Hymn of Breath and Bone (The Whispering Sea Duet #2)

Chapter 7

“Not again,” I rasped, cracking my eyes open to the warm glow of moonstone shimmering in the walls of an unfamiliar cavern.

“Welcome back, Urchin,” Caspian greeted me, his voice tired and heavy with relief. He was sitting on the edge of the narrow cot, his fingers twisted with mine. He lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss to them. “If you could stop nearly dying, that would be appreciated.”

“I think we’re even now,” I joked, lifting my other hand to cup his cheek. His jaw was scruffy, and his eyes dull with exhaustion. “What with your crash-landing and near-drowning on the island.”

“Fair enough,” he agreed, his hands tightening on mine. “No more, though, I beg you.”

I smiled weakly. “How long?”

“Two days,” he murmured, his thumb stroking the back of my hand. “The healers didn’t want to wake you too early in case you hurt yourself.”

I lifted my hand to the back of my head and felt around gingerly. It was bandaged, a faint throb and tender spot the only sign of injury.

“The bastard cracked your skull,” Caspian growled, his hands gripping mine a little tighter.

“Did you kill him?” I croaked. He nodded grimly. “Good.”

“What happened, Urchin?” Caspian asked quietly, eyes flicking to mine. “Ana told us she heard a siren song and told you to run.”

I nodded, wincing as it made my head pound. “They attacked her,” I hissed, dropping my head back into the pillows. “Is she alright?”

“About the same as you,” Caspian replied. “Zephyr took her home. As soon as the healers clear you, I’ll be doing the same.”

Home. I swallowed. Caspian’s rooms weren’t really my home, but seas, I wanted them to be. Wanted him to be.

I knew I had a thousand other things to worry about. But my realization from the library—that we could really do this—hit me so hard at that moment that no other truth seemed as important as this one.

“I have to tell you something,” I rasped, feeling my throat dry out as I tried to force myself to tell him the truth we had been dancing around. “About when I called for you in the library.”

Caspian nodded, his gaze piercing. “We don’t have to have this conversation right now, Urchin.” He lifted one hand to brush my hair back, a thumb stroking my cheek. “You just woke up.”

I blinked. “You know.” His face revealed nothing, and I decided that we would definitely be having this conversation right now. “You know that we’re mates.”

“Since Morar,” Caspian confessed, his hand holding mine tightly as if he was worried I might flee with this confession.

Of course he had known. He had known longer than I had. How could he not have known, with both of us blasting our feelings at each other for over a week?

A small part of me was hurt that Caspian had known before me and hadn’t told me. I’d been trying to tell him the truth for days, but he had chosen to conceal it from me.

But somehow I didn’t feel the pinch of betrayal. It seemed obvious that he’d known. That he hadn’t run from the realization. That he’d given me the space to figure it out and decide what I wanted to do about it.

It made me love him that much more. Have faith in this—in us—that much more.

Caspian’s eyes were steady and unashamed as I met them. A challenge. “And you?”

“I wasn’t certain until the day you presented me to your people,” I confessed. “But Ran called you my mate the first time I spoke to him.”

“That fucking horse,” he sighed. “I planned to tell you everything after the library, but….”

“You had good reasons not to,” I teased, squeezing his hand.

Caspian didn’t smile.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, sensing there was more. “Before the library, I mean.”

“Probably for the same reasons you didn’t tell me, Urchin,” he replied, letting out an exhausted sigh. He must not have slept the last two nights, and I wondered if he had left my side long enough to even try. He turned my hand over in his and traced the lines of my palm. “You’ve been trapped all of your life, Marina, and I couldn’t do it to you again. There are…complications for siren mates.”

“Tell me,” I insisted, closing my fingers around his. “Tell me everything.”

Caspian frowned. I searched the bond between us, and he didn’t feel guilty or ashamed. He felt vindicated, somehow. Like he’d made what he thought was the best decision and was ready to deal with the consequences of it.

