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It was the only way I’d found to communicate how much I enjoyed when he possessed me like this. And it had the added benefit of leaving my marks on him in the same way he left his on me. I wrapped my legs around him, as high up as I could, and savored the feeling of us being twined together as he dove inside of me.
We’re one. Half of the same person…
My pussy spasmed, drinking the hot juice he spilled inside me. And when he fell over beside me, I scooted into the wing of his arm, closing my eyes and inhaling the sweet scent of his skin.
When I awoke, it was hours after the sun had gone down. Sometime in the night we’d moved, though I couldn’t have said when we’d climbed beneath the sheets. At first, I didn’t know why I’d awoken. There was no light in the room, and my prince was breathing softly beside me.
I tried to close my eyes and allow sleep to swallow me once more, but it didn’t happen. My heart was hammering in my chest, and suddenly I became aware of a sound permeating my consciousness. It was the low cadence of a lullaby. But as I strained my ears and listened closer, I heard the edges of the song begin to fray and become wilder.
I looked once more at Damian. How did he not hear it? How did it not shake him from his slumber? It had been mere moments that I’d been looking at him, and yet, the song had grown louder, piercing.
Is it… mersong? As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I knew it to be true. But why now? And before I even knew what I was doing, I was standing up and throwing on a silk robe. I hurriedly tied it around my waist but did not bother worrying with my hair or even grabbing shoes before I headed for the door.
I tried to be as quiet as possible as I hurried down dark corridors and the staircase. The song swelled around me and grew, but given the darkness of the palace, I knew it was for my ears alone. By the time I shut the door behind me, the ballad had risen to a crescendo, crashing around me in waves of terrible, alluring song.
There were guards at the gate, but neither of them tried to stop me. I had been given free rein at the palace days ago. Damian told me I would be treated as the royalty I was, and so while I knew they would watch out for me, no one would hinder me.
In truth, I hardly noticed them at all. I kept walking, my feet brushing across the silky sand as I hurried toward the siren that called me. When I saw her, the breath went from my body and I crumpled to the sand, at the very edge of the sea.
For right there, rising up from the water, was my father, King Triton, and he held the Sea Witch by the arm, his trident pointed at her throat.
“Ari.” My name on his lips was a hiss of reproach and yet, a breath of relief.
My eyes filled with tears at once. I was surprised at the sudden rush of emotion—both fear that he might attempt to force me to return, and relief that I was seeing him again. I had so much to say, but lacked the ability to produce words as my mouth moved soundlessly.
“What is wrong with her?” he snapped at the Sea Witch without ever taking his eyes off me.
“It was how she paid for my service,” she responded, without an ounce of remorse or even fear, despite her precarious situation. Then she held out her fist and something glittered in her hand.
My brow scrunched as I attempted to peer closer. Finally, I recognized it. A shell. The very shell she’d had when I’d come to her, pleading for legs. While I watched, her fingers curled around it and she crushed it, the dust falling onto the water.
Then I felt a sudden pang in the very center of my throat. I opened my mouth, but my eyes were on the Sea Witch and my words, my first in days, were for her.
“Why are you here? Are you going to take me back?”
“No, child.” Her smile was wide and her eyes shone with affection.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded, fists clenching at my sides. Emotions warred inside me as realization dawned. I was angry, but riding on the heels of that emotion was one much stronger: fierce love.
“Tell you what?”
“That my nurse is not dead! That my father did not kill her!”
Her lips closed in on each other as she waited.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were her?” The words burst out, passionate, demanding an answer.
“I had hoped you would discover it for yourself,” she answered at last, words trembling. “I hoped you remembered me still, even after all these years.”
“Remembered you? I never forgot you!”
“Yes.” The word was soft, and yet I heard it even over the crashing waves. “I see that now. And it is the very reason I granted your wish for legs, child. And it was my joy to give you what you’d longed for your entire life. I only wanted to be sure you would come to me and tell me if you were unhappy, if you wanted the magic to be undone. But”—Her eyes caressed my face, kind and loving as I remembered her to be—“I can see that will not be necessary.”
When I regarded my father next, my smile faded. I felt love for him, yes, but also something different and more complicated. I was still angry at him for holding me back all this time, and fearful he would be the one to force my return. He could do it—he was the all-powerful ruler of the sea. If he wanted me back under his command and control, there wasn’t a thing anyone could do to stop him.
Almost as if he’d read my thoughts, his eyes caught mine. “Ari.”
“I don’t wish to go with you.” I held my head high, matching his gaze and refusing to look away.
