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“Oh, I would love that.” Belle jumps when she says it. Maybe a little too eager? But no, the Braesen mermaids don’t notice. They smile back.
“Let me have your block. I’ll put my information in it.” Elandra holds out her hand, and Belle slides her block out of her bag and across the table. The Braesen’s eyes widen. “Wow. you’ve got the best of the best. I guess nothing can be good enough for the second Poseidon’s mate.”
“Oh, it’s— Yes. Nico is really generous.” Belle smiles. Nico is generous, but he’d never think to buy a gift, even after the fiasco with Belle going missing. He still doesn’t like her having a block. That it’s a way to find her and track her is true. But it’s also a way for her to keep herself safe. Her block was a gift from Castor. A gift from before Nico told him to stop.
“There. How about tomorrow? Oh, and please bring your mates. I know my mother would love to see the trident that he brought back.”
Belle nods. “Tomorrow works.”
“I’ll make lunch. Well, I won’t make lunch, but I’ll order it.” Elandra laughs. “I’m a horrible cook. But don’t tell anyone. I don’t want it to hurt my mating chances.” She stands. “How about noon?”
“Sounds good.” Belle smiles, and we watch them leave.
“That worked remarkably well.” Almost too well. But I keep that thought to myself. My eyes are trained on the door. Three large Braesen males follow the sisters. They don’t talk to the mermaids. I can’t help but wonder if they are the females’ intended mates or guards provided by their parents.
“Sisters?” Belle asks. “I haven’t seen any pod here that has sisters.”
“Braesen has been having multiple females in a pod for the last few generations. Sometimes even twins. It’s made a lot of them very popular, and the other domes are very interested in having a Braesen mermaid mate into a large pod of their males.”
“Do you think that’s got something do with what Eros’s friend back in Boston said?”
It takes me a second to get that she means the half-kraken. Definitely. And these two mermaids served up to us? My jaw tightens. “I wouldn’t be surprised.”
“What? You’re keeping something from me. What is it?” Belle whispers into my ear.
I exhale. “It was too easy. It was almost like they were waiting for you. I don’t think you should go tomorrow.”
“But I have to. I need to get in there. Let’s go home, and we can talk about it. I’m sure Eros is tired of giving Chompers treats.”
“I’m sure Chompers is tired of not taking the treat out of Eros’s leg instead of his hand.”
“Ha, ha. Very funny.”
I smile. Only I wasn’t being funny. All the sharks hold a grudge against Eros. At least, that’s how it seems. Eros did keep Belle from them while Nico was in the chasm.
I shake my head. “I have to agree with Nico and Eros. I think it’s a trap.”
“A trap? Those two? I know women, and there are those who are faking being dumb and those who are, well, not so smart. And they are in the realm of not being too smart. I don’t like being rude, but I saw it all the time in undergrads, girls who came to university with no intention of ever graduating, just finding a husband.”
“Or five.” Eros laughs. “Seriously, I don’t know the Braesen mermaids, and I only caught a quick glimpse of them as they left the tea shop—not that you can judge intelligence by how attractive one is. Look at me: I’m brilliant and clearly the most handsome merman in the room.”
Nico fast-pitches a pillow at Eros’s head. But Eros ducks and the pillow skids across the living room floor. “I don’t want you going there, Little Krill. We have enough going on here. We need to focus and not spread ourselves out too thin.” Richeal’s papers are in careful stacks on the table.
“Yes, but if we can find the lab, we might be able to circumvent all of this.” Belle waves her hands over the table. “Not that I’m afraid of a little work. I’m all for a deep dive into your mother’s research. The answer to her death is somewhere in here. But I think it’s also somewhere in this mystical lab in the caverns of Braesen.” Her blue eyes widen. “I want to go. You’ve said it before: if anyone is out to get Glyden, it’s Tinom or Vitrom. What if you’re wrong? What if the real enemy is right in front of us, masquerading as a friend?”
Nico growls, and Eros and I aren’t far behind him. “Tinom and Vitrom are the blubber fish of the ocean.” Nico says it before I can get it out. He’s reactive but correct.
“I agree with you. But they’re not all bad.” Belle’s lips thin.
“Name one?” Eros holds his hand up. “Just one.”
“Kappler Banard,” Nico says. Kappler is Vitrom. One of his mother’s mates is a Kraken. And while all males in a pod are treated as the father of a podlet and it’s never acknowledged who the biological father is, in Kappler’s case, it’s obvious.
“Shit, you’re right. He’s not someone I would want to spend any time with, but he’s not bad,” I agree.
“Fuck, Kappler. He’s still out of communication range on the Centauri.” Eros leans forward.
“He is.” Belle clasps her hands together. “I know he would help us with Marina if we could get in touch with him. Any word from Castor yet?” Belle turns first to Nico, who hasn’t a clue, and then to me.
