Page 22 of Waves (Tangled Crowns #6)

Avia

T hrumming with nervous energy as Stavros retreated, I reached into my pouch and retrieved my elven chain, sliding it up onto my neck and quickly clasping it.

Lizza heaved out a sigh that I heard despite the distance between us. “Guess we’re done then? One enemy is enough for you?”

“It is for today,” I responded, though I didn’t say aloud that the true reason I wanted to stop was because I wanted to go after Stavros. Because I was afraid of what he thought of me but also terrified that I couldn’t do this without him.

But as I turned, fluttering my wings, a new voice called out.

“Queenie! We’ve been looking for you!” With a bright smile and Mr. Whelk floating near his head, Keelan darted across a nearby bridge, hurrying toward me.

I turned back to Stavros and Keelan noted my gaze.

“You aren’t going to spend all day with just one contestant are you? I can get a little bit of attention…” He jutted out his lower lip, utilizing that guilt-inducing pout he was so good at.

My throat tightened, but part of me knew Keelan was right. As much as I wanted to follow Stavros and clear the air, so long as I was locked into this tournament, I had to spread my attention between the men. In fact, I’d probably always need to do so once I was married.

By the time I came to that conclusion, Keelan had nearly reached me, legs kicking hard as he swam up toward the icy ledge, intent. I’d have to find Stavros later.

“I’ve just heard the most amazing thing,” the purple-haired siren declared as he floated down in front of me, wearing a long-sleeved, tight-fitting shirt that reflected the cold weather up here along with his trusty black breeches and boots.

My response was cut off by a loud groaning sound, not unlike a heaving ship. Our heads whipped to the side. Lizza had her bottle open, the kraken contorting and shrinking, trying to condense itself back into her container.

“Not even going to ask,” Keelan stated.

“Probably best.”

His good hand reached for mine, and his dimples made an appearance. “Can I steal you away?”

“Did your mother say you could?” I teased.

“Pshh. Who listens to their mother?” His light-hearted personality instantly lifted my spirits, let my lungs loosen and my expression soften.

Meanwhile, Mr. Whelk undulated his entire body, head bobbing, and it almost looked as if the little turtle agreed with the idea that listening to one’s mother was folly.

“I definitely don’t,” I said, and for once, a bitter taste didn’t flood my mouth.

Keelan, being the intuitive soul he was, squeezed my hand in solidarity anyway.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

With eyes brighter than stars, and his cheeks so round with his smile they looked full to bursting, Keelan swung our arms, yanking me side to side in his excitement. “I just found out that there is an entire maze of slides carved into an iceberg!”

“Wait, are we five?”

“Shut your mouth. It’s going to be amazing.”

I giggled and a tender look crossed his face, right before an impish one overtook it. “Besides, if I’d have known about these slides, perhaps I never would have left my post here.”

My eyes narrowed as I played along. “Are you saying slides are more fun than me?”

“I dunno. You’ll have to prove yourself, I guess.” His nonchalant attitude held a hint of challenge in it.

Unlinking our hands, I shoved at his shoulder first, then swung my hand wide, gesturing at the town. “Well, lead the way so I can show you how much fun I am.”

We swam east toward the edge of town with Mr. Whelk circling and head butting us, everyone’s mood sparkling.

“He must get the tendency to annoy others from you,” I said wryly as I pushed the little turtle’s head backward and then stopped to wave at a group of mer women who were harvesting some seaweed. They waved cheerily back.

“It’s our seduction technique. Annoy you into kissing us to shut us up,” Keelan confided mockingly.

Laughter peeled out of me, bright and light, the best I’d felt for days. My magic was finally starting to work, and though I still had to make inroads with the rebels, here in Kremos, the people seemed welcoming. Hope pervaded my system and danced through my veins.

I think it also might have pervaded Mr. Whelk’s because he headbutted me three times in a row, determined to bruise my shoulder.

“I’m not kissing you.” After I firmly shut him down, the little sea creature issued a strange little yowl and swam over to Keelan for a comfort cuddle.

“Meanie, queenie,” Keelan shook his head in mock scolding as he rocked his little pet like an infant in a show that made my ovaries want to combust nearly as much as I wanted to smack the two of them for teaming up against me.

“I only have so many kisses per day,” I retorted.

“I can give them to him or you.” Dropping the turtle, Keelan held up his hands.

“Sorry, Whelkie. If it’s you or me, I gotta choose me.

