by Starla Night
Knowing their language would be useful to escape their captors.
Except it meant she resonated more and more with the Aiycaya Life Tree and its king.
She rose and bounced to Warrior Poro. “Well, have you at least given him food?”
“We must not, Sacred Bride Harmony.” Warrior Poro ignored Warrior Luin’s “silence” gesture. “Tibe ordered—”
“He’s supposed to heal.”
Again, the warriors seemed nonplussed.
Her small house guardian flew around her and tangled her tentacles playfully in Harmony’s hair.
She knelt to untie him.
“You must not!” both warriors protested.
“First Lieutenant Tibe ordered…” Warrior Luin repeated weakly.
“I’m sure he only ordered you not to do it.” Her fingers whisked against his ankles like fluttery kisses. “No way did he say a sacred bride couldn’t untie Faier.”
“He did not specify…”
“So, that’s fine, then.” She hummed.
The warriors argued in their language, eying her furtively.
He enjoyed her light touch on his bonds.
At least he could have that much.
Soon, he would be free. He flexed his ankles. How would he disarm the two warriors? With the least harm?
Because of Harmony…
“Huh.” She kicked to his front. “I still can’t untie the knots. They’re too tight. Are you okay?”
His toes were numb.
He flexed them. “Thank you for trying, Harmony.”
Another pinch tickled his fingers.
He startled badly. What creature had snuck up and—oh, yes. His ears were again insulted by her off-tone yowl.
“My octopus!” Harmony wiggled her fingers. “Good luck. They’re tight.”
The house guardian’s small tentacles teased his bonds apart, and her hard beak sawed.
Faier tried to focus on her happiness. But it knifed his side. “You communicate well with this city’s king?”
“Oh… He’s okay.” She waved one hand and rolled her eyes in exasperation. “He doesn’t listen. But I got through at the end.”
Faier’s bonds loosened. He flexed his ankles. The house guardian wiggled.
“Can I get you food?” Harmony turned to Warrior Luin. “Please bring in my lunch.”
Warrior Luin protested. “It is against First Lieutenant Tibe’s—”
“To give me my lunch?”
“Oh. For you… Then I guess…”
He returned with the three small boxes. Harmony reached out. Luin let go and jerked back to avoid touching her.
She opened the top box to display flavorful aged meat.
“I’ve eaten so much.” Harmony pulled out a slice and offered it to Faier. “It’s really good. As a thank-you for feeding me on the surface, I want to feed you.”
Both warriors protested. “No warrior may feed the exile!”
“I am no warrior. So, that can’t be against orders, can it?”
The warriors looked at each other. No one had ordered them to stop the sacred bride from feeding the prisoner.
Her soul flared as she looked back at Faier and handed him the hunk. “Go ahead.”
He chewed the delicious sustenance.
“Here.” Harmony handed him another hunk for his free hand. “Eat up.”
Both warriors edged back and forth, muttering and gazing at the entrance, as though awaiting a furious superior. Here were the prisoner and the king’s sacred bride sitting in the middle of the prison enjoying good meat. And Faier was starving. His last human food had been a cup of coffee and a chicken sandwich on the Coast Guard cutter hours before they’d hit the storm. He’d eaten fish underneath the raft. Then, his injury, and nothing.
Health flowed into his veins and revitalized his body.
Harmony studied him critically. “You look better. Your scars, I mean. They’re less angry and more…scar-y.”
He flexed his shoulders and his arms. And then his legs were free, and he flexed his toes. “Yes, I feel better.”
The house guardian darted between them and rotated in a happy circle.
Harmony handed the king’s house guardian her own hunk of meat. “Good girl.”
The warriors both dropped their jaws.
“House guardians forage for scraps,” he noted.
“Well, she freed you where I couldn’t.” Harmony handed the pleased house guardian a second chunk. “So, it’s only fair she should share the reward.”
He stretched his aching legs and remained in human form to lull his guards into false security. “You eat well in Aiycaya?”
“Here! Vegetables.” She opened another box filled with an assortment of revitalizing legumes. “It’s weird, but this place feels familiar. Like I’ve been here in a dream. But…” her soul light fluctuated to dark and light again, “…I came here to ask you about that.”
“Me?”
“You.” She rolled onto her knees and rested her hands on her thighs. “Did you give me elixir?”
He stopped chewing.
“You never lie. Right?”
He choked. Her doubts cut into his already hurting heart. “Harmony.”
“I know you would’ve done it to save my life,” she said in a rush. “Really. You didn’t want to tell me after you found out how scared I was. You’ve always helped me. I just have to know.”
He answered truthfully. Even though his past wishes filled him with shame. “I wished to give you elixir. But I had none.”
“Nothing? Not even by accident?”
“You doubt me because of my disrespectful thoughts.”
“Thoughts? Oh, no, I’m asking about logistics here. The Aiycaya warriors said there was no elixir on any of their islands and they didn’t have a Life Tree blossom, so there’s literally no way they could have transformed me. So, how did I transform? If not them, then…?”
