by Nicole Hall
Aiden ushered her inside and closed the door behind them. It wasn’t a room, as she’d been expecting. It was a tunnel.
Stone surrounded them on all sides, and a thick layer of soft sand covered the floor. Torches were affixed to the walls at regular intervals, allowing enough light to see, and sprites floated around like tiny flames.
Maddie glanced behind her. The double doors marked the entrance, but they’d clearly accessed another trod. Aiden had to stoop under the short ceiling, and Maddie swallowed hard, suddenly glad she’d never been claustrophobic.
Aiden led her deeper inside, and Maddie tried to catch her breath. Her heart still raced from his kiss, but he’d dropped the façade as soon as Seth had distracted Will. Now that they were hidden again, her anger began to rise.
Maddie glared at his back. Who did he think he was? If he wanted to kiss her, she was all for it, but using it as an excuse pissed her off. Especially because once she’d surfaced, she’d seen the dirty looks the locals had been giving them. She’d have been better off ducking back into Seth’s room.
She reached out and poked his shoulder. “Are we going to talk about that show back there?”
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
“Let me rephrase. We’re going to talk about it. I’ll start.” She smacked him lightly on the arm. “What the hell?”
He stopped walking to face her, and she realized she’d been wrong about his lack of reaction. Fire still burned in his eyes, and Maddie felt the answering heat rush through her body. “It was the first thing I thought of and we didn’t have a lot of time. I could hide you since Will has never seen my human form.”
“And what was your answer if the locals had done more than stare angrily? I get the feeling public displays of affection are super not okay in the streets of Cairo.”
Aiden looked down the seemingly unending tunnel as the torches sputtered, and Maddie wanted to smack him again. “I admit it wasn’t my best idea.”
“That’s all?” She waited but he didn’t say more or meet her eyes. “Okay, how about the fact that Will managed to get to Egypt right behind us and happened to be on the same street. I know Seth drew him away, but could he have somehow summoned Will in the first place?”
That got Aiden’s attention back on her. “It wasn’t Seth, but I think he knew Will was coming. That’s why he hurried us out.”
“Then why didn’t he just tell us?”
“And risk giving away extra information when he could sow chaos instead? I’m surprised he wasn’t cackling the whole time.” A muscle in his jaw twitched. “It’s not Will’s knowledge and presence we need to be worried about. It’s Torix’s. Will is a puppet. Torix either knew where we’d be or he had a way to track us.”
Maddie blew out a breath as her anger subsided. “Which is it?”
“I don’t know. I’m not omniscient. The only way he’d know about Seth is if someone in my clan is helping him. That’s highly unlikely, but not impossible. As a precaution, I’ll be more careful when consulting them.”
“You think Torix is tracking us somehow?”
Aiden nodded. “I think he’s tracking you.”
“Me?” she squeaked.
“You contain a chunk of his power, even if it’s changed.”
“Yeah, but I don’t use it unless it’s an emergency.”
“I’m not sure that’s true.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Are you calling me a liar?”
Aiden closed his eyes for a second and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “No. I’m saying you may be using it without realizing.”
Maddie shook her head and turned her back on him. She needed to think hard about the last couple of days, and his large presence distracted her.
“Maddie?”
She held up a hand. “Give me a minute.”
He shuffled around behind her and his pack hit the ground with a thunk. “Take your time. I could use a break anyway.”
Maddie got the feeling he meant from her rather than from the trek through the trods. Fine with her. She paced a few steps away and dropped her own pack. She’d been living in Europe for the last year. Mostly Wales, but she’d spent some time with her parents in Norway when she’d first arrived. Despite her need to learn to protect herself, she hadn’t had any contact with Torix. He’d disappeared, and she’d hoped he’d crawled into a hole somewhere to writhe in pain, pecked at by birds and powerless, for the rest of his days.
It was a pretty specific fantasy, all things considered.
