Chapter 15 #2
He wraps one arm around Cassius’s throat and yanks him up. Cassius’s legs flail. He can’t get a grip. He claws at the merman’s arm, at his fingers, at anything, but the merman only squeezes harder, lips pulled back in a snarl.
Cassius’s legs kick weakly. I see him grab at his belt, trying for a weapon, but the merman is too fast. He spins Cassius around, slamming his head into the wall of the tunnel. Cassius goes limp for a second, then sags, eyes fluttering.
The merman’s other arm lashes out, grabs my ankle, and pulls me closer.
I scream, but it doesn’t matter. There’s no one else to hear me scream. No one else to save us but ourselves, and that’s a terrifying thought. I’m just some stupid farm girl. I’m just someone who can never do anything right. I’m just–
The merman’s face is right there, all of his eyes looking at me at once, a ring of white and black and red, all hate. “Stupid,” he growls. “You think you can ever leave me?”
He squeezes Cassius’s neck again, and Cassius’s mouth opens, no sound, only bubbles. The water fae’s eyes roll back in his head, and I know he’ll lose consciousness soon.
I reach for the dagger. My hand shakes, but I get it, and the second I do, it grows in my hand, growing and warping, the blue light coiling around it until it’s no longer a dagger but a full-length sword, almost too big to swing underwater.
Pulling it back, I realize that I can’t aim for his head because I’ll hit Cassius. But the merman’s chest is right there, scales peeled and bleeding. This is it. My one chance. I drive the sword forward with every bit of strength I have.
The sword slides in like the merman is made of butter, all the way to the hilt, and the merman’s body jerks. Blood pours out all around me, black and cloudy, and the merman’s arms go slack.
Cassius slips out of the chokehold and falls, hands clutching his throat, coughing and choking.
The merman doesn’t die right away. He turns, all his eyes on me, and for a moment he looks almost betrayed.
Then he grabs the blade and tries to pull it out, but his fingers don’t work, just scrabble and slip.
He’s making a sound, like sobbing or maybe cursing, and then he falls over, spasming, tail slamming against the floor.
The water around us fills with more blood.
Cassius is on the lake bed, hacking, trying to breathe.
His face is gray, lips blue. I crawl to him and wrap my arms around his chest and just hold on, desperate to feel the warmth of him again.
Desperate to know that he’s okay. Somehow, him being okay is more important than anything else in the world.
More important than my farm. More important than my town. Even more important than my horse.
I just need him to be okay. I need to know he didn’t die trying to save me.
He coughs, once, then twice, then breathes in, slow and ragged.
“You’re okay,” I whisper, voice shaking so much I barely hear it. “You’re okay, you’re okay—”
He shudders, then leans against me, body so heavy I nearly collapse under the weight. His eyes are wild, glazed, but alive.
“I thought you were—” I can’t finish.
He turns his face toward mine, so close I can see the blood vessels have burst in his eyes. “I thought I was, too,” he rasps. His hand finds my wrist, fingers wrapping tight, and I realize he’s shaking as much as I am.
We sit there for a second, neither of us moving. The merman twitches a few feet away, then goes still, the sword still quivering in his chest.
Finally, Cassius stirs. He grabs my face with both hands and pulls me closer, like he can’t believe I’m real. “Why didn’t you just run?”
“What?” My whole body recoils at the thought.
“I’m a fae. You hate my kind. Why didn’t you just run?”
The truth is, the thought never occurred to me. I could no sooner abandon him here than I could abandon part of my soul. Just imagining his body left in these dark waters makes my stomach turn. No, I could never do that.
“I had to,” I say, trying to work through my own thoughts aloud. “I couldn’t just—” I can’t finish the sentence, so I just hold onto him, harder.
He laughs, and the sound is broken and beautiful. “You’re brave. You know that?”
“So are you,” I say. My throat is raw. “You could have died.”
He shrugs, and I feel the movement through his arms, his chest, everywhere. “It would have been worth it.”
Worth it? For me?
I’m about to pull away when Cassius looks down at me strangely. Our gazes lock. My heartbeat picks up for reasons I don’t understand, and then he leans in, kissing me.
It’s not like kissing Ashton or Sylvian.
It’s nothing like anything I’ve ever known.
His mouth is cold from the water, then suddenly warm, the taste of him sharp with salt and something darker, something that makes my pulse spike.
He doesn’t hesitate. Doesn’t tease. He takes the kiss like he’s been holding it back for too long and can’t anymore.
His hand slides to the back of my neck, fingers threading into my hair, holding me there, not roughly, but unyielding.
Demanding.
I gasp against him, and he deepens the kiss instantly, like he’s been waiting for that moment.
The water shifts around us, pressing in, but I barely feel it.
All I feel is him. The firm line of his body against mine, the steady strength in his grip, the way his control fractures just enough to let something raw slip through.
I clutch at him, my hands clinging to his muscle, pulling him closer even though there’s nowhere left to go.
For a second, just a second, I forget where we are. I forget the chains, the monster, the darkness pressing in on all sides. The world narrows to this, his mouth on mine, the rhythm of our kiss turning deeper, hungrier, like he’s trying to prove something without words.
