Envy

by Katie May

  It was ridiculous. I was more than capable of taking care of myself, and these men weren’t gods, just godlike in appearance. They couldn’t control or influence other people’s actions.

  Lupe held up his finger for silence. A second later, an ear-splitting, masculine scream echoed from upstairs. Ryland appeared at the doorway, chuckling softly. When he saw me looking, the shadows moved even closer to where I stood, and I knew he would be smiling unabashedly.

  “The twins were looking at your ass also,” he explained casually. I snorted.

  Possessive, over-protective, sexy fools.

  Lupe moved from his bag to mine and began unpacking my own clothing. I watched in fascination as the big man’s cheeks warmed when he pulled out my bras and panties.

  “So do you have the map?” Dair asked, sprawling back on the bed.

  Nodding, I reached into my pocket and held the fading piece of paper. I set it on the desk, and my mates moved to crowd around it.

  Ah. That was why the desk was positioned where it was.

  “So we know nothing about him besides that he’s a male and has red hair and was last seen three months ago in the Mermaid Kingdom,” Bash murmured, and even his voice sent a wave of irritation through me.

  “No shit,” I snapped before I could stop myself. His eyes snapped to mine, flaring hotly.

  “What the hell is your problem?” he asked tersely.

  “You’re one to talk-!”

  “Enough!” Lupe bellowed. He slammed a large hand down at the table. “Now is not the time.”

  “No petty fights,” Ryland reminded me teasingly, and I rolled my eyes.

  This wouldn’t be a petty fight. This would be an ass-kicking, ball-crunching one.

  Or a ball-sucking...

  No! Bad, Z!

  “I don’t know what the hell this even means,” I admitted, refocusing my attention back on the slip of paper. “Do you think your dad just wrote down random gibberish? Am I just supposed to kill a random man?”

  The thought made my stomach clench and tighten uncomfortably.

  Dair took the paper from the table and began to scan the contents. A single wrinkle formed between his blond brows, and I yearned to smooth it out with my hand.

  “Wait,” he said suddenly. His finger touched an island on the map. “That doesn’t exist.”

  “Huh?”

  “That island doesn’t exist.”

  When I just continued to stare at him blankly, Dair heaved out a breath and hurried out of the room. Not even a full minute had passed before he returned carrying a larger replica of the map the Mermaid King had given us.

  It resembled what I had seen when we had first entered the kingdom. Islands, a large landmass that made up the western seaboard, and an endless ocean. Dair held the small map up to the larger map to compare.

  Everything was the exact same, except...

  The island Dair was pointing to, one of hundreds, didn’t exist on the large map.

  “How did you know this?” I asked breathlessly. A tiny piece finally fell into place.

  Dair blushed delicately.

  “I um...”

  “He had a crush on his geography teacher when he was younger,” Lupe filled in with a chuckle. Dair’s cheeks reddened further, and I couldn’t resist teasing him.

  “Maybe because you did so good I could give you a reward,” I whispered in his ear. His eyes widened, hands clenching the desktop.

  What the hell had come over me?

  I had turned into a sexual deviant since I had found my mates. And I liked it.

  “Gross,” Bash muttered like a petulant child who had walked in on Mom and Dad kissing. I snorted out a laugh.

  “You just wish-“

  Once more, our banter was interrupted, but not by Lupe.

  Tavvy stood in the open doorway, arms crossed over his muscular chest and eyes trained on me.

  “Your task has begun,” he said stiffly.

  Irritation filled me.

  “I know,” I snapped. “We’re working on-“

  “Come.” Without another word, he stormed out of my room and down the hall. I remained standing, fuming with fury. He really needed to stop treating me like a dog with basic commands. Come. Stop. Eat.

  What was next? Fuck?

  I shivered at the thought of fucking Tavvy. Frankly, I would rather eat shit.

  “Are you coming or not?” Tavvy bellowed, and the childish part of me wanted to rebel and remain where I was. However, I knew that would be futile in the long run.

