Page 11

Chapter Eleven

VAARIN

T he sea fae writhes and bucks in my grip, his black eyes saturated with venom. We float above the Everdeep Chasm, a place filled with sea horrors. He’s aware of the threat to this life, and yet there is no terror in his eyes.

A part of me marvels at the conviction that lends him such boldness in the face of death. To believe in something so completely. To want it, ache for it. To be willing to die for it…That is indeed a wonder.

I squeeze his throat a little harder, and his dark eyes bug. “Tell me where your leader is. Tell me the location of your base.” My voice is a sonic vibration in the water that surrounds him.

He curses at me in the old tongue, something about fake kings and impostors, and I know I’ll get nothing from him.

I break his neck and allow his body to drift into the chasm below to join his comrades. The deep-sea creatures will surely relish the feast of flesh. Three Obsidian Pearl members and no answers from any of them. I would consider it a failure, but I am coming to realize that these zealots would rather embrace death then betray their cause.

My wounds heal as I swim toward the riptide that will bring me close to the Cursed Isle. Willing scales to form over my body and my legs to shift to a tail, I’m able to cut through the water like a dartfish. The ocean fuels me, rejuvenating me, but I find no pleasure in it. My thoughts are with the princess alone on the isle.

How terrified must she have been to see me weakened. But her fortitude in successfully tipping me into the ocean must be commended.

Meredith will have ensured her safe passage.

The princess will be on the beach as instructed.

The Cursed Isle is a perilous place, filled with hungry, lethal creatures, and it is why I chose it as the location of one of our secret ships. Hidden in a cave on the far northern side of the island, accessed only via the mountain pass, the ship is an escape vessel, should my people ever need to leave these seas for another. It will allow us to traverse above the waves and above any dangers that may spawn below it.

But we will not be taking this ship to Merida Isle. We will commandeer one of the smaller vessels docked beside it.

The riptide appears up ahead, a vortex spinning in shades of blue and purple. I dart into it, swallowed by a rainbow of colors for but a moment before I’m ejected into warmer water.

Red coral lines the ocean floor here.

I’m close. I’m tempted to use my power to swim harder and faster, but the trek across the isle will take two days, and I must conserve my energy for it.

I swim as fast as I can, drawing from the ocean as I go, siphoning its natural power and storing it inside me. The coral bleeds from red to purple, and I rise, breaking surface to see the isle fifty lengths away.

A fire burns on the shore, but there is no sign of the princess.

Would she have disobeyed my instruction?

No…

Tides!

I shoot toward shore like a dagger shark looking for its prey.

* * *

I wade out of the sea, and my body absorbs the water clinging to it before allowing my human clothes to reappear to cover me.

The fire blazes, a fire that this sword-wielding, boat-rowing princess has built. But why did she leave it, and where did she go?

For a moment, I’m not sure which way to run. Which way she will have gone, but then a desperate cry rises from the eastern side of the isle.

“Stay away! Stay back!”

Ice crystallizes in my veins because although the voice sounds like hers, it isn’t, which means she is in mortal danger.

I dive into the treeline at a sprint, following the resonance of that cry. It hangs in the air like a beacon, a crimson thread that I latch on to.

I burst into a clearing to find the manavis converging on a figure on the ground.

The princess!

A roar gathers in my chest, and I expel it in a sonic vibration that neither I nor the princess can hear, but the manavis scream and double over in pain, clutching at their heads.

The princess locks gazes with me from the forest floor, her eyes flare wide as she makes the connection, and a moment later, she’s running toward me. She slams into my chest, grabs my hand, and yanks me out of the clearing. She’s fast, but I’m faster, and so I scoop her into my arms and break into a sprint.

She clings to me wide-eyed and breathless, and the urge to protect her surges up to choke me.

We exit the forest in a valley that leads to the mountain pass, and I stop. The manavis won’t follow us here. Their domain is the forest. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t threats ahead. Any of which could kill this fragile human in my arms if she doesn’t follow my orders.

I can’t risk that. “Meredith told you my instructions? She told you to remain on the beach, that inland was not safe.”

“Yes.” She swallows hard. “But?—”

“She told you not to leave the beach. That it was my instruction.”

A small frown mars her forehead. “Yes, but?—”

“Then why did you disobey me?”

She blinks rapidly. “Disobey? I’m not a child.” She shoves at my chest. “Put me down.”

I hold her tighter. “Why did you disobey me?”

“Because I thought someone was in trouble and?—”

“You knew inland was dangerous, and yet you disobeyed and put yourself in danger. You could have been killed!”

“Put me down!” She struggles in my arms, and I know what it is I must to do. She must fear disobeying me if she is to survive.

I stride over to the nearest log and sit with her.

She stills and stares up at me in confusion.

“You acted impulsively, like a child. And when a child disobeys, they are punished.”

“What?”

I lift here easily and turn her on my lap. Pinning her there with one hand, I bring the other up to deliver a hard slap to her backside.

She cries out in shock then squirms to get away, but I hold firm and deliver another smack.

This time she makes a sound that’s a cross between a grunt and a moan, and my lower spine tightens. I smack her again, more to hear that sound than anything else, and she rewards me with a gasp and a moan, and tides…I’m hard.

What. The. Fuck?