Page 26

“ Wake! Wake!”

Her angel voice was enchanting, like crystal chimes carried on a sea breeze. Wait! Was he dead? Thessa was singing to him, and he felt… good.

There’d been something wrong with his chest, like it had been torn open, the heat of his blood had escaped him—far too much to take back. His life had slipped through his fingers.

But… he was at peace. He was with her.

His eyes opened, and he saw it was dark, the full moon hanging like a silver medallion in the velvet sky, its light casting a glowing halo around the delicate curve of her nose, accentuating the soft fullness of her lips as they moved in the beauty of her song. The moonlight turned the damp strands of her hair to liquid copper. “Are we in paradise?”

“Shh,” she whispered, though somehow the gentle sound became a part of her song, and he felt a smile tug up his lips, even as a glow of warmth moved through him, starting first at his heart and spreading through every part of his body like sunlight penetrating deep water.

“Huh…” he whispered. “You’re not death. You’re… beauty.” Wait… did he say that? Maybe, he hadn’t entered the afterlife yet. He always felt like he’d be more silver-tongued in the blessed isles of the upper realms.

He tried to remember what had happened. There were a lot of tentacles. Witches! His shoulders jerked at the memory. The sand shifted beneath his skin, cool grains sliding against his back. The salty air filled his lungs with his sharp intake of air. “Where is Circe?”

“She retreated into the jungle. She’s no match for my voice.” The report carried grim satisfaction, though he was well-aware of the danger. Circe would never scuttle away in retreat—likely she’d be gathering forces to strike again. And all those worries were lost in the warmth of Thessa’s song.

His aches and pains were draining away like the morning fog before sunrise, the injuries sealing up like the first time he’d heard her singing against the crashing waves—Yes! She had healed him the same way back then! The memories came back to him all at once, as he recalled the first time he’d tasted her lips in the most intoxicating kiss that had awakened in him a hunger that would never be quenched. All other meaningless details had been lost in the feel of her.

“Your heart stopped when the sea swallowed the sun.” Her hand was in his hair, and she twisted the strands through her fingers, melting him further like cook’s hot grog. “I think that means that you’re not receiving the full powers of a sylph,” she murmured. “Sorry.”

A helpless laugh rumbled from his throat. “I can’t say I’m disappointed.” Her lips found the tender spot where his hair met his forehead, and she pressed a kiss there. There was something that was supposed to happen after sunset. He pulled at the threads of his memory until he grasped it: “Why aren’t you a—a…”

“A sylph?” she murmured. “I ran Undine’s Blade through the heart of my enemy’s people, though personally, he’s not mine… it was a stupid curse anyway.” She kissed him again, her lips traveling down his face until she found his mouth, and there, she ignited his soul with a kiss that could have boiled the sea itself.

“What are you doing, young lady?”

She straightened immediately. Raggon shot up himself, feeling like he should protect her. How did he even have the strength to do so? His blood was still warm on him and not a scratch. Not a one, not even the injuries from today or yesterday! Only the ethereal afterglow from his mermaid’s healing touch.

A towering figure emerged from the surf, water cascading down powerful shoulders broad as a ship’s bow. In the radiance of the moon, white hair and beard amplified the light in a burst of silver. He had come! The creatures of the sea heralded their ruler in a parade of bioluminescent splendor lacing through the waves. A massive trident gleamed in the man’s unyielding iron grip, sweeping away all remaining doubt as to this newcomer’s identity, one of its blades adorned with shimmering strands of multicolored mermaid hair—Undine’s Blade, returned to its rightful place.

“F-father!” Thessa cried. Her voice sounded vulnerable, unsure. Immediately, Raggon’s hand traveled to hers, feeling it shake beneath his. She was upset. A wave of fierce protectiveness swept through him, more powerful than the Leviathan Tempests, though what he could do against such a powerful being, let alone her father, was beyond him.

“Thessa… you’re human.” The deep, resonant voice rolled across the beach like thunder over distant waters, each word weighted with authority.

“Yes, father,” she whispered.

“And you used your powers for healing!”

“Yes, father.” Each answer diminished her further. Her shoulders sank in shame.

Would the ruler of the waters rebuke her? Banish her? Punish her? “Sire,” Raggon stood quickly, sand falling from his tattered breeches, “Your Majesty…” he had no idea what to call this man. “Master of the seas.”

The trident slammed down in impatience, sending up a spray of sand that glittered in the moonlight. “Out with it, lad.”

“Your daughter is… most wondrous.” Heat flooded his face. Not exactly what he meant to say, the formal words clumsy on his tongue.

“Of course, she is,” Poseidon answered curtly, then he turned to her. “Ahh, my Thessalaniki!” The sea king’s stern countenance softened as he extended his massive arms toward his redheaded daughter, hands that could command typhoons now open in gentle invitation. “You saved us all in your rebellion against me! Come here, my dear.”

