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“I don’t know why I keep letting you surprise me. Is there any fish out there you can’t catch?” Leander’s silky voice reached my ears, pulling my attention away from his legs.
Taking his hand, I got to my feet. “Yeah, well, I figured this was the only way we’d get some privacy. I didn’t expect the big guy to fall for it so easily, though. A friend of yours?”
“Yeah, I know him.” Leander’s arms naturally fell around my hips, and I found myself thankful for the support. So much had happened today that it was getting harder to think with each passing minute.
“So, what is this about me staying with you? You, uh, you want me in your room with you?”
He cleared his throat, and I couldn’t help but grin as color rose over his pretty boy cheeks. I could get used to him looking at me like this. Letting his vulnerability show.
“Well,” he mumbled, breathing hot air across my neck, “I can go back to the cage with you, if you’d like.”
Goosebumps rose over my skin as his words washed over me like a caress. Like he’d woven some magical spell to get me to agree to stay with him. Only, he didn’t need magic to convince me. I didn’t want smooth words laced with artificial merman magic. And for some reason, it bothered me that he thought he needed to use it on me at all.
“You don’t need to do that,” I said, pulling his hands off my waist.
“You know I was joking, Claira.” Although clearly confused, he grinned, swerving my hands to ease me closer to him again. “We wouldn’t really go back to the cage—”
“No, not that. That thing you keep doing with your voice.” With that, he looked even more confused. “You know, that magical glamour thing you mermen do to your voice to seduce people? I know you’re probably used to doing it, but you don’t need to use it with me anymore.”
“Claira,” he started, but then his voice trailed. The next words that came out of his mouth were the most serious I’d ever heard. “You do know mermen can’t glamour their voices like mermaids can, right?”
I definitelydidnotknow that.
Suddenly nervous, I let out a small laugh. “Well, uh, you’re pretty good at pretending.”
The deadpan look on his face told me he wasn’t amused.
“Tell me, do you ever try to glamour me?” he said suddenly, and I wasn’t sure what to think of the question. I stared at him for a moment, wondering why he even thought to ask it.
“Of course not. Why would I? It’s not like I even know how to do any of that mermaid stuff. I don’t know any of the magic. I’ve never been in touch with my… mynature.”
He didn’t look the least bit convinced. I waited for him to say something. Anything.
When he didn’t respond, I turned to the gas station. “So, uh, that one merman, Kai, told me he was here to rescue me.”
“Yeah?”
“How do you think they found out about me? King Eamon?”
At the sound of his father’s name, Leander flinched, and he looked at me with a face that told me he clearly hadn’t heard the question.
“Are you even listening? What do you think we should do with these guys?” I gestured to the inside of the gas station, and when I didn’t immediately see them, I pressed my face up to the glass.
“Well, isn’t that something,” I mumbled, focusing on Kai, who was running around with his arms full of empty bottles. He’d invaded the beer cave and seemed to be constructing a pyramid. My eyes scanned for Barren, and a rogue flip of a bottle cap gave his position away. Looking uninterested compared to the merman hopping up and down on his toes beside him, Barren flicked another cap, aiming at the center of the tower of bottles like he was playing some sort of carnival game. I could just barely make out Kai’s cheers over the sound of glass as half the tower collapsed to the floor.
What the heck?
And some kingdom had really sent these silly mermen to abduct me from my abduction?
“My father is a fool,” Leander said suddenly, pulling my attention away from the game inside. “Of course the other kingdoms would send princes out here to get you. Now that royalty from the Pacific and the Indian oceans are here, they know we can’t legally keep you to ourselves.”
“Wait. These guys are princes?” I whipped back to inspect them through the glass again. Kai was setting a bottle on the top of Barren’s head now, and by the time Kai had it balanced, nearly a third of the bottle had sunk into Barren’s thick mop of curls. Barren did not look entertained in the least.
“Prince Barren Arwa, the eldest brother of Queen Javalynn. And the short one is Kai Corentine, the ninth son of King Darias,” Leander recited simply. Like their names and titles were information that all merfolk were supposed to know. Yeah, well… Color me surprised.
“Okay, but what do you mean by ‘can’t legally keep me’? King Eamon seemed to think otherwise. You know, when he arrested me and threw me in a cage for treason.” Something clicked in my mind, and the words Kai had said as Barren carried Papa away suddenly came to me. “Is it because, according to your records, I’m technically dead right now?”
Leander’s mouth dropped open, telling me that was exactly the reason. “Something like that. But ultimately, that’s for my father to decide. He might not have the trident, but the royals are trying to at least pretend we still have some sort of—”
