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My arms hooked under hers, anchoring us together, and I lowered her into the awaiting water before she could change her mind.
“No.” Her body stiffened, her fingers clawing as they sank into my neck. “No!”
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” I repeated firmly, unable to believe it myself. Not when she was looking at me like that—her mouth agape and her eyes lit with desperation.
Scales glimmered, dancing under the dark water’s surface like diamonds, and I knew she’d transformed. Relief overtook me. Part of me had worried that the curse had somehow taken hold of her since our last meeting. But as soon as her mouth opened again, that same relief melted away.
“Leander,” she pleaded again, and I shook my head. If she’d hated me before, I was beyond redemption now.
But what choice did I have? I couldn’t let her refuse the king’s request. Watch him torture her, mutilating her body and soul until he could easily bend her to his will? I’d do anything to keep her from him—even if it meant hurting her now.
“You did it, Claira. You’re in the water,” I soothed, but her eyes stared right through me as my chest tightened. Was I the same as my father? He didn’t care about Claira like I did, and yet I was the one causing her pain with my own hands.
Was I even worse?
Leaning even further over the edge, I brought her into a tight embrace. “I’m so sorry.”
Claira’s arms had stopped trembling, her skin already losing its icy chill as her transformation settled over her. The cold wouldn’t bother her now, though the thought brought me little comfort after all I’d done.
Serene silence fell over the ocean as the boat swayed with each wave. It wasn’t until Claira’s breathing slowed that I whispered, “We can start whenever you’re ready.”
Jerking her head to the left and to the right, she hid her face from me. “It won’t move,” she mumbled against my chest.
“Just try once for me, okay? Try to mo—”
“I can’t move!” she shrieked, and her torso lashed against my arms, stirring up salt water all around us.
“Hey—hold on!” I gasped, tightening my hold. “I’ve got you. You don’t need to—”
She thrashed harder, her fingernails tearing their way up my back like she was using it as a ladder to crawl back to safety. Another strong jerk, and the entire boat seemed to lurch forward. Her head reared back, and I saw it—a look of absolute terror.
Something had her. Something had a hold of her tail and was attempting to drag her down.
“I’ve got you,” I growled, determined not to lose her. I wouldn’t lose her—couldn’t lose her. Not when I’d been the one to drag her into the ocean in the first place, whispering promises about how I wouldn’t let her go, how I wouldn’t let her get stranded down there. Her body sank further in my arms.
“Lee—!”
I was an anchor. I was afucking anchor. There was no way I’d let anything take her from me. Not again. Not ever again.
A fragmented scream bubbled over the water’s surface as her head vanished, drawn down with the rest of her into the murky bowels of the harbor.
And down I went with her.
12
Claira
Pressure squeezed my tail, the useless line of boney flesh and scales weighing me down. I fought back a scream as a sudden jolt of pain brought salt water into my lungs. White-hot clarity struck me as water worked its way through me, inside and out.
I’m going to die.
The force dragging me down was relentless, its jaws gripping, jerking, twisting like a starving wolf tearing into a hard-won meal. My body stretched with each desperate yank, the act pulling me tighter until I was sure the tension would rip me apart at the joints.
Leander still had hold of my wrists, fighting against the determined force dragging me down, but surely even he wasn’t strong enough to save me.
I was going to die down here, and it was my fault for getting in the water in the first place. I knew better, and yet…
Curse Leander’s smooth words and pretty face.