Like he’s trying to claim something.
Or someone.
My heart pounds, frantic and wild, and I kiss him back just as fiercely, matching him without thinking, without fear. The cold, the water, the danger—it all fades into the background, leaving only the heat building between us, sharp and impossible and far too real for a moment like this.
And somehow… this feels more dangerous than anything else down here. Yet, I just want more of him. More of his kiss. More of his touch. More of his hard body pressed against mine. The thin fabric of our undergarments are the only thing between us.
When we finally break apart, we’re both panting, eyes wide.
He blinks, then laughs, startled. “That was—”
“Amazing?” The word makes me blush. Why the heck did I say that?
But he just grins. “Yeah. That.”
He looks at the merman’s body. “Thanks for saving my life.”
“To be fair, you saved mine first.”
Cassius looks at the sword, still sticking out of the merman’s chest. He stands, a little unsteady, and pulls it free. He holds it out to me, hilt first, teeth clenched together. Touching the blade even though it hurts him. “This belongs to you.”
I take it and it shifts back into a dagger before I return it to my belt. “What now?”
“Now, we get the hell out of here.” He grabs my hand, and we swim together, up and out, following the trail of bubbles and light toward the surface.
The water gets clearer as we go. The blood and darkness fall away, and I can see the sunlight above us, rippling gold on the surface. My lungs ache, even though I can breathe. My whole body aches.
We break the surface at the same time.
The air is shocking, alive. I gasp, lungs stinging.
He’s grinning, hair plastered to his face, eyes bright. “Sweet freedom!” And I’ve never seen him look so happy.
I can’t help it—I kiss him again.
This time there’s no hesitation. My hands slide up his chest, gripping him as I pull myself closer, and he answers instantly, one arm wrapping around my waist, dragging me flush against him. The kiss deepens, his mouth parting against mine, warm and insistent, and I follow without thinking.
It’s different now.
There’s no fear. No desperation for air. Just heat.
His other hand tangles in my hair, tilting my head as the kiss turns deeper, slower for a heartbeat, then hungrier. I feel it everywhere, the press of his body against mine, the strength in his grip, the way he doesn’t hold back this time.
I move without thinking, my legs sliding around his waist as I cling to him, needing to be closer, closer, until there’s no space left between us at all.
And there, I feel him. His hard erection is pressed against my underwear.
His thin boxers do nothing to hide his arousal.
He makes a low sound against my mouth, something rough and unsteady, and his hands start to move, over my back, my sides, pulling me tighter against him like he can’t stop himself.
Neither can I.
My fingers slide up into his hair, down his shoulders, tracing the lines of him as the kiss deepens again, turning reckless, consuming. The world narrows to heat and breath and the way our bodies fit together far too easily.
He shifts beneath me, and the movement makes something in me catch—sharp and unfamiliar and impossible to ignore. I don’t pull away. I press closer.
His grip tightens instantly, like that was a mistake. Or maybe exactly what he wanted.
“Alette…” he breathes against my mouth, the word strained, warning and something else entirely.
But I kiss him again instead of answering, and whatever control he had left slips away. His hands move again, faster now, more desperate, like he’s forgotten how to stop. For a moment, it feels like we won’t. Like we can’t.
Then, suddenly, he stills. Completely. His hands tighten on my waist, holding me in place as he drags in a breath like it hurts.
“If we don’t stop…” His voice is rough, unsteady in a way I’ve never heard from him before. “I’m going to lose control.”
The words send a strange, curling heat through me. “Lose control?”
He thrusts his hips, and a little moan tears from my lips. “I’m going to have to fuck you, Alette.”
“Oh,” comes out on a shaky breath.
He pulls back just enough to look at me, his gaze sharp, searching, barely restrained. “Do you want that?” he asks quietly.
For a second, I don’t know how to answer. Part of me, some reckless, curious part, wonders what it would be like. Wonders what it would feel like to let this go further, to give in to the heat still burning between us. But the moment stretches too long, and reality creeps back in.
I’m a virgin. We just killed a merman. He’s a fae king. Having my first sexual experience right now would be crazy.
And then there’s the complication of Sylvian and Ashton. I’d kissed both men. Been intimate with both men. What would they think if they saw what I was doing right now?
I swallow, my grip loosening slightly. “Not… not here,” I whisper.
Frustration flickers across his face. “Right,” he says, though it sounds like it costs him.
His hands linger for a second longer, like he doesn’t want to let go. Then slowly… he does. And the absence of him feels almost as intense as the kiss itself.
I look at the shore. It’s still far, but I don’t care. We made it.
Using the last of our energy, we swim for the shore without looking back. Just looking forward. Until we can finally stand in the sand and walk on shaking legs the rest of the way to the shore. Unfortunately, that’s the moment my legs give out.
Without hesitation, Cassius lifts me into his arms like I weigh nothing at all and begins carrying me the rest of the way. I feel bad. He shouldn’t have to do this. Not after everything he’s done. But I can’t help relaxing into his muscular body. Safe at last.
Alive.
And I can’t ask for more than that right now.