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Panic beat through me as the merfolk lifted in the water, like he floated in the air, his teeth bared, his claws reaching for her.
“Neia,” Elisa screamed.
Luz yelled something.
Water beat against us and covered my face. My head dangled off the rock and I choked.
Neia hunched away from the creature.
A burst of light exploded around us, golden and so intense it blinded me.
The merfolk hissed, revealing their long teeth, and dove into the water with plops like the start of a monsoon rain. For a minute everyone remained frozen. Neia still had her arms raised in front of her face.
A woman with honey brown hair that curled over her shoulder, the highlights in it gleaming from the still lingering blast of light, leaned against her staff. “I should have expected to see you here, Sai.”
I pulled myself up and helped Lira to her feet. She stumbled and gripped my arm before releasing me. I wanted to reach for her fingers again but feared she’d reject my touch. Elisa dashed forward for Neia and clung to her. Luz and Orman leapt across the rocks to draw closer, but their focus remained on the retreating merfolk.
I hoped they sank to the depths of Naraka to rot.
I turned back to the Froh fairy who’d just saved some, if not all, of our lives. “Jessamine?”
She grinned and jumped onto our stone, making it crowded with five of us perched on it, but she smirked at me like she didn’t notice the others. “Long time since I’ve seen you, Sai.” She spoke my name like a secret and took a step closer so that the warmth of her bled into my arms.
I became intensely aware of Lira next to me, and I rubbed the back of my head over the forming knot. I winced as my fingers grazed a tender spot. “We owe you thanks.”
Jessamine bit her lip and reached her staff out to draw it down my jaw with such a gentle stroke I shivered. “The last time I saw you, I believe I said I’d give you anything you asked for. Thanks aren’t needed.” Lira’s gaze became as hot as a brand, but I stayed focused on Jessamine who scowled. “Besides, merfolk are damn terrors. I wish my magic did more than scare them off.”
I cleared my throat. “Why are you here? Not that I’m ungrateful… but I’m definitely surprised.”
Luz jumped forward and offered me my pack which I slid over my arms. The ache didn’t stop at my head but racked down my limbs and across my shoulders. Fuck that would hurt worse the next day.
Jessamine skimmed her eyes down me. “The same reason you are, I’m assuming.”
Everyone exchanged looks, and I weighed out how much to reveal. Not much. I trusted Jessamine about as much as I could access the light magic she possessed. Which was to say basically not at all. “To test fate by having yourself skewered by merfolk?”
She laughed. “I know you’re gathering the heart stones.”
That shook off the lingering fogginess of my thoughts. “There are heart stones here?”
She frowned and loose hair whipped across her face. “Two of them, actually.”
My heart skipped a beat, and I could feel the excited energy run through the group. There were only three left missing. If we could get two of them—No, we were here for the map. “Why are you interested in the jewels?”
Her hips swayed and a cloth belt twisted around her leg. She stepped closer to me and brushed her fingers down my jaw. My head still hurt so much I struggled to respond and even when she let her fingertips glide over my lips, I only stared at her. “I’ve hit a bit of misfortune, I’m afraid. Though running into you, handsome, I’ll take as a sign that the winds are on my side in this run.” She drew close enough that her soft curves pressed against me and my heart rate spiked up. Lira stiffened, her fingers clenched. “I know how much your parents pay for those stones, Prince.” She leaned in so she spoke her next words against my lips. “I’m here for the payout, but happy to accept other blessings along the way.”
I cleared my throat and stepped back.
Luz glared at Jessamine, and Neia frowned at me. Lira’s nose flared and she had her lips parted like she might sing a few notes. The sea stretched as dark and ominous as before behind her.
“The heart stones are in the Temple of the Water?” I asked.
“No… thankfully because legend on the sea has it”—Jessamine scraped her teeth over her lips which reminded me of that mouth doing more, and I averted my gaze—“that only elementals or their Atallas can go into the old temples now.”
I exchanged a look with Neia who had her arm wrapped around Elisa’s shoulders but warily watched the exchange. Turning back to Jessamine I spoke again. “We have to go into the temple first. We have other treasures we’re here to retrieve.”
She gave her hips another sway and brushed the tips of her fingers across my stomach, following the waistline of my pants. I snagged her wrist gently to stop her, but she only smiled. “Are you an elemental, Sai? I mean”—she lowered her voice to a whisper—“I knew you were powerful but what secrets you’ve kept from me.” She darted her gaze towards Lira. “It’s amazing how much you can know of a being’s body and how little of their mind, don’t you think?”
Lira’s nose wrinkled and her lips were still parted. If she unleashed her magic, she could kill Jessamine. Beyond that fear though, a new emotion unfurled within me. If Jessamine made Lira jealous, perhaps that meant she still harbored some feelings for me. Hope heaved into me like a breath, filling my chest with warmth.
