, leaving his phone in his pocket while he assembled breakfast sandwiches for us. Then there was the tell of his jaw. It was so tense, when it came time to eat, he could barely pry his molars apart long enough to take a bite.

Clearly, something was about to go down.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled as I fastened my seatbelt. I was on high alert, and not just because I was half expecting Laverne to pop out of nowhere, landing on the hood of the car to give me the stink eye for daring to sit in her seat. If Barren’s queen was aiming to steal me, merfolk from the Indian Ocean had to be close by, and I wasn’t about to let someone throw a burlap sack over my head again.

Using my hand as a visor, I looked through the windows as the driver’s side door opened. “Damn, it’s bright out,” I mumbled. The car rocked as Barren dropped in next to me, folding up like a lawn chair just to get his legs inside. I eyed Laverne’s sunglasses and wondered if putting them on my face would be enough of an affront to summon her soul out of thin air to smite me.

Barren unclipped his sunglasses from his visor and offered them to me. “Here.”

“That’s sweet of you.” I waved him off, not wanting him to have sun in his eyes. “But that’s okay. You’re the one driving.”

His arm didn’t budge. “Take them.” He looked oddly concerned, like my comfort during this kidnapping was important to him. Maybe he thought giving me sunglasses would soften the blow of this horrible betrayal. Okay—now I was being dramatic.

Barren’s eyebrows sank further, and the slight frown of his mouth chipped away at my icy heart.

“Thanks,” I breathed out, relenting. I put his sunglasses on and was immediately surprised by the clarity of the lenses. The ones I wore on the boat were always smudged and scratched from salt water. I wasn’t used to looking through a clean pair. “The curse of being born with these eyes,” I said wryly, shaking my head.

Barren turned on the engine and threw me a puzzled look.

“They say lighter eyes are more sensitive to light.” I slid the frames down my nose to show him my gray eyes. Then I leaned into the center console so he could get a closer look. “See?”

Barren blinked at me, his dark eyes on mine long enough to make me feel self-conscious for showing off my eye color—like gray was spectacularly rare or something. “I see,” he finally mumbled as he shifted the car into reverse.

“Yeah, so I always like to keep some sunglasses with me when I go out on my boat.” I pushed the sunglasses back up my nose and sat back, sinking into the seat. My belly might have been full of a buttery croissant sandwich, but now that we were actually leaving, painful knots were cramping around my breakfast.

The car idled as Barren’s hand lingered on the gearshift. He hadn’t seemed ready to leave the kitchen after we’d both finished breakfast, either.

Then his phone hummed in his pocket and he released a breath, backing out of the parking spot.

The question I was still mulling over jumped to mind: if he took me to the airport, would I run?

I always wanted to travel overseas, but not like this. I tapped my seatbelt, nervously playing with the strap as we pulled out of the parking lot. When we got to the main road, the direction he turned would tell me all I needed to know, and then fight or flight would kick in, and I would have my answer to that question.

“Where are we going?” I’d tried to keep my tone light, unaffected. Unfortunately, it sounded more like I was a second away from a breakdown.

He threw on the turn signal and arched an eyebrow. “Would you rather not go back?”

The right blinker flashed. Right . He was taking me back to Longshore Bay. Back to the warehouse.

My gut twisted in confusion. “You’re taking me to Leander? But he said you’d drive him back to the hotel today.”

Barren’s shoulders stiffened. Although the main road was clear, we sat at the stop sign while his teeth ground together. “I couldn’t leave—” He paused, mouth open wide like he was rearranging all of his words. The leather steering wheel creaked as his fist clenched around it. “I didn’t want to leave you alone.”

Now he was worried about leaving me alone? Crossing my arms, I sank back in my seat. “Yeah, well, you left me alone for over an hour while you went to get me clothes.”

He mumbled something deep and incoherent as he took the right turn. My heart raced. He actually took the turn—we were really going to Longshore Bay.

I huffed, though secretly my insides were screaming with relief. Rocci had been wrong, and although Barren was totally acting weird, he wasn’t actually stealing me away.

