Adonis watched his face as he looked around, a nervous expression on his own.
Connor tried not to smile. “It’s very nice.”
Adonis’s face lit up.
“Who is that bed for?” Connor asked, spotting another smaller mound of furs and blankets a few feet over. “Does someone else live here with you?” He’d never asked if Adonis had a family before.
“Laurence,” Adonis said.
Connor’s gaze snapped to Adonis. “MyLaurence?” he asked, surprised.
“Yes.”
“You made a bed for him, too?” Connor smiled. “I didn’t realise you liked him so much.”
Adonis snorted. His expression said hedidn’tlike him. “For when you bring him.”
Ah. Because Connor had brought Laurence into the water several times now. Even if Adonis had snorted like Connor was stupid for thinking he liked Laurence, it was still sweet. But Connor’s worry came back as he thought of Laurence.
Connor moved to sit up, squeezing his eyes shut as his body protested savagely to the movement. Everything hurt. Everything ached.
Adonis made an alarmed noise—even though he could speak, the cat-like sounds remained. “You lied! Lie back, I will—”
“No, thank you, but no.” Connor caught Adonis’s hand. He knew that he was going to use his healing ability on Connor, and he’d said that was what had Adonis passed out next to him. Connor worried that if Adonis used that bone-numbing ability on him, he’d sleep for days. And he couldn’t do that. He’d healed Connor’s stomach enough to keep him alive and moving, and that would have to do.
“Can you take me to the dock?” Connor asked Adonis.
Adonis shook his head. “Rest. Until you are healed.”
“The men who put you into that tank were there. They hurt Laurence. I need to see that he’s okay.” Connor gritted his teeth and got himself sitting up fully. Adonis leaned back onto his heels and held Connor’s shoulder to steady him.
Worry lingered in Adonis’s eyes, but he nodded. “I understand.” He stood up and crossed the room, letting Connor observe his naked legs. It was… strange. The skin wasn’t quite human, but it wasn’t exactly scales either. He shimmered and caught the light as he walked. Adonis picked up Connor’s grey sweats from the cave floor.
Connor scrunched his nose as he pulled on the damp items. He took a second to observe just how bloody they were. How much of him had bled out before Adonis had stopped it? Connor looked up at Adonis, meeting his worried gaze. “I’m glad you’re okay,” Connor said, his throat tight. “You were hitting your tail against the tank really hard. Are you sore?”
Adonis shook his head, but Connor didn’t believe him.
“I don’t want to ever see you in a cage like that again,” Connor said. His heart squeezed as a flutter of panic filled his chest. Adonis was out. He was safe—but Connor could still feel that icy dread of when he’d been trapped.
“No.” Adonis brushed Connor’s cheek lightly with his palm. Anger swarmed his gaze. Not meeting his eyes, but levelling on his nose, the bruising under his eyes. “Never again.”
Connor let out a steadying breath. “That means if I’m used as bait, you don’t bite, alright? You ending up in a tank is literally the worst-case scenario.”
“You are not bait.”
“I was a pretty effective lure, though, wasn’t I? You swam right into that trap.” A rising wave of anxiety seized Connor’s lungs. “Just—you know—let’s both make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Adonis nodded. He approached the pile of books and pulled out a large paddleboard from behind the stacks. It was as big as Connor’s, yet Adonis had no difficulty lifting it under his arm and placing it into the water. Connor walked along the cave’s slope and examined the cave in greater detail. The light he had seen earlier came from a gap in the cave wall, a half circle where the cave led to open water. Only a few inches of the gap was above water. Just enough to slide the board under and maybe lie flat and paddle through.
Adonis stepped into the water, disappearing into the deep pool. Connor stepped to the lip of the cave floor as Adonis resurfaced. He took hold of the board and held it steady as Connor stepped on. With a pained breath, he lowered onto his stomach, but as he dipped his hands into the water to paddle, Adonis leaned in, rubbing his cheek to his.
“No,” Adonis said, placing Connor’s hands on the board. “Rest, I will do it.”
Connor didn’t object. If he had to find his way home alone, with his body in this state, it wouldn’t happen.
“Head down,” Adonis instructed. He slipped to the back of the board and they moved forward through the water. Connor flattened as he passed under the gap in the cave; he just about fit.
The ocean opened out in front of him. A shoreline of thick trees lined either side of the cave, packed to the very edge of the waterline. There were no golden shores, sharp cliffs, or beaches, but flora that Connor had never seen in Ireland before—not even in their bio-diverse hot spot.
