Chapter Seventy-Six
ADRIAN
Adrian appeared in a fountain in what he presumed to be Phantome, slicking his hair from his forehead.
He’d had to buy the Asterian water for far more than he’d wanted to part with in Neptuna, but it was still faster than travelling by ship.
The burial for Santi had been brief, but beautiful.
He and his family had adhered to Santi’s request, placing his body next to the urn that held Annabel’s ashes in a small sepulchre by the sea.
His father had asked him to call upon the high priest of the sect of Scorpius.
Adrian had leashed his anger as he explained it was that very god who had murdered Santi, before taking over the ceremony himself, scattering sea salt upon his coffin and laying it to rest beside Annabel’s urn.
Closure. Perhaps that was the loosening he felt within. That Santi’s soul could now be with Annabel’s in the Hallowlands, he prayed. It eased the burden of grief, if only slightly.
He looked around warily at the darkened streets. Masked strangers milled around, the music loud.
‘Strange,’ he murmured to himself. The sooner he could find his way to Piscea’s temple, the better.
He’d avenge Annabel, and he’d find Scorpius so he could avenge Santi too.
Then he’d be done with the whole sorry lot and finally experience a drop of peace.
He’d look after his sisters and leave Elara and Enzo to their celestial quest. He had no interest in being a god. He’d live his life as he had.
Would you truly be content with that? a small voice asked. Knowing the power that runs deep within you and having to live in the shallows?
It wasn’t something he wanted to think about presently.
As he moved, he noticed the costumes on the street.
Sirens of Altalune sashayed and swayed, all in drunken stupors.
One man, dressed as a giant crab, jostled into him, and Adrian swallowed his sadness, thinking of the noble creature who had given his life for Elara.
Others were dressed as scorpions; some mermaids, their mouths flaunting fake fangs.
Seashells were strung through the air along with pearly beads.
Sizzling seafood and rice on one stall made his stomach rumble.
He spotted another selling saltwater toffee.
The sight of it had his mind conjuring up memories of the taste of Oceanne’s skin on his tongue, and he shook them away.
Cancia, he corrected with a hiss. The consort of your enemy.
On cue, his hand went to the necklace now hanging around his throat.
When he’d been at home, surrounded by grief, he had tried to hate Oceanne.
To forget her. But that damned pearl…it had kept him awake until he’d fashioned a necklace out of it.
He should have dashed it on the rocks at the lighthouse, let the ocean have it.
But Eli’s tale, and then Merissa’s confirmation, haunted him, and, with his rising suspicions, he couldn’t quite bring himself to be rid of it.
He swiped a discarded merman mask off the ground, fastening it to his face. The sea glass it was made of cooled his temple and brow as he reached the middle of the long street, preparing to ask someone for directions to the temple, when a hand yanked his shirt and pulled him into a small alley.
He whirled, his powers flaring before he could register the scent of oceanflower.
He blinked, his hand around the throat of the Star standing before him.
He noted the silver hair.
‘Cancia?’ he growled, letting go.
‘No,’ she drawled. ‘Oceanne.’
Adrian let out an empty laugh, taking a second to look at the woman.
Star, he corrected himself.
It was the first time he’d fully laid eyes on her.
Silver hair cascaded to her hips like moonlit water, starfishes and seashells woven through it.
She was dressed as a mermaid, ironically.
Adrian gave a disgusted laugh, glaring into the All Hallows’ mask which obscured the upper half of her face.
It was encrusted with pearls and shells, but it was when Adrian dared flick his eyes down that he truly understood just how evil the Stars were.
Cancia’s body was all curves, flimsy netting creating a dress of sorts, with the same shells and sea ornaments scattered to cover her intimate areas. He saw flashes of her olive skin through the netting, saw the skin he had only felt until now.
Finally, he dragged his eyes back up to meet hers—and, gods, were they mesmerizing.
‘What do you want?’ he asked coldly.
Something close to hurt flashed across Cancia’s face, and Adrian worked to quell the urge to hold her. She had betrayed him, lied to him. And more than that, she was his enemy’s consort.
He raised his chin. ‘Are you here to see your plan through? Have your husband help you let the Dark in?’
‘No,’ she said, her eyes widening. ‘Quite the opposite. I’m here to try to put a stop to it.’
Adrian snorted. ‘I don’t believe a word you say.’
Stars were liars, every one of them. Manipulative, charming—and this one before him, this siren…Adrian would die before he believed another word uttered through those pretty lips.
‘Please, Adrian. My intentions were always true.’
‘And yet you stay with a man who murdered my best friend? Who sides with the foe who killed my sister? And you seduced me in the process, knowing all of this?’
‘Don’t act like you weren’t compliant,’ she bit back at him, and he saw it then, heard it. That tone of regality that he’d never noticed in their previous conversations.