“Well, you did leave me alone.” I waved my wrist, trying to hide how glad I was that he hadn’t betrayed me. “I had to entertain myself by going through your luggage and moving all your socks around.”

His spine shifted upright as he leaned forward, bearing down on the steering wheel. “You didn’t,” he said evenly, but a mist of sweat broke out over his forehead. I could practically see the veins in his temple bulge. “You didn’t touch my socks.”

“I sure did.” My lips pursed together as I fought to keep up my poker face. “Switched all the pairs around. The gray are now matched with the black, and each white is matched up with a tan. And when I put them back, I lined every pair up perpendicular to your underwear but one . That one I left slightly askew, because I knew it would be the perfect revenge.”

That did it. A smile cracked over the stone titan’s face. His eyes crinkled, but he kept them trained on the road. “I don’t own white socks.”

“No?” I leaned against the door and gave a shrug. “Darn. I almost had you, though. You looked like you were about to turn this car around to go check.”

He shook his head, though he was visibly more relaxed. “So, you looked through my underwear?”

“ What? ” My face practically lit on fire. “I didn’t touch your luggage—it was a joke, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he repeated, the slightest chuckle vibrating his deep voice.

I turned toward the window and covertly adjusted the air vent so it would blow on my face. Even as my skin cooled, my smile stayed. It was nice, joking around with Barren like this. Just a day ago, I didn’t even know he could joke.

“I didn’t leave you.” The humor faded from his voice. “I was right outside the door.”

I hummed a note in response, watching the buildings roll by. You could have stayed, I wanted to say. But it wasn’t like I’d pushed him out, or even hinted that I wanted him to leave.

We passed the Aquatic Center, and I thought of the last time I’d been there. One of the front windows was still broken from Leander smashing through it. “Do you think Lee is okay?”

When Barren didn’t answer, I turned to look at him. “King Eamon won’t know he has the trident, right? He can’t like… sense its magic, or something, can he?”

Barren’s head tilted thoughtfully, but he kept his eyes on the road. “Can you sense it?”

“No. I guess not.”

Though I could see it, even when no one else in our group could. But as long as Leander found a shirt before he went to see his father, he should be able to keep his magical tattoo hidden, even if there were other merfolk like me who could see the marks.

The car slowed as we rolled into the gravel parking lot, and I stretched out my shoulders. The warehouse was open, with a few unfamiliar merfolk hanging just outside of the rolled-up doors.

Wait…

A young girl was next to the bushes, her dark hair bouncing as she rocked on her toes. I squinted, pulling Barren’s sunglasses off to get a better look.

Yes—I knew that merfry. Echinea.

Relief hit me. I’d hoped to have time to talk to her about the sea wizard. I pulled my seatbelt off as soon as the car stopped and handed Barren back his sunglasses. “Thanks, Barren. You can wait here if you want. I’ll be right back.” Throwing him a quick smile, I hopped out of the car to head toward Echinea.

A bucket sitting between her legs held her attention, the water inside it sloshing around as she stirred it with a long stick. “Echinea.” I flashed her a smile and a wave.

When she saw me, all the childish amusement on her face soured. “Oh.” She dropped her stick and crossed her arms high over her chest. “It’s you . ”

Ouch . Okay, it seemed she was still mad at me for getting her into trouble with her father. Smiling again, I looked down at her bucket where a heap of shells glittered along its bottom. “That’s not salt water, is it?”

Echinea’s eyes rolled. “No,” she said, looking exasperated that I would even ask. She gave the side of the bucket a tap with her foot that sent water sloshing all around. “My papa says we have to stay away from salt water, remember? I got this from that wall over there.” She pointed to the side of the warehouse where a spigot jutted out, a hose coiled in the bushes in front of it.

“That was clever of you,” I praised, but her lips hardened like I’d cursed her.

“What do you want?” she asked, snatching the stick back up to swirl her shells around some more. “If you want to tattle on me to my papa, he already knows what I’m doing. He helped me reach the bucket.”

“I actually wanted to talk to you about”—I inhaled a breath before forcing out—“Poseidon.”

Her eyes sharpened as she looked up from her shells, honing in on me. “What about Poseidon?”

