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“Thank you, Castor.” She says his name slowly. And I want to yank him away from her. I’ve never felt such rage burning in my gut.
“I’ll message the governors and see if I can get a quorum to help Marina.” Castor beelines out of the room.
11
HOLTER
I’m sitting as close as I can to Belle. The northside tea house is owned by a Braesen pod, and most of Braesen comes through here while they’re shopping. If we’re going to get invited into the Braesen dome, we’re going to have to have something they want to look at, and that something is nothing other than Chompers. Mickey would have been impressive, but he’s also a lot, and while Eros thought it might be worth it, I know what would happen to Belle if someone thought Mickey was a danger and injured or killed the shark. That thing is a hundred percent her pet now. As much as you can have a pet shark. Which, up until now, I didn’t think was a thing.
Annabelle places her fingerless-gloved hand on the window of the glass, and Chompers follows it.
“What is that shark doing?” asks a mermaid with a long brown braid who’s hovering close to our table.
“Oh, Chompers? He’s one of my trained sharks. They had a Braesen trainer to begin with, but I’ve taught them a lot of other things,” Annabelle says with a demure smile.
“I’m Liora Torvid, and this is my sister, Elandra.” A blonde mermaid with two cups of tea on a tray sits at the table next to ours. I’d heard of pods having more than one daughter, but I’d never met one.
“I’m—”
“Arabel,” the younger of the two says.
“Annabelle,” Liora corrects. “I was hoping I would meet you.”
“I’m honored. Sisters, wow. This is my mate, Holter.” Belle places her hand on my arm. Damn, I’m never going to get tired of hearing her say it. We still haven’t registered with the government, not officially. We filled out the forms. But we have to go down in person. Having Belle say it out loud, with pride in her voice? Yeah, I’ve got to admit that I love it.
The younger of the two sisters clenches her jaw tighter than a clam. If Belle is going to get anything out of them, I’m going to have to step aside.
“I was just going to get another cup of tea. Can I get anyone anything?” I stand and gesture to the counter.
“We’re good,” Liora says, while Elandra looks between Belle and me. I can see the confusion on her face. What was a geminae doing mated to a young mermaid?
I lean in and kiss Belle on her pink cheek. “I’ll be right back.”
“Love you.” Belle squeezes my arm.
I point at the seat. “Don’t move.”
“Ah, mates are so cute when they’re possessive and think they can tell us what to do,” Liora says.
“If my sister’s mate told her that, she would pick up her cup and move to the other side of the shop,” says Elandra.
The sisters laugh.
“You’re not wrong.” Liora reaches across and squeezes Belle’s hand. “Not that I have a mate yet.”
I’m standing at the counter, close enough to take action if anyone even looks sideways at Belle. The gist of their conversation floats to me in bits. What’s her favorite restaurant? It shocks them that Belle has been to the Shipwreck Grill, but they all agree the Deep Blue is a delicious place to go. They didn’t go to the same Vividaria Festival ball as Belle did, but they’ve heard about it. What they’ve heard, they don’t say. The younger sister went to the Tinom ball. She says it was a trash swirl with lights. The older of the two went to the Vitrom ball and thought it equally not as good.
All the while, Belle keeps Chompers entertaining the mermaids by doing tricks around the window. What they can’t see is Eros out of sight, ensuring the safety of the shark. We drew shells for it, and he got the black one. So he’s the one who led Chompers here and is the one who’s been making sure the shark doesn’t go rogue. Nico’s outside the shop, scowling at anyone who comes and goes. Tea shops aren’t his, well, cup of tea.
“Can I help you?” the clerk asks.
“Yes, another cup and a box of take-away pastries.” I don’t take my eyes off Belle while I say it or pay or take my cup. I meander slowly back to the table and slide in next to Belle.
“Do you think I could swim with your sharks some time?” the blonde asks.
“I’m not sure. They’re really protective.”
“I can see.” Elandra puts her hand on the glass too. But Chompers doesn’t move from Belle. “Maybe you should come over for a visit?”