  A pawn, I reminded myself. I was their pawn until I could destroy the damn game board.

  Sharing an irritated look with my mates, I stomped after Tavvy. I made sure to take my sweet damn time. The asshole could wait for all the fucks I gave.

  By the time I reached him, his face was flushed with anger. Unfortunately, he didn’t comment or rise to my bait. Instead, he led me towards a staircase that descended into a basement.

  A dungeon.

  Gray walls loomed everywhere I looked, and the smell of piss saturated the air. The heat was almost palpable, and sweat was already beginning to coat my skin.

  “What is this place?” I whispered to Dair, but he looked as shocked as I felt.

  He hadn’t known this place existed.

  “This door always led to another hallway,” he explained to me in a harsh whisper. “It must’ve been illusion magic.”

  Bash muttered something indecipherable, and Lupe’s nostrils flared as he sniffed the air. The muscles in his back tightened at whatever he uncovered, and I placed my small hand in the middle of his back.

  Fortunately, the first few cells were empty.

  But my luck could only last for so long.

  We stopped in front of the largest cell, one that housed six individuals. Each one had red hair, various shades that ranged from garnet red to a carrot orange. Each was a male. Each was naked.

  And each was covered in blood.

  “What the hell?” I whispered, eyes tracking each of the men’s movements. Their dirty bodies ran towards the bars of their cage, hands extending as they pleaded to be let out. There was a wide-range of ages too, I noted. The youngest appeared to be sixteen and the oldest was in his mid-forties.

  “What is this, Tavvy?” Dair’s voice was tight with disgust and horror. Lupe had gone still beside me, and I knew he was fighting his beast. He was a gentle soul by nature. It must’ve been difficult for him to see so many people distressed. I knew it was for me.

  “This is her task.” Despite addressing Dair, Tavvy’s eyes remained fixed on me. “Choose one.”

  “What?” I breathed, staggering back a step. My movement landed me against Bash’s hard chest, and his hands came to wrap around me. I leaned into his embrace, any and all anger I felt for him disappearing at his comfort.

  “One’s a traitor. The others are innocent.” His smile widened, sharklike. Predatory. Malevolent. “Twenty-four hours. Choose one to die.”

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Z

  The muscles in my stomach tightened to the point of pain. All I could do was stare at Tavvy - a fucked up soul wrapped in a pretty face and body.

  Ice slithered down my spine, encasing me. It felt as if I was standing in a tundra with wind howling through my hair. Distantly, I could hear the men crying and screaming and begging, but their voices began to blur together.

  God...

  They were all humans! Powerless and defenseless against the Nightmares.

  One of them was a child...

  I must’ve said the last thought out loud, for Tavvy’s lips twisted into a grin.

  “So you would choose to spare him because of his age, even if he was a traitor? Even if you were condemning an innocent man to die in his place?”

  The tightening in my stomach reached exponential levels, threatening to expel the contents of my last meal. I heaved, and Bash hugged me tighter to him.

  “This is sick, Tavvy. Even for you,” Dair whispered, aghast.<
br />
  At that, his smile fled to be replaced by something colder. Darker.

  “In this world, you have to be sicker. Harsher. Crueler.” He spat on the ground, near my feet, and Bash lifted me slightly to move us both backwards. “All I ever wanted was Father’s attention, but did he spare me an ounce of the time he gave you? No. You got all his fucking attention. Perfect Dair.” He twisted the last words, spittle clumping at the corner of his mouth.

  Dair’s eyes were comically wide in his face.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” he snapped at last. “The attention...you can fucking have it!”

  I didn’t understand what was happening, but I knew the confrontation stemmed from years of pent-up aggression. On both ends.

  Before I could blink, Dair lunged forward and tackled Tavvy to the ground. For a man who had just gotten legs, he sure knew how to use them.

  Eyes radiating an incandescent fury, he punched at Tavvy’s face.

  And something inside me broke.

  Running forward, I grabbed Dair’s shoulder, preparing to pull him back, only to use my free hand and punch him square in the face.