“The mating bond locks into place,” he explained, his amber eyes meeting mine again, “when it’s first consummated. It grants both mates greater strength in magic and a connection to each other's minds and bodies. But there is a cost.”

“I already feel that connection. Doesn’t that mean—”

“No.” Caspian blew out a breath. “No, it often starts before. It allows mates to find each other. It will grow when—if—”

He cut himself off, but I understood. It was why he had refused to bed me properly. He didn’t want to force me into the bond.

“You suspected before Morar,” I realized, remembering his hesitancy to become physical days and days before he realized the truth.

“I wasn’t sure,” he hedged. “But yes. I suspected.”

“And the cost?” I asked, trying to organize my thoughts and feelings.

Again, a part of my brain told me I should be hurt by his confession. But I just…wasn’t. He had told me that there were things I hadn’t understood, and I hadn’t pushed him on any of it. Not really.

And I realized I already trusted him enough with my heart to know that he hadn’t wanted to deceive me.

“Once mated, it becomes difficult for mates to separate for long periods of time,” Caspian explained, still tracing lines across my palm. “It weakens them. And an outright rejection of the bond...”

“What?” I pushed.

“It can be fatal.”

“You thought I might reject you?” My heart beat a little faster, and I checked myself. Of course he had worried I’d reject him. I’d been the one to insist on having time to decide whether or not to stay.

“I didn’t want to trap you, Marina,” he clarified, looking up and meeting my eyes with a ferocity that made heat pool low in my core. “Everything was so new between us, and I promised you a choice. And I will let you leave, Marina, if you decide to return to your people. If you don’t want this, I will watch you walk away even if it fucking kills me. But I’m so in love with you that it’s the only thing I can think about, and I’m done pretending otherwise. The choice is still yours—will always be yours—but I choose you, even if it destroys me.”

For a long moment, a tense bubble of silence grew between us. Caspian watched me intently, defiantly, as if waiting for me to reject him. Something snapped so tight between us that my breath hitched.

There was that tiny damned voice in my head that warned me that this couldn’t be. That my parents would never accept us. That our romance would be as doomed as that of the sea and sky in Caspian’s ballad. That what I was about to do would change everything so irreparably that I would never be able to go back.

I snuffed it out like a candle and took Caspian’s face between my hands, more certain than I had ever been of anything.

“I choose you too.”

We collided, our kiss saying more than I could convey with words. Tongue and teeth and panting breaths all screamed yes, I’m yours, take me, and the way Caspian kissed me back told me he understood.

He pulled me tight to him, crushing me deliciously as he deepened the kiss. His tongue swept over mine and a little breathy moan escaped me as I practically climbed into his lap.

“Fuck, Marina,” he gritted out between nipping, punishing kisses. “I want you so badly.”

“Then take me,” I breathed, my hands going to his trousers. “Please, Caspian.”

He caught my hand with a sound that was half laugh, half groan of frustration. “You have a head wound,” he said, cupping the back of my neck and pulling far enough away that his lips were just out of reach.

“I feel fine,” I lied, trying to ignore the pounding in my temples.

“You’re a shit actress,” he teased, nipping my lower lip in an infuriating mockery of a kiss. “And I’m not taking you for the first time in the healing wing in a tiny cot that will barely hold my weight.”

“And I thank you for that,” came a voice from the end of the hall.

I flushed, attempting to pull away from Caspian and wriggle off his lap. He held me fast.

“You’re welcome,” Caspian replied, completely unembarrassed that we had just been caught in a rather compromising position by a siren female I didn’t recognize. “Please tell me I can take her away from here so I don’t scandalize your other patients.”

“After I examine her, yes.” She gave Caspian an exasperated look, then promptly turned her attention to me and smiled warmly. “My name is Mira. I’m one of the healers here. Can I look at your injury, please?”

I nodded, then winced as pain lanced through my skull. Mira was courteous enough not to comment on the disheveled state of the gown I’d been changed into, and I tried to cover myself up properly as she unwrapped the bandages around my head.

