by Starla Night
Faier’s eyes widened.
She reached past them and grabbed his hand again. “Come on.”
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Stings lanced her chest. Thumbtacks punctured her heart like the worst pain of her life.
Faier jackknifed. His body scraped the tunnel sides.
More mantis shrimp poured into the water like an angry cloud of killer bees. Their warning clicks filled the narrow space.
He twisted in agony.
No. No!
She screamed at them. “Stop it!”
The lobsters scattered. The water cleared.
Faier huddled in his protective hunch.
She paddled laboriously and yanked him to the glowing forest floor. The shrimp buzzed at the tunnel entrance.
Faier uncurled. Red welts, like inflamed insect bites, marred his chest. He rubbed them and watched the buzzing shrimp with shock. “Incredible.”
“I know! What were those things?” She rubbed her own matching welts.
“Mantis shrimp. That is the human name.” He cupped a long scratch from elbow to shoulder. New injuries scraped his ocean-waves tattoo. “This deep-sea variety is angry. They kill mermen. And you swam through their nest so bravely.”
“You mean so stupidly. I thought they were pretty.”
He gaped at her. “Pretty? They are deadly.”
“Yes, well, anyway.” She didn’t deserve the respect shining in his eyes because she hadn’t really done anything worthy of respect. “Where are we?”
He retracted his fins and rested on the coral floor. “For the moment, safe.”
“For the moment?”
“Aiycaya cannot let us escape. They will destroy the mantis shrimp nest if they must, sacrificing many males. But for the moment, they must fight a Trench Jack. They will not come for us.”
So now they were safe.
For the moment.
She joined him on the coral floor. It felt bumpy on her toes, but not jagged like the reef at the sacred island, and the floor itself glowed with life. She bounced in an electric wonderland.
Small and large stands of coral grew like a real forest. Each stand illuminated the ocean with its own neon cheer. Little blue worms shimmered like flower petals on a breeze. Scores of silvery fish darted around them, and larger, multicolored fish fluttered like butterflies or darted like small birds. Long ribbon eels drifted across the forests around her like blades of grass caught by the wind.
The whole hidden grotto felt summery and wistful and vibrant. Like breathing in the air from still, cool, ancient forests untouched by man.
She moved her diaphragm to inhale the water and pushed it through her gills. “It’s beautiful.”
“A much nicer prison,” he agreed.
“Perhaps we can leave this way.” She bounced around a winding curve.
Faier followed. “This direction passes beneath the Life Tree.”
“No wonder I like it.” She touched the bulges and knots of the great Life Tree’s stem and roots anchoring it to the sea floor beneath brambles of coral. “But I hope we find another exit. I don’t want anyone hurt by the mantis shrimp.”
His aura changed intensity, signaling dark thoughts he hid from his impassive face. He brushed at his new injuries.
Oh. He probably felt betrayed again. These Aiycaya warriors wanted to kill him. No wonder his feelings were hurt.
She grabbed his fingers and linked hers. “I want to rescue you.”
He looked up. “Rescue me?”
“It’s been a long time since I could do anything for myself, much less for another person. And now I want to do more.”
His brows lightened along with his aura. He swelled with pride and hope. “You begin to believe.”
Her own chest squeezed. “Yeah, well, I’m trying.”
“That is wonderful, Harmony.”
“And I, uh, want to transform so the next time I can help you.”
He stopped and lifted his foot. Bumpy scars effaced his swirled tattoos. Otherwise, it was very, very human.
“You must—I am told—gather your ‘strength of personhood’ and flex.”
He flexed his toes toward the floor and then toward the ceiling.
His toes elongated. The skin between stretched into a long, scuba-like scoop.
“My ‘strength of personhood’?” she repeated.
“I overheard the queens of Atlantis talking. You must feel capable deep in your heart.”
“But you don’t have to do that.”
“No. I had to learn to walk on the surface. It was frustrating, and I took many falls before I gained the strength to—”
She flexed.
Her feet shot out into fins.
“Oh!”
“—master standing upright…”
“That was easy!” Sheer joy bubbled in her chest. She kicked her new flippers and almost rammed into the coral wall. She skimmed it, twisted, and flew back.
A funny expression fixed Faier’s face. “This is your first time?”
“My first.” She gripped his shoulders. “This is amazing! Like falling except flying! It’s not hard at all.”
“I have never seen a woman master fins in one flex.”
“Oh, sure. Someone must have.”
“Queen Elyssa took a very long time. Queen Aya longer. Queen Lucy still has difficulty transforming. And Queen Zara—”
“No, no. You’re just being nice.”
“I assure you, I am—”
“If anyone had a problem, it would be me. I’m the opposite of athletic.”
“Yet—”
“I took almost two years to walk. Everyone said I was developmentally delayed. My mom refused to take me to the doctor. She was in denial. And poor. And also afraid they might be right.” Harmony looped and twirled as she talked, diving like a fighter jet at an air show. “Gosh, that’s cool.”
Faier lazily kicked alongside her. “You have a natural talent. Almost like a mer.”
“And to think the first time I ever went swimming was just a…what, a day ago?” She cocked her head and slowed. “Long day.”