“I met him,” I said, and her face immediately lit with excitement. Oh, crushing her little Poseidon-believing heart was going to be painful.

She gasped, dropping her stick again. “You did?” Energy buzzed through her as she ushered me closer to the bushes. Leaning down, she whispered, “ And? ”

“Black hair, white eyes, carries a trident,” I recited, just as she had listed off to me days earlier.

Echinea nodded fiercely. “That’s him, that’s him! What did he say to you? Did he tell you a riddle?”

There was no way she would believe the truth, but I had to try. “Echinea, listen. The man you met when you were looking for seashells… I met him, and he isn’t Poseidon.” Her mouth snapped open, but I shook my head. “So, if you see him again?—”

“I wasn’t looking for seashells,” she spat out, a look of disgust on her face. “I was hunting lobsters.”

“Uh, what?” My head tilted. “Lobsters? I thought you said lobsters were yucky?”

Her shoulders deflated as she tossed her head back. “They are yucky.” She sniffed at the air, her eyes suddenly glistening. “But my papa likes lobsters, and I wanted to make him happy.”

Suddenly, she looked about two seconds away from bursting into tears.

“Oh—oh, I see. That was sweet of you?—”

“When all of us moved here, my brother never showed up.” She sniffed at the air again, and my heart sank. “Papa made me promise not to go near the water to look for him. I didn’t. I stayed far, far away from the water, but every day he would go out and come back really sad.”

“Echinea—” I reached for her shoulders, but she swatted my hands away.

Crinkling her nose, she kicked the side of the bucket again. “Just when I found where the lobsters were hiding, they outsmarted me, and I almost died .” She picked up one foot and pointed to it, wiggling her toes in the air. “They sent a jelly to trap me! I hunted them all the way back to their cave and stepped on the squishy jelly they’d hired to guard it.”

She let out a hiss like she was reliving the memory. “It started stinging me, and I knew it was a jelly.” Her chin lifted. “I wasn’t crying or anything, but Poseidon heard our battle and came to save me. He zapped it with the end of his trident and BAM!” She made an explosion with her fingers. “He murdered it for its treachery. Jellies aren’t supposed to attack mermaids,” she added.

The sea wizard had saved her? My head buzzed as it tried to wrap around what she was saying. And she was correct. Live jellyfish wouldn’t sting merfolk, but it sounded like the one she had stepped on had likely been long dead. “Are you sure? You told me before that he came to you with a riddle and offered you a gift.”

“I asked him for a gift,” she said plainly, then her voice fell to a mumble. “I really wanted to make Papa happy…”

I pressed against my forehead, taking it all in. I’d assumed the seashell the sea wizard had given me had something to do with Echinea, but maybe?—

“Echo?” a voice squeaked, and I looked over to a small girl with big, coral pink eyes toeing closer to the bushes where we were standing. “I set them all out in the sunshine, just like you asked me to.”

“Good!” Echinea picked up her stick to poke around her bucket of shells. “These look like they’re just about done cooking. This will be the greatest Captain’s Feast this kingdom has ever seen!” Both of them giggled, and then Echinea looked up at me, throwing a signal with her brow that told me that now that her friend was back, she was ready for me to leave.

“Listen, Echinea. Adults can be dangerous,” I warned, leaning in so she knew I was serious. “If you see him again, don’t go near him, okay?”

Echinea scoffed, but it needed to be said. Even if he had helped her, I still didn’t trust the sea wizard. Sure, he’d helped me, too, but he’d also tied me up in a dungeon, so…

“She’s an adult. Does that mean she’s dangerous, too?” the other merfry whispered as soon as I stepped away.

My lips quirked while the bushes behind me erupted with giggles. “Yeah, right! She didn’t even know not to stand on the edge of the pier. If I wanted to, I could have pushed her right in.”

Two merfolk glared at me as I headed for the warehouse, but I kept my eyes forward. I had no clue where Leander was, but I didn’t want to stick around longer than necessary. When I crossed underneath the rolled-up doors, I immediately regretted coming in alone.

