Pulling back, she stared at him. ‘How long does this take to work?’ she thought.
‘Instantly, I guess,’ he replied, grinning.
The smile that spread across Zia’s face lit up her eyes. It turned out that Zia wanted forever, also. She just didn’t want to see Leo get hurt in the process.
“How do we know it worked enough to break the magic?” she asked Sam without turning to look at him.
Leo already knew. Her light green locks were now a beautiful golden color, which had to be a sign that her Siren side was back.
“Did it work?” Sam asked Cate to be sure.
“Yes,” she replied in a monotone. “I don’t feel linked to her anymore. My family is coming to see what is going on.”
“Time to leave,” Leo exclaimed, turning back into his normal self.
Rising, Leo walked Zia to the wall.
“I’ll find you anywhere,” he told her before placing a kiss on her forehead.
“Well, you better, buddy. If I die, you die,” she told him as she poked his chest. Leo grinned.
Zia reached up to the wall and placed a hand on it. She wasn’t scared in the least. Leo could feel her excitement. She had been trapped in the Mavkas world and was now a free Siren. He had to agree that was exciting. Zia slipped into the wall and transformed. Leo only caught a glimpse before the current took her away, but he saw her blue fin. She was truly back to being who she was supposed to be.
“Time for the rest of the plan,” Sam said to Leo, distracting him from watching as Zia was pulled from their sight.
“Dad,” Cate yelled as she turned and ran toward her father and older brother, who were also running into the main room. “Zia fell into the wall. She was pulled out to sea!”
Turning to face Min, Leo tried to put as much anguish into his face as he could. “She was right there. I thought I could pull her back, but she wouldn’t let me.”
“No, son, you can’t stop someone from going through the wall,” Min replied. There was actual devastation in the older man’s voice.
“We have to go look for her,” Sam said to Min.
“No. No one who was lost that way has ever been found,” Min replied. “It’s safer for you to stay here.”
“I don’t care about safe,” Leo growled. It wasn’t hard to pretend to be mad because he actually felt anger. They were ready to cast Zia off when she didn’t serve a purpose. “I have to find her.”
“Your father wouldn’t want me to let you be in such danger,” Min commented, appealing to Sam instead.
“It can’t be helped. He will understand.” Sam began to march to the tunnel leading out of the pod with Leo beside him.
“Cate,” Min said, trying to get his daughter to help them stay. “Cate?” Min turned around, and Cate was already gone.
“Boys, please.” Min hurried to catch up with them. “It’s too dangerous to go after her, and even if you do find her, you’ll only get your heart broken. She’s already dead. I can feel my link to her is gone.”
Leo stopped to glare at him. “I’m not giving up on her.”
Walking over to the wall, Leo pushed his way through, into the water. Sam was right behind him. Both of them shot straight up to the surface. Not too far behind was Cate. Her head broke the surface right where Leo and Sam waited.
“Here it is,” she said as she handed Sam the knife.
“Good. Now remember, forget everything you saw today. Zia fell through the wall, and there was nothing we could do to save her,” Sam told her, putting Siren force behind his voice. “Now go home and pretend to be heartbroken over me, but never come looking for me again.”
Cate nodded to Sam and ducked back into the water.
“Let’s go find that mate of yours,” Sam told Leo.
Leo nodded as he closed his eyes. He wasn’t sure how it worked, but when he opened them, he knew which direction to go. He felt a tug. She was far away but waiting for him. He knew she was safe, and he was ready to go get her and take her home. Never once before in his life did Leo want a mate, but he was so happy that he had found her. She made him feel something he didn’t even know was possible, and he couldn’t wait to spend his life with her.
He wasn’t sure how King Longray was going to react, but they had done what he asked. They found what the Mavkas were up to and even had both Zia and the knife to prove it. Sam and Leo’s lives were both saved, and even though Leo had already given up, he was glad to be getting his happily ever after.
‘I’m coming for you, Zia,’ Leo told her across the bond.
‘By the way, my Siren name is Lila.’
Leo laughed. He hadn’t thought about that. She was going to keep him on his toes. He couldn’t wait to find her and wrap her back in his arms where she belonged. She didn’t seem to care that she was lost. All he could sense was the pure happiness of a mer in the ocean, and Leo felt it all through their bond. He had been prepared to live life isolated from the mer and was glad to not be. Leo was never going to be alone again.
Epilogue
It was strange for Sam to just step back into his normal life. It was like nothing had happened, and nothing had changed. Longray was so pleased at what Sam and Leo had found that he held up his side of the bargain. Leo was free, and Sam wasn’t punished. Sam had a feeling it was because of Lila, which he still found strange to call her. Having a mate meant Leo had something the king could use against him.
Watching Leo and Lila talk before their swim lesson was strange. Sam knew his friend never wanted a mate, and here he was walking around and holding her hand all the time. Love changed people, but with Leo it was instant. The guy went from being a loner to having a shadow. Sam could have been jealous, but he was happy for his friend more than anything.
