Page 6 of Entranced By the Nakken (Freedom, Love, Monsters #4)

“It’s a strong name,” Tsunis agreed. “I revere the goddess, though I’m glad to have a name of my own.”

“I prefer Tsunis, too, but maybe I’m bias.” The human proffered a lopsided grin, but Tsunis wasn’t sure what he would be bias about. “My name, on the other hand, is problematic to say the least.”

“How so?”

“I go by Casey, but my birth name is Casimir. Which literally means 'destroyer of peace', for fuck's sake.” He snorted and rolled his pretty eyes, but Tsunis didn’t understand this either. “What the fuck were my parents thinking, right? To be fair, they weren’t far off. I’m a world-class wrecking ball.”

Tsunis’ brow knitted. They sounded the name out in their mind. Kah-sih-meer, destroyer of peace. Based on the limited time they’d spent with the human, this was the perfect name for him. It described the turmoil of emotions his presence brought up in Tsunis.

“No.” Slowly, they shook their head. “You are wrong. To destroy peace is to bring revolution.” Unbidden, their volume grew as passion took hold, their violin retreating in a splash of magic. “Peace disruptors are necessary. Equality, freedom, change—none of it is possible without you.”

“Oh.”

Casey—no, Casimir—was flushed nice and pink. Tsunis could make out every fleck of green in otherwise brown eyes, like fossilized tree resin among emerald pebbles. They should pull away. Should drop the subject and move on with the lesson.

“Status quo is not true peace,” Tsunis implored. “It is control. It must be destroyed.” The song was so hot inside their chest, they were a passenger in their own body as their hand landed on Casimir’s knee and squeezed. “You are not a wreck. You are hope. You are everything.”

Time stilled. The babbling of the brook couldn’t breach Tsunis’ awareness. A thrumming beat radiated outward from the spot their palm lingered on Casimir’s leg, pulsing through their entire existence.

“Well,” Casimir’s voice ended the silence and amplified the song. “Then you may call me Casimir,” he chuckled, “and I will try not to wreck you.”

Tsunis sneered. Those were not the right lyrics. Words to the deafening song heated Tsunis’ blood, but they daren’t share them, for there was no way they were true. Still, they felt the words all the same: You are the one my peace has awaited, liberator of my lost song.

“On the other side of a wreck is a new beginning, so by all means, human,” Tsunis growled, leaning closer. “Wreck me.”

Casimir reached out, closing the final inch of space between them to dust a lock of hair behind Tsunis’ earfin.

All the bravado fled their system in a whoosh, replaced with mating instincts. Tsunis braced against a full-body shimmer that danced from their sensitive fin tips to their swelling glands. More, they needed more touch. They leaned into Casimir’s palm and dug their fingertips into his knee.

“This may sound weird, but I’d pretty much do whatever you asked me to,” Casimir murmured, and Tsunis prayed to Glacia he was unaware of what was happening to every cell inside their body. “If a little destruction is all you want, I’ll be your man.”

“Mine,” Tsunis hissed. Realizing what they’d said, their eyes snapped open, expecting Casimir to be disgusted, but no. He looked nearly as dazed as Tsunis.

It was too much. If Tsunis didn’t put an end to this, they’d soon be pulling the human atop them and begging for a different kind of wrecking. Or worse, they’d pin him to the mossy ground and rut until their clutch shot into his supple body.

Ignoring every fiber of their being urging them otherwise, Tsunis leaned away, slipping their leg back into the water, hoping the foreign desires would wash off and be carried downstream.

In their periphery, Casimir ran a hand through his hair. He cleared his throat, and Tsunis pinched their eyes shut against the onslaught of images of their fingers lost in those dark strands, wondering where Casimir’s hands might roam.

A few strums of his guitar, and Casimir sang without Tsunis’ instruction. Thank the goddess because Tsunis could not be trusted to open their mouth.

Casimir read the lyrics from the page and paused to scribble changes, the same as he’d done before, but this time, the song was different.

The sun went about its trip across the sky. Tsunis basked in Casimir’s voice, his presence, dreading the moment he would depart. There was a vortex of peace in the space around them, and it’d been far too long since Tsunis had felt such serenity.

When Casimir stopped playing for the final time, he tucked his guitar into its case and leaned back on his palms to look at Tsunis. “Thank you.”

Tsunis could sense the human’s genuine gratitude, but they were unworthy. Compared to what Casimir had done for them, they’d done nothing.

“Same time tomorrow?” Casimir chirped, undeterred by their silence.

“Yes.”

Tsunis didn’t rush into the water this time. Casimir lingered, but soon his footsteps crunched leaves in his departure.

Tsunis dove under and swam to their temporary home, which had been created by the portal when it exploded into being.

Something about the human’s presence, the familiarity of the song that lingered below the surface, sated their power-hungry spirit. They didn’t need the clumpy form. With the strength Casimir leant them, a way out of this cursed realm was within reach. They could go home.

Home, where they would search for a mate and would not spend time letting their spirit song croon about a human from another world. Besides, the human would ever see Tsunis as more than a creature at best—a monster at worst, should he ever learn of all their sins against humankind.