by Starla Night
“And you, brother. And you.”
Then Lotar called for the rest of the warriors to gather around the Life Tree for his final announcement. “Elders of Syrenka. You honored me with the title of king. I return it to you now so you may return it to the rightful choice: King Falki.”
His father accepted the announcement. He clasped Lotar’s forearm. “You ruled well.”
His chest tightened. “Thank you, Father.”
He nodded and pulled back. Perhaps it was too late for them to ever have the close relationship his father enjoyed with Oska, but for Lotar, this was enough.
It was enough.
Hazel waved at Irina. “Enjoy that retirement.”
“If you have another city under siege, you call me.” Irina flexed her fingers. “I will come. You’ll see.”
“That reminds me. We’ve got three-quarters of the ocean to go.” Hazel shook her head. “If all this happened in the first quarter, what’s going to happen next?”
Irina laughed. “Relax, young person. It cannot be a siege every day.”
“Thank God,” Hazel said.
“Pity,” Irina said at the same time, and Hazel choked.
The entire city escorted Lotar and Hazel to the edge of Syrenka’s territory.
Lotar’s father gave his final farewell. “Syrenka honors you, noble warrior. You have proved yourself, and the goodwill of Atlantis, on this stay.” Irina rested a soothing hand on his shoulder, and he covered her hand with his. “You are welcome in Syrenka any time.”
How different from the last time he had left.
The elders moved forward to wish him individual farewells, and then the rest of the warriors honored him as though he were a real hero.
Funny.
Only First Lieutenant Anik kept his distance. When Lotar’s gaze flicked to him, he lowered his head in honor. They had so much in common, and yet they had both suspected each other. Perhaps they would never be friends. But they could respect each other as allies.
Lotar finally turned away, fitted Hazel to his side, and affirmed, “Ready.”
She nestled against him. “Let’s fly.”
He kicked out of the territory and entered the Nord Est current flowing fast.
“You know, all things considered, meeting your parents went pretty well,” Hazel mused. “It couldn’t have gone better. I’m getting the swing of this undersea traveling.”
He smiled.
A tiny thresher shark paced them.
“Oh my God, that is so cute! You and your shark sense, attracting all the baby sharks.” She reached out and almost touched the thresher. It darted away. “Aw. Bye-bye, baby shark.”
She was the adorable one.
And so much calmer now than when she’d jumped into the water in Mexico. He had changed, yes, but she had also come so far that their past selves were almost unrecognizable—
“Argh!” Hazel’s soul light fluctuated wildly. She slammed both hands over her ears, squeezed her eyes shut, and gritted her teeth. “Quick. Sing me something. Anything.”
“Sing?”
“It’s an emergency!”
Perhaps they had not changed so much after all.
Lotar summoned his only song from memory and let the renewed lyrics, a melody so recently refreshed in his mind, wash over them as they continued on the greatest journey a single warrior had ever attempted in the modern era—with his quirky, caring, very determined queen.
Epilogue: Hazel’s Homecoming
Almost two years later…
“Oh, he’s awake.” Hazel snuggled her little bub, safely sandwiched between her chest and Lotar’s, as his pale blue eyes blinked open and his little mouth wrinkled in a yawn. “Perfect timing. Pause here.”
Lotar slowed his long kicks and let the current carry him over the rise.
“Look, Tal.” Hazel turned her fifteen-month-old to stare openmouthed at the city spread out below them. “Home at last.”
Atlantis.
The city sparkled like a perfectly cut gemstone. Masses of coral stretched for the sky and created secret grottos filled with fairyland wonders. Castles unfurled in three concentric rings growing rapidly, and schools of fish fluttered between the healthy anchors like great flocks of birds. Silvery fish flitted below like shimmering butterflies, and powerful, sleek predators darted overhead. In the center, small but mighty, the Life Tree gleamed like a beacon calling them home.
The group of warriors that had escorted them from the territory’s edge flew ahead. Excited shouts filled the ocean with a jubilant celebration.
Home.
Her heart swelled.
She was ready. So ready.
Lotar beamed at her.
Behind the glowing city, the great wreckage of the ancient Atlantis was slowly being fixed. Between the ruin and the new city, a scaffolding rose into the abyss, and multiple cables anchored near the ancient wreck. They secured the almost-completed, floating, not-oil platform overhead.
Here, the two races would reverse the past and once more live in harmony.
“This is what Mommy and Daddy have been doing for the past year,” Hazel told her son. “Inviting others to our party.”
“Gaaa.” Tal yawned and chewed his fist.
“He’s impressed,” she told Lotar. “But this awake period isn’t going to last. Let’s go.”
Lotar kicked for the largest central castle by the Life Tree. His smile remained firmly in place.
He hadn’t stopped smiling since Tal was born. All his adorable worry leading up to Tal’s birth had melted away once he’d held his son in his arms, and the later cities had welcomed them with amazement, generosity, and even tenderness. Few things united the mer like a young fry. And although most were scandalized that they traveled with a newborn, their safety-oriented moralizing was always softened by long, adoring gazes at baby Tal, so Hazel couldn’t even get too upset.
