Page 31 of Drown Me Gently

“I left to protect you.”

“You left,” Auren said. “Again. Without a word. Without a thought. And now you’re here, in my space, talking like I’m the one who broke something.”

Ulric’s tentacles twitched. Then his face twisted. His voice dropped, curling sharp like a hook. “I can scent that human all over you.” His nose wrinkled in disgust. “Did you let him rub his oily body across your skin like some kind of beast in heat?”

Auren flushed, rage detonating in his chest. “He touches me because he can,” he snapped. “Because I want him to. He’s beautiful. And warm. And not covered in cold, slimy limbs that reek of regret.”

Auren’s heart dropped to his stomach even as the words escaped. He tried desperately to force away the memory. Of being wrapped in those tentacles. The way they’d curled around him. The way they’d made him feel safe. Whole.

Never again, he told himself. Don’t be that fool again.

But his chest still ached with the weight of it.

“You smother everything with all that bitterness you carry,” Auren added, voice quieter, but no less venomous. “You twist everything that touches you. I’d rather be loved by a human than pitied by you.”

Ulric flinched.

Good. Let it sting.

“You think I wanted to care?” Auren snarled. “You think I wanted to feel anything for you after the way you treated me? I was stupid. But I won’t be making that mistake again.” His voice cracked. “You’re just a bitter, old Kraken who doesn’t know how to love anything he can’t control.”

Ulric’s jaw clenched, his gaze locked on the floor. Silent.

“You may have the Queen’s ear. But you don’t have mine,” Auren said with finality. “You can’t tell me who I can and can’t love.”

Ulric opened his mouth—but Auren cut him off.

This conversation, and all future conversations, were over.

“You’re not welcome here, Kraken. I never want to see you in my cave again.”

The cave echoed with silence. Ulric’s throat bobbed once. He nodded stiffly, eyes far away. “If that is your decision… then so be it.” He turned and vanished into the water, a shadow pulled by the tide.

Auren shook in the wake of his absence. The water in the cave felt colder. The edges of his treasures dulled. The elation Elias had filled him with drained like blood from an open wound.

“Fuck you, Ulric,” he whispered.

But the tears welled anyway. And this time, he let them fall.

Auren clung to Elias’s words like they were his last morsels of sustenance. Like they were the only thing keeping him alive from one moment to the next.

“You’re more beautiful than the legends. I wish I could etch you onto canvas so I’d never forget the shape of you.”

“Every night, I come back here and hope. And every time you appear, I forget how to breathe.”

“What are you made of, my beauty of the sea? Salt and silk? How can you be real and not wreck me?”

They echoed in his mind, soothing the ache Ulric left behind.

As Auren completed his duties in the palace, anticipation thrummed through him. The promise of “more” from Elias ignited a flush on his cheeks that wouldn’t go away through the long court proceedings. When he finally slipped away, his heart was pounding so hard he thought he might be able to use it to break through the wall of the city. He pressed his palm to the hidden stone on the outer wall.

Nothing happened.

“Damn it, Ulric,” Auren muttered, realizing the sorcerer had blocked the passage. Undeterred, he navigated his old tunnel, scraping himself as he went, cursing Ulric with every sting. He hoped Elias wouldn’t mind a few extra bruises.

Emerging near the coast, he prepared to whistle for Iska when a pulse of water vibrated behind him. Auren darted into a hidden alcove, pressing against the rock, waiting for the patrol to pass. The Deepguard passed, none the wiser to Auren’s presence.

But something loomed behind him in the darkness. It stretched on all sides, as though to cage him. Before he could react, a tentacle seized his tail, pulling him further into the shadows.