Sam didn’t wait for their other friend and swim instructor, Mark, to appear. He dove into the water. He would prefer his tail to legs, but being in the water was calming even without it.
They had plans to escape the mer world, but Sam was certain now his friend’s plans had changed. Leo wasn’t going anywhere. And now that Longray knew, he was going to be keeping better tabs on Sam. That meant, unfortunately, Sam was seeing more and more of his pain in the butt brother, Tim. His escape was going to be hard to pull off, but Sam wasn’t giving up. He just needed to make new plans.
“How many new students do we have?” Sam asked Leo as he swam over to the edge of the pool.
“Looks like six. Two new ones for each of us,” Leo replied as he finally pulled himself from Lila long enough to come over to Sam. He showed Sam the list; four girls and two guys.
“You take the first two, Mark can have the second two, and I’ll take the last two,” Sam suggested. It was better to divvy up the students before they arrived so that Mark couldn’t complain about getting stuck with the ugly ones.
“Sounds good, boss.” Leo mock saluted Sam. King Longray had decided that their trip to the Mavkas home upgraded Sam to the leader of the Siren military, second only to his father.
Sam rolled his eyes.
“I’d punish you for insubordination, but I doubt it would mean anything to you. You’ve been all mushy since we got back. I don’t think it would have any effect.” Sam nodded over to Lila. Smiling, she waved at the boys. Her Siren hearing would make her able to hear every word.
“Hey. Don’t knock it until you try it,” Leo replied. Lila blew him a kiss.
“Not going to happen. My father is going to have to force me to mate, and it will be a trial of wills. I just hope I’ll be stronger than him.”
And that was Sam’s plan if he didn’t get out of the mer world. He was just going to have to fight his father every step of the way. He wasn’t going to get stuck with a mate, and he surely didn’t plan to fall in love.
“Someday a girl is going to walk into your life, and you’ll just know. You’ll know she’s the one for you, and you won’t be able to help it. Just wait and see.”
Sam nodded to his delusional friend and dipped back under
the water. When he came to the surface, Mark had arrived and six people were seated on the bleachers, waiting. Sam watched Mark as Leo handed him the sheet with the names on it.
“We have you divided up between each of us. I’m going to have Mike and Sara,” Leo told the people sitting there. Two people raised their hands, and Leo nodded to them.
“I have Matt and Whitney,” Mark said as he looked at the list.
Sam hopped out of the pool. Two people raised their hands, and he glanced at them and froze. The girl who had been called was a blonde he hadn’t seen before. She was staring at the pool and not Mark, but he was grinning as he glanced at her. He preferred his food to be pretty, and this girl was no exception.
The girl peeked up at them, and Sam’s heart skipped a beat. Her crystal blue eyes locked with his, and he was hooked. He wanted to know more. Heck, he wanted to know everything about her. Who was this girl and where did she come from?
“Um, no,” Sam said as he took the paper from Mark. “You get Ellen and Liz, and I get Matt and Whitney. Leo must have written it wrong.” It wasn’t wrong. It was exactly what he’d told his friend to do.
Mark opened his mouth to complain.
“Right, boss,” Leo added before Mark could say anything.
It seemed like Mark was ready to continue complaining, but Leo’s comment reminded him that Sam was in charge. While Sam really didn’t want to be the leader, he was grateful to be at the moment. He had no idea why, but he needed to start his private lessons with the girl immediately. He felt crazy for wanting to know her. She was obviously just a normal human, but he was going to go with it. He wanted out of the mer world anyway, and a perfectly normal human was just what he needed.
* * *
The End
Thank you for reading Leo’s adventure in the mer world. If you want to know more about what happens next with Sam and Whitney, their story starts in WATER AND BLOOD, Book One of The Merworld Trilogy by B. Kristin McMichael.
http://www.bkristinmcmichael.com/water-and-blood/
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About the Author
B. Kristin McMichael is the author of YA and clean NA paranormal fiction. Her vampiric "Night Human World" includes the YA coming of age series "The Blue Eyes Trilogy" and the spin-off adventure series "The Day Human Trilogy", “The Skinwalkers Witchling Trilogy”, “The Merworld Trilogy”, and “The Hunter Series”. She's also the author of the NA time travel romance series "The Chalcedony Chronicles".
Bestselling author B. Kristin graduated with her PhD in biology at Ohio State where she worked as a scientist before taking her passion of writing full-time. Besides writing, she enjoys chasing her kids, playing outside, and baking cookies. B. Kristin McMichael lives in Ohio with her husband and three children. If you don’t find her writing, then she probably has a book in her hand. Make sure to stop by and say hi on her social media.