Now a crowd flew from the battered Atlantis Life Tree to throng them. It was like being welcomed by the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and getting crowned the leader.
They reached the king’s castle, where King Kadir and Queen Elyssa welcomed them personally with a great feast. During and after the feast, Lotar greeted his old friends and showed off his son. Hazel met old friends and new ones. The preschool crowd screamed around the castle, echoing their parents.
“Tal?” Queen Elyssa touched his cheek. “He’s so little. You went nontraditional, huh?”
“Well, his middle name is Halo, so he can be mer when he wants, but Lotar was okay with me choosing a more normal first name. So his full name is Talbot Halo Green.”
“Adorable. Oh, big yawn.” Elyssa cooed at Tal and tickled his rounded belly. “Have you seen your castle?”
“Not yet.”
“Gailen will show you around. After all the work he’s done, you’re going to love it.” Elyssa called over the orange-tattooed warrior, and he led her and Lotar through their still-celebrating friends to a larger castle at the outer edge of the concentric ring.
Even his castle was a loner.
Gailen led them through the long entrance tube to the inside. Lotar took baby Tal, who was fussing from being tired, so Hazel could focus on her new home.
Lush green gardens blanketed the floor, corridors and alcoves were hollowed out like a cozy hobbit’s house, and rounded windows were filled with trailing window boxes of lovely seaweed. Light seemed to slant through the center of the courtyard, and the walls glowed.
“You have more rooms than the average mer because you have been gone so long.” Gailen showed off the fully stocked pantry and cute hidden nooks. “So I could also take my time and let things grow. Those tall flowers are the herb I collected in Aiycaya. You can mash the white puff into a substance that the other humans say tastes like soft white cheese.”
This was her home. An open, airy castle filled with light.
“You can change anything.” Gailen pulled off a few yellowed nubs from the nearest window box seaweeds and tu
cked them into the dirt. “Let me know.”
Hazel choked up. “No, no. It’s what I’ve always wanted.”
“Are you sure? I can—”
She threw her arms around him. “Thank you so much.”
Gailen held stock-still. Even though the warriors had come a long way from the beginning, when they’d refused to touch a woman or else risk getting the offending parts cut off, they still weren’t at the hugging-another-man’s-wife stage.
She patted his shoulder and let go, recovering with a sniff. “Thank you.”
He looked anywhere but at her and gripped the back of his neck. “I am glad you like it.”
Lotar rocked baby Tal, a rueful smirk on his face. He did not mind Hazel’s generous hugs, and he enjoyed the awkward reactions of the other mer.
“Anyway.” Gailen dropped his hand and straightened. “Over there is the pedestal for your family’s Life Tree seed. That corridor will lead to your Heart Chamber after you resonate with the castle for the first time. That hole over there belongs to your house guardian. And—”
“House guardian?” Hazel peered in the small hole. “I get a pet octopus?”
“She is blue. And unnamed, so you have the honor.”
The others had named their pet octopuses things like Lassie, Scooby, Benji, and Wishbone. Time would tell if Hazel’s was a Lady or a Bruiser.
And that was it.
Gailen took his leave. Hazel stretched, alone in a castle with her family for the first time in over two years.
Wow.
It was so quiet. And peaceful. And wonderful.
She moseyed from plant to plant and room to room, brushing her fingertips over the walls. They glimmered as though reacting to her touch. She was making it hers simply by being here.
A lot had happened in two years.
Flora had put her things in storage and canceled her lease. Except for the succulents. Those had gone to her friends and beautified the last remaining office of the foundation in the city.
Pia had gotten rejected from so many auditions, she’d lost her patience and written her own role in a solo musical. The first week it opened, she got scouted by an important choreographer and had now danced backup in a few commercials and music videos. Owen still went to every performance.
Zara had been more successful than she’d initially believed and had a decent list of former sacred brides from every city promising to attend. Some had refused, some had changed their minds, some had always planned to return to the world of the mer like Irina. It took a certain kind of person to go through what they had experienced, and they were strong.
But Hazel’s real goal had been to outreach, and they had done it.
The ocean was more exotic than she’d realized. For a woman who’d come from a small potato town to New York, this trip had made her a real world traveler.
Lotar joined her. His arms were empty, and baby Tal snoozed peacefully in the middle of the courtyard, neutrally buoyant.
“Good job.” She nestled in his arms. “Elyssa gave me the update.”
“I too heard news from the warriors. But…” He teased his lips over hers and vibrated as she spoke. “We should open the Heart Chamber now. It is the most protected area in the castle.”
And because of how soon they would be inundated with potentially unfriendly warriors, safety was first. “Gailen said we had to resonate with the castle.”
Lotar vibrated an affirmative and cupped her heavy breast. His cock hardened against her thigh.
Oh.
Yeah.
She yielded to his kisses, slow at first, then rough and demanding. They had gotten few opportunities and she felt just as desperate.
He tongued her breasts, her nipples, and down her belly to her throbbing center.
She locked her knees over his shoulders, opening to him, and he stroked her needy interior right up to the first delicious back-arching orgasm and over the other side.
Yes, this was how she wanted it. Fast, hard, and now.
