44. Mermaids
Chapter 44
Mermaids
AIDAN
T he siren’s kiss infuses me with a sense of peace I’ve only read about in legends. I don’t need anything but her, and my muscles relax as I entangle my hands in her hair, ravenous for another gulp of Beth.
I’d plunged into the sea to save her from the storm only to be swept away by the current. By the time I’d managed to tell left from right or top from bottom, my lungs had become tight and painful, but not anymore.
My Songbird’s magic tingles across my shoulders, arms, and down to my core. My fire lights the water around us. Her lips are cool. Smooth. Their touch eases the pressure in my chest.
I can’t believe I ever thought she was a common Fae.
Seth’s hideous cloak is gone, the shreds of the dress that still clung to her lost to the waves, leaving her bare to me but for the black lingerie covering her breasts.
Hundreds of teal and green scales transformed her legs into a striking mermaid tail, a glorious masterpiece woven from the ocean’s magic. Each flick of her fins sent ripples of light dancing through the depths. Her hair fans around her face, dark and alive, but it’s her eyes, bright and blue and bewitching, that hold the mysteries of the deep. She isn’t just beautiful, but otherworldly—a being forged from currents and tides, a force of nature. The water hums with her essence, a quiet melody that calls to every part of me, and I know that she is my destiny, my anchor in this boundless world beneath the waves—and above.
The whiplash of my memories returning lulls into a dull ache, and the urgency to recoup the last decades and somehow make up for all the time lost takes a backseat to this kiss.
There’s no need for air when you’ve found the love of your life, and I groan when she pulls away—I would have been content to stay there forever. She gives my lips one last peck before pointing to the surface.
The ship has steadied itself against the current, the black void above our heads now forming a silvery horizon.
Beth braces her arms under mine and swims us to the surface. The power that was protecting me from the cold water breaks like a bubble being popped as we emerge, and I wipe the water from my face with a gasp.
The sky is full of stars, with no trace of the storm.
“You look...”
She blushes as she looks down at her tail. “It’s jarring, isn’t it?”
“It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful.”
Seth throws me a long rope, interrupting our tête-à-tête, most likely on purpose. “That’s quite a rescue mission you’ve got going on there, Aidan.”
I reluctantly grab onto the rope. “Where’s your friend?”
“Out of service. We’ll just tie her up in the hold with the kid, and we’ll be golden.” Seth offers me his hand to help me over the railing, but I grab the wire rope and jump inside, spinning around to help Beth. In the blink of an eye, her mermaid tail vanishes, replaced by her long, incredible legs…and her bare ass.
Heat creeps up my ears as my body betrays me, blood pooling in my groin, low and sudden. I strip off my undershirt and hand it to her without a word.
Beth sighs softly, tying the sleeves around her waist to shield herself from our unrelenting stares. The spell she’s cast over me hasn’t faded—it’s maddening, an ache that makes it hard not to lunge at Seth for daring to look at her.
She taps my forehead with a teasing grin. “Still jealous, I see.” Her hand falls to my bare stomach, and I cover it with mine.
“Don’t scold me.” I offer her a sheepish grin. “If I listened to my instincts, I’d do a lot worse.”
I remember everything from her unraveled braid in the labyrinth and our reckless escapades to our bitter goodbye. I recall how lost I felt the night Ethan and my parents enchanted me to forget, but I also remember everything else. All the loneliness, the loss, the grief that plagued the years in between. All the emptiness suffered.
Seth motions us to the cabin. “Imogen managed to shatter all the mirrors before I knocked her unconscious. We’re stuck on this boat now.” A knowing grin stretches his lips. “Hope you two enjoyed your skinny dipping session, but we should set sail now if we ever hope of making it back to the Summerlands in time for your coronation.”
I clear my throat and wrap my arms around my chest. “Where are we?”
“I’d say fifty miles north of the Red Forest. Even with my wind at full speed, it’ll be almost a day before we reach the shores of the Summerlands.”
“How soon can we get to the Royal Academy?” Beth asks.
“I can get us there by tomorrow night.”
I chew on my bottom lip, my hands firmly wrapped around Beth’s waist. “Anything closer in between?”
Not that I don’t like the idea of being trapped with her on a boat for the next twenty-four hours, but I still have a crown to save.
