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“Actually, I kind of got in a fight out here yesterday,” I said slowly, and Leander’s eyes went wide.
“Fuck, are you hurt—?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m fine,” I interrupted, swatting a hand away as it cupped under my chin to study my face. “It was Aleena. She pushed me into the water, but I crawled back out—well, Istartedcrawling out, but the shark we helped out of the net helped me back up and then…” I paused to look down at the broken boards. “It, uh, landed on the pier and tossed me a knife. The one I’d used to cut it free. Funny, right?” Leander’s eyebrows twitched, unamused, so I cleared my throat. “I managed to knife Aleena in the foot before it was over,” I added, gesturing to the dark stain on the pier.
Leander’s jaw unhinged. He stared at the pool of dried blood for at least a minute before he finally regained control of his mouth. “A shark isn’t smart enough to do all that.”
That’s the part he focused on? “Yeah, well, you say that, but…”
“Wait, you knifed her?” A flicker of admiration lit in his eyes. “I wish I could have seen that. Where was I during all this?”
I shrugged, feeling a blush rise over my cheeks. “Morning meeting with your father and the guards, I think?”
He looked back at the pier, then the blood stain, then to me like he couldn’t really believe he’d missed all of it. “Wow.”
Wow indeed.Looking at the aftermath now, it hardly seemed real.
“You don’t still have that knife on you, do you?” he asked, lifting his shirt. As soon as it was over his head, he tossed it to the pier. “Might be useful down there.”
“I’ve got another one in my backpack.” I glanced back at the warehouse, feeling the glare of a hundred eyes boring a hole in my back. “You’re really gonna start stripping right here, Lee? With the whole kingdom watching?”
“Why would they be watching?” His head tilted curiously, sending golden strands of hair falling over his sandy eyebrows.Mermen. Did he really not know how amazing he looked, or was he just oblivious to the looming eyes this morning?
“Come on. Let’s at least go to the boat or something,” I mumbled, starting down the pier. Hopefully he’d follow before shedding his pants.
“Hey, wait a second,” he said, jogging up beside me. “There’s, uh, something I need to talk to you about.”
The gravity in his voice stopped me from taking another step. “Oh?”
His smile turned sheepish as he ran a hand through his hair. “Not now, but after we get the trident back. After all the chaos dies down.” He paused long enough for his expression to turn grim. “About us.”
That… didn’t sound good.
“Not now, but later?” I asked, and he gave a stiff nod. The way his eyes hardened, his mouth going straight and rigid, had my stomach cramping more than hunger ever could. I laughed through my nerves, hoping that falling into our usual banter would be enough to snap him out of it. “What is this, like, a warning or something?”
His expression held, and my heart sank.
He fisted the hand in his hair and pulled at the strands, but the pain barely registered in the ice blue of his eyes. “Yeah.”
“Guess we better hurry,” I said stiffly, hastening my steps to the boat.
He wanted to talk to me aboutus?I had almost zero experience with human males or mermen, but I knew that couldn’t mean anything good.
“Claira, wait—”
I pursed my lips and stepped off the side of the pier, landing on the boat below with athunkthat dropped me straight to my knees. The boat quaked underneath me, but I sprung right to my feet. I was already digging through my backpack for my bathing suit when he touched down beside me.
The boat bobbed wildly, sending my knees locking to keep my balance, and I threw my shirt off without even sparing him a glance. “I’m sure King Eamon is tired of waiting, so let’s just get this over with.”
The sooner we returned with the trident, the sooner Leander could return a hero, basking in all the glory. And what would I do? Wait around for the excitement to die down so Leander could toss me aside like yesterday’s catch. Like mermen always did.
Talk about us? Pfft. Asshole.
A gruff snort was his only reply, and I shook my head as I knotted my bathing suit top. I knew better than to mess around with a merman, and yet…
I glared over my shoulder, and the sight of him almost took my breath away. He’d slid his pants off, leaving his bare skin to glisten in the early morning mist, a hand still running thoughtfully through his hair. He always seemed to do that whenever he was troubled, but what right did he have to look so tortured? So brooding? Was he worried about how to shake me off after getting everything he wanted from me?
A sheath of ice started forming over my heart as I kicked off my pants. By the time I had my wrap knotted around my waist, my chest had deadened, my emotions cold. Distant. I wedged a knife into the knot at my hip and straightened my spine, tossing a blanket of unruly hair over my shoulder. “I’m ready.”
