Sacrificed to the Sea Lord (Lords of Atlantis Book 2)

by Starla Night

  Suddenly, Zoan shouted. “A seed!”

  Oh, thank goodness. She was out of show tunes and didn’t want to attempt fuzzily-remembered karaoke.

  The others gasped and rushed past her. Kadir hovered over the branch. At its tip dangled a white, dumbell-shaped leaf. Oh, no, the leaf was wrapped around a seed. Got it.

  “Twin seeds,” Kadir breathed. “Twin seeds!”

  Awe spread over the gathering.

  “I do not believe it.” The adviser bustled through. “Let me see.”

  Kadir guarded it.

  The adviser peered over his shoulder. After a long, long pause, he shook his head. His voice was much softer. “I have not seen one in all my years. Truly your Life Tree is blessed.”

  “What does it mean?” Elyssa whispered to Gailen, who was nearest.

  “Two seeds grow as one,” he replied in a low rumble. “It symbolizes great power. Whoever receives it will certainly have twin young fry, like Zoan and his twin brother, instead of just one, like the rest of us.”

  “Zoan has a twin brother?”

  “Roa. I did not meet him, but he is also full of teasing and smiles.”

  “This twin seed will go to our king,” Ciran said correctly. “Queen Elyssa, you must not give it to anyone.”

  “No! I won’t, I promise. That was just a misunderstanding.”

  “And do not remove it until it has matured.”

  She curled her hands into fists and placed them behind her back. “I won’t touch it. Not even by accident.”

  The adviser backed away, turned, and left the Life Tree. His lips pursed. He looked deeply troubled.

  Kadir sought her in the crowd. His back was held straighter and his face looked less pained. “You will continue to sing.”

  She had done it. He looked better. The Life Tree was connected to him, so if it thrived, then he did also.

  He smiled as though she finally got it.

  Her chest throbbed.

  He was so beautiful. Intense, thoughtful, visionary. Even now, with all of his injuries, she wanted to be alone with him. Wrap her arms and legs around his silver-tattooed torso, kiss his hard face, throw back her head as he sank his length into her hot feminine core. Give over to the ecstasy of his embrace.

  But they were surrounded by warriors, he was injured, and they were on a desperate timeline to find more Sea Opals. And then, more brides.

  She would help him. No matter what.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The emergence of the twin seeds blew new hope into Kadir’s warriors. Their astonishment and joy lightened the group meals and the patrols, and the reports Kadir received as he quickly healed were more joyous and less accusation-filled.

  Even Adviser Creo could not say an ill word about it.

  “I have never heard of this,” he said the next time it was brought up. “No city has a twin seed.”

  “In ancient times, it was common.” Kadir had learned it in the forbidden archives of the All-Council. He’d snuck in often when he had been an innocent youth assisting Dragao Azul’s All-Council representative. Now twins were rare; of all his warriors, only Zoan was such a twin. “You will see it with the return of queens.”

  Adviser Creo pressed his lips together, but even he could not stop admiring the small, determined, bright little seed.

  Just like his queen. Bright and small and determined Elyssa.

  “I’m sorry about the misunderstanding. Again. I’ll make it up to you.” In the privacy of their heart chamber, she floated at his side and trailed her fingers down the taut muscles of his abdomen, caressing his thighs. Her hunger warred with concern.

  She wished to join with him.

  Despite his injuries, despite his disfigurement, despite that he could not protect her well. He warred with himself to confess his weakness. “We cannot join. I am much better, but I must go to the ruin. I cannot risk reopening my injuries.”

  “Well, you don’t have to do anything.” She licked her lips. “I could just use my mouth on you.”

  Use her…mouth?

  The image made his cock twitch. Did people do such things more than once? She had given him this pleasure after their wedding. He wanted her hot mouth around his hard cock. “Your mouth does not make a young fry.”

  “Not everything has to make a young fry.”

  What a strange idea. Joining for pleasure? Not for the end result of a young fry?

