Page 36 of Sea of Evil and Desire (The Deep Saga #1)

34

Finn

T he kiss had stayed with me—sucking on those pouty, salty lips of hers as she devoured mine. I stood at the edge of the grassy cliff, the wind tearing through my clothes as the sea raged against the black rocks far below.

I had planned to tell her everything when I met her in the waves, but it was better to stay away. She despised me for what I’d said, and I’d let her. Better she hated me for this than for the things I couldn’t bear her to know. I would only bring her pain.

Taking a deep breath, I dove.

As the water engulfed my body, my clothes shredded, dissolving into the depths as if they’d never existed. Slits tore open along the sides of my neck, flesh parting like the petals of a Venus flytrap. The gills flared, sucking hungrily at the water as if tasting the ocean for the first time. A shimmer rippled across my legs as they fused, bones shifting and stretching. Scales blossomed like emeralds across my skin as my feet melded into a powerful crimson-tipped tail fin. I rose to the surface, my torso breaking the water, and I brushed my wet hair from my forehead, my tail now easily keeping me afloat in the swell.

Inegar suspected something was going on between us, that I might be withholding information from my reports. I couldn’t let him see how she affected me.

Yet the heartbreak in her eyes when I’d turned her away cut deep, even as it stirred a dangerous flicker of hope. Perhaps she felt the same.

No, she couldn’t . . . The feelings churning inside of me were all-consuming. She was the undercurrent pulling me in, the force I could not fight. Even if I could break free, I wouldn’t want to. She was in my bones, my blood, the spaces between every breath. No force in the sea or sky could pull her from my thoughts.

She’d told me to leave her alone, and that’s what I would do—even if it meant breaking her heart. My focus had to be on saving my people and redirecting my father’s curious eyes.

She hadn’t returned to the Kingdom of the Deep. I’d been watching from afar. Maybe the Drowned had driven her away for good. But if she ever chose to come back, I would make sure they never touched her again.