He floated at her side. “Time passes differently here.”
“I’ve been hungry all the time, and then sleep overwhelms me.”
“That is because many, many surface days pass before your mer body must rest. And then many surface days pass while you are resting.”
“Oh. That’s weird and kind of a relief. And so are these fins.” She twirled. “Now I can finally swim.”
He shook his head again. “It is unfathomable a sacred bride should keep her daughter from the water.”
“Actually, it makes sense. She was afraid of revealing she was a mermaid. Oh! Could she have fed me elixir? When I was a child?”
“Elixir is temporary. It wears off.”
“Maybe she stole a Life Tree blossom…?”
“Life Tree blossoms die once they leave the hand of a warrior seeking his bride. Only in the presence of a future queen do they survive.”
“Hmm. But your Life Tree blossom is alive in a fish tank in New York.”
“Yes. I had intended to give my blossom to the first female I encountered. But that did not occur.”
“Yeah, that was pretty optimistic.”
“Optimistic? So far, I am the only mer who has not matched the first human female. King Kadir, First Lieutenants Soren and Elan, Warlord Torun, and Warriors Uvim, Dosan, and Xalu all matched females immediately after surfacing.”
That was crazy.
Faier went on to list all the females who had not been his bride. Not the first female he’d met, not the dating site females. Nor any in the vast flood of souls he had observed from the city’s tallest rooftops.
He had stored his blossom in the office’s ornamental fish tank. As his hopes had dwindled and he’d left on rescue missions or interviews for longer and longer, he shared with Harmony how he’d expected it to die. But it never had. No matter how many days he’d been absent.
&
nbsp; “One of the MerMatch staff members must be a future queen,” he continued. “I have a guess. She denied it, but the fact remains that the blossom has lived on. Somehow, cut off from the Life Tree, it was receiving energy from a powerful female. And so, Harmony, for the nectar to work, your soul must resonate.”
“I was really close to my mom.”
“No.” He rubbed his hands sadly. “Sacred brides often wish to protect their human children from drowning. But elixir is just water. Nectar also. A destined bride’s soul must already resonate with her future husband when she consumes the nectar or she will never transform.”
“Well, so, but I was ‘destined’ to be a sacred bride according to my great-grandmother…”
He shook his head firmly. “We have tested this across centuries. When sacred islands and mer cities teemed, other humans grew jealous. They requested nectar. Warriors hungry for human offerings broke off blossoms and injured their own Life Trees. But no human transformed from these stolen droplets. Without resonance of bride to husband, the human cannot survive. He or she will drown.”
So Faier was sure.
Harmony flexed her fins, willing them to retract, and they did. She squeezed her toes. How funny it was so easy for her. “Now, when another fish attacks, I’m ready.” She turned and bounced on the coral floor.
“Good. Any city that allows a beast to collapse a building will feel shame.”
“King Kayo probably feels bad.”
“Yes. And with such a first lieutenant, he has no need for a saboteur.”
She laughed darkly. “We have a saying like that. It goes, ‘With friends like these, who needs enemies?’”
He smiled. The aura around his body glowed.
Answering happiness filled her chest.
She stopped. “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about him.”
“King Kayo?”
Her nerves twinged.
He turned to her.
They bobbed in the middle of a sparkling glen under the forest.
She forced the difficult words out. “What you did for me. Asking King Kayo to let me go. I can’t tell you how much that means to me. Thank you.”
“Do not thank me, Harmony. I failed.”
“But you tried. And I hurt you when I refused to go.”
His face filled with resignation. “He is your husband.”
“About that… I do feel hopeful for King Kayo,” she confirmed again. “I can help him. I know what he’s going through. But I’m not his bride.”
He lifted his head. Tentative hope glowed in his aura. “You are not?”
“I don’t have those feelings for him.”
“Your feelings can grow.”
“No. They can’t.”
He swallowed. “Harmony. Do not crush your soul. Not for me.”
“I’m not.”
“I am selfish and dishonorable.”
She strangled a laugh. “Also no.”
“Mingling blood with multiple Life Trees was once a mark of great honor. Now, there are so few warriors, cities fear loss. Some call it betrayal.”
He closed his eyes. His aura dimmed. He pressed his palm to his scarred chest.
“I am not truly accepted in any city.” He opened his eyes. She saw the agony there. This pained him more than any physical injuries. “I have not melded with any Life Tree. I do not feel ‘at home’ in any castle. The only healing sap that has truly penetrated, that truly glows, is the remaining sap from my own dead city. Nerissa.”
She floated closer. Ran her fingers up Faier’s forearms to cup his biceps.
He struggled to complete his story. “You must honor your desires. You rule over King Kayo’s house guardian—”
“She’s mine, actually.”
“—and Aiycaya is where you belong.”
“I agree.”
“You must unite with King Kayo.”
“No way.”
“Your souls resonate.”
“No.”
“When you communicate, you shine with the same colors.”
“It is weird how comfortable I feel around him. He’s like a virtual stranger.”
“That is why you must unite. Only misery awaits you if you try to sever your souls.”