“I had many disrespectful thoughts, Harmony.”
“But thoughts are…I mean, I couldn’t have spontaneously transformed, right? It’s impossible. Nobody would ever drown.”
“Transforming to marry a warrior was your greatest fear. Even so, I swam around your sacred island searching for the elixir. I found none.”
“Neither did they. That’s what I’m saying.”
“I wished I would have had my blossom when the crocodile attacked you and our only choice was to lose the raft and dive. I thought you would die.”
“So did I. And I drank nothing on that island. So how did I transform? I’m a little confused.”
“But I did not have my blossom or my Sea Opal. I did not expect to meet my mate on the rescue mission for the Coast Guard.”
She froze. Her chest light grew bright and then dark and then shivered and shuddered. Finally, they were in sync. “Your mate? I’m your mate?”
Yes.
But no. No. No.
His mouth opened and closed.
She waited expectantly
He felt like a hunter who had brought the greatest catch to his bride only to overhear she hated hunting.
His heart turned over. Cold warred with heat.
You are my mate.
Even though she did not love him. Even though he was a monster. Even though she turned away from him and synchronized her soul to the king.
He had long ago known he would never find a bride. And now, with Harmony before him, he was the closest he would ever come.
And still an infinite sea parted them.
It would be easier to lie. More convenient for her. Less damaging to him.
But Faier was not a warrior who lied.
“Yes. You are mine.”
Chapter Twenty
You are mine.
Faier’s powerful claim heated Harmony’s chest. Surprise unfurled like the petals of a flower opening to the sun. Her sun was the mauve threads in his eyes, the ruined lines on his rough skin, and the fierce glow of his aura promising her what she already knew
: He was her one.
He looked away and rubbed his wrists. “Forgive me.”
“No, I…”
He winced and avoided her gaze. “Please.”
Funny. He looked uncomfortable. Had he not meant to confess?
Huh. Harmony worried all the time, yet Faier, in the worst situations, looked calm. As if being bound and hit by furious warriors in revenge for holding their king hostage wasn’t so bad; he’d seen worse and wasn’t worried.
Seeing him uncomfortable was refreshing.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked
“You did not wish to become the husband of a merman.”
“But that’s… My wishes are separate from your feelings.”
“No.”
The bubbles of surprise popped once more. “No?”
“A bride must desire her husband. Her desire increases his desire. But you do not have these feelings for me. So I should not harbor these wishes for you.”
“But you do.”
“I want you for my mate.” He blazed at her for one pure moment and then died away. “I am sorry.”
“I’m not.”
He looked up again. He didn’t understand.
Her feelings bubbled up in her chest, unstoppable.
He had never looked so beautiful. His shining aura remained steady. Strong. He was a rock in any storm.
Literally.
She caressed the little ducktail at the back of his neck.
He stilled.
The feathery lock was soft and curled around her index finger just like she’d imagined. A rush of heat filled her belly with pounding longing. Her breasts tightened with need.
No one stopped her. The guards had returned to the entrance and peered out. Something distracted them.
Good.
She leaned in. “I do feel desire, Faier.”
The mauve threads in his eyes gleamed.
She waited for him to understand. Wrap confident fingers around her nape. Draw her in for the kiss that claimed her.
But he looked down and flexed his scarred knuckles. “You feel desire for your husband—”
“For you.”
He avoided her gaze again. He didn’t believe her.
She leaned in and pressed her lips to his.
No reaction.
Her mouth nibbled his. His lips were firm and flat and also slack with shock.
He was no player but a kind warrior who just wanted love. She had kissed him how many times? And always drawn away when it mattered. No wonder he couldn’t believe in her now.
Now, finally, she could look outside herself and give him that love.
He responded—
“Escape! Swim! Fly!”
Warriors Luin and Poro yelled across the large space.
She and Faier jolted apart. Even though she’d been expecting their shouts, the panic made terror squeeze her chest.
The warriors dove toward them and shouted, “Flee! Enemy! Flee!”
A strange shadow covered the entrance.
Warning delivered, the warriors turned and flew to the shadow, tridents flashing, war screams echoing through the water.
Faier wrapped his arms tightly around Harmony. “Hold on to me.”
She did.
He pushed off the bare floor. His human feet shifted to long fins. He kicked. They zoomed deeper into the prison, away from the entrance. Her octopus flew at their side.
Looking back, between Faier’s powerful fins, she saw the shadow. A giant speckled red-and-blue fish charged the prison. Its ice-pick teeth chomped at the warriors.
It crashed into the entrance.
The prison shuddered. Coral flaked like paint chips.
The warriors scattered. They hooted and screamed, trying to draw the fish away.
Warrior Luin threw his trident.
The monstrous fish batted the sharp spear away and dove at the now-unarmed merman.
He retreated into the prison. Too slow.
The fish’s teeth snapped on the tip of his fins.
He screamed.
The fish released him. Warrior Luin kicked with ragged fins to escape. The fish bashed the portal entrance, struggling to shoulder its way in to trap them.
The front entrance crumbled.
