by Starla Night
Her mother, father, and three sisters settled onto their comfy picnic blankets. They watched with expectant, eager eyes.
Nilun sat with a determined glare.
He might not be Dannika’s first choice to introduce to the new family…but it would probably be fine. “Go ahead and introduce yourself.”
“I am Nilun of Atlantis, originally of Djullanar, and my bride will have no fears under the water. I will protect her from all dangers.”
“Great. That’s perfect. How—”
“Raiders, exiles, and All-Council armies.” He slammed his fist into his chest. “Beware.”
“Very good. Can—”
“When a shark bites and mauls and tears into her flesh, I will fend it off.”
Dannika held up her hand. “Okay. Let’s—”
“When a megalodon rises from the depths and inhales the very city itself, crushing and destroying, I will fly to its eyes and blind it with my trident.”
“Nilun.” She subtly coughed. Indigo and her family stared at Nilun in terror. “Acknowledging risks can be healthy, but focusing on them exclusively might discourage a future bride.”
“But I will protect her.”
“Right and emphasizing risks that are unlikely—”
“These risks are very likely. I have encountered all myself.”
“Mm. Recently?”
“Yes. In this very year.” He puffed his chest proudly. “And I defeated them all. I am a worthy, capable warrior with two thumbs. My bride should not fear.”
“So…Okay, and why not share the wonderful things your bride can enjoy while you’re there taking care of any danger?”
“I do not understand.”
“What’s empowering and beautiful about being a mer?”
He pondered the question. “We do not breathe air…”
“Yes, and?”
“We can see the souls of our enemies from a vast distance. Thus we are more able to prepare. Unless they are hiding in an ambush. Then,” he slashed his hand, “we must fight. With trident and dagger. Yah!”
Okay.
She looked back at Stevie. “Is that enough to make a profile? Do you think?”
He shrugged. “I’ll cut something together. Want to take a break?”
She checked with Indigo’s family. They had set aside their picnic food and side-eyed the surrounding warriors.
Indigo rested her left hand, with a sparkly engagement diamond, on Zoan’s bare knee. “Did you go through all that? Raiders and sharks? Megalodons?”
His eyes twinkled. “Well…”
“Not on the first day,” Dannika assured her. “And as a bride, you have an advantage over the warriors in that you’ll eventually develop queen powers.”
“Yeah, I’m so curious about those,” Indigo said. “Channeling energy? From the Atlantis Life Tree? How does it work?”
“There are three main powers: pushing, shielding, and healing. One will emerge as you strengthen your soul mate bond. Zoan won’t let you get into a dangerous situation until you’re ready.”
Indigo nodded, eyes wide.
“Sure.” Zoan’s eyes twinkled with suppressed mischief. “You can believe that if it helps you sleep at night.”
Indigo bumped his shoulder. “That does, actually.”
His twinkle disappeared. He nuzzled her with genuine kindness. “Good.”
Whew.
Dannika’s phone rang.
Her call.
She yanked it from her tote, stood, and answered as she walked to a quieter region of the small beach. “This is Dannika.”
“Dannika, my dear, I’ve been trying to reach you.” Her elderly friend, Frederik, crackled on the weak connection. “How happy I am to finally get through.”
“Yes, I’m all ready for tonight. I’ve arranged an afternoon flight.” She checked her wristwatch. “Thank you so much for scheduling with the senator. I just know we can lift the restrictions on mermen if we can show him they only mean peace.”
“My dear, I’m so sorry to be the bearer of bad news. The senator’s office called. He can’t leave Washington.”
The sandy shore tilted beneath Dannika’s sandals. A seabird’s melancholy cry echoed in her pounding ears.
No. It wasn’t true.
A hard lump formed in her throat. Tears pricked her eyes.
“Oh, gosh. Oh, goodness.” She turned away and fanned herself with a jerky motion. “Can we change the hour? Or the date?”