  Danger twinged in his belly. Had his disfigurement changed her mind? Did she no longer wish to have a young fry with him?

  “No.” He covered his hardening cock. “We must make a young fry.”

  She wavered, then grew more determined. “You’ll like it.”

  “My pleasure is not important.”

  She huffed. “Well, maybe mine is.”

  Oh. She was upset he could no longer provide her pleasure.

  “Just let me do this.” She pushed his hands away, nestling herself between his thighs. Her knees rested on the warm, clean floor of the heart chamber. “I can’t believe I’m arguing with a guy about giving him a blow job.”

  She teased her fingers lower and stroked him from stem to tip.

  Pleasure. His cock pulsed.

  But his release, when it came, would clench his torso painfully.

  No. He could not risk this pleasure again now. He would allow himself to enjoy her body, even though it would not bind her with a young fry. Actually, perhaps pleasure was better.

  “I will use my mouth on you,” he decided.

  Her lips parted. “Me? But—”

  “You wish pleasure. Come.”

  “Oh, but I only said that because—”

  He grabbed her around the ribs and lifted her easily. While she scrambled, he clamped her thighs and drew her soft, feminine center to his mouth.

  She wriggled. “But I’m the one who screwed up. Wait! I want to do something for you.”

  “Stop.” This was the same argument as at the beach coffee shop when she had desired to provide him with food. She gave him great pleasure whenever they joined. Well, he desired to give her the pleasure. She would accept this from him.

  He caressed her folds. They were already slick and pink, glistening with invitation.

  His cock pulsed again with heat.

  Everything about her enticed him. Why had he never considered using his mouth on her before? The other warlords had not spoken of such methods to pleasure their brides.

  He licked the soft creases. What was this flavor? He must taste her deeply. His strokes caused her to open with a moan, revealing herself fully to him. Her chest glowed as bright as the sun.

  He latched onto her bud.

  She jolted and moaned. “Kadir. Don’t reward me for…mmm.”

  He thrummed, easily forming the words in his chest while his tongue remained busy. “This is mine.”

  She rocked her hips gently. He caressed her over and over until her back arched and she came, shuddering, in their private chamber.

  In the stillness, there was still a distance he couldn’t bridge. She lay beside him, her eyes open when she should be asleep. In conversation, she trailed off. In the middle of laughter, she suddenly sobered.

  What made her eyes lose their sparkle?

  “Tell me.” He cupped her cheeks. Her face was cool in his large, hot hands. “What pain are you hiding?”

  “Pain? You’re the one with all the pain.” She tugged at his hands. “I’m just benefiting.”

  He caught her fingers with his thumbs and held them tight. “Elyssa.”

  “Fine.” She closed her eyes. “It’s not that I don’t want to have young fry.”

  “You want five,” he reminded her.

  “Yeah.” She lightened and stroked his cheek. Her frown returned. “It’s just that I don’t want our relationship to only be about the young fry.”

  “This means?”

  “I want us to be together because you love me,” she said. “With or without young fry.”

  “W
arriors do not love. That is a human word.”

  His mother had used it many times with his father, and his father had passed on that she had loved Kadir also. But that love had taken her to the surface. She had never longed to cross the surf and meet the son she had left behind.

  In contrast, Kadir bound his soul with Elyssa’s. He would never relinquish her and never take another bride.

  Elyssa frowned. “Right. I should have expected that.” She pinched her eyes closed. “If we don’t deliver Sea Opals on the next trip to the surface, the platform is going away. I’ll have no way to contact my family.”

  He stroked her cheeks gently. She must be frightened. The journey to visit would be longer and require more guards. “You will return to Florida.”

  “Yeah.” She sagged. “I guess you’re right. There’s no way this could work out. When it’s over, it’s over.”

  “When what is over?”

  “If the project is canceled on the surface, it’s canceled here too.”

  Cold lanced him.

  She wished to return to Florida permanently if they did not provide the Sea Opals?