Raggon’s heart constricted painfully as Thessa broke away from him, her bare feet sending up tiny explosions of moonlit sand as she ran to her father, her familiar scarlet robes floating behind her like a sail caught in the wind. She disappeared into Poseidon’s embrace with a cry that pierced Raggon to his core. “Father, father! You live! I thought I’d lost you forever!”

“ Someone returned Undine’s Blade to my trident,” he said with a knowing look at the ones who did. Her fingers squeezed him tighter. The rainbow-hued strands were now woven into the mighty weapon glowing with their own inner light. “What did I say about making bargains with the Sea Witch?”

“Mother had…”

“Yes! And Scylla would use it to take you from me. None shall ever again!”

Tears streaked down Thessa’s cheeks, silver trails under the pale moon as she pressed her face against her father’s chest. Raggon’s hands twitched at his sides, longing to comfort her, but her father had it well under control. He never thought he’d feel ready to challenge Poseidon himself, afraid at any moment the sea king might reclaim his daughter, and yet… she clearly loved this formidable titan. “I’m sorry, father,” she cried.

“No, you’re not…” Poseidon’s deep voice rumbled with humor, though overpowered with a sternness that made Raggon’s hands curl into fists, the edges of his knuckles whitening as his fingertips pressed hard against his palms. “My dear, you’ve been in some trouble, I see… all for me.” Poseidon’s voice gentled to the soft rumble of waves on a peaceful shore. “Come, let us restore you to your rightful form and return you home. Your sisters ache for your presence.”

Behind him, female heads bobbed out from the water, long hair flowing through the waves, followed by chatter and laughter.

“We shall celebrate your triumphant return with song and feasting,” Poseidon continued.

“Father…” Thessa’s voice faltered as she pulled back, one hand nervously twisting the leather cord carrying the gold coin from Raggon’s homeland. “I’m not returning to the seas.”

Poseidon drew himself up to his full, imposing height, shoulders squaring like cliffs facing a storm. “Have you given your heart to this mortal?” The words crashed between them, heavy with disapproval.

“Yes,” she whispered. Her soft confession sent Raggon’s heart rising in hope. “He is valiant and—and true.”

Poseidon interrupted her with a scoff. “Don’t play me for a fool! I’ve been watching him for a time! Pirating, exploding perfectly fine ships, and causing havoc across my seas!” Raggon winced, though there wasn’t much he could say in his defense. The formidable ruler of the deep turned his thunderous gaze on him, and with a swift shake of his head, Raggon felt the lightning of his judgement strike him to the core. “The descendant of the man who destroyed my sister will not have my daughter to wed!”

“It is not as you think,” she cried. “Undine lived!” She lifted the coin that bore the likeness of his sister with the proud tilt of her chin forever etched in gold. “She became sylph, the ancestress of his people. He holds the blood of our people too.”

Poseidon let out a primal growl and, moving around his daughter, whipped his triton around so that its point was directed at Raggon’s heart. His stomach tightened. Once again, he faced death. The mermaid hair caught at his neck, burning into him as it had before, though this time filling him with sweet-whispered enticements, promises that would destroy him: “Son of a king… come with us to the depths of the sea, feel the love of our embrace where no man need air any longer. Drown! Drown! Drown!”

“Father!” Thessa rushed forward, even as he resisted the lull until it whispered its acceptance: “He is Undine’s… Undine’s…”

The triton hesitated at Raggon’s neck then lowered. A strange phosphorescent glow gathered in the powerful sea being’s eyes. “He is her descendant,” he breathed.

“As I told you!” Thessa ran between them, breathing heavily with lungs that surely her father could not miss. “You will not hurt him!”

Poseidon’s stern features softened on his daughter. Thessa bit at her lower lip. He spiked his triton into the sands, for the moment, sparing his life. “—I suppose you could do worse than a prince,” he muttered, “even one who spends his days turning perfectly good ships into driftwood.”

Had their love truly been sanctioned by this fierce man? Raggon could scarce believe it—he was barely recovering from his first death, even after facing the second attempt at his life. Thessa threw her arms around her father’s waist, though her hands couldn’t quite reach around his massive form. “Thank you, father!”

“For what?” his grumbled cry turned hoarse in the face of his girl. “You will do as you please with or without my blessing, daughter… but…” he gathered her in his powerful embrace, “you can be sure that I will rise up in anger against any who dare break your heart.” The whisper against her hair carried to Raggon in a decree that was less than subtle. “Are you to really waste your days on healing these humans with the powers of your voice?”

“Yes, Father! To heal is all I’ve ever wanted.”

He squeezed her closer. “Ah, my little dancing flame. I will never doubt the goodness of your heart again!”

Thessa’s tears glistened against her cheeks, each droplet reflecting the celestial glow above. Poseidon laughed, a sound like waves crashing against cathedral caves, when he saw them. “Tears? Ah, you are human indeed.” With a weathered hand, he quickly banished the luminescence shimmering at the corners of his own eyes.