“No,” she said flatly. “And I’m very sorry about Nerissa, but your injuries are healing.”
“They do not heal.”
“Sure they do. Check out these thin white ones where the crocodile got you.”
He studied the slender claw marks scraping across his chest. They’d thinned to white lines and almost disappeared into healthy skin.
“Even the older scars are looking better. Less red and inflamed. You’re healing, Faier.”
“Healer Hobin also said…but that is impossible…”
“But it’s happening, so you must accept it.” She poked him in the chest. “Anyway, I refuse to ‘unite’ with King Kayo. Saying it gives me the heebies.”
“But you must unite with an Aiycaya warrior. Your destiny is the sea.”
“Yeah.” She snuggled closer. “But not King Kayo. I want to be the bride of another warrior.”
“Another?” He frowned as her hands wiggled around his powerful chest and her hot breasts brushed his pectorals. “Luin? No. Second Lieutenant Xarin?”
“Why are you and King Kayo so obsessed with Xarin?”
“So, it is Xarin?”
“No, you kind, steady, honorable man.” She nuzzled his nose. “I hope you’re not pretending you don’t know because you don’t want it to be you. You can’t guess?”
He shook his head.
“Of course it’s you.”
He shook his head again.
“Yes. The warrior I want, Faier, is you.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Harmony wanted him?
Faier’s heart thudded hard in his chest. It was as if the Trench Jack had reappeared with its mouth gaping open and the current sucked him in. Her shock wave paralyzed him.
Harmony’s soft, kind gaze and sweet, bright soul bathed him in gentle understanding.
Her confession was the most meaningful statement he had ever heard.
He couldn’t form words. He couldn’t.
No. He misunderstood. She misspoke.
Her brow smoothed. Her lips curved into a deeper, knowing smile. “I mean it.”
She…she meant it?
No…
Harmony pressed her lips to his. Again. Like before.
Not like the after the crocodile attack when she had been so overwhelmed by the transition. Not like the prison just now where she had been distracted by the other warriors.
Like the first time, when she had caught him by surprise and ensnared his soul. She kissed him willingly, freely, whole-heartedly. She kissed him with abandon.
And then later she’d rejected him, screaming.
He jumped with electric-eel shock.
Her lashes fluttered. She pulled back. “Faier?”
Harmony’s confession was too unbelievable, and he was too desperate. He prided himself on his control, but if she meant what she said, he couldn’t speak or look at her.
Her chest thrummed with confusion. “I thought you wanted me.”
“I…”
Her soul darkened.
He couldn’t form words to explain. His cheek tightened—new scar from fighting Tibe, already healing against all odds—and he searched for the mystery-unraveling clues that turned Harmony’s strange statements into sense.
If she really loved him, and he allowed himself to believe her, and then she took her love away…that would be as soul-destroying as his loss of Nerissa. He’d never recovered. He’d been so lighthearted, cocky, and, like King Kayo, self-assured of his place in the sea—and then had been swept away.
Captivating Harmony, enthralling her as his mate, and seducing her was what he wanted to do more than anything. And, at the same time, it was his worst fear.
She stroked his cheek. “I’m sorry.”
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nbsp; He focused on her. “Sorry?”
“For all the ways I hurt you. You’re a good person, and I shouldn’t have doubted.”
He shook his head. “You did not cause injury, Harmony.”
She moved her hand and pressed her lips to his. Again, a kiss. He soaked in the feeling. Her. With him.
Warnings needled his heart.
The heat in his veins kindled yearnings only she could fulfill.
If he dared to ask her.
With their mouths mashed together and connecting, her chest vibrated. “Then, can I convince you I want you for my mate?”
His heart squeezed. Warning.
She continued. “You helped me even when I was horrible to you. And you believe in me. You still do. So much so, I’m also starting to believe in myself. You tell me the truth even when it’s not what I want to hear.”
“You trust I did not give you the elixir?”
“Yes. Because you said it and you don’t lie. I believe you.”
The tightness loosened. She believes me. He had done all he could to watch over, protect, and honor her. And she believed him.
“You were in my corner when I had no one. And you still are.”
With her mouth pressed to his, she stroked her smooth index finger over his bicep. Tridents had cut a deep but healing scar into his arm.
“No one has been in my corner for a really long time.”
He tried to comfort her. “It takes a monumental spirit to swim against a tide.”
“You never lost faith in me.”
“But I have lost my faith in me. Look at my lost honor.”
“Lost honor?”
He gestured at the mauve honor-tattoos scraped off his skin in red, scarred ruts. Replacing them was impossible. Like bonding to a Life Tree outside Nerissa. Like loving Harmony.
“Your injuries tell your story.”
“What story do these tell but one of rejection and loss?”
“You sacrificed yourself, your past, your future for others. Selfishness surrounded me, and I couldn’t see the opposite. Now, I see you.” She teased the seam of his mouth. “You always tell me to believe in myself. So now it’s my turn. Won’t you believe in me and let me show you how I feel?”
Faier opened his mouth to Harmony’s kiss.
The trust shook her to her core.
She stroked his interior with her tongue. He touched her tentatively. She curled their tongues, reassuring and drawing him out.