“You know what it means when a politician gives that answer. It’s just like when a Hollywood producer tells you he loves your script and he’ll be in touch. If I had a penny for every time I heard that, I’d be producing the next blockbuster myself.”
The sun slipped behind a cloud and the tableau of warriors and camera crew took on a gray cast. Only Ciran gazed her way like a splash of color in a world of sepia.
She couldn’t face him right now.
“How disappointing.” She hurried down the beach away from the warriors. “I thought the senator was sympathetic. What happened?”
“He has a college-aged daughter.”
“So?”
“Your office has produced lovely informational ads, but your opponents have struck right in the man’s ugly heart. ‘These monsters kidnap, assault, enslave our innocent girls. Don’t let yours become the next victim.’”
“Those are all lies.”
“Yes, well…In the old legends, mermen were monsters. And the Sons of Hercules are happy to remind us.”
“Yes, but in the old legends, Hercules was an insane, violent murderer.” Dannika rubbed her clammy hands on her caftan. “You know his twelve labors? He performed them in penance.”
“Yes, for offing his innocent wife and children. I attended Oxford, my dear.”
“Yet our mermen are the ones who attack innocents?”
“The modern education system has murdered the classics,” Frederik agreed. “Yet, the message packs a punch. When it comes to love, fear always wins.”
That contradicted everything Dannika stood for.
She shook her whole body, rejecting it with everything she had. “I can’t believe that.”
“Rom coms are fine, but horror will never die. I sell the stories. I know.”
“No, I mean, I’m sure your right, but…” She scrubbed her burning eyes. “Where do we go from here?”
“Why don’t you come down tonight, anyway?” Frederik suggested. “We’ll have a little powwow and figure it out. You have the connections.”
Dannika did have the connections, but her best one had just declined her dinner invitation.
Again.
Gailen and the others were counting on her.
She was failing her warriors.
“We can open a bottle of sherry and reminisce about old times,” he continued.
“Mm.” She cleared her throat. “Well…”
“I am sorry for missing Eliot’s annual memorial. Can you believe it’s been eighteen years since he died? What an awful, awful day. Worse for you, I’m sure. The only blessing is that you weren’t there to see it, although that’s also sad, in a way.”
She rotated her wedding ring. Guilt was a familiar companion. It was the cost of having found true love. “I may come down…”
Ciran’s voice punctured the air behind her. “You are leaving Bermuda?”
She whirled.
His dark eyes mesmerized her. “Where you go, I go.”
The tingle started in her belly.
She sucked in a breath and let it out. Then she moved the phone away from her ear to answer him. “Your warriors must need you here.”
“Lotar is a capable leader.” His fingers encircled her wrist. “You need me.”
“I don’t…”
But he saw the truth.
And so did she.
I don’t want to need you.
Dannika closed her lips and rubbed her tongue across the nude gloss. She didn’t want to need Ciran, but when the w
orld broke down around her, all she wanted to do was lean into his unbending support.
But no.
She pulled her spine straight and took a deep, calming breath. “Yes, I am returning to the mainland. And you are welcome to come as well. We can look at bios together on the plane, and by the time we land, I’ll help you pick out the perfect bride.”
Chapter Five
As she listed her requirements, Ciran’s eyes narrowed in refusal. “I will look at anything with you, Dannika, but you know you are my bride. Accept my claim.”
Which meant to share a kiss.
Heat waved through her veins and twisted in a hot ache between her thighs. Her nipples tightened. Desire flooded into all her nooks and crannies, the sensual pieces of herself that she’d long ignored.
Her body yearned to envelop him, lick the salt off his abdomen, delve beneath the rim of his shorts and encircle the cock she found within.
Ciran would be a passionate and sensual lover. If she let him have the tiniest taste—if she let herself indulge—she would wreck his life and ruin herself forever.
“I will claim you, Dannika.” His low voice was so possessive it made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “You are mine.”