‘I was compliant when I thought you were a sweet mermaid, come to help me save the damned world.’
‘I’m still that person.’
‘And why should I believe you?’
She sighed. ‘Because I saved your life when I could have let you drown in unending pain and suffering.’
Footsteps sounded down the alley, and Cancia spun as a group of revellers passed on the main street singing a Neptunan ditty.
‘I have to go,’ she whispered more softly. ‘I’m sorry, Adrian, for all of it. I hope one day you’ll realize that.’
She turned, slipping from his grasp.
‘Cancia, wait.’ Panic lunged up his throat, compelling him to not let her leave.
Adrian caught her, pulling her back to him. Cancia’s body slammed into his, warm and supple, the two of them breathing hard, their lips nearly touching.
‘Don’t call me that,’ she whispered.
‘Fine, Oceanne.’
‘What?’ she hissed.
‘Just one last…’ He was panting, unsure how to describe what he needed, what he was begging for.
‘Just once more,’ he pleaded roughly.
Cancia’s eyes widened beneath her mask as they searched his, mouth parting as his nose grazed it, skimming up her face and down as he soaked in the feel of her skin.
‘We can’t,’ she whispered.
‘I know,’ he murmured, his lips brushing hers with each syllable.
And then she sighed, longing and want held within the melodic note, and Adrian slipped his tongue on to hers, Cancia melting into him. Their masks clashed, and he grunted in frustration, pushing her back gently.
‘Am I going to turn to salt?’ he murmured, raising a hand and running the back of it over the shells glued to her disguise.
‘That was a superstition made so sailors would leave mermaids alone,’ she whispered back, a smile lilting her voice.
Adrian pulled her mask up, a hand stroking the edge of her cheekbone as her face was finally revealed.
His hand stilled. She was more beautiful than any painting he had seen of her. Art didn’t do her justice; words wouldn’t have, either.
It was painful to look at her, his heart stuttering as he did.
Her olive skin was smooth as sea glass and glowing faintly, a smattering of iridescent freckles across her nose that shone like fish scales as she moved her head to face him full on. Her eyes regarded him warily, one the blue of a clear river, the other green as the ocean.
‘You’re breathtaking,’ he breathed.
A slight pink tinged her cheeks as she looked away. ‘I’m a Star. We’re supposed to be.’
Adrian raised his thumb to brush a freckle, convinced it would transfer to his hand like a sprinkle of sugardust. Gods, he wanted to lick every freckle, kiss every scale on her, see her in her true form.
Cancia’s hand wrapped around his wrist. ‘Someone will see.’
Adrian leaned in to kiss the freckle, and she shuddered. ‘I know.’
‘It’s too dangerous.’
His mouth skimmed up to her ear, tongue swirling around the sensitive lobe. ‘I know.’
He felt her melt further and further into him.
‘You could be killed.’
Adrian grinned as his tongue found its way down her neck where he could taste her sweetness, already headier at her pulse point. ‘I know.’
‘I could be killed.’
Adrian stilled at that, pulling away.
He shouldn’t have said what he did next, should have tried to fight against it with every fibre of his being, but the words poured out.
‘Are you really going to go back to him, Oceanne?’
She stiffened. ‘I don’t have a choice,’ she replied.
Adrian pulled her tighter to him, a hand in her hair as he forced her to look at him. ‘There is always a choice.’ The other gripped her hand and forced it to wrap around the pearl he wore at his neck. ‘Why did you give me this, then?’ he demanded. ‘I know what it is. Your heart.’
There. The truth was out.
Cancia sighed, extricating herself from his grip.
‘Scorpius was the sea captain from my tale, Adrian. The part I left out was about how we both became Stars. I prayed and prayed as the ocean took me for someone to save me. What I didn’t realize was that someone was already there—the Dark, drawn to Scorpius’s evil and ready to make her next Star.
She turned him, then told me if I gave my heart away, she’d save me.
But I didn’t know what waited above—that I’d be spending immortality with my murderer, bound to him in this world. He is not my husband. He is my captor.’
The tears that fell down her cheeks sparkled, and he couldn’t help himself, brushing one away. ‘I cannot bear to wear my heart on my sleeve ever again. So I gave it to you—the one good man I knew, knowing it would be safe.’
‘Oceanne,’ he said softly. ‘Come with me.’
‘I can’t,’ she said sharply. ‘Don’t ask me again.’
‘Fine,’ Adrian snapped. ‘Just know that if you choose his side…you know what is gathering in the skies even now. If you let the Dark through, the day may come when we’ll be on opposite sides of the battlefield.’
She gave a sad smile. ‘I know,’ she replied. ‘But I made my choice long ago.’