Chapter 38
Blair
Iwatch Hunter as he pilots me back to the Glyden dome.
He’s younger than Marlee. Maybe by a few years.
It’s hard to tell with people in the Veiled City.
Everyone is so fit. But I guess that’s the way it is with shifters, and mermen are no different.
And the young male is clearly not happy that he’s taking me back.
He asked me three times on the way over if I thought I was going to spend the night at the Masons’.
Each time he asked, I became a little more embarrassed.
“Did you have plans tonight?”
Hunter’s eyes don’t move from the controls, but his lips dip downward.
“I’m sorry if I kept you from—”
“You don’t need to apologize to me. I’m doing my job. Following orders.” He’s a good pilot. He scans the dials and watches the dark ocean in front of us. But there’s a certain zing about the word “orders.”
“Right.” I bite back the sorry I was trained to say all those years by Russell. “Well, whomever she is, I’m sure she’s missing you too.”
“I don’t know about that.” He clears his throat. He didn’t mean to admit to it. “We’re almost at Glyden.”
“Oh. Well, you’re a serious male who is good at his job. I’m sure she’ll see the value in that.” I don’t know why I’m prodding into his life? He clearly just wants to get away from me.
“Thank you. I hope so . . . I was lucky to get this placement.”
“I’m sure talent had a good bit to do with it as well.”
The motors of the solo whirl as he pilots through the airlock. Hunter maneuvers the solo up to the dock. “Well, at least you get to go home now.”
He smirks and gives a negative shake of his head.
“What? I’m with the Portsmouth pod. Surely the second coming of Poseidon, the Hero of Hestert?tten, and the Golden Prince can keep me safe?”
“And Eros Portsmouth,” Hunter says, opening the door hatch for me.
“Yes, and Eros.”
“He’s more qualified.” Hunter nods.
“Yes, well then. You don’t have to stay.”
“I have my orders.” He holds out his hand and helps me out of the solo.
“Thank you.”
I ring the bell in the elevator. Annabelle’s mates are extremely protective of her––of all of us. A minute later, Nico’s blue eyes glare back at us through the grill.
“Aunt Blair.” He unlocks the grate.
“Sorry to have awakened you.”
“I was awake.”
He’s shirtless, with low-slung sweatpants and no shoes. I don’t want to dwell on why he was awake. “Well, thank you. Can you please order Hunter to go home?”
“Go home.”
Hunter’s blue eyes laugh. “An order’s an order. I don’t work for Nico Portsmouth.”
Eros steps into the foyer. “My aunt says to go home, you go home,” he growls.
“Yes, sir.”
“Eros, he didn’t do anything wrong.”
Nico closes the gate and pushes the button for the doors to close. Hunter’s eyes flick to mine, and for a second there’s a flash of a smile before he pivots and heads for the elevator.
I take Eros’s arm. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome? Why did you want him to go home?”
“I think he had a date planned, but Sterling put him on babysitting duty.”
“You were at the Mason apartment. Why wasn’t Sterling with you?” Nico closes the door behind us.
“That would be a good question for Sterling. I guess I’ll ask him when I see him.”
“Yes. Well, I’ll make sure I see him first thing in the morning.” Nico glares.
Part of me would like to let him take care of it. But that’s not the new Blair. “Nico, I appreciate you looking out for me—”
“There’s a but coming,” Eros says, putting his hand on Nico’s shoulder.
“Yes, there is . . . Can you let me take care of it?”
“If that’s what you wish, yes. But I don’t like it.”
“I know. Thank you, though. Is Marlee up?” I set my gifted new apron on the counter.
“Purple,” Nico says, like I’ve put a cow patty on the pristine marble.
“I like purple.” Annabelle appears from the hallway. “Hi.” She gives me a quick hug. “I didn’t expect you to be back. Everything okay?”
“Yes, everything’s okay. I just want to . . . I want to talk with Marlee and you in the morning.”
Annabelle’s eyes light up, and it hits me a few seconds too late that she thinks I’ve made the decision to mate with the Mason pod. “No, no. I’m not . . . I haven’t.” I shake my head. “I’m not rushing into anything. But there’s something I want to talk to you about. Tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Annabelle gives me another squeeze.
“You can talk about it now.” Nico’s eyebrows dart up.
“No, she said we’ll— Rather, Marlee and I will talk to her about it tomorrow.” Annabelle nods.
“If you don’t mind?” I squeeze my niece’s hand. How I ever got so lucky to have two amazing girls in my life, I’ll never know.
“I don’t mind. We don’t mind. Right, Nico?”
“Indeed.” Nico’s chest puffs out, and he bows his head to me in good night.
“Thanks for letting me in.” I wave to them as they drift down the hallway on their side of the apartment.
“Night Auntie,” Eros says, throwing Annabelle over his shoulder.
I stifle a laugh and head down the opposite hallway.
I love being with Annabelle, but I’m with Marlee on this one: Annabelle and her pod mates need their privacy.
No matter how much Annabelle says it’s not a big deal that we’re here, it is.
Not that I’m going to rush into tying myself to another man just to move out.
I did that once, and it didn’t work out that well.
I stop by Marlee’s door, but the light is off. On a whim, I continue down the hallway and knock on the mechanicals door.
“Who is it?”
“Me.”
“Me who? Come on in, Mom.”
The door squeaks open, and Marlee’s sitting on the floor in a nest of blankets, a tablet on the old trunk.
There’s so many things I want to say, from you’re going to end up with a bad back to you’re going to strain your eyes.
But I leave it all unsaid and sit down next to her crisscross applesauce, putting my head on her shoulder.