  No. He refused. She was his now.

  He clamped onto her. His back screamed. He held tighter.

  She gasped. “Kadir! Don’t hurt yourself. Please.”

  He hushed her. She was his. No matter how she tried to get away.

  Were the warriors of the past this possessive? His need frightened him. But it would not be denied.

  “Listen to me,” she begged.

  “I listen,” he growled. “You speak. I listen.”

  She stopped pushing on his arms. They rotated quietly in the heart chamber. First, she was on top, then he was on top, and then she was again. “I don’t know what to say. Um. What did you want to hear?”

  Anything. Nothing. Her voice.

  “Speak,” he ordered.

  “What, you mean like a story? Or—”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. I guess, um, do you know the Little Mermaid?”

  “Who is a little mermaid?”

  “No one. It’s a story. A simple story with a bunch of versions.”

  He held her tight while she told him all about a sad mermaid who could not catch the attention of a human prince. The prince married another human, and the heartbroken mermaid turned into a green surface liquid called sea foam.

  The rhythm of her story was calming, and he relaxed, even though the sad story caused her melancholy.

  “That is a strange story.” Kadir stroked her back. “How did she accomplish the transformation?”

  “The sea witch. She can do magic.”

  “And this mermaid could not shift into human form without the assistance of a magic witch?”

  “Well, the original Grimm brothers probably didn’t know about Life Trees or elixir.” She snuggled closer. The places she touched felt warm and no longer hurt. As though her touch, gentle as her story, did deeper healing. “The moral is how difficult it is to communicate with people of different worlds. The mermaid tries to tell the prince over and over that she loves him, and he can’t hear her at all. He doesn’t see her for what she is. It’s sad.”

  Ah. The true meaning of her story struck Kadir now.

  She had been hurt. He had not paid adequate attention to her. They were from different worlds. She was the human and he was the merman prince.

  “We will bridge our differences,” he vowed. “Or you must go.”

  She stiffened.

  No matter how much it hurt him, she must never darken so much her sunshine smile turned to surface foam.

  Chapter Thirty

  Kadir was going to make her leave.

  She could just feel it.

  Elyssa padded across the Life Tree dais, trying to find comfort in her daily singing routine. Zoan was making tiny cuts with the huge adamantium knife and feeding hair-sized streamers back into the stem so it glowed. Tial was outside, taking his turn to guard the entrance, and Kadir was finally well enough to patrol the borders and supervise at the old ruin. Her next surface visit was looming, all the warriors were exhausted from pulling quadruple shifts trying to excavate Sea Opals from the ruin, and raiders had been spotted inside the borders twice. Soren thought they would attack when the guards left to take Elyssa to the surface.

  Kadir had rested his hand on her bent knee over their last breakfast. “Do not fear. We will protect you on your journey.”

  That wasn’t what she was afraid of.

  He frowned and removed his hand. “Have faith.” And then he was called away to go to the old city, and she was left to her daily routine.

  What she was afraid of was that he would take her to the surface and leave her there. If she screwed up one more time, she was out. Her time here was hanging by a thread.

  They had not “joined” for real since before the needlefish attack. He devoted himself to pleasuring her. But he held back. He refused to allow her to pleasure him.

  He didn’t love her. He wouldn’t join with her to make young fry. Had he changed his mind? Did he need her to prove something? Like they had “bridged their differences?”

  She’d thought everything would be fixed after she could make her fins on command. But now she’d uncovered secret mermaid powers, and she felt farther than ever from becoming Kadir’s true queen.

  “Queen Elyssa.”

  Zoan called her to the far side of the Life Tree. Pelan was there, resting skeptically. Since she was here every day, some of the restrictions about who could visit when had been lifted, and there were now mer nearby almost all the time. It was extra guards in case of an attack, and she kind of thought they got more revitalized from sleeping close to the Life Tree rather than far away, in the castle, or worst, outside.

  Zoan waved her close. “Show Pelan the five gestures.”

