Chapter 8
KYLER
I probably should have warned Gavin that sometimes I pass out after shifting to human. It’d been so rare lately that it slipped my mind. Now I lie on silk sheets in the middle of a massive bed. Tall bookshelves line the walls of the room. The air smells like leather and ink, and dragon.
“You’re awake,” Gavin says from the side of me. The dragon kneels on the bed and leans forward to press a hand to my forehead. “Good. No fever.”
“Sorry about…” I wave my hands around. “Passing out. Doesn’t happen every time. I haven’t figured out the pattern yet.”
“How are you feeling?” Gavin hands me a cup so huge I have to use both hands to hold it.
I gladly drink down the water, quenching my raw throat. Blood loss always makes me so thirsty, but luckily, I recover somewhat quickly. “Thank you.”
Gavin takes the cup and passes me a tray of food. “Eat. Not too much, though.”
“I don’t eat too much to begin with.” I grab an apple from the tray and bite into the crisp red skin. Juice trails down my chin.
Gavin swallows and stands to adjust himself. “That’ll change. You need your strength to help with recovery.”
I wipe my chin and push myself to sit against the headboard. “I’m awake, which means I’m recovered.”
But Gavin won’t have it. “I don’t want you to do too much until I know for sure.”
“But… I am sure. I’ve been doing this a lot longer than you’ve been a witness.” I bite into my apple again, unable to help the grin at the blush that graces the prince’s face.
“Sorry.” Gavin threads a hand through his hair as he starts to pace. “New at this whole merman thing. Are you cursed? Is that why—”
I snort. “No, well, yes? No? I’d say no.” I shake my head at my decision. “Merfolk were never meant to walk the land. At least, that’s what I was told. The story is that before time remembered, a mer king made a deal with a sea god for legs. So now we all have the ability.
We just need something grounding—like sand—to force the shift to human. I’ve heard of dirt and mud for the river merfolk. But us seafolk? We must use sand.”
“But the pain.”
“Worth it,” I whisper. At least it had been.
“Does your uncle know how to lessen the pain? Why doesn’t he…”
I can’t stop my shoulders from slumping if I try. I take a deep breath. “No uncle.”
“Oh.” Gavin stops mid-step, as if he realizes on his own what my words mean.
“I’m…” I brace myself for rejection. “A pirate. Technically. But it wasn’t my choice.” I break the spells that hide my missing fingers and the binding spell and present my hands yet again. “You should know who you’re getting in bed with, even if it’s just for show.”
“What do you mean wasn’t your choice?” Gavin asks.
I drop my head onto the headboard. What do I remember? What do I force myself to forget?
“I was four—I think. Years are muddy; I don’t even know how old I am, but I don’t think it matters.
My parents and I got caught in a storm.” I swallow over and over.
Sometimes I dream about it. “The storm spit us out on the beach. I still don’t know how I survived, and they didn’t.
But when I came to, they were dead, and I was alive.
Just barely, though. I hadn’t learned how to shift to human yet.
We were so far inland, I would have suffocated had… ”
“Skies.”
I push through. “Vex—the Captain of the Golden Drake, not Golden Goose—found me, and somehow he knew how to help shift me to human. He took me in. Named me. And for a few years, everything was fine. Probably because I didn’t know anything else.
But once I understood things, understood who and what he was, he changed.
Said I owed him a life debt for him saving my life that day and bound me to him.
Been a pirate ever since. He even forced me to sign the articles. Used my own blood to make the X.”
We stare at each other in silence. I have no idea why the hell I told the prince everything. Okay, not everything, but enough. Enough to make my cheeks heat. I drop the rest of the apple on the tray and start to crawl from the bed.
“Don’t go,” Gavin says.
I stop in the middle of my trek to the end of the bed. It really is incredibly huge.
“How can I help you, Kyler?”
The question is too good to be true. I flop to my back and look up at the prince.
“If I’m being truly honest with myself, I don’t know that I can be helped.
” Why am I telling the prince everything?
I spread my hand over the silk sheets, loving the buttery smooth texture.
“Vex said he’d let me go if I can get him a thousand silver coins by the end of summer.
” A laugh-sob bubbles out. I have to lie about the truth of the matter—that I really need the phoenix stone now, not the coin.
“I don’t even have a fourth of the money.
But I also don’t think he’ll actually let me go.
I don’t know why he’s kept me so long, except maybe because merfolk are so rarely seen above water he wanted to keep me as a prize. I don’t know, and I hate not knowing.”
“Can I see the binding spell?”
I gladly present my hand to the prince, which brings his cock right over my head. Fortunately, or unfortunately, said cock is covered.
Speaking of cock, mine stirs once Gavin starts touching my palm. My arousal is obvious in my trouserless state, and my haze rises to spread through the room. Why can’t the floor just swallow me up?
“Fuck.” Gavin’s knees buckle, and he almost falls on top of me, but I twist out of the way.
“Sorry. Can’t shut it off when—” When what? There’s a giant sexy dragon touching me? Ugh. Seriously, why can’t I keep my stupid mouth shut? “Never mind.”
“Wh-What is it?” Gavin gains a bit of composure.