Maddie tilted her head and let her hair swing around her face, blocking her view of most of the tunnel. Maybe too specific. What if that was exactly what Torix had done? She’d never felt good about the image that came to her sometimes. Even as a fantasy, the depiction was darker than she wanted to be. She’d fought for the last year to reclaim herself, and she wanted that self to be a good person.
The idea that Torix could still have some influence over her, even passively through his magic, sparked a chill of fear in her.
The first real contact she’d had with him had been the dream with Will, and she’d immediately booked a flight home. The threat against Jake had been a blatant manipulation, but an effective one. As he’d predicted, she’d come to him. Before that though, he’d been able to access her dream when she’d thought herself hidden. He’d implied that her shields had kept him at bay until she’d dropped them for Aiden. Had she let her shields slip in Wales? It was possible she’d gotten lax after maintaining vigilance for so long.
What had changed that had allowed Torix to find her everywhere except Aiden’s cabin? She peeked at him around her hair. He sat with his back against the stone wall, drinking water and diligently looking away from her. She needed to learn more about his wards. In the meantime, if Torix could track her, and she wasn’t fully convinced yet, they needed to keep moving.
Maddie pulled her hair back into a ponytail and shook off the fear. It didn’t do any good to cower from things that she couldn’t control. Better to find a way to control them.
“Ready to go?”
Aiden capped his water and stowed it before standing. “Come to any conclusions?”
“I need to know more about your wards.”
He nodded and started down the path again. “I thought that might come up.”
“How are they keeping Torix out?”
“I assume you’re talking about the ones at my cabin. Those are actually several wards woven together. One of them is specifically for Torix. I’m not taking any chances.”
“Why did it let me in then?” She sounded small, even to herself, and she hated it.
“You are not Torix. You have some of his power inside you, but it seems to be changing. His centered on manipulation and fear, yours isn’t that subtle.”
Maddie wasn’t sure if she should be offended. “What does that mean?”
“It means when you use the magic it takes the form of blades and brute force.”
She stared at her feet, silent for a second. “I don’t trust it.”
“I can’t help you with that. In my vast opinion, the magic is becoming yours, if it hasn’t already.”
“Vast, huh?”
“I know a lot more than you.”
She couldn’t argue with that. Aiden slowed as the tunnel started a gentle curve upward. “We got off topic. Can you teach me how to ward out Torix?”
Sunlight spilled across the walls of the tunnel as they came around another bend, and Aiden stopped. “I might be able to, but wards are hard to master.” She opened her mouth to argue, but he stopped her by holding up a hand. “I’m not saying you can’t do it. I have absolute faith you’d nail them, but I don’t think the time would be worth it. Do you want to be practicing while Torix collects more power every second?”
Maddie narrowed her eyes, strongly tempted to argue anyway, but he was right. They needed to weaken Torix before he got bored chasing her across the world and went after Jake and his family. “Okay, but I still want a
lesson in wards when this is over.”
He watched her for a moment, but she couldn’t read his face. “When this is over.”
The trod ended around the next corner as they climbed a few steps up to a sunny beach with palm trees swaying in a warm breeze. Maddie inhaled the salty sea air and wished again that she could call trods on her own. If she’d spent the last year on a tropical paradise instead of a soggy village in Wales, she’d at least be way less pale.
Aiden squinted toward the clear turquoise water and started walking down the beach. Maddie stripped off her long-sleeve overshirt and tied it around her waist. She walked carefully, but the sand destroyed her balance until she finally stooped and pulled off her boots too, tying them to the outside of her pack. Each time she stopped, he got a little further ahead of her.
“Aiden, wait.”
He turned and frowned. His long legs ate up the sand as he walked back to her. “I have an idea.”
Maddie squealed as his hands slipped behind her back and knees and he picked her up, pack and all. “I can walk, you big oaf.”
He shrugged with one shoulder. “This will be faster.”