Seth shakes his head. “Wintermere’s coast is covered in ice. I wouldn’t step a toe in the Red Forest to save my life, and we’d need a plane, not a boat, to reach the Solar Cliffs. No, your turf is the closest and safest anchorage on this side of the continent.”
“Let’s go, then.”
The white sail changes direction as suddenly as it did when Seth and Imogen were fighting.
Beth frowns at the mainsail. “Seth?”
“I’m not doing it,” Seth grunts under his breath, his fists clenching at his sides.
We all look at Imogen’s unconscious form, but she’s still out cold.
Seth backtracks toward the hatch. “I’ll check on Luther.”
A low hum becomes audible in the night. “Wait!”
Fog creeps over the ship’s bow, extending its long white claws toward us, encroaching over the railings on all sides, and a silhouette appears at the back of the stern.
I shield Beth with my body, positioning myself between her and the phenomenon just as a tall, naked woman stalks out of the mists. Long red hair covers her breasts and falls below her waist, her posture full of confidence despite her lack of clothes. “I’m Melisandra, leader of the North Sea clan. You’re holding one of my blood against her will, and you’ll pay for it with your life.”
Her voice is hauntingly beautiful. Faint tattooed lines in her bronze skin draw my attention to her belly button, guiding my sight down to the place between her thighs, but I blink away the haze of her magic, steeling myself against its influence and tearing my gaze away from her enticing form.
Seth gulps beside me, his pupils wide and dark, clearly bewitched.
Another siren climbs over the bow. “We heard your song and answered your call, sister.”
Beth grips my upper arm and sinks her nails in my flesh to keep me by her side, though I have no intention to move. “Wait. They’re with me.”
Melisandra shifts her weight from her toes to her heels and braces her hands on her hips. She squints at Beth as if the slits of her eyes could somehow see directly inside her soul. “What’s your name?”
“Elizabeth Snow.” My Songbird tips her chin up, unintimidated by the siren, and my heart swells at how confident and commanding she is. The years since our last meeting have chiseled her into an even more formidable woman, the insecurities of her youth gone.
The siren’s full red lips curl in a grimace. “Not your earthling name. Your song would not answer to that name.”
Beth licks her lips. “Giving you my full name will only give you more power over me.”
Melisandra cocks her hip to the side. “Your refusal to answer will only make me more violent.”
“I’m Melia,” Beth says on a shaky breath.
Melisandra remains unmoved. “And your mother’s name?”
“Melissa.”
“Sisters, meet Melia, daughter of Melissa”—she purses her lips to the side in a smirk—“and her earthling men.”
The mermaids laugh, and the sound is absolutely chilling.
A dry chortle draws my attention to our rear, where another redheaded siren squats over the top of the cabin as she extends her arm toward Seth. “The men of Storm’s End are always eager to meet a siren, I hear,” she says.
“You bet,” Seth drawls in a trance, licking his lips.
“What about the one tied up in the hold?” a blonde one asks. She peers down the opened hatch, her wavy locks brushing the floor as she moves.
Yet another siren, identical to the one who spotted Luther, nudges her sister’s side. “He’s cute. I’d share him.”
The women are all flawless and naked, and their combined magic sinks into my pores. The most irrational and inconvenient erection pulses inside the confines of my trousers, as though I’m a teenager having sex for the first time, and I stifle a groan.
“Please, can we talk about this?” Beth negotiates.
“You can keep one, if you like. We’re sisters. But it’s always polite to share.”
Beth sinks her nails even deeper into my arm. “I’m not in a sharing mood. And to be frank I need this one, too, to sail home,” Beth says as she points to Seth.
The redheaded siren behind Seth leaps to the ground and inches closer. She looks very similar to Melisandra, her breasts round and full, her nipples dark and taut. Despite similarities, she looks a tad younger, and her hair is more fiery than dark red. “Earthling men are incredibly fickle. He still stands there by your side, but one song, and he’d swear his life to me, instead.”
My spine stiffens at her hungry gaze. “I would never,” I chuck out.
“Easy, Malon.” Melisandra warns. “He’s powerful.”
“Do you care for a wager, sister?” The siren climbs up my chest with spider fingers, filling me up without a shred of shame as she addresses Beth. “If this one stays with you in spite of my performance, you can keep your men. If he follows me to the deep, we’ll take them all .” She smacks her lips together, clearly pleased with herself.
