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From across the beach, Leander’s eyes found mine. He looked at me, the picture of a completely broken man, and his lips trembled as he mouthed the words he couldn’t find the strength to say out loud.
I’m sorry.
“Leander, NO!” Barren’s voice boomed, echoing down the beach, but it was too late.
Lamp light flashed off the pointed tips of King Eamon’s trident as Leander drew it even higher still. Then his hold on the trident shifted, and he turned the weapon on himself, plunging it straight into his chest.
38
Barren
Ipulled the comforter over Kai and tucked it in around him as Laverne hopped up on the bed, settling on the pillows next to his head.
“He’ll be okay, Ren. Won’t he?”
“Of course.” After giving her a nod and a reassuring pat, I turned back to the others.
I was thankful Claira’s sobs were mostly under control now that we were inside. She was bent forward, hovering above the couch where I’d dropped Leander off after carrying him up from the beach.
I hated that his selfishness had left her so hysterical. For a second, I’d thought I might have to throw her over my shoulder and carry her back to the hotel as well.
Her hands moved over Leander’s chest, and my teeth grit so hard my jaw ached. She traced a long line that ran all the way down his arm, then back up again, over and over. He was still too weak to move much, his body recuperating from the burden of taking in his father’s trident.
“You don’t see it?” she whispered, and when Leander shook his head, still looking dazed, she drew the same lines across his chest and down his arm again. “It’s black, like a tattoo. Well—okay, you probably don’t know what a tattoo is, but there’s a mark right here. It looks just like King Eamon’s trident.”
“Mytrident,” Leander corrected, and he winced as she spread her palm and smacked him across his chest.
“You’re an idiot, Leander,” she scolded and thumped him again. “You know I thought you were dead, right?”
“You don’t understand,” he groaned, his hand fisting into his hair despite the obvious pain the movement brought. “I couldn’t let him get it back. You don’t know what he’s like.”
“I have some idea what he’s like, Lee! My mer father wasn’t exactly father of the year, remember? You should have told me what you were doing, by the way,beforeyou literallystabbed yourself through the heart.”
Huffing, her hair whipped as she turned back to me. “Can you see the trident on his skin, Barren? The rod up his arm and the three prongs here, here, and here on his chest?” She pointed as she spoke, taking care not to touch him too hard again.
I gave a shrug. “He looks the same to me.”
It didn’t surprise me she could see magic on his skin or that the trident would leave a mark visible to those with the capacity to see it. Claira was always doing and seeing things normal merfolk could not. That was the one thing about her that worried me the most.
Heaving a sigh, she got up and wandered over to the side of Kai’s bed. Laverne let out a few clicks, her whiskers dropping low, a warning to back off that Claira heeded by walking around the bed and coming over to me.
“Um, I wanted to thank you for carrying them both back, Barren,” she said, rubbing a finger under her nose to conceal a sniffle. Looking up at me like that, her eyes puffy, tears glistening in their corners, she looked so fragile. It made me want to protect her. To wrap myself around her, shielding her from all this hurt, this pain, and never let her go. “You’re so strong, and I… I just fell apart.”
Even sounding so broken, her voice still called to me. An irresistibly alluring song tempting me closer. Making her lips look sweeter than the most decadent dessert.
My jaw tensed as I pushed thoughts of drawing her closer away. The spell of her voice was more frequent since the day I took her into the ocean alone. The more I denied it, the stronger the lure became. Maybe that was why I’d slipped up and kissed her before letting go. Back when I still had trust in Leander to keep her safe. Now, that trust was gone.
I might never forgive him for being so selfish. Hearing Claira’s screams of terror, not knowing what Leander was doing when he fused with his father’s trident, pierced through my heart even more than my ears.
Leander was never as happy as he’d been these last few months. Because of that, I was willing to bow out and ignore my impulses. To pretend Claira was someone else’s mate. His, not mine. I had lain low, stayed quiet, for fear that my voice might one day call to her, too. And then she might look at me in a way that would break me down, and I would no longer be able to hold myself back.
But Leander had thrown his future away the moment he’d chosen the trident. And now everything had changed.
I’d watched my father’s trident consume him. Seen the magic work through him, poisoning his mind and body. It stripped everything from him, and when it finally emerged, it left nothing but a corpse and an empty seat on a throne.
There were rules about the tridents for a reason. Merfolk weren’t made to contain that much magic. Unbound, one could control Poseidon’s relics, even if it was only a small portion of the magic hidden within. That was why kings and queens never fused with them. Because once taken into the flesh, the trident controlled us.
My father had wanted that power, no matter the cost, and he’d had it. But not without destroying a part of himself every time he called on the same magic he craved.