  What the hell?

  Even as panic settled in my chest, I felt my body move instinctively, protectively, in front of Tavvy’s prone form. A gurgled laugh escaped the evil prince as the others looked at me in shock. Blood coated Dair’s lips from my fist, and I would forever hate myself for being the cause.

  I tried to convey with my eyes how sorry I was, how I had no idea what was happening, how my body’s reaction was instinctual.

  Understanding dawned on Bash’s face first - the slightest widening of his eyes and sharp intake of breath.

  Behind me, Tavvy still laughed maniacally.

  “It’s the spell, dumbass,” he said, and I glanced over my shoulder. Tavvy was staring at his brother, eyes slitted. “The bonding one. It makes her incapable of harming anyone in any of the royal families.” He staggered to his feet and brushed a hand down my arm. Lupe growled at the contact but did not dare take a step closer. “It makes her first reaction to protect them.”

  “It doesn’t mean I’m going to play along with your sick games,” I snapped, pivoting to face him. Instead of the anger I expected, his eyes danced with amusement.

  “Then you die.” This was all said with an indifferent shrug of his shoulders. “Refuse a task given to you by the Kings, and you explode. Another caveat of the little binding spell.”

  The smug bastard sounded giddy. I wanted to punch him in the face repeatedly.

  Huh. At least I could still mentally harm him.

  “You son of a bitch,” Lupe hissed through clenched teeth. He looked as if he was seconds away from tearing the blond prince’s head off his body.

  “Twenty-four hours,” Tavvy cooed, wiping blood from his mouth with the back of his hand. Throwing me a wink, he glanced once more at the red-headed prisoners. They screamed at him, but their words ran together. One emotion was painstakingly clear: anguish.

  It cleaved my heart in two.

  “Find the traitor,” Tavvy told me. “And then kill him.”

  I PACED the bedroom that had once felt homey but now resembled a prison.

  That was what I was, after all. A prisoner. A piece of clay that the Kings could mold and shape until they had their perfect, obedient assassin.

  And because of the binding spell, there was nothing I could do.

  “Fuck!” I shouted, throwing something at the door. I didn’t even bother to see what it was as glass shattered. Hopefully, it was another expensive vase that the Mermaid King treasured.

  “You need to calm down,” Bash snapped, and I rounded on him.

  “Don’t tell me to calm down! I have twenty-four hours to figure out who the traitor is, so I don’t accidentally sentence an innocent man to death.” My breathing was heavy, chest rising and falling.

  “We have a starting place,” Dair whispered. It was the first time he had spoken since we had left the dungeons, and his voice was hoarse. Not the hoarse you would get from screaming, but a sort of tired reluctance. Face strained, he nodded towards the map still on the wooden desk. “This is a game to my father. A scavenger hunt.”

  “Everything with the Kings is a game!” Spreading my hands wide, I spun in a circle to encompass all of my mates present. “And we’re losing! Don’t you see that? The one element of surprise we had - our relationship as mates - is out in the open. They all know. Your brothers even know!” This last statement was directed at Dair who ducked his head.

  “So we change the rules,” Lupe cut in. “We change the rules and break the game board on their head.”

  “How do you suggest we do that?” I hated how desperate I sounded. The uncharacteristic whine in my voice grated on my nerves. But it was true. We were losing this game, this battle, with the Kings. Maybe Lupe was right when he said we needed to rewrite the rules.

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. His eyes met mine demurely. “I honestly don’t know.”

  “We finish this game.” Bash’s strident voice cut through the air like the slash of a whip. “We win this game, and then we step back. Look at their overall goal.” Sighing heavily, he brushed a hand through his white blond hair. “But guys, we don’t have time for this conversation. We have twenty-four hours to find a traitor and save five innocent lives.”

  I took a deep breath to abate the mounting tension rising inside me. Still, it seeped through, crashing repeatedly against me like a heavy wave.