But if she gave in…
Luckily, she didn’t have to.
Shouts erupted with the other warriors. Pushing, shoving, and a scream.
Just when Dannika’s soul was finally starting to glow, his warriors had to start a fight.
Ciran released Dannika, pivoted, and raced down the sand.
Gailen fought with Nilun.
Lotar forced the grappling warriors back from Indigo’s family. Her young sisters clung to her parents. Indigo stood behind a somber Zoan.
Gailen rammed Nilun into the sand, landed on top of him, and continued the struggle.
Ciran yanked Gailen off.
Gailen fought with surprising strength, but Ciran finally contained the enraged warrior. “Calm. Breathe. Breathe, Gailen. Inhale the air.”
Nilun rolled to his knees.
Lotar stood in front of him and gestured silently for him to remain down. Nilun grimaced but obeyed.
Gailen finally took a deep breath and let it out, his limbs trembling. “Curse you, Nilun. Spiky pufferfish have more brains.”
“You dare insult me?” Nilun surged to his feet.
Gailen swiped at him.
Lotar’s arm flashed, barely seeming to touch Nilun, but the hot-headed warrior went down and stayed flat.
Ciran forced Gailen back. He never attacked without reason. “You struck first. Explain.”
“He was scaring them.” Gailen jabbed his misshapen hand at Indigo’s sisters. “Their souls blackened with fear.”
Even now, the young girls looked dimmer than when they’d arrived.
“Because you lied,” Nilun groaned. “The ocean is not a big, empty room. Every mer is not a friend.”
“Enough,” Ciran growled at Nilun. “Remember the lesson of the morning. What do you observe?”
“Gailen will lead them into danger.”
“Nilun. Look at the humans. Their souls.”
“And? The ocean is dangerous.” Nilun rose to his knees, gave Lotar a wary eye, and rubbed his abdomen. “Especially near this island. All the mer know that. And yet he urges these defenseless females to go into the water and play.”
The girls hugged their mother. Their souls all dimmed.
Dannika encompassed the humans in a big hug. “Oh, it’s not like that. Indigo will be perfectly safe with the warriors of Atlantis, I promise you.”
“What did he mean, ‘especially near this island’?” Indigo’s mother asked. “We are in danger near here?”
“Yeah, I want to know about that too,” Stevie, her videographer, chimed in.
Lotar frowned blackly, and the warriors who’d surfaced before Ciran shuffled with unease.
There was no special danger near Bermuda.
Unless…
Nilun rested his hands on his thighs. “Everyone knows what I mean.”
Unfortunately, Ciran did.
The hairs on the back of his neck stood up.
And he wasn’t the only one. The other warriors subtly edged away from the sea and rubbed their necks.
Ciran held his ground. “This island is outside of their territory, Nilun.”
“Is it? Are you sure?” He glared at the blue shallows. “Would you let your young fry play in these waters alone?”
Dannika looked from one tense warrior to the next and finally sought Ciran’s gaze. “Why not? You’ve been swimming here for days.”
“We are adults,” Nilun said. “Warriors. We can fight back.”
“Nilun.” Lotar’s warning was soft but sharp.
He subsided.
“Ciran?” She put her hands on her hips. Her coverings flowed in the gentle breeze like an anemone’s tendrils, graceful but with a fierce sting. “What’s he talking about?”
He hesitated. There was no need to frighten Indigo’s family further. No need to speak the name even warriors refused to whisper.
“Lusca,” Stevie said with grim certainty. “He’s talking about Lusca.”
The warriors jumped. Nilun snarled, Lotar tensed, and Gailen jolted.
A ripple of forbidden fear surfaced on Ciran’s skin.
He rubbed his forearm. “How do you know that name?”
“So it does exist.” Stevie jerked his chin at the warriors closest to him. “I’ve been asking around, off and on, ever since you guys emerged five years ago. But nobody would confirm it.”
“What is it?” Dannika asked. “Lusca?”
