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With a breath, he turned and trudged up the sandy incline now that he was sure the kids were being watched, and he grabbed one of the tent poles, shoving it into the hole that Carlos—a Siren who’d protected his family for years—had dug. They shared a little smile, and Remi ducked his head.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to run off on you.”
Carlos huffed softly. “It’s the same when I haven’t been for a while too.”
Remi felt a small pulse of appreciation that someone understood what it was like for him.
They worked in silence, and once their stretch of beach was properly shaded, Remi grabbed a pair of swim trunks from a pile of towels and ducked behind the tent flap to change. It wasn’t exactly easy, hunched over like some kind of bridge troll, and just before he managed to get the trunks over his ass, he heard a small choking noise.
He spun so fast he lost his footing and hit the tent floor just in time to see Jeremiah’s face—bright pink in the cheeks—ducking out of sight.
“Oh, by the grace of all the fucking gods,” Remi whispered to himself.
Instead of trying to get up, he flopped back, spread his arms, and willed the sea to just rise and swallow him whole.
Unfortunately, Poseidon didn’t seem to give a shit about a random half Siren because nothing happened, and eventually, he got too hot to keep lying there in the closed tent. Turning onto his hands and knees, he crawled out onto the sand.
Jeremiah was talking with the two remaining guards, who turned and left, and Remi felt a small pulse of annoyance. There was no way that fucker had the authority to send anyone away. He swiped sand off his skin as he marched over and squared his shoulders as Jeremiah turned to face him.
Their height difference wasn’t profound, but it sure as hell felt that way as Jeremiah stared down his nose. Remi’s lips parted on a breath. His skin felt hot all over.
Which made sense. It was definitely the sun beating down on him.
Absolutely no other reason whatsoever to get all pink in the cheeks.
“Where’d they go?”
“The kids are hungry,” Jeremiah said, his voice a low rumble, just barely audible over the waves.
In his periphery, Remi could see the twins where they’d set up a sandcastle perimeter a few feet from them. Percy was being Percy and calling out orders, and Sadie was being Sadie and refusing to listen. The gods help their kingdom if those two ever had to share power.
Remi’s gaze cut back over to Jeremiah, who hadn’t moved an inch. He swallowed thickly, and then his whole body went still as the Hellhound lifted a hand and traced a finger over the bridge of his nose.
“I…”
“You’re turning pink.”
“Sirens don’t burn,” Remi said irritably. It was a dumb lie, considering Jeremiah had put sunscreen on him just the other day, but it popped out without thought, the drive to pretend he wasn’t different ingrained in him.
“So why are you all red?” Jeremiah’s lip twitched up in the corner as Remi took a step back. “I think there’s a lot of bullshit surrounding Sirens.”
“And I think there’s a lot of bullshit about Hellhounds out there,” Remi fired back. “They should add nosy as fuck to also being abominations.”
Jeremiah’s eyes widened, and he flinched. Remi felt immediately like shit. He didn’t even mean that, especially because he knew exactly what it felt like to have those kinds of insults flung at him. His own people didn’t trust him on either side of his genetics. The humans were afraid, the Sirens thought he was unfit to rule, and everyone else…
Well, hell. He had no idea what Jeremiah thought about him, other than he was a spoiled brat.
“I’m sorry,” he said softly.
The expression on Jeremiah’s face was gone faster than it had appeared, and he shook his head. “It’s fine. We are.”
“You’re not,” Remi said quickly. “That was such a dick thing to say. I’m just…” He let out a soft growl and shoved both hands into his hair.
“I know this situation isn’t easy. I know you’d rather be back at school drinking yourself half to death with your little self-important human friends.”
Remi’s irritation prickled across his skin. “They’re not all like, you know, the gross politicians.”
Even as he said it, he couldn’t quite bring himself to believe it. Sometimes, in the dark, he’d hear echoes of what his fraternity brothers had called his ex, and it hurt almost as badly as if they’d been flinging those insults at him.