She snorted. “Yeah, until you drop me.”
“Have some faith, marenkya.”
He didn’t appear tired in the slightest from carrying her, so she relaxed and hooked a hand around his neck. “What does marenkya mean?”
“Little fox.”
She’d had worse nicknames. “Why?”
“Because you fight to survive with everything in you, strength and brains. Also, you look vaguely fox-like.”
Her nose scrunched. “Great. I look like a wild animal.”
His fingers dug into her side. “It’s a compliment. They’re beautiful creatures.”
Aiden scanned the water as he walked, and Maddie tried not to pet his chest where her hand rested. If she had any doubts about his stamina, they were laid to rest. He wasn’t even breathing hard. She had to concentrate to make her own breath even as his closeness sent shivers of awareness through her.
Maddie shifted her focus from the hard muscles in front of her face to the mangrove swamps in the distance. A flash of pink caught her attention.
“Oh my god, flamingos! There are actual flamingos here. Where are we?”
“The island of Andros, in the Bahamas.”
“Are flamingos dangerous in the wild? Can we get closer?” She smiled up at him. “I want to see if they actually stand on one leg when they’re sleeping.”
Aiden laughed. “I’m not chasing a bunch of flamingos through a swamp.”
“Some Uber you are.”
That got him to laugh hard enough that he had to stop walking. Maddie was never afraid he’d drop her, though. He met her eyes, and his grip tightened as the laughter died down. Maddie leaned closer, but a loud splash in the distance had Aiden looking away. She let her forehead drop down to his shoulder.
What was she thinking? This was no time for distractions. They were out in the open. Torix, or more likely Will, could be following them at that very second. She didn’t even know what they were doing there. That glaring oversight was a much better place to focus her attention.
“Aiden, who are we looking for?”
“An old friend of mine. Daria.”
“Does she live out here?”
“Sort of. She lives out there.” He pointed his chin at the expanse of glistening water. “She’s a mermaid.”
Up until that moment, Maddie had believed mermaids to be a myth, like the Loch Ness monster and unicorns. The fascination she’d felt at seeing the flamingos paled in comparison to her excitement at meeting a real mermaid.
She eagerly searched the water for any sign of a woman with a tail. Aiden walked closer to the waves and laughed as she used his shoulder to lift herself higher. The beach ended in a rocky promontory that jutted into the surf. Another splash from in front of them made Maddie shade her eyes so she could squint at the rocks.
They looked empty at first, but as Aiden moved closer, she could make out a figure lounging half out of the water. With her elbows resting on the rocks, a woman with short, spiky black hair had her face upturned to the sun. She wore a short-sleeve rash guard with a familiar surfing logo on it, and Maddie couldn’t see anything below her waist, despite the clear water.
Nervousness made Maddie hiss at Aiden under her breath. “Is there anything I need to know in advance?”
“Don’t make direct eye contact, don’t mention her tail, and they like humans to stand on one foot when addressing them.”
Maddie frowned up at his straight face. “You’re mocking me, aren’t you?”
“Yes. Mermaids are people too. They don’t have any cultural peculiarities you need to worry about.”
“Is that Daria?”
“Yes.”
“How did you know she’d be here instead of the other direction?”
“Lucky guess.”
Everything he’d told her so far had been the truth, when he wasn’t teasing her, but that last answer felt false. He hadn’t hesitated since they’d stepped out of the trod onto the beach, and his tone told her he wasn’t going to give her more information. Aiden had known where to find Daria, and he didn’t want Maddie to know how. Hurt blossomed inside her. She’d thought he trusted her more than that.
Daria didn’t move as they approached the rock, but the muscles in her arms tensed as if ready to push off at any second. They stopped close enough that Maddie could make out a gleam in the water where she’d expected a tail to be. She pushed against Aiden’s chest until he set her down. The sand burned her sensitive feet, so she wiggled under it until she hit a cooler layer. Maddie wanted her feet firmly on the ground for her first time meeting a mermaid.