I squeeze Beth’s hand for her to let me answer for myself. “I’d never go with you.”
“Is that a yes, then?”
My lids flutter as she traces at the top of my mark, her green eyes shining with curiosity, her hand so close to my cock, I can’t exactly pretend her powers aren’t affecting me. “Yes.”
I swallow hard. What have I done? There’s no doubt in my mind these sirens could convince all the men on this boat to slice their own throats in exchange for a kiss, and to be honest, a part of me really craves the death they offer. Down there, in the deep, exhausted and dizzy with pleasure.
Malon grins up at me and opens her mouth to sing.
I once saw a sailor with gorgeous eyes,
A strong jaw and a charming smile,
Wore a crown of night,
And a sword of might.
I’d never met a man like him,
He’d never heard a song like mine.
He followed me to the deep,
Said he wanted me for a wife,
Clinging to me even in his sleep.
I thought I’d found a lover to keep.
But dawn came, and he remembered his life,
The children and queen he already had.
He could have just taken his leave,
But tried to erase his mistake with a cleave,
Called me a villain, a temptress, a freak?—
Oh, how the waves take care of the weak.
The others start to sing along, their voices merging together, their choir rippling through the air as though hundreds of sirens—and not just a handful—are actually in the water, surrounding us.
I know we’re all in terrible danger, but my body doesn’t care. I’m losing my grip.
Something about their magic fills me with a raw, primal need. All my thoughts narrow on the heat building in my body, focused on how to alleviate the ache that floods through me. I feel rather inclined to strip and claim Beth right here—in front of everyone.
Pre-cum leaks from the tip of my cock, and the throb is so intense it hurts. My head is spinning. I hesitate, debating whether to give in to the temptation to stroke myself, but I know one touch might shatter what’s left of my self-control.
Seth leaps toward the blonde standing in front of the hatch, and she lets out a delighted chuckle as he drags her into his embrace, kissing her passionately, lost to his lust.
His men came to our home with weapons and hooks,
Mistaking us for some warm-water snooks.
They tried to needle our bodies with spears,
Overcome by their silly earthling fears.
They hunted us night after night,
Driven by some silly vengeful plight.
We sank their boats to the deep sea bed,
And kept the best of them for ransom instead.
This is how things have to be.
When your blood is from the sea .
I peer over the bow but see no more of them. Was the throng of voices real, or merely a figment of my imagination?
Malon’s eyes gleam in the night, shimmering with bottomless lust and a flicker of envy. “Come with me, Summer Fae.”
I step forward without meaning to, my rational mind retreating to a dark, dusty attic inside me.
“See? Fickle,” Malon goads Beth.
Despite my instinct to obey, I stay in control. I seize her invitation, leaning in as though to kiss her neck, only to twist at the last moment—wrapping her in a rear chokehold, my fire flaring to life, my hand flat against her throat. “Not as fickle as you imagined,” I growl. “Let us go.”
Loud hisses rise from the waves as the women on the boat draw their weapons. The handmade blades, crafted from the jagged teeth of sea monsters, glint in the moonlight. A shiver of self-loathing dissects me from the inside out as Malon presses against me, her ass grinding provocatively on the ridge of my erection. “Come on, you want me, handsome. The high is worth your life, I promise.”
“I’ll kill you if you don’t honor our wager,” I respond flatly, my voice steady despite the rush of conflicting emotions.
“Enough.” Melisandra’s arm slices through the air in a halting motion. “No one is killing anyone.” She clicks her tongue at Malon. “The man won the bet. His heart is true to his beloved.” She dismisses the others with a wave. “Let them go.”
I release Malon’s throat, my grip slackening, and rush back to Beth’s side.
Seth lets out a frustrated whimper as the blonde who had been toying with him pushes him off, the Storm Prince landing hard on the deck.
“Thank you,” Beth says, tipping her chin in gratitude toward Melisandra. “For honoring your word.”
“I’m not quite done with you yet.” Melisandra waits as her sirens leap from the ship, each hitting the water with a chorus of splashes, all except for Malon, who stays by her side.
“Sing, child,” the leader commands. “I want to know your soul.”