Another ripple bumped on his skin, and the other warriors tightened their defensive formation.
“They’re a city full of very angry mermen.” Stevie bounced his camera off his thigh. “Around 1492, conquistadors emptied their sacred islands, so they go around sinking ships with giant squids.”
The warriors murmured in shock.
Dannika blinked. “What?”
Clearly, Ciran had not paid enough attention to the human recording their images. “How did you know of this?
“Whoah, whoah, whoah.” Dannika held out both hands. “Are you saying it’s true? There’s a city of mermen going around sinking ships with giant squids and this is the first I’ve heard of it?”
Stevie gestured at Ciran to explain.
His heart sped as if he was being studied by a quick, deadly predator. “Do you need to know this?”
“Yes, I need to know this.” She crossed her arms, her tote bouncing against her waist. “The Sons of Hercules have been claiming for years that the mer mean us harm, and if a city has declared war on humans, I need to know. I need to know it right now.”
This was insane.
War? Squids? Angry mermen?
No.
Ciran eyed the other warriors, clenched his jaw, and focused his intensity on Dannika as he unveiled the news she least wanted to hear. “It is all true.”
The other warriors freaked out.
“Second Lieutenant! Speaking of it is forbidden. You will summon them with your loose talk.”
He withstood their shouts with his usual resolute, unbending firmness.
Lotar gazed at the sea as though preparing for an actual invasion.
The Sons of Hercules would have a field day with this.
What a PR nightmare.
And they knew it.
“Dannika represents us to her people. Our future brides,” Ciran told his agitated warriors. “She has asked for the truth. I will not lie.”
“She cannot tell the brides,” Nilun protested. “They will fear us.”
“Oh, now you worry about scaring brides?” Gailen asked dryly.
“Of course I am concerned. Who would not be?”
“We may never surface again,” Tial said, wide-eyed. “Bermuda will ask us to leave. We will never find acceptance on land to meet our brides.”
“Dannika will not let that hap
pen,” Gailen said encouragingly.
They all looked at Dannika. The desperate eyes of her warriors pleaded silently for her help.
“Of course I won’t,” she promised, because they would find their brides. “But, um, why don’t you tell me what we’re dealing with here? So I can prepare a proper statement. Like, why has no one talked about this before?”
“I would also like to know,” Stevie said.
“We do not speak of the city because All-Council labeled it anathema.”
“So is Atlantis,” she said.
“But there is universal agreement. They sink ships indiscriminately. Break apart families. Steal young fry. All mer cities shun Lusca.”
The warriors shuddered as if him saying the name summoning the devil.
Wow. Okay. What a nightmare. Dannika steeled herself. “Tell me everything.”
“I do not know the word Stevie used, but long, long ago, humans invaded this city’s sacred islands. They took, enslaved, or killed the sacred brides. Enraged by the loss, the city declared war on all surface humans. They sank many, many ships.”
A deep unease settled over the warriors as if Ciran were opening an umbrella indoors while walking under a ladder and breaking a mirror. They clapped their biceps and thighs, quietly questing for the absent daggers.
“The All-Council gathered its largest army, filled with willing volunteers from all the cities, to end the attacks. They failed. Lusca controls what you call giant squid and an even larger animal known as the kraken. They are formidable.”
Kraken?
What could that even be?
“Ever since, we have avoided their territory,” Ciran continued. “Lusca has been cut off from the rest of the mer—from resources, knowledge, trade—and so they are reduced to raiding. They attack anyone who ventures too close, and some careful travelers that are simply unlucky.”
“Why hasn’t it come up before now?” Dannika rubbed her elbow. “Mermen were discovered because of the GoPro. We know more than ever about the ocean. But giant squids are attacking innocent boats and nobody has a clue?”
“The squids mess with electronics,” Stevie said. “They turn the ocean red and cause a nasty fog. You can’t power engines, can’t use the radio.”