Caspian just smirked like a cat.

“This is healing nicely,” she said, cool fingers moving my hair aside and making my scalp tingle a little. “But you’re to keep it bandaged for at least one more day. Deep breath, please.”

I obliged as Mira pressed something cold against my back. Caspian’s smirk faltered slightly as a thin wheeze escaped my lungs.

“And how long have you been wheezing?”

“Just since the last dose of medicine Caspian gave me.” I had wanted Caspian to introduce me to my miracle healer, although I would have preferred it to be under less fraught circumstances. “Was that your medicine?”

I glanced at Caspian, and he still looked like he wanted to eat me alive, his eyes intense and piercing. I swallowed, trying to stifle my blush.

“It was,” she confirmed, moving to my front. She pressed the cold thing, a tube that looked to be made of some kind of wood, to my chest. “Another deep breath,” she commanded as she pressed her pointed ear to the end of the tube that wasn’t touching my skin.

I obliged and tried to ignore the way Caspian’s gaze flicked to my lips.

Mira stepped back, frowning at me a little. “Well, you are well enough to leave under His Majesty’s care, Your Highness.” I blinked at the title, but she continued, “But no vigorous activity for at least two more days.” She said this glaring at Caspian, who grinned innocently. I knew I was bright red as she turned back to me. “And I’d like you to return tomorrow morning so I can discuss your lungs.”

“Not now?” I asked.

Mira hesitated. “I need to do a little research,” she confessed. “To adjust your medicine. And you need rest. I’ll send up some peppermint tea, but feel free to come back sooner if your breathing worsens before tomorrow.”

She smiled again. Her dark hair was braided over her shoulder, and she flicked it out of the way as if it often annoyed her. “It has been lovely to meet you, Your Highness.”

“Marina,” I corrected, taking the hand she offered and gripping it. “Thank you for taking care of me.”

“Of course,” she bowed her head. “I’ll send you off with something for the pain. And I’ll have a contraceptive tonic made for you as well, Your Majesty, if you wish.”

“Thank you, Mira.” Caspian grinned at my heated face and wide eyes. “I do believe we’ll be needing it.”

“Turns out we’re not very good at this fake engagement thing,” Caspian quipped as he tucked me into his bed and snuggled in beside me.

“The worst,” I agreed, nuzzling into his shoulder. My head still hurt, but the medicine Mira had given me helped.

“When did you decide this was real?” he asked, his fingers drawing idle circles over my waist. “That you wanted this?”

I had changed into a soft top and sleeping trousers which I would not call sexy, but Caspian still managed to find my bare skin no matter what I wore.

“I always wanted it,” I confessed, looking up to meet his amber gaze. “But I suppose I decided officially in the library.”

“I’ve never been more thankful for books,” Caspian teased, pinching my waist. “Why the library?”

“Ana was telling me the history,” I explained, stifling a yawn that had Caspian’s brow rising. “About how we had ruled together for so long. About Melusine.”

“Ah.” Caspian tucked me a little closer to him. “I wondered if you’d get to Melusine.”

“Ana didn't finish telling me about her,” I said, yawning. “That’s was when—”

“I figured as much,” Caspian said, smoothing my hair back from my face. “We can do some more research when you’re better.”

“You sirens and your research,” I teased. Truthfully, this was one of the things I admired most about Caspian’s people—the little I had seen of them, at least. They were unwilling to commit to anything without exhausting all of their options.

This was how Caspian had come to me in the first place, after all.

“I want to see more.” I twisted slightly so my breasts pressed against his side and ignored the rush that the sensation sent to other places. “Your people. Your world. If we are going to do this, I want to really know you. Know them.”

Caspian didn’t reply with words, his tender kiss and pounding heart telling me how much this meant to him. He had confessed his love to me already, and I suspected that he had loved me for longer than I had loved him. This was my way of returning that love.