” Immediately, the siren sidled over to me and slid his good arm across my shoulders. “So…how many kisses are we talking?”

I was saved from answering him because we arrived at our destination.

A massive iceberg cut down through the water like a diamond, only it wasn’t carved into facets.

It didn’t gleam. It was a rough gem, as though freshly mined.

Wooden bridges wrapped around it, spiraling upward until they reached near the surface.

A few mer children stood dotted about different platforms on different levels of the bridge.

Routinely, they’d disappear into the dark belly of the berg, swallowed up only to be spit back out near the bottom.

Their happy yells and excited screeches wove through the sea and brought a small smile to my face.

As we swam closer to one of the middle platforms, I was surprised to see Valdez floating in line, waiting for a turn, his pink hair dancing in the current. He spotted us and the gold ring on the corner of his mouth curved upward with his welcoming smile. “Well, well, well. Look who we have here.”

We swam over to a wooden platform attached to the iceberg, where a deep hole had been bored into the side, and I waved at some giggling kids before joining the line behind the pink dolphin shifter.

His gaze slid between me and Keelan, before he slyly asked, “Looking to be pinned between two men today, Your Majesty?”

My entire face heated at the insinuation and my gaze darted over to the rest of the line, but it looked as if the last of the children had just shot down the slide.

Thank goodness! The panic racing through me dimmed once I realized no little ears overheard his lewd statement.

Then the floral scent that I associated with Valdez’s arousal perfumed the current around us, making me slightly dizzy.

He reached for my hand and pulled me in front of him before addressing Keelan. “We can trade—take turns riding in front of or behind?—”

“I call first backsies,” Keelan immediately declared.

Valdez gave an exaggerated sigh of disappointment that nearly made me titter. “Fine.”

The men staggered themselves in front of and behind me as Mr. Whelk shot off to play with some nearby mer children. In the distance, I caught sight of several small figures surrounding my guards, who were quite discreet this morning.

I barely had a second to glance in that direction before Valdez had tossed his long legs down the tube of the ice tunnel and was reaching back for me. “Damn. This is ice cold. Warm me up, Majesty.”

With Keelan’s help, I climbed up behind the dolphin shifter and wrapped my hands around his trim middle.

He was absolutely correct, the tunnel stung the length of my legs, and I squealed, quickly lifting them up and using Valdez’s legs as shields for my own.

That left me pressed tightly against him and wrapped around him, not unlike the monkey that one of Rasle’s former courtiers had brought to Evaness.

Every inch of me that could be pressed up against Valdez was.

His hands landed on my thighs, latching onto me before he let his thumbs drift in slow circles, transforming my trembling from a cold-related shiver to something else.

Keelan settled in behind me, gently folding each of my wings forward around my sides as he wrapped me up firmly with his good arm, pressing forward.

With him inside the tunnel too, the light dimmed until everything became a hazy blue shadow.

But what I couldn’t see was irrelevant because I had two men touching me, both spurred on by the relative privacy of our situation.

Their fingers mapped out my body, traced trails along my skin, explored.

Touch overwhelmed me, and a flush heated my neck despite the intense cold.

My lips parted, my breath grew quicker, misting in front of me, as Keelan’s hand reached my inner thigh. Head tilted back to his shoulder, I became aware of my pounding pulse as he let the heat of his hand press against me, there.

“Now!” Keelan’s yell startled me, but apparently both men had been awaiting that signal—as if they’d planned this brutal, delicious assault—and they pushed off, feet shoving us forward, the siren’s hand trapped against me.

We went flying. My stomach slammed upward into my chest cavity as we came to a drop that went almost straight down in the steep tube, my ass burning from cold as we slid along the ice.

Our speed created a wind that ripped my hair back from my face and made my eyes squint, tearing up slightly at the edges.

The siren and the dolphin shifter both whooped in delight, filling the tunnel with bouncing sounds of joy as we tilted right and then left before the slide had another wild drop—one that wrenched a scream right out of me.

Without warning, the drop ended, and we slammed into the bottom of the slide for just a second before shooting out the side of the iceberg into the calm, complacent open water.

The sudden shift from speed to weightlessness did strange things to my belly and the inside of my skull—both felt hollowed out.

My fingers seemed unaware that the danger was over because they wouldn’t unlatch from Valdez’s shirt.

It took an entire minute of calm breathing before I was able to convince my body that it wasn’t under attack.

As soon as I did, both men swam up on either side of me, wearing matching grins of boyish delight. “Again,” they commanded.

And we went again. And again. And again.