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Excitement overfilled me with the thought of forever.
“Whaleshit!” Leander spat, and I braced myself for the inevitable, unable to pull my eyes from a dot of rice sitting so adorably on Claira’s bottom lip. If Leander wasn’t about to ring my neck, would it be okay for me to wipe it off? We were mates, after all, and it seemed like a mate-ish thing to do. It was something my father would have done, and the thought of brushing the soft, rosy skin of her lips…Wow. I couldn’t imagine anything I wanted to do more.
Still, I hesitated. I wasn’t blind enough not to notice how possessive Leander was over her. How closely she leaned into him whenever he was near. I knew I didn’t compare to him, but it was my voice Claira said had drawn her to it, right?Mine.
That was such a dizzying thought, I nearly broke through the tension in the room by bursting into laughter.
Barren grunted, and I turned just as he started yanking Leander off the top of the table. Evidently, he’d climbed it.
“Letfuckinggo, Barren,” Leander growled. Eyes flashed at me, teeth bared. The unspoken promise of violence burned in Leander’s gaze.Dude.I’d never seen anyone so angry, and that included my sister. The tips of his fingers dug into the wood as Barren dragged him down by the waist. “I just want totalkto him!”
“Mmh.” With athunk, Barren had Leander’s feet back on the floor, his massive body pinning him down against the table.
“Thanks, man,” I exhaled, feeling the muscles around my throat tense. I had no doubt those fingers would be digging into my neck right now if Barren hadn’t intervened. My heart swelled with emotion. I’d only known him a few days, but Barren had already proved to be the best friend I could have ever hoped for.
When my focus shifted back to Claira, she had shaken off her daze.
“Mates?” Guilt settled between her eyebrows as she watched Leander struggle in vain to break free from Barren’s grip. “Why would you even joke about that, Kai?”
“I’m not joking.” I cleared my throat and straightened up, smoothing down the front of my shirt. “We’re mates.”
Her eyes glazed as she touched her forehead, humming lightly, like she was deep in thought. “Oh, you mean like friends, right? Likemates,mates? Australia—Australia borders the Pacific, doesn’t it?”
She glanced up at me, searching for confirmation. When I gave no signal, her chin slowly started nodding, like she’d already convinced herself she’d misunderstood my plain meaning.
“For a second, I thought you meant… Ha, that scared me.” Her eyebrows arched in relief. “So, your kingdom is near Australia? I was picturingCalifornia this whole timebecause of Laverne, I guess. But how was I supposed to know? Australia?” She broke into a dry, uneasy laugh. “You don’t even have an accent.”
“Wearefriends,” I said, and a pained noise bellowed from Leander’s throat like Barren had suddenly reached through his chest to rip out his heart. “But alsomates.”
Claira’s eyes were on Leander when the usual curve of her lips fell into a heartbreaking frown. “I—I don’t…”
“Remember in the pool?” I asked, my eagerness to get her to fully understand me rendering my voice unsteady. “Remember when you said I tried to glamour you? That it felt like my voice was trying to draw you to it?”
Just saying it out loud was thrilling! She was drawn tomyvoice.Mine.
Claira squirmed in her seat. “Well, yes. But that doesn’t mean anything.”
“It meanseverything, Claira.” I swung around, taking a seat in the chair beside her. “There is this magical, wonderful gift Poseidon gives us calledthe thrall.It’s rare. Intimate. Something only known between the mated pair, but—”
“Agift from Poseidon?” Her boots planted on the floor like she was about to spring up from her seat. “Poseidon doesn’t give me gifts. He gives me curses.”
“No, no, please.” I eased a hand onto her shoulder. “It’s a beautiful thing,the thrall. At least, that’s what I’ve heard. No one speaks about it. I haven’t really ever even thought much about it until I met you.” I took a breath, feeling a wave of heat beat against my face. “You know how you—I mean, howmermaids—like to wander? Well, they say Poseidon tied certain mates together with a spell that would always bring them back—”
“Claira isn’t tied to you,” Leander cut in, spit bubbling over his lips as he strained to lift his chin off the table. “She is already inthe thrall. So, you can fuck off back to the Pacific. Take your creepy pet with you!”
The color drained from Claira’s face. She swallowed dryly, her hands clenching the edge of her seat.
“Remember when you asked me if mermen can glamour?” Leander said suddenly, his chin grinding against the table to look her way. “Well, we can’t. What you and I have, it isn’t glamour, because glamour isn’t real. I wanted to tell you after we got the trident, that this—this thing we have. Us. It’s real, and I want it. I know you want to go back to your new life after all this is over, but I need you.”
“You’ve felt a pull toward him, too?” I asked, a strange numbness spreading through my chest. It made sense, really. Leander… he was a crown prince, and I was me. Never first, always the very last resort.
Claira was so focused on Leander that I wasn’t even sure if she’d heard my question. “You don’tneedme,” she whispered, her hands shaking as she stood up from her chair.
“I do. I do need you,” he repeated, but she just shook her head like she didn’t want to hear it.
Claira’s eyes pinched shut, and when she opened them, tears glistened in their corners. “Really?” she scoffed. “Why? Because we sometimes do something weird with our voices without meaning to? Because of somethrallthat is meant to keep us shackled together? Some spell from Poseidon forcing me to stay here, to stay put with you?”
Hands flying, she pointed a finger right at my nose. “And what about Kai, then? You said it was whaleshit, but Ihavefelt it with him. Just the same as with you. So what? Does that mean heneeds me, too?”