“Daria, we need to talk,” Aiden said.
Her eyes popped open, and Maddie almost gasped at the deep indigo color. “I hate when you say that.” She gave Aiden a slow, appreciative once-over that sparked a surprising amount of jealousy in Maddie. They clearly had a past, and she wondered if this was why he was keeping things from her.
The vibrant purple gaze moved from Aiden to Maddie, and Daria smiled slowly, revealing sharp, pointed teeth. “You brought me a human.”
Aiden took a not so subtle step in front of her, and the jealousy subsided. “She’s mine.”
The mermaid pouted and relaxed on the rocks again. “Why are you wearing so many clothes?”
“Why are you?” Aiden retorted.
Maddie narrowed her eyes at him. Their interaction bordered on useless, but curiosity begged her to ask one question. She stepped out from behind Aiden and addressed Daria herself. “Where’d you get a surfing shirt?”
“From a surfer. Humans are freaked out by boobs.” She smiled again, more friendly, less predatory this time. “You understand.”
She did. Flash a smidgen of boob and society ground to a halt. Maddie nodded knowingly, and Daria gave her a little eyebrow wiggle. Her tail emerged from the water and crashed back down, making the loud splash they’d heard earlier. Out of the water, the scales glimmered in the sun, iridescent blue deepening into dark purple at the tip.
Maddie only got a glimpse, but her eyes widened at the beauty. Did all mermaids have tails that matched their eyes? She wanted to get closer, see if the scales were as smooth as they looked. The urge built quickly in her until she had to lock her legs to stay put.
Aiden growled, and the impulse abruptly dissipated. For a second, she’d forgotten all about him. “Stop it, Daria.”
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. You ruin all my fun.”
Maddie blinked and dug her toes into the sand. Seth had said the same thing to him. “What just happened to me?”
Aiden didn’t take his eyes off Daria, but he dropped a hand on Maddie’s shoulder. “Mermaids can mesmerize with their tails. It’s how they capture prey.”
Maddie gaped up at him. “And you didn’t think that was important information? Like when I asked if there was anything I needed
to know in advance and you mocked me instead of helping?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t think it would work on you.”
Maddie wanted to smack him again. Of all the times to demonstrate that he didn’t know everything, he chose the one where she could have gotten eaten by a beautiful mermaid. A thought hit her, and she eyed him again. “What do they do with their prey?”
He looked down and met her eyes. “They eat it or mate with it, depending on their mood.”
Daria scoffed. “As if I’d eat someone that skinny. She’s got practically no meat on her.”
Maddie’s brows lifted into her hair, and she decided to take it as a compliment. She’d just been hit on by a mermaid. A sexy mermaid. Warmth rose from her chest up her neck and into her face. That tail was potent. She shook her head, and decided to keep her eyes away from the water just in case.
Aiden didn’t seem to be having any of the same trouble. “What do you know about a Fae named Torix?”
“Torix?” She yawned and stretched her arms above her head. “Never heard of him, but I don’t pay much attention to Fae politics. They’re always so serious and uppity. Who wants to live like that all the time?”
“What about a place called the Tavern on the Sea run by a selkie named Cassie?”
“Now that I’ve heard of. Excellent mussels. It’s in a rough neighborhood though.”
“What does that mean?”
She waved a hand vaguely. “Off the northwest coast of Scotland.”
Maddie piped in. “Does off the coast mean land or sea?”
Daria giggled, revealing her disturbing teeth again. “Land, darling. The sea there is terrible. Have you been to the Atlantic Ocean? It’s freezing and the fish taste like metal. So do the fishermen.”
Aiden sighed, and Maddie wondered if Daria was being purposely dramatic. “Can you be more specific?”
“Callanish. Ask around. The locals know where to find it, even if they don’t frequent it.” She cocked her head to the side. “Why the interest?”