I explain the bane of my existence—how I have no idea how to control my haze.
“You didn’t react at the tavern, so I’m a little surprised you have a reaction now.”
“Pendant at the tavern,” Gavin grinds out. “Skies. I want to—”
“Fuck me?” I ask innocently enough. “Yeah, sorry about that. If you weren’t so damned sexy right now, it’d wear off, but—”
A banging comes from the door, and my haze falls to the floor. Gavin’s shoulders drop in an obvious sign of relief before he charges towards the door to see who is interrupting us.
“Ambrose. Yes. Please do come in.”
When both dragons enter the room, I’ve pulled my knees to my chest and made sure my long shirt covers my nether region.
“So, it’s true? You’ve pair-bonded?”
I blink back at the princes. Ambrose is just a hair taller than Gavin, but has the same dark hair, though perfect curls frame his face and cascade halfway down his chest. The horns loop around his ears like a ram’s, and he has the same broad shoulders.
Ambrose is a little more put together than Gavin, but Gavin has just been through an ordeal.
“How did you find out so fast, Ambrose?”
Ambrose waves him off and steps closer. “I have my ways.”
Gavin grabs his brother by the shoulder and yanks him back. “Which are?”
Ambrose huffs a breath and turns to glare at Gavin. “If you must know, Sebastian and I are close. He sees things.”
“That little raven shifter?”
“Yes, the royal raven messenger. Don’t insult him by dismissing his place in court.” Ambrose pulls himself from Gavin’s grip and steps closer to the bed. “So, you’re the little mer that bewitched my brother?”
I don’t know what to say. In truth, I bewitched Gavin with my haze only moments before Ambrose arrived.
But it’s unintentional. I can only stare and mark the differences and similarities between the brothers.
They’re both handsome men, but I find I definitely favor Gavin.
There’s something about his eagerness to learn about merfolk that endears me to him.
I don’t move when Ambrose tugs at my collar to see the fake mark Gavin has placed on me. A shiver is involuntary when the prince’s soft fingertips brush my skin.
“It’s real, isn’t it? You’ve done it.”
I nod. “I love him more than life itself.” I unfold from the bed and force myself to Gavin’s side.
“He’s saved me in more ways than one. I—I—This is my fault.
I got jealous when he told me he finally had to marry Ailey.
I couldn’t bear to lose him.” I bury my face in Gavin’s chest and force tears to come.
It doesn’t take much; I just have to contemplate life without freedom.
Freedom Gavin could grant me at the end of the play.
Ambrose’s shoes clip on the marble floor. His hand rests against my back.
“Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone. I know what it’s like to not be with the one you cherish. Don’t tell His Majesty just yet. Go on your adventure to retrieve the phoenix stone, and hopefully by then Leander will have found a way to free you from the marriage with Ailey.”
Then Ambrose is gone, as if he never existed. I blink up at Gavin. “Who can’t Ambrose be with?”
Gavin’s cheek ticks. “Who knows? Ambrose is so secretive. But that’s nothing new. That’s how he and Sebastian work.”
I can’t believe Gavin is so clueless. “It’s Sebastian, isn’t it? That’s who he cherishes above all else.”
“I… honestly don’t know. I know they were close when we were all younger. Sebastian’s been a royal messenger since our teenage years. He’s very reliable.”
I snort. “Yes, because reliability is what attracted Ambrose to him.”
“He’s also very attractive. A dark-haired beauty.”
I run my hand through my golden blond hair. “And what about me?”
“Truthfully?”
A nod. “Yes, please and thank you.” Because I decide right then and there I’ll be truthful with the prince as much as possible.
Gavin cups the back of my head, throwing my brain into a spin. What is happening?
“You’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever met. You being merfolk is just a bonus.”
I go back to being silent. I know I’m good looking; I’ve been told as much by clients and a few other pirates, but I never really believe them. Gavin’s hungry eyes tell me the words are true.
“There’s more to me than my looks.” I take a step back and back until the velvet settee at the end of the bed stops my retreat.
“I know, and I hope to get to know everything about you on our voyage.”
I don’t know if I hate or love the idea. “I don’t even know everything about me.”
“Kyler, I’m not sure how much you know about me, but I’ve been obsessed with merfolk since I could talk. I want nothing more than to be your friend.”
“But we have to act like more. Much more. A pair-bond is a big deal. We have to—”
Gavin smiles, and it disarms me. I always have a plan. I always try to work things out. Do I always succeed? No. But more often than not, I at least survive with less injury than had I gone in blind. And right then, I’m flailing like a fish out of water.
“We’ll get through this, Kyler. I know we will.”
But what if we can’t pull off convincing everyone we’re pair-bonded? What if Ailey doesn’t believe us? “Will someone check the mark?” I lift a hand to touch it.
“Probably not. The last Grand Mage of the court was executed six months ago for… I forget what. But there are not many that know how to check for the truth of a mark. And very few know they can be faked. Being royal, I had extended education compared to most.”
“Okay.” I don’t know how I feel about any of that.
“We’ll keep the secret for tonight. But in the morning, we’ll make a ruckus.”