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My thoughts trailed, and I glanced down, suddenly realizing I was crushing the life out of the beef sticks in my fist.Whoops.I forced myself to relax.
Because of my father’s feelings—along with King Eamon’s reputation—all my brothers had elected not to travel. But how could I refuse to help? It wasn’t like King Darias would notice one of his many sons missing anyway. He could hardly tell one of his scrappy, spike-tailed offshoots from another. And if Claira really wasn’t cursed, then maybe she could work with all of us to help get back our tridents. Forcing her certainly wouldn’t work. Camaraderie—not cages—was the better way to go about asking for her help. As soon as King Eamon tossed her in the water, she’d just swim away, right? Like, dude. How had a king not realized that?
Turning the beef sticks around in my hand, my mind wandered again. “Do you think they’re feeding her?” I tucked one safely away in my pocket just in case they weren’t. “Here, man.” I tossed the other four to Barren. He shot me a deadpan look when one ricocheted off his phone screen. “Err, my bad.”
Opting for the frosted bread rolls, I reached back for the bag. Just as I ripped into the top, the doors started rattling, and my ears perked.
“Do you think that’s her?” I spun a quick circle on my rear to squint through the glass. “Or maybe Laverne finally woke up. She’s probably wondering why we left her alone in the car, you think?” I glanced back to Barren, but his focus was on his palm, and his thumb was still tapping away. Guess that meant it was up to me to see.
Something slammed against the door, and the entire building seemed to shake around us. I scrambled to my feet.
“Laverne?” I called out as I toed around the collection of bottles left behind from Top Lobber—one of the greatest games I’d ever created. “I didn’t mean to leave you all alone—” A head edged through the doors, and a golden mop of hair instantly gave its owner away. Prince Leander slid inside, kneading at the side of his shoulder. “—sweetie.”
“Sweetie?” he shot back, arching a questioning eyebrow in my direction. “Just who did you think was on the other side of these doors?”
Oh. Oh no.
I’d left Laverne in the car for a reason. The last thing I wanted was for her to get caught up in all of this. She was too good—tooprecious—to meet up with merfolk withreputations like the Atlantic mers had. Fanning their tails and swaggering around with their butts popped out as a means of flirtation… Shameless. No one needed to see that.
Even in human form, one look at Prince Leander’s butt told me it did its fair share of waggling, even on land. Why else was it so tight, like two perfectly round globes nestled together?
“Just you.” I dragged the words out in a sing-song voice, making a show of batting my eyelashes at him. Then I added, “Sweetie.” Just to sell it.
A hand came for my throat, but Barren yoinked me away, wrapping me up in his incredible arm. My gleaming knight in strapping leather armor!
I was so overcome with emotion that I curled my arms around his neck as a show of my gratitude. “I knew we were friends,” I breathed out in delight, leaning close enough to see my reflection in his dark, mysterious eyes.
Then my strong savior cast me away, and I flew across the building in a perfect arc.Tuck and roll, tuck and roll!My inner voice urged me on, but my face found the ground first, and I skidded across the trash covered floor like a skipped stone over the water.
“Gah—my bread rolls!” I shrieked, pulling out the smashed bag of bread from between my thighs. I hadn’t even tried one yet.
“Do you know this idiot?”
My head was spinning, but I focused on Leander’s voice as I got back to my feet. I wasn’t yet sure who he was talking about, but my eyes swept over the building and—
“Just met him today when I picked him up from the airport.”
Whoa now. He’d gotten ten… eleven…twelvewordsout of Barren? My chest tightened as my eyes bounced between the two of them. They must have been the best of friends.
“Heard you were dead,” Barren said as he dug his phone back out of his pocket. My heart all but melted—he’d put it away just to save me!
Leander gave a tight shrug. “Yeah.” Well, this was getting interesting.
“Is it true what they’re saying about King Eamon?” I chimed in, and both heads whipped over to me.
“That he almost murdered his only son and heir by taking me out on a boat and throwing me in the water above the palace?” Leander let out a dry, nonchalant laugh as he raked a hand through his hair. “Yeah. He said I could either dive for the trident or swim back to shore on my own. Took a few weeks, but when I did finally turn up, he knew a king couldn’t go back on his word. At least not with the entire kingdom watching.”
A musical tone broke the mood, filling the air with a chorus of cheerful notes moving up and down a chord. Barren’s thumb glided across his phone, and the melody cut to silence.
“King Eamon?” A clear voice spoke through the phone, formal and contemptuous.
“Queen Javalynn. It is always a pleasure.” A second voice came through, overly ripe with a similar resentment as the first. Although Barren seemed unaffected by the surprise, I saw Leander flinch.
“And what a tremendous pleasure it is to speak with you, King Eamon. I do hope you are in good health.” The words rolled smoothly off Queen Javalynn’s tongue with the underlying edge of an undertow. “But let me cut to the chase. Barren, are you there? Speak.”
Barren cleared his throat. “My queen.”
“Ah, good. I trust you’ve spoken to King Eamon about his captured mermaid and the change in plans we have for her?”
