He had given that man all he had and more. He had given him his body, his heart, and the greatest treasure in the seven seas.
He'd given Hawk everything. It had not been enough to secure his love.
Silverfin ran his hands down the scales of his tail, trying to take comfort in having regained his true form. Being whole again. But how could he be whole when he'd left his heart in that cabin?
Gone. It was all gone. Even if he were ever to see Samuel again, he could never touch him the way he had touched him when they had been bipeds together. He had been a fool to try and live as one of them.
Mara had been right. He will not care about your love. Getting involved with bipeds will cause you nothing but pain.
“My honored Lord.” Silverfin was startled from his dreary thoughts by a familiar arrival.
“Lord Scarletclaw?”
“A summons for you, my Lord,” the crab pronounced with his usual flourish.
Silverfin wished he had his one good foot back so he could kick the offending crustacean. He'd have even taken the one the fucking sharks ate. “What kind of summons? I’m not in the mood for being summoned.”
“From your sister, the Lady Maraxilla.”
“If she's come to rub it all in my face again, no thank you,” Silverfin turned his back upon the pestering courtier.
“She did not say anything about rubbing,” the crab scuttled into Silverfin’s way again, lifting a cautionary claw. “But I can tell you, she does not come alone.”
What did he care who Mara had dragged out here? “How did she even get here, anyways? Did Mami Wata give her back her tail?”
“She’s aboard a ship!” the crab announced with glee. "Such a tiny ship. So easy to sink. Oh, what a tragedy that would be!"
"Leave her alone, you insolent shellfish," Silverfin shot back. "The ocean has taken enough from her already!"
"Then I'll tell her you're on your way," the crab replied, smirking as much as a crab could as he scuttled off again.
Silverfin sighed, starting after him. Only for Mara's safety, he told himself. Whatever news she had from land - of Hawk, of the treasure, of anything - he didn't care.
He didn't have far to go. The rocky ocean floor rose up into tiny islands that were death to larger ships, but as he and the crab approached, Silverfin could see the bottom of a small longboatfloating near the edge of one such island. Suddenly angry, he swam up underneath it and gave one side a mighty shove.
The longboat, predictably, flipped. But instead of just his fancy-dressed sister, three bodies spilled into the water, and Silverfin suddenly found himself looking into the most familiar, wide-eyed, freckled face...
...of Samuel Hawk. His former lover. Hawk washere.
The man who'd broken his heart.
18
Hawk's Truth
THE LAST THING Silverfin had expected when he'd capsized his sister's boat was to come face to face with the man he both wanted to see most and least in the world.
Hawk. The man who'd ripped out his heart and stomped on it. Hawk was here, in front of him.
In a panic, Silverfin darted back, surfacing with a panicked wail. "Mara!"
"You fucking arsehole!" Roxanne O'Toole breached the surface, sputtering. She ignored the capsized boat and hauled herself up onto the rocks, grabbing her sodden hat from the waves and plopping it back onto her head.
Frowning, Mara shoved at the capsized boat, carefully turning it back over in the water. "That's the last time I try and help you."
"Help me? What were you thinking, bringing him here?" Silverfin scooted back more, glaring at Hawk through a canopy of wet lashes.
"Him? The man you loved enough to give up the sea for? Gods forbid."