Read More from B Kristin McMichael
www.bkristinmcmichael.com
A Clash Of Fire
Shadow Bridge : Dragons
Natalie G. Owens and Zee Monodee
A Clash Of Fire © copyright 2017 Natalie G. Owens & Zee Monodee
* * *
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
A Clash of Fire
Take a family rivalry like Romeo & Juliet’s …
Add a liberal sprinkle of conflict à la Pride & Prejudice …
Breathe in some life & fire …
He’s the bad boy Crown Prince …
Djibril Antonovich Vasiliev, heir to the throne of the dragon nation of Ognennyy Ostrov—Fire Island, in the Bering Sea—is allowed by his illustrious family to live life as a regular human in the outside world. A tennis champion with a philanthropic side, he takes pride in his ancestry, though scandal seems to follow him around.
She’s the enemy who will make him a king …
As a renowned supermodel and socialite, Kseniya Dmitriievich Sokolova uses the glam and party lifestyle as her cover for her job as a spy for the clandestine Corpus agency. Her loathing for the Vasiliev clan is strong and enduring, for her family had once held the right to the throne. A right that should never have been taken from them.
The day comes to fulfil an age-old pact made with the angels and the gods of Olympus: a royal and the next in age of their generation of dragons will band together to help in the global war against Evil. Djibril & Kseniya have to put their differences aside, which isn’t easy when one is a Fire Dragon and the other is incompatible Ice.
Their ultimate mission is to locate the key to winning the war and staying alive in the process. As their quest becomes rife with danger, both will have to show some true mettle to save themselves and each other.
1
“Kiki! Over here! Kiki!”
Kseniya Dmitriievich Sokolova—better known around the world as supermodel Kiki—tried her best to ignore the horde of paparazzi waiting for her at the curb outside a renowned Berlin eatery.
“Is it true you are dating Evan Blackwood? Or is that just a publicity stunt for his upcoming movie?” they shouted. “And what of Carl Ljundberg? Did you two break up already? Who were you having lunch with? Someone we know? Why did he use the back door …”
On most days, she would brush them off with a smile and wave, feed that image of the man-eater they gave her. Not hard, given how she just had to be spotted with a man for rumors to start flying about them being a couple, or at least, friends with benefits.
But not today. Eviscerating everyone’s guts sounded more like the order of the day, after the god-awful news she’d just received. And yes, the prick had made his exit in the back alley. That’s what rats did.
But she couldn’t let that show. No one could know.
Pushing enormous sunglasses onto her face, she then ducked down and stuffed herself into the back seat of the waiting limo.
She focused on her breath and kept her eyes closed all the way to her destination located in a tower in the Potsdamer Platz corporate district of the German capital. She’d had to convene this meeting under catastrophic circumstances. The woman she was going to meet hadn’t been ecstatic to clear a space for her in her busy day, but Kseniya had had no choice.
Her leather tote bag lay pressed to her thigh left bare and exposed above knee-high boots and under a tiny miniskirt, and the power of that piece of paper now inside the cavernous confines made itself known. Like a burn against her skin. Literally. It was a miracle the leather wasn’t melting from all that heat. Guess it was the royal dragons’ magic, that their fire could bring warmth and even sting without scorching everything in its path.
She shoved the bag away, as if such a prod could get rid of the note as easily. Of course, she wouldn’t have it so easy. It had been too much to ask for. The dragon king—her king, she shouldn’t forget, never mind how much she loathed that family—could not be ignored. The papyrus chit he’d sent would burn harder the more she tried to evade it. That’s what a royal summons had the power to do.
“Miss Kiki. We’re here,” the driver said.
Popping her eyes open, she gave him a wan smile. “Thank you, Dieter. No need to get the door. I can manage.”
She exited the vehicle and stepped out onto the wide pavement. Around her, the hectic pace of corporate-types going about their day hardly paused, let alone stopped. What a refreshing change from the ogling crowds that seemed to be everywhere she stepped foot. She couldn’t whip her straight waist-length hair without someone snapping a pic to then share it with a geo-tag on social media. A miracle she managed to have any private life at all. That’s when dragon glamor came in handy, but they had to be very choosy when using that power in the human world.
A few strides of her long legs in their six-inch heels took her to the glass door of the entrance lobby, and she strolled to the private elevator at the back after a quick nod to the guards. She had become a regular feature of those offices lately, though no one knew the real reason why she came here. To the rest of the world, she was the face endorsing the very first line of commercial smartphones launched by R&D and tech giant Dynamogenics.
The perfect cover …
The lift doors opened onto the carpeted inner sanctum of the company located on the top floor of the building. Across the gigantic room, she could make out the shape of Vero, the big boss’ PA, typing away at her keyboard. The cheerleader-type blonde barely looked up as Kseniya made her way in. The head of the company was waiting for her.
After pushing the massive mahogany door, she stepped into a bright and airy office, the floor-to-ceiling windows at the far end opening up a panorama of Berlin, Brandenburg Gate distinctly visible in the distance.
Before she had time to close the panel behind her, something rammed into her legs at full velocity and nearly toppled her over.
Sirens and Scales Page 265