She twisted and clamped his torso, finding his hard cock, and teased her tongue across the trembling cap. He shuddered. She loved this part too. Driving him wild. He was always so tightly in control, always so focused on keeping her and their baby safe and happy that she loved this wildness. He was a wolf romping in the snow. A warrior finally home to rest and love his wife as only he knew how.
His long fingers dug into her thighs as she mercilessly revealed just how thoroughly she treasured him, and his vibrations changed to guttural hunger. He marked her belly, her inner thigh, her calf.
Each bruising kiss made her nipples tighten and her belly throb. She clawed him closer.
He spun her in the water, moving her body as fluidly beneath the surface as above, and planted his cock at her entrance.
She squeezed her thighs to draw him in, deep, and they undulated in her favorite dance. His gray eyes shimmered iridescent and his lips curled back from his teeth as he grunted, thrusting deep into her taut channel, sliding hard against her pleasure spot.
And then he slammed her into a second orgasm, and when he saw her eyes roll back with lust, he went harder, and she exploded with a third toe-curling, muscle-clenching, total-body release. Driving her body hard, yet always pacing her, he was relentless and exceptional.
But even an exceptional warrior needed his rest.
She clenched his gorgeous, taut buttocks. “Okay. You can go. Your turn—”
He groaned, and the release poured out of him. He slowed to soft undulations, sweet spurts, and lay still.
Lotar still moved her world. Heaven, earth, water, sky. They revolved around her warrior. Her husband. Her soul mate.
In the aftermath, she toyed with the spiral shell necklace at his throat. A similar shell in glacier white adorned her neck, Lotar had gifted an ochre-colored shell to Tal.
Sparkles flickered across the walls of the inner dome like reverse shooting stars. Their resonance revitalized the castle and, in turn, the Life Tree, because the mer were connected.
And all news mattered.
“What did you hear?” Hazel finally asked. “Did Ciran suggest a new role as you expected?”
“I will begin training warriors in stealth as soon as I wish.”
Hazel squeezed him. “That’s great! And you once thought you were unfit to be around kids.”
He pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “There is more.”
“Yeah? Tell me.”
He had updates from his family, surprisingly. Syrenka rarely shared on the echo points, but the Atlantis warriors had heard Prince Oska had ascended to find a bride. No word yet on whether he’d succeeded, but Hazel could imagine the excitement when he showed up on the shoreline and ran into his half siblings on land.
First Lieutenant Anik had tried to resign several times, but King Falki and Queen Irina refused. Warlord Yashu’s pride and Lotar’s father’s desire to protect had twisted into something toxic. Lotar’s father had finally learned not to punish a son for his father’s mistakes.
Lotar fell silent and looked over at Tal.
She pressed her palm flat over his heart. “You know what happens when love goes wrong. That’s why it’s not going to happen to you. You’ll love Tal exactly right because love is like an ocean, and you’ve crossed them all. You are more capable than you believe.”
His gaze returned to her, and he softened. “Because I have you.”
“Of course.” She nuzzled him. “You’re my exceptional warrior.”
He accepted her words, finally, and that was the most beautiful thing of all. That her love, her husband, could finally accept himself. The recognition of his talents and skills no longer tortured him. He could be himself at last.
“Hm?” He frowned suddenly, untangled from Hazel, and swam over to the pedestal.
It had been empty before, but now he closed his fingers around a Sea Opal that looked small in his grasp.
“The house guardian must have left it,” he mused.
“With
out us noticing? Jeez, she’s as stealthy as you are.”
He opened her palm and rested the Sea Opal—which to her was massive and heavy and filled up her whole hand—there. “From a warrior to his bride.”
“I wondered why you never gave it to me.” She hefted it. It was like a baseball and so beautiful. Icy gray with silvery streaks, it was a veritable wolf stone. “But now I see why. This rock would have anchored you to the seafloor.”
He snorted and shook his head. “That is not why I left it.”
“No?”
He snugged her against his body. “I did not want a bride. I preferred to swim alone.”
And he was so certain he’d never change his mind.
She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tight. “The next time we surface, I am going to buy a whole wardrobe of rich-woman Saturday lingerie.”
He hugged her. “There is one more thing.”
“I have a confession too. But you go.”
“Queen Dannika has identified the leader of the Sons of Hercules.”
“That’s wonderful!” She danced. “And before the party.”
But his sober gaze told her it wasn’t wonderful. “The security officers from the other countries—Aiycaya’s sacred island, others—traced the leader to the platform building company.”
Her chest fell. “The building company? There’s a traitor inside the platform building company?”
He nodded.
“But I just invited everyone to the platform to party!” She clapped her hands on her cheeks. “Do you know what would happen if the Sons of Hercules sabotage the platform? Right when everyone’s here?”
It would mirror what had happened a thousand years ago. Humans and mer had gone to war. Ancient Atlantis had been destroyed, sunk, and the mer had disappeared beneath the waves and into legend.
But this time, no sacred island brides would save them from extinction. This time, the mer would fade out forever.
“Agh. I knew something would go wrong.” She gripped her hair. “Tell me we’re fixing it.”
“It could be a lie spread by our enemies to halt the party. So your security officer, Starr, is investigating.”