Numerous heads turned, poking out of makeshift bedrooms and stopping mid-conversation to look over at me. I scanned the crowd for glints of gold, but didn’t see Leander or his father anywhere. As I was about to run back to Barren, a knock shook the building. Then there was another knock, followed by the loud clang of metal.

The merfolk didn’t seem to care. They snapped back to what they were doing, the entire warehouse decidedly ignoring the noise even as a low, wailing groan echoed up to the ceiling. But not me—I cared. My feet had dashed toward the sound even before my eyes had settled on the storeroom it had permeated from.

Another blow, and the door in front of me shook, the metal grinding on its hinges as something— someone —yelled from within.

My eyes fell over the door’s placard.

Storeroom 2B.

The place Leander’s dad had taken him when he’d come back to me, bloodied and bruised.

I couldn’t move—could barely think—as panic flooded me.

When the next painful scream echoed from inside the storeroom, I screamed back, clawing at the door’s handle, but it was locked from within.

I rattled the handle, but the heavy door barely shook. “Leander!” Panic had me smashing my shoulder into the door, my fist pounding against it. If he was in there, I needed to save him. To stop his pain. I didn’t know what I could do against King Eamon or one of his captains, but I couldn’t wait here for them to finish. I had to try. In a tight, raw voice, I pleaded, “ Please. ”

A lurch in the door jerked me forward, and I buckled against the doorframe as I struggled to catch my balance. “Lee—” My eyes jumped to the face of the person who opened the door. Deep coal eyes, slick hair, a chin lined with old scars, and blood. So much blood. It speckled his face and sat in the coarse hairs of his beard.

He wasn’t who I’d expected, and given the expression on his face, he hadn’t expected me either. “What are you doing here?” he asked, but my breathing stalled as I looked around him, my eyes immediately drawn to dark pools of liquid smeared across the concrete.

Why was there so much blood?

Behind the door, another voice called, “Let her through. That’s his daughter.”

Without thinking, I took a step inside. “E-excuse me?” My fists shook, my blood in my face draining away like the pools on the floor as I stared at the other captain. I recognized him instantly—Echinea’s father. His arm muscles bulged, slick with a sticky crimson fluid as they wrapped around a struggling man, restraining him.

Blood flowed down the captive’s hair, raining down on the concrete in sickening drips whenever he swung his head. Hunched forward, he struggled to escape from the captain, his clenched teeth grinding with desperate groans.

I would never forget the build of his shoulders, the way he held himself like nothing in this world could ever phase him.

Papa.

I’d once believed he was invincible. Unshakeable. And I’d trusted him more than anyone or anything in this world. He’d been my comfort, my joy. But that was another life—not me as I was now.

“Nerida?” he gurgled, spitting out blood around the name as his wild eyes fought to angle toward the ceiling.

Hearing him say the name he’d given me struck like a fiery brand, and I stumbled backward, repulsed in a way that pools of blood hadn’t even accomplished. Whatever was happening in this room, it wasn’t what I’d expected. If I’d known Papa was in here, I never would have barged in. I would have ignored his screams like the merfolk outside?—

“No,” he roared, thrashing even harder. “No!” It seemed whatever fit he was having, my presence had amplified it tenfold. “I can’t look at her! Don’t make me look at her!”

Echinea’s father grunted, his arms straining around Papa like he was holding back a raging bull shark. A violent shiver ran through Papa’s body as his elbows jerked, thrashing wide with a growing sense of desperation. “I can’t—I can’t!” Words gushed out like the blood from his mouth. “I can’t!” he repeated in a crazed, panicked burst.

“Hurry,” Echinea’s father called out. “I won’t be able to hold him much longer.” At the captain’s word, a woman leapt from the corner of the room. Despite stepping forward, her eyes remained focused on the bloody floor, turning her face a few shades paler. Her hands shook as they flew out, landing on Papa’s shoulder. He bucked away from her touch, but his fight was short lived. Papa’s arms slumped, his strength draining until he trembled as he mumbled more words. Whatever she was doing was working fast.

It was almost like magic.

Her eyes jumped to mine, her irises glittering, energized by an odd light. A magical light. She was glamouring him.