“Oh no, you got dumped? Does Nico know? Do you want him to kill them for you? Oh, I can’t believe I just said that.
I’ve been working on a mafia story, and I’m on the dark side of things.
Wait, do you need ice cream? I’m sure we could figure out a way to get you ice cream. Or at least some decent chocolate.”
I should stop her. But I’m smiling, listening to the sound of her voice vibrating through her chest. It’s been her and me for so many years. Just the two of us. Every day, that’s all I thought of. I wrap my arm around her shoulder. “They didn’t dump me.”
“Oh, oh. That’s good. Right? That’s good.”
“Yeah, that’s good.” I don’t lift my head.
“Wait, then why are you here?”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh, the talk. Did they pop the question?”
“No. Nothing like that. I was going to talk to you and Annabelle about it tomorrow, but . . . Zion has asked me to go to London with him on a work trip.”
“That’s funny.”
“No, I’m being serious.”
“No, it’s funny that there’s a Dorian place called London.”
“Mar?” I lift my head from her shoulder and hold her blue eyes. “London, England. Double-decker buses, Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace.”
“What?” Her eyes widen. “You’re going to leave the Veiled City. Walk on land?”
“Only if you’re okay with me going.”
“That’s . . . shit, Mom. Whoa. Are you going to go? You have to go.”
“I kind of want to go. But only if you’re okay with me going.”
“Wait, what about all the safety crap Annabelle and her guys are always going on about? Is it safe for you to leave?”
“Zion talked to the king, and he said yes.”
“Really? Atlas said yes? Okay, okay.” There’s a ticking going on in her head. I can practically hear her thinking. She wants to come. “How are you getting there?
“They’ve got this sub like an RV, a Pelagic voyager. And it will take a few days to get there. I forgot to ask how long we’ll be gone. I guess I was too excited.”
Marlee’s face lights up. “You like them,” she sings. “You should go. I’ll be good here.”
“You don’t want to come?” I raise my eyebrows at her.
“No offense, Mom. But fuck no. Seven dudes who want to shag your mum?” She uses a horrible British accent.
“In an RV barreling through the ocean for a few days? That sounds worse than using a furnace as a noise machine to keep from hearing your cousin giggling while she’s doing the nasty.
No. Maybe some other time, and definitely some other way. But you should totally go.”
“Absolutely not.” Nico crosses his arms over his chest.
I look at Holter, who is normally the most reasonable of my niece’s mates.
“I’m sorry, Auntie, but I have to agree with my brother on this one.”
I bite the inside of my cheek and take a moment.
It doesn’t matter what they say. Annabelle and Marlee both said yes.
I shrug. “I do hate to disappoint you, but if you’re going to have children—podlets, excuse me—you’re going to have to live with others not doing exactly what you want.
” I square my shoulders and stare them down.
Well, I stare Holter down because Nico is too intimidating even for the new me.
Nico’s eyes flash, and he turns to Annabelle.
“She’s an adult, Nico. She can do what she wants. And the king gave them the okay. I mean, that’s good enough for me. Atlas is your friend. Don’t you trust him?”
Eros laughs from the other side of the room. And I get it. Nico doesn’t trust anyone.
The room is vibrating. “I guess I should go pack.”
“Do you want some help?” Annabelle asks.
“How much can you bring? There’s not a lot of space in a cross-ocean solo,” Castor says.
“Oh, we’re going in a Pelagic voyager.” I turn and head toward my room but stop when Castor whistles.
“A Pelagic voyager—that’s . . . whoa.”
“What’s a Pelagic voyager?” Annabelle asks, and it’s easy to forget she’s relatively new here too.
“It’s the most expensive transport made. State of the art. I didn’t realize the Masons had one.” Castor sits on the sofa. His eyes are focused on his block.
“I don’t think they did,” Holter adds.
“Maybe they just bought it?” Annabelle sits next to Castor and leans over his lap.
“Here, this is what they look like.” Castor shows Annabelle first.
“Whoa. That’s huge. It must have cost a lot of gold.” Annabelle’s blue eyes flick to mine. “I think you can take whatever you want,” Annabelle says. “I’ll help you pack.”
“But you know it’s not about what you take, it’s about what you can bring back! I might have a few things you could pick up for me.” Marlee jumps. “I mean, only if you have time.”
“I’d love to.” I wrap one arm around Marlee’s shoulders and the other around Annabelle’s.
“I think I’ve got everything.” I’m holding two leather bags, one full of my most human-looking clothes and the other empty. Then I go down the line of my family, giving each one of them a long hug.
“You’ll be back next week.” Annabelle taps my back.
“I know. I’m just going to miss all of you. Thank you for letting me stay with you.”
Castor’s next to her. “Here.” He thrusts an envelope into my hands.
“What’s this?”
“A new passport and a bank card with access to your money.”
I smirk at him. Because since I’ve fled the farm, I’ve been living on the just-in-time money management system. Earn it, spend it. So I know I don’t have anything left. I’m sure the auto payment of our apartment cleared out my account last month. “My money?”
“The money my dad paid him-who-shouldn’t-be-named for the farm belongs more to you than me.” Annabelle squeezes my hand.
“It belongs to all of us,” I say, taking Marlee’s hand in my other.
“Cool, great. Then spend it on this.” Marlee hands me a folded paper. “If you can’t get me anything, it’s okay, Mom. You having fun is more important than anything on the list.”
I’m about to open the paper when she shakes her head at me. So I slide it into my pocket instead.
“Really, Mom, have fun.”
I’m giddy. I honestly don’t remember ever being more excited.
Marlee opens the door for me. And I’m more than a little disappointed to find Hunter standing there. I was really hoping that Sterling would be the one picking me up.