The fish nudged chunks out of its way and wiggled deeper.
“Faier. It’s coming!”
Faier skimmed the ceiling. Her octopus scrambled out a small gap. But they couldn’t get through.
No exit…
The fish struck again. Wham. A shock wave rolled through the water.
The coral fractured.
Snap.
The floor cracked, and the walls screeched as they shifted.
Her heart lodged in her throat.
Faier tracked the largest crack in the ceiling. It met other cracks, and a chunk the size of a minivan broke free and hurtled to the floor. The water clouded with dust. He dodged the choking debris and fought the current sucking them under the collapsing structure.
Warrior Poro’s shouts grew more distant—and more desperate.
Faier flew free.
The water cleared.
In the distance, the giant fish thrashed in the collapsed prison like Godzilla storming the wreckage of Tokyo. More warriors surrounded the fish. It scattered them, an angry fighter jet dispensing spine-cracking bites rather than bombs.
“You can escape,” Faier told her. “The warriors are distracted. Perhaps long enough for you to reach land.”
“What about you?”
“I am too injured.” He touched the wound Tibe had hit again.
Firmness filled her chest. “Then I’m not going either.”
“You can cross the open ocean alone.”
“I’m not leaving you here.”
“Harmony. If you channel your queen powers you can cross.”
“Even if I could, I wouldn’t leave you. So what do we do?”
He held her to his hard chest. “Perhaps in this forest…”
The giant fish shook off nets, ignored the war party, and flew after them.
“It’s coming,” she moaned as the fish loomed over them.
Faier darted left. It whipped right. The wake pulled them into the spiky coral bed. He contorted, and her shoulder skimmed the bed without breaking skin.
“We cannot outrun it,” he grunted. “Seek a place to hide.”
“Hide?”
Faier dove for the sea floor.
Corals grew on top of each other, tangling into spires. He wove between them. She felt like she was looking through a treetop layer of an oak forest. It was difficult to see through the twisty branches to the true ground.
A gap between coral flashed. “Ah—”
They passed it.
Faier rolled. “What?”
“Never mind.” The pocket had been too small for them both.
The monstrous fish roared.
Smaller creatures fled far below.
Faier dove. “Hurry.”
The giant roared again. It gained on them. Its long, sharp teeth snicked at Faier’s fins.
A slender fish darted between two broken-off coral spires.
She pointed. “There! A gap!”
He wheeled.
The giant fish flew over them.
Faier reached the gap. It was too shallow. He pushed her into the crevice and faced the charging giant.
Barehanded. Like always.
No.
There was a narrow bottleneck beneath her.
She scrabbled for his fingers and hooked his hand. He looked down in confusion. She yanked him into the crevice while she wiggled into the bottleneck.
The giant fish chomped the spires and smashed into the coral. Crack.
Hard stone clawed at her shoulders and shin. Coral broke off around her. Then she was through the bottleneck. Faier squeezed after. His blood flowed again. He flew around the larger pocket and scanned for enemies.
She shuddered in shock.
They’d m
ade it.
The giant fish roared and bashed into the crevice, breaking all the way into the bottleneck. Teeth snicked inches from her nose.
She jerked back with a shriek.
Faier hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her down. Beneath him, another narrow tunnel led to the “forest” floor. He studied the tunnel. His nose was bleeding.
“You’re hurt again,” she said, shaky.
He brushed it off. “The tunnel is clear. Descend.”
She kicked on her stubby human feet. Moving took an embarrassingly long time. “I wish I had fins.”
“I will show you how to make them.”
Her chest lifted. If she could make fins, then she could help next time. She entered the tunnel.
Overhead, the giant fish roared and bashed the bottleneck like a grizzly dragon attacking concrete. The walled coral was too thick for it to break. It roared again and then the sound grew faint. It flew away.
In pockets of the coral around Harmony, small rainbow shrimp—or lobsters? They clicked little claws—scooted about. They were slender, the size of her thumb, and they buzzed as she passed through the tunnel like friendly hummingbirds coming out to say hello.
“Hello,” she said aloud, her chest vibrating.
They hovered.
She rotated as she paddled, swimming through a shimmering rainbow tunnel, and exited into a quiet glade.
Faier turned away from the dangerous fish and entered the tunnel after her.
Her heart calmed. Now they were safe—
“Harmony?” Faier froze mid-tunnel. He stared at the small crustaceans with astonishment. “What did you do?”
“Do?” She reentered the tunnel to meet him.
“Stop.” He swallowed hard, horror creeping over his features. His jaw worked. “Do not approach these mantis shrimp.”
“Why? They’ve been fine. Come on.”
He didn’t move.
One braver rainbow-colored miniature lobster floated between them. It regarded her with beady eyes and then rotated to Faier.
Faier stiffened.
“It’s seriously fine,” she insisted, and reached up to—
Click. Click. Click.
BOOM.
A long pin, like a bee’s stinger, stung her in the center of her chest.
“Ow.” She rubbed the spot.
Three more floated out to join the first.
Click. Click. Click.
