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I wondered, were I any other mermaid, if my tail would move away from his touch on its own or if it’d feel content to let his fingers keep stroking.
The further we dived, the brighter Kai’s eyes seemed to glow, and the more magic rushed behind my eyes every time his lids moved. By his tenth blink, the front of my head was throbbing, and Leander shifted his grip, clearly annoyed.
“Would you stop doing that?” Leander snapped, his hands tightening around my hips.
Kai’s head turned, and we all groaned, guarding our eyes from the onslaught of light. “Stop what?”
“Head forward!” Leander shoved him with a shoulder until his eyes snapped back ahead. “A lantern should be able to keep its eyes open for more than two fucking seconds.”
The light strobed again, and I swallowed back a whimper.Ugh. Between the tingles and the throbbing, my head was going to explode before we ever reached the kingdom.
Out of options, I pressed my face into Barren’s midsection like he was my lifeline. “Sorry,” I mumbled, tightening my arms around his waist to shield my eyes from the light and my cheeks from showing my embarrassment.
Barren and I weren’t comfortable enough with each other for this kind of contact. Not even close. But I’d have to explain it to him some time when my pulse wasn’t thumping angrily in my eyeballs.
Tough leather dug into my cheek, and I found a strange comfort in it. Like I felt a comfort inhimI couldn’t explain.
But hey, who wouldn’t feel safe curled around someone like Barren? He was impenetrable, lacking in nothing, a titan carved from stone. His tail beat through the water, and the hard muscles of his back buzzed with a power I wanted to believe in.
I clenched my eyes shut, losing myself in the vibrations, realizing that without even knowing it, I’d forgiven him for how he’d acted when we were alone together in the water.
The suspicion in his eyes when he’d thought I was a sea witch. The power he’d held back so desperately when his hand had wrapped around my throat.
Now, things were different.
He’d chosen to believe me. Instead of stealing me away for his own kingdom, he’d taken me back to shore. He’d kept my secret. Not to mention the food he’d made for me whenever I was hungry—including the best sushi I’d ever tasted. I was still sad about storming out of his hotel room before finishing it. Why hadn’t I taken the plate with me?
With Barren and Lee and Kai here, we’d get the trident back, even if it came down to a fight.
Something brushed against my hair, and I was ready to look up when a hand, enormous and unfamiliar, cradled the back of my head. It was a brief, quick comfort, and it felt a million times more intimate than it should have.
Had he thought I was upset? Scared of what was to come?
As soon as Barren’s hand retreated, I was left stunned by how much I missed the reassurance of his touch.
It was a simple gesture, but its message was clearer than if he’d spoken the words.It’s going to be okay.
It was exactly what I needed, and it broke me apart and healed me in ways I couldn’t define. Was it going to be okay? I didn’t know, but I felt like, with someone as strong as Barren believing it would, how could it not?
No one can cry underwater, so I held my eyes shut and melted into him, working to hook my wrists behind his massive waist, repeating his comfort to me in my head. His body shifted, and my awkward curse-breaking grip around him turned into an embrace. A secret hug the others wouldn’t see for what it was.
But I felt it. Barren felt it. With the way he moved under me, all his rough edges softening, the muscles of his arm occasionally brushing my shoulder, hovering closer than he’d dared before, I justknewhe meant to embrace me, too.
“Quit bumping. We’re going that way. Look at the fucking circles!” Leander growled, and Kai gulped out an apology.
“Wait, which circle? There’s, like, a ton of them! Look, circle. Circle.Circle. Who came up with this system?”
“Quit turning your fucking head! Dammit, just look straight and follow what Barren does.”
A chuckle rippled through Barren’s middle, but he snuffed it out before it made it up his throat. My lips fell. Why did he feel he had to do that? To deaden his emotions before they came out?
“You think we should visit the portal first, Barren?” Leander asked, and it surprised me when Barren’s deep voice buzzed in my ear.
“After we get your trident.”
We traveled in silence until Leander tapped a finger on my stomach, trying to get my attention. “We’re getting close. Kai, shut your damn eyes.”
“Myeyes? Why?”
