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I nearly choked trying to swallow down a half-chewed chunk of beef. “Wh-what, right now?”
“Of course, right now! We’ve got a whole half of a day ahead of us, and I hear you’ve been busy lately learning to swim. Oi, Barren! Hey, man!” Kai’s hand shot up into the air, waving at the black car parked next to the warehouse. A tinted window rolled down a few inches, just long enough to show off the squared angle of Barren’s jaw, and raised back up again.
“Wait,” I said, pulling my arm back as Kai bounded for the car. “Hold on, Kai. I’m not going anywhere with you guys.”
“We won’t leave the compound. Don’t worry.” Kai turned to me, and when he saw my expression, his friendly smile wavered. His arms sank down to his sides like weights. “There are guards posted on the ends of the streets, and we already ran it past King Eamon. He knows we won’t take you out of his territory.”
He took a few backward steps toward the car without me, his eyes never leaving mine.
I eyed the open door to the warehouse. Maybe Kai had a point. It was odd that King Eamon hadn’t posted anyone around to guard me. Sure, a captain would have been a bit much, but not one mer seemed to care about the captive being whisked away by the princes of foreign kingdoms. Plus, Leander told me I could trust Barren, and Barren was the one sitting in the driver’s seat.
Biting my lip, I thought about what my options were. Stand around all day waiting for Leander to finish his princely duties, or take a ride with some strangers. Choices.
Feeling suddenly foolish, I heaved a sigh and stepped toward the car.
Kai beat me to the passenger side—he clearly kept springs hidden in his shoes. When he moved to the back door, my hand was already on the front seat’s handle. Yeah, he could sit back there but there was no way I was getting stuck in the back with him. Barren was a merman, and my last trip with ocean dwellers hadn’t exactly gone well.
Ugh.My stomach rolled at just the thought of rumble strips. Never again. If it turned out Barren’s driving was anything like those freaking harpies, I needed to be within reaching distance of the steering wheel.
I swung open the door, edging my hip toward the seat so Kai wouldn’t have time to bounce on those springs of his and beat me to it.
“RAAAAAAAAH.”
A tan snout lunged at me from inside the car, its whiskers splayed out on high alert. Jaws opened wide, shooting off bark after bark, the creature’s head bobbing closer to my face with each subsequent yap. My feet scrambled to get me the heck out of there at the exact moment my hips decided they were too broad to fit through a reasonably sized car doorway.Fan-freaking-tastic.
Time slowed as the left side of my hip caught on the edge of the car, bouncing me into the free-swinging door, where I then ricocheted in the other direction. The earth practically lurched underneath my boots as I fell backward, the yapping snout and car quickly replaced by clear blue as the sky rolled into my vision. But before I hit the rocks, something caught me by my waist, snagging me up like a fish on a line, pulling me back to my feet.
The barks turned into one long crackle of amusement, drawing my eyes back to the passenger seat, where a sea lion was situated on top of the cushion, its tail tucked in a neat circle around it. When our eyes met, the yap grew even louder. Why did the sound remind me of laughter?
“Laverne!” Kai’s voice barked back at the sea lion from over my shoulder, and my boots stirred up gravel as I slid away from the car. I looked down in time to see Kai’s lean arms as they loosened around me, his body coming up next to mine. “Come on, we talked about this! That’s no way to greet a new friend!”
The sea lion turned its snout up sharply, almost like it was a deliberate move made in defiance. But that was too silly, right? A sea lion acting openly defiant…
I blinked at the scene in front of me, my eyes jumping from the stone-faced titan with his wide hand resting on the steering wheel to the rowdy sea creature sitting beside him. I couldn’t decide which of them seemed more out of place.
“Laverne?” I tested saying the name as Kai stepped in front of me, his finger wagging and chin held in the air like he was about to count to three before putting the sea creature in time out. “But why asea lion?” I gasped out, exasperated by the absurdity of it all. “We don’t even have sea lions here!”
“Well, why not? Laverne isn’t from here.” Kai’s finger booped the very tip of the sea lion’s snout, and he tucked the rest of its head back into the car before carefully closing the door. “She’s from sunny California!” he beamed, gesturing up to the sky with a much too enthusiastic wave of his arms.
I stood there focusing on the bright color of his hair, his arms flailing, until my mind conjured up an old commercial featuring a wacky inflatable tube person. I had to look away so I wouldn’t be sucked into the silliness and start singing the jingle. “Wait—California? You brought asea lionall the way here fromCalifornia?”
“Yeah?” Kai shrugged, easing open the back door. “Sorry, but I think it’s better if you let her sit in the front. She’s still not over the plane ride.” Holding the door open extra wide, he took a lengthy step back and gestured to the back seat like he expected me to get in first. Great—he totally thought I was a klutz. He was probably going to give me a wide berth in every doorway from here on out. Was there a way to tuck in your hips as you walked?
I took a stiff step forward, too embarrassed to check if his lilac eyes were on my curves as I walked. When I ducked to slip through the doorway, Kai closed in beside me, his head dipping so low his lips were almost against my ear. “She’s upset they made her fly in the cargo hold,” he whispered, then flashed me a genuine smile.
I swallowed hard and dove into the back seat. It was far more cramped than I’d expected, and my butt stalled in the middle seat.
Barren’s seat was pushed so far back there wasn’t even room to squeeze into the seat behind him. And yet his knees looked cramped, and his legs were wedged underneath the dashboard on either side of the steering wheel. My eyes swept over the entire expanse of his body, from the shiny toe of his enormous dress shoe as it pressed against the brake pedal to the top of his dark curls blending in with the upholstery, flattened down by the roof of the car. Talk about a tight fit.
I cleared my throat. “Uh, hey there,” I said, feeling strangely awkward. How were you supposed to interact with undersea royalty when you didn’t really consider yourself a part of their world? Were normal greetings off the table? Staring at the back of Barren’s head, I noticed his jaw seemed to tighten, but he offered no greeting in return. Not like that, apparently. Noted.
Kai dove in beside me, and I scooted over until my leg dug into the back of the driver’s seat. When his butt landed, our hips pressed snugly together.
So much for my wide berth.
“Don’t forget to buckle your car leashes!” Kai said brightly, his hands going for the strap of his seat belt. The sea lion in the front seat groaned, her head whipping back and forth like a loose sprinkler. “Oh, come on, Laverne,” he cooed. When he fastened his buckle, he leaned forward to scratch at the short hair on the back of the sea lion’s neck. “Gotta make sure my best girl is always safe, don’t I?”
Laverne’s pitch lowered to a rumble, her tongue chirping softly like she was eating up all his praise. After a few more good scratches, Kai’s hand left her neck and slid over to her seat belt. When he held it out, Laverne gave a haughty snort, but Kai clicked his tongue, and she relented, snatching the buckle out of his hand with her teeth. Her neck seemed to move like it was boneless, contorting to draw the belt around her belly as her jaw sank to latch the buckle down into place.