Papa’s face dazed, lost in the haze of the mermaid’s magic. Then he fought it, breaking through with a startling yell that shocked everyone in the storeroom. He threw himself backwards, and Echinea’s father’s neck rolled as Papa knocked the air out of him.

Papa was rabid again, his mouth ringed with blood. “I can’t look at her!” he roared. Then his voice broke into a sob, a desperate plea that had his shoulders crumbling. “ Don’t make me look at her. ”

Papa shook, or maybe I was shaking. My mouth hung open, my throat locking up. Every word I could have said was as dead as my birth father was to me.

Don’t make me look at her. I let his words echo in my mind so I might become numb to their sting.

“This is the only way we can restrain him,” Echinea’s dad called out with panting breaths, drawing my attention. “When he found out Prince Leander had returned alone, he became… distraught. We removed him from the others after he attacked the prince.”

Papa attacked Leander? Oh no. Leander was strong, but it was taking two captains and a mermaid’s glamour to keep Papa under control. If he hurt Lee, I’d—I’d?—

I couldn’t take this. Never again did I want to see this horrible, wretched merman.

Blindly backing away, I caught my spine on the edge of the wall, but it didn’t faze me. As I slid out of the storeroom, the merman holding the door looked just as confused as he had when I’d demanded entry. I kept moving back until I bumped into something massive, immovable. I knew who it was even before his arm wrapped around me, twirling me around.

“Barren,” I nearly sobbed out. I sank into him, grateful that he hadn’t listened to my suggestion to wait in the car. Even as his muscles flinched beneath my touch, I wrapped my arms around his waist. “He… he…” My head shook against the warmth as I anchored myself to him. I couldn’t even say it. “We have to find Leander.”

Barren lifted my chin from his chest, concern knitting his eyebrows. Just as his lips parted, rapid footsteps interrupted the moment.

“Why would you bring her here?” Leander asked, running up to us. He looked to Barren, whose jaw immediately hardened to stone. Then Leander turned his attention to me, stealing me away from Barren with a strong, deliberate slide of his hands. Within seconds, I was engulfed in his embrace, his arms wrapping around me. “Are you okay? Your face, it’s pale.” His eyes slid down the front of my sweater and up again, lingering at the top of my turtleneck long enough for me to wonder what he would do when he saw the marks hiding underneath it. “Whose clothes are these?”

Leander’s head tilted, and I noticed the purple tint to his jaw. It was slight, like the fist or shoulder hadn’t connected at full force. But he was in clothes now, too, and there was no telling what could be hiding underneath his white shirt and jeans. My nerves swirled, my body still shaking. “He attacked you?” I asked, ignoring his question. “Are you hurt?”

“I’m okay.” Leander gave me a steadying squeeze, his eyes focused on my arms and how badly they were shaking. Reassuring lips pressed against my forehead. “Don’t worry, I didn’t hurt him.”

“I don’t care about him ,” I croaked, burying my face into his neck, my fingers clenching against his chest. “He can rot in there. They said he attacked you, and I thought you might be hurt—” My voice cracked on the words. “Why would he do that?”

Leander cupped the back of my neck, drawing me closer. “I’m not sure. Captain Maris had him off me after the first punch,” he said softly. “I can try to ask him, if you’d like.”

“No,” I snapped, the tremors in my arms intensifying. Dammit —I needed to get ahold of myself, but being near Papa had a way of robbing me of all my strength, reducing me to a helpless merfry, no matter how hard I fought to escape the memories of my past.

“Barren, can you take her outside?” With the way Leander was holding me up, he must have thought I was about to pass out in his arms. “I’ll be quick.”

“No, don’t talk to Papa,” I cut in, then immediately bit into my tongue because I’d actually referred to him as Papa out loud. “He’s crazy. So crazy that a mermaid is in there. She had to glamour him and?—”

“Shhh, you don’t need to worry. I’m not going in there.” Leander pressed a gentle finger to my lips as he passed me into Barren’s powerful arm. “I have one more captain to speak to, then I’ll be done and we can leave here for good.”

For good?

What did he mean by that?

