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Remi had almost forgotten what his best friend sounded like, and strangely, he’d almost forgotten why he was even friends with the guy. “Sorry. It’s been a total shit-show here.”
Thad snorted. “Yeah? Getting that royal dick all wet while you’re on vacation? God, I wish I was royal. I’d be drowning in so much servant pussy I couldn’t see straight. How many guards did you blow this week?”
Nothing about Thad’s question was a surprise. In fact, it was a lot tamer than the shit he usually said, but something about it pissed him off. He felt suddenly possessive and angry, and he had to swallow it all back before he said something he regretted. He couldn’t just blow up his life because things were weird right now.
“Yeah, this is definitely not a vacation, man. I’m not even allowed to leave the grounds.”
“Eh. You’ll get over it. When are they letting you come back?”
Remi sighed. “I don’t know. Soon, probably. I mean, nothing’s happened since that last attack, and I think my parents are starting to calm down. Jer—uh—my guard is on edge, but that’s his job, so I don’t know.”
“Boring,” Thad drawled. “You need to come back. There’s been a frat-house party war going on all week, and you are missing some prime opportunities to get dicked the fuck down.”
Remi said nothing to that. He never said anything to that. He knew he didn’t fit in with the rest of his fraternity brothers, and it felt even harder to pretend now that he knew what Jeremiah’s lips tasted like. “I’ll let you know if they start to give in.”
“Sweet. Oh, by the way, you’ll never guess who we ran into last night.”
“Who?” Remi asked, closing his eyes and turning his face up toward the sun. He watched his veins in the orange glow. “And am I going to actually care?”
“You fucking better. It was Ozias.”
Remi waited for his heart to do that painful, aching thud-thud against his chest, but it didn’t come. There was just a sort of echo of old pain leftover from Oz’s rejection. “Tell me you didn’t harass him.”
“Dude, not to his face,” Thad said. “The fuck do you take us for? Nah, we were a lot more clever than that.”
Remi swallowed down bitter bile that had risen against the back of his throat. “What did you do?”
“Dave may or may not have made an anonymous phone call that some Supe freak was soliciting underage human girls at the bar.”
“What the fuck?” Remi demanded.
“Don’t get your panties in a twist. This is revenge for what he did to you,” Thad defended.
It would have been awful either way, but something about Thad’s glee didn’t sit right. And if he was being honest with himself, it never had. Not really. Thad’s prejudices ran deep, thanks to his father, but Remi had convinced himself that being friends with him was changing that.
“Just leave him alone. I’m over him,” Remi said, lying back down. He put his hand over his eyes and squeezed them tight enough he saw sparks.
“Whatever you say,” Thad said, sounding bored and distracted. “See you when you get back?”
The call ended before Remi could respond, so he let his phone fall to the grass, and he shifted lower into the water, swishing his tail back and forth. Opening his eyes a little, he watched the sun play off his scales. His arm stretched forward, his fingers elongated, his skin iridescent.
This was maybe the longest he’d been able to hold his shift in… hell. Ever? The only time it had ever felt this easy was when his mother was with him. He took a breath, then glanced around him and couldn’t see a single creature lurking.
He wasn’t sure that was entirely true, but he felt safe enough to open his mouth and let a few notes escape. This was the only place he was allowed to sing. The only place the guards were ordered to keep away so they could have the freedom to be themselves.
Though this had never been Remi’s self before.
But something had shifted. His power felt strong—like a ball of Jeremiah’s hellfire sitting in his chest. His Song felt like it was going to burst free from his chest if he didn’t let it out. He slipped all the way into the water, diving under before pulling oxygen through his gills, parting his lips, and letting it out.
A single note trilled through the salty currents, bouncing off the concrete walls all wrong because his Song belonged in the ocean waves. But the relief was almost palpable, and the urge calmed to a low simmer just under his skin.
He gave a push with his tail, shooting to the other side of the pool and back, twisting and turning to the rhythm of the notes spilling from his throat. The words were in their ancient language—one he understood on instinct alone. They were reminiscent of the Song his mother used to put him to sleep with, only… it wasn’t exactly the same.
He felt love, but there was something else behind it. Something big, and powerful, and all-consuming.
He wanted to stop, but he didn’t know if he could.
Curling his tail, he shot up to the surface, the Song dancing through the air, and for a moment, he thought he’d never be able to stop.