“So fake engagement is off,” he declared, pulling back and smirking slightly at the little sound of protest I made. His voice dropped a little lower, a sensual purr that rumbled through my bones. “Will you mate me properly then, Marina?”

My heart lurched. I had not expected to receive any kind of proposal after Vitulus had been chosen for me, and I wasn’t mentally prepared for one now. But my reply still felt right.

“Yes.”

Caspian kissed me again, thorough and claiming. He broke away grinning. “When?”

“Whenever you want,” I answered, a little breathless at his attention and his hands roaming over my back.

He stilled, face suddenly turning serious. “Are you sure, Urchin? If we can’t convince your father—your people—”

“I’m sure,” I replied, trying to absorb his heat as my hands began a similar exploration of his body. “I choose you.”

Caspian kissed me again, his palms flattening against my back as he groaned into my mouth. “No sex,” he murmured against my lips. “Doctor’s orders.”

“She said no vigorous activity,” I replied, biting his lower lip and reveling in the feel of his hardness against me. “You can be gentle.”

“You are a menace,” he growled, teeth grazing my neck as he peppered kisses beneath my ear. “And there’s nothing gentle about what I want to do to you. With you.”

“Please,” I murmured, digging my fingers into his hair. The wing that wasn’t pinned by our bodies twitched as if he was holding himself back. “You’re the one who made so many promises.”

“Urchin,” Caspian groaned, pressing his face into my neck. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t,” I said confidently, tugging on his hair a little and pulling him closer. He was hard against me, and I tried and failed to grind my hips against him.

“Menace,” he hissed, sliding his hand down my waist. “Is this what you want?”

“Yes,” I gasped as his hand slipped below my trousers and between my legs. I was wearing nothing beneath the night clothes, and Caspian groaned as his fingers met slick skin and damp curls.

“Skies, Marina,” he rumbled, his fingers teasing my entrance as his thumb circled a spot that made me gasp in pleasure. I opened my legs wider for him, and he chuckled. “Greedy.”

“Very,” I agreed, turning my attention to the bulge currently pressed against my thigh.

Caspian shifted to allow my hands to slip beneath his waistband, where I found him hard and already beading with desire.

He groaned as I palmed his length, teasing the tip with my thumb. “Urchin,” he warned, eyes squeezing shut as he attempted to master himself. “I can’t focus when you do that.”

“Good,” I replied, nipping his earlobe. It was the only part of him I could reach with my mouth, our arms and hands between us as they were, but it had the desired effect. “I want you wild and free like the sky.”

Caspian shifted all of a sudden, rolling over me and pulling me tight against him into a bruising kiss. One hand returned to the space between my thighs, his fingers sliding into me and pushing all thoughts from my mind. His other hand captured my wrists, holding them above me and preventing me from touching him.

“You first,” he growled, pumping into me gently. I arched into him, ignoring the slight ache in my skull. Caspian must have felt it though, because he released my wrist and moved to cradle my head. “I want you unraveling before me.”

I gripped his back, letting my fingers dig into the soft feathers where his wings met his spine. We groaned in unison, the feeling of his fingers so deep inside me and his thumb circling me enough to have me shattering after only a few moments.

He caught my cry of ecstasy in a kiss, thrusting his hips against my leg as he cradled me tightly.

“This will last longer next time,” he promised, pressing kisses to my jaw as I tried to catch my breath. “When I claim you as my mate.”

I laughed, digging my fingers into his hair again as I brought his mouth back to mine. My headache was worse, and I had to accept that Mira might have been right to warn us against anything more vigorous.

“What about tonight? You haven’t—”

“I’m fine,” Caspian insisted, pressing his lips to mine again. “Tonight was about you, my love. And I can feel that your head aches.”

“But—”

“I can wait,” he interrupted, amber eyes fiery in the dim moonstone glow. “And I need you well first. I have promises to keep, after all.”

“So many promises,” I teased, nipping at his lip as he settled me more comfortably against his shoulder.

He laughed, tucking me in close as he kissed the top of my head. “And I intend to keep every one of them.”