“Leander, wait?—”

But Barren was ushering me back out of the warehouse, his arm steadying my shoulders. The merfolk standing near the entrance scattered when they saw him. And the next thing I knew, we were back at Barren’s car, his body leaning into mine, supporting me up.

“You don’t look well.” Barren’s deep voice vibrated in my ear as my vision tunneled, my head going light. Then his face was in front of me, pulling me close. “What can I do? What do you need?”

This wasn’t fair—none of it. Being born a burden, the strength of these mermen who passed me around like I couldn’t walk on my own, and especially the way Barren’s words swelled around me, those deep syllables turning into a ballad that soaked into my skin, filling me completely with him .

While I focused solely on that thought, there Barren was, distressed and staring back at me. His mouth wasn’t moving, but I could still hear his words ringing. Feel them against me like an intimate caress. Drawing me closer…

Oh no. I knew this feeling.

Yet again, the thrall was messing with my head. Would I ever escape this madness?

“I—I’m going to be sick,” I choked out, all my emotions converging and moving straight up my throat. Barren didn’t seem ready to let me go, but I pried out of his arm, my hip bumping into the car as I scrambled to run around to the other side of it. “Don’t follow me!”

I barely made it around the car before I lost my breakfast on the gravel beside it. This time around, Barren’s sandwich hadn’t tasted too good. When I was sure I’d finished, I let out a moan and braced a hand on the side of the car, staring pathetically at my feet. Fantastic. How many merfolk had watched me do that? I turned away from the evidence, wanting nothing more than to disappear.

The passenger door was cold on my forehead as I slumped against it, until a wide hand landed on my shoulder, and my stomach rolled again. “I told you not to follow me,” I groaned, pushing Barren away, but the freaking titan wouldn’t move. Great—how pathetic could I get?

Barren’s face was serious as he stepped over the mess I made and went for the driver’s side door. “Sit,” he said, holding the door open for me.

My legs were so unsteady, I didn’t need to be asked twice. “Fine.” I practically collapsed inside. For a split second, I was surprised at how far the seat had been pushed back. Then I remembered Barren was the driver and how he needed every inch of space he could get to fit.

I barely opened my mouth to apologize when Barren cut me off with a shake of his head. “You don’t need to apologize.”

My lips pressed back together, and I leaned into the seat while he walked to the trunk, popping it open for a second and then slamming it shut. When he came back, he passed a bottle of water into my hands.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, opening it up and taking a sip. It was strange how far away he seemed, with him standing and me sitting. I stared at Barren’s slacks, perfectly clean and pressed, as he shifted uncomfortably on his feet. Not a single gray thread was out of place.

When I took another sip, Barren said, “I was behind you when you went inside.”

“Oh.” My gaze dropped to my lap. Of course he was.

He’d heard everything, then—all the sickening things Papa had said. Shame reddened my face as an uncomfortable silence stretched between us. Then his pocket started buzzing.

If I hadn’t been so close to his hand, I might not have seen it flinch. Rather than reaching for his phone, Barren tightened his knuckles against the doorframe until the hinges creaked.

The vibrating continued, one buzz after another, filling me with clarity. Barren was trying his best, but he couldn’t ignore whoever was on that phone forever.

I swallowed down the sour taste of bile and took a steadying breath. “Barren?”

He dropped to my level, taking a knee in the gravel. “Yes?”

The chaos of this morning had worn me out, and I was tired of it. Tired of all of this. There were too many uncertainties in my life right now. I wanted the truth, and I needed to believe Barren would give it to me. “Are you supposed to kidnap me?”

His expression changed—concern morphing into pain before settling on a hazy, detached stare. “Yes.” His lips barely moved.

Although I already knew the answer, my stomach still lurched, and it suddenly seemed like a blessing that I’d already lost my breakfast. I forced out the next question before my heart could keep me from rethinking it. “And if I don’t want to go”—I swallowed dryly—“would you make me?”

There was no hesitation. “No.”

My pulse skipped. I sat the bottle of water beside me and folded my hands in my lap. “No?” I chewed my bottom lip as I thought it over. “But your phone keeps ringing.”