  “We take a...boat?” I looked towards Dair for confirmation, and he nodded. Straightening with resolve, I faced the three men in the room. “We take a boat and head to this island. Dair can scout the water in his Mermaid form. Ryland can...”

  I trailed off, glancing desperately around the room devoid of any shadows.

  “Where the fuck is Ryland?” The previously dissipated tension came back with a vengeance. He wouldn’t have just left. Not after everything we had been through, what he had confessed.

  Lupe and Bash exchanged quick, wide-eyed stares.

  “Bash, go look for him-”

  “We need him to drive the boat, love,” Dair said. My ill-founded irritation flared white hot.

  “Can’t you or Lupe do it?”

  “I’ll be in my Mermaid form, and Lupe doesn’t know how to drive it.” He sounded almost apologetic though his eyes were sharp as they flickered from my face to Bash’s.

  I didn’t have time to argue with him. I needed to find the traitor and Ryland. Now.

  Trying to tamper down my growing panic, I met Lupe’s eyes first. “Lupe, stay at the castle and look for Ryland. Bash, I need you with me. Dair’s right. We need you to drive the boat, and your magic might come in handy.”

  Both men nodded, but Bash’s face had tightened like he had eaten something sour. Still, he didn’t complain.

  “In twelve hours, we meet back here. Is that understood?” I stared purposefully at Lupe. Dair, Bash, and I were staying together, and I hated leaving Lupe to fend for himself. The big man held my gaze, dozens of thoughts swarming in his whiskey-toned eyes, before he bobbed his head in agreement.

  “Good. That’s good.” I wiped my hands and, consequently, my excess sweat on my pants. Now that I had finished giving orders, my courage had been drained from me. I was suddenly weak and tired and vulnerable - a scared little girl playing big, bad assassin.

  “Hey,” Lupe said gruffly. He grabbed the back of my head and brought our foreheads together. “Everything is going to be okay.”

  I desperately brought our lips together, a clash of teeth and tongues. The kiss was over as quickly as it had started.

  My voice was shaky when I responded, further confirming that I wasn’t as tough as I pretended to be. “I hope so.”

  TWENTY-SIX

  JAX

  Dark walls.

  Everywhere.

  The sickly copper scent of blood permeating the air. Sweat.

  And desperation.

  One may not
think desperation had a scent, but they were mistaken. Sweat glands combined with piss, an entirely unpleasant smell. It clogged my airways.

  I curled into a ball, willing the voices away. I tried to repeat the mantra Killian had taught me when I became lost in my head.

  This isn’t real.

  This isn’t real.

  Somewhere in the distance, a scream reverberated, shaking me to my very core. I huddled in the corner of the dank, gray room with blood staining the walls.

  This isn’t real.

  This isn’t real.

  This isn’t real.

  My eyelids fluttered shut. If I didn’t see it, it wasn’t real. Wasn’t that why little boys and girls hid underneath their blankets at night? To hide from the monsters?

  My mind had always been a cage. It was ironic that I had found myself quite literally trapped in one.

  “I’m sorry, Sasha,” I whimpered, searching the darkness. Walls. Pressing in on me. Blood dripping from the ceiling.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  Always dripping. Why did blood have to drip?

  Absently, I began to murmur that one word beneath my breath.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  “Sasha!” I cried again. One could get lost in this darkness.

  If I didn’t have my heightened senses of hearing and smell, I might’ve gone insane.

  Drip.

  Drip.

  A figure’s shadow moved to stand in front of me. While I could vaguely make out shapes and colors directly in front of me, he or she was too far away to see clearly.

  I waited with bated breath for the familiar tingling of my skin. A sign of my love’s presence.

  Nothing.

  My skin remained tingle free.

  “Tingle. Tingle. Blood. Itches. Doesn’t itches.” I scrubbed a hand agitatedly down my face. I needed her to stop the constant tingling, the constant drowning sensation as if I was sucking up too much water and not enough air.

  “Jax,” a soft voice cooed, and I froze. Could it be...?

  “Sasha?” I whispered.

  But no. Sasha was dead.