  She made the peace sign, the hang loose sign, the thumbs up, the I-Love-You sign, and the Kiss sign. To make the Kiss, she touched her thumb to her fingers on each hand and brought the two together, finger tips touching, like two lovers kissing

  Pelan considered them carefully, his hands resting on his empty dagger sheaths.

  One idea to bridge the distance was to make a salute for the city. She’d noticed that all the warriors made different welcome and farewell gestures, and some seemed insolent to others. Iyen almost got into a fight with Nilun for looking him in the eye for too long. And Gailen told her Lotar’s isolationist city of Syrenka thought bowing was a sign of weakness.

  She tried to stay away from fist-based signs because she was pretty sure they all had meanings to the mermen already. Rude meanings.

  “I can come up with more gestures,” she said when Pelan was taking too long to decide. “We’re just scratching the surface here.”

  “I have seen the last one,” he said finally.

  The Kiss sign was the most popular, and some warriors had already started using it to salute her. It was like the “more” sign in American Sign Language, which pretty accurately symbolized all of Atlantis. More women. More kissing. More chances.

  “Alright, if you like it, then it’s official,” she said.

  Pelan was surprised. “The king has decreed it?”

  Well, no. “It wins by the popular vote.”

  He frowned. “That is not tradition.”

  “Believe in your power, Pelan.” Zoan made the more-Kiss gesture at him several times, as though proving some point between them. “New traditions are bursting out all over this city. Queen Elyssa, sing your one song, I Will Survive.”

  She obliged, channeling Gloria Gaynor in all her glory. The Life Tree glowed. Before Pelan’s amazed eyes, a bunch of tiny hairs grew out.

  Yep. Singing turned the Life Tree into a radiant Chia Pet.

  “Now you have twice as much work,” Pelan noted, eying Zoan’s huge grin. “What is so special about this song?”

  The peach warrior shrugged and got to work, strengthening the stem while it continued to glow. His hands were streaked with
mean-looking scars. They were still healing from a shark attack during her last surface visit. “The raining of men is also good.”

  The Weather Girls had made an appearance in Elyssa’s daily repertoire. It seemed appropriate, especially as she was constantly surrounded by the hard-bodied, kind, protective warriors.

  She stroked the strength lines of the tree, willing it to grow stronger.

  “See here, Pelan.” Zoan leaned back. “Queen Elyssa. Show the other power.”

  Pelan waited patiently.

  She demonstrated, vibrating with a sustained, high note. The Life Tree glowed. On the branch, the twin seed began to twinkle even more brightly through the thick, protective seed covering. Below, the tiny Sea Opals glittered.

  Pelan’s mouth dropped. “What is this response?”

  “Resonance.” Zoan dug his elbow into Pelan’s ribs. “Now you wish her to go to the old city again. Right? She will find the hidden Sea Opals with no effort. Me too.”

  Pelan’s mouth closed. “The wreck is dangerous. Octopus Kong has many bad days.”

  They had adopted her name for the giant octopus.

  If she learned to control her powers better, then she could go meet the giant octopus again. She stopped singing. The light faded.

  Faier entered and bowed to Elyssa, which meant patrols changed. Pelan rose with a groan. It was time for his round, and then he would go to the old city and continue the excavation without Elyssa’s talent.

  Faier honored the Life Tree with a long bow.

  Elyssa was here not only to perform her daily singing but also because she was waiting for Gailen. He had returned exhausted from the excavations, and she had ordered him to rest before helping her pack a samples bag.

  She pulled out one of the empty conch shells they had collected. It was gorgeous, iridescent as Kadir’s tattoos, and sparkly in her hand. She rested it on her palm and closed her eyes.

  Lucy was able to summon the Life Tree energy to form a protective barrier over her warriors. Elyssa had failed during the needlefish attacked. When everyone converged on her, she’d gotten flustered and lost her concentration. Her trusted guards had been severely injured. But it had to be something she was capable of too, right? She had to master this power.