Gravel crunched under his knee as he leaned closer, his face nearly coming into the car. “I would never force you to do anything you didn’t want to do.”

The words swirled in a dizzying song that flowed straight to my head, filling me with a mix of warmth and giddiness. His voice was like a blanket that I could wrap around myself to feel safe and cozy. Protected from every hard truth in the world.

I could lose myself in it. In him.

“Claira?” Barren’s voice cut through the heady spell it had conjured, breaking the magic’s hold over me and leaving me with a hot face and panting mouth.

Damn, the thrall was going to be the death of me.

When I didn’t answer, he placed his hand over mine in my lap. His palm was so wide it easily domed mine. “I can return without you.”

As he spoke the words without you, my whole body bristled.

Some feral part of me didn’t like that he’d suggested it, a lurking beast that curled and clawed my insides at the thought of letting him go. Maybe I was as unhinged as Papa was. I licked my lips, my mind racing. “And if you don’t follow your orders? What will your kingdom do to you?”

His jaw clenched. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

Considering what I knew about merfolk, and especially their royalty, I had good reason to worry. It didn’t matter how strong Barren was if his kingdom turned against him. I had no idea what horrors his queen was capable of.

Placing my hand over his, I sandwiched his palm between mine and took a breath. “I’ll go.” Maybe I was unhinged.

Barren’s head tilted, sending dark curls spilling over his eyebrows. “You’ll go?”

My hand tightened over his. “But only if Leander and Kai can go—well, if they want.” That monstrous part of me shuddered, possessiveness coiling around my insides like a vise. I knew Barren and Kai had traveled to see the circus freak who still had a tail, but could princes take off for other kingdoms? I hoped they would. How could I leave any of them?

A speechless Barren stared me down, jaw set, his dark eyes searching mine.

“I think Leander is planning on leaving, anyway,” I added, brushing my fingers over the back of his hand. His skin was rough, but also clean and well groomed. “Maybe I should hear his plans before I decide on anything.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to your island,” a voice called. Leander came around the car—thankfully from the side I hadn’t been sick on—with my backpack slung over one of his shoulders. Barren pulled away from me, straightening to full height, and I frowned down at my hands, surprised by how much I missed the feel of his hand in mine.

“You have an island?” As I blinked up at Barren, he frowned.

His shoulders shrugged. “My kingdom has an island.”

An island didn’t sound so bad. Gram’s cousin had a beach house on an island where we occasionally stayed for a weekend.

I turned to Leander. “You’re okay with leaving? Won’t King Eamon be upset?”

He let my backpack fall from his shoulder and passed it over to me. “I don’t care what my father thinks. I’ve already talked to the captains. They know that I’m leaving and that I intend to come back.” Anger rose over his face, his fist clenching as he ran a hand through his hair. “I know if I stay here, with how I am now, I’ll end up killing him.” Then he turned away as if it embarrassed him to admit to such a dark thought.

Honestly, if he did kill him, I wouldn’t blame him. I slid my bottle of water into the side of my backpack, then toyed with the bag’s zipper. It was nice of him to get my things for me. I wasn’t sure if I could handle going back in there, especially if my father was still screaming. “But what about your stuff?”

“I already grabbed it.” As he let go of his hair, he sighed. “It’s just one thing. I put it in with yours.”

Curious, I unzipped the bag to poke around inside and immediately saw turquoise and black. “You wanted to give back my pajama pants?”

“Fuck no, those are mine.” Leander gave me a heart-melting smirk. “They’re my favorite.”

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Barren. “Can I ask you for a favor before we leave?”

Barren cut a quick glance over at Leander before saying, “Anything.”

“Could you take me to see my dad and Gram first? I want to make sure they’re okay before I leave.” Was I really doing this? Going to a strange island to be forced underwater yet again? Now that I knew we weren’t the only ones seeking tridents, there was no telling what awaited us down there. But somehow, with both of them accompanying me, the thought wasn’t as scary as it should have been.

Barren nodded, his hand sliding to his pocket. Then he took his phone out, and his thumb swiped over the screen. “I can arrange it,” he mumbled, and my heart leaped.