Chapter Twelve #2
Austin waved a hand. “I don’t keep track of them. She eats them too frequently to keep up.”
Tristan nodded. “She did not share her meal with them.”
Hearing it from Tristan, Austin’s underwater abode wasn’t nearly as inhospitable as he’d grown to think.
Austin had, for a reason he couldn’t now name, assumed that mermen would naturally hate it.
But as Tristan described the rocks, the seaweed, the corals, and the huge variety of fish in the area, Austin realised it really was rather lush.
“I have never seen so many razorfish on a shore like that before. Is it a common phenomenon in your world?”
Austin stared at the bright orange slice of fruit in Tristan’s hand, something he’d forgotten coming to him in a flash of enlightenment.
“There’s a beach not too far from there where there’s an unusual amount of razorfish, but when I say unusual, the beach looks like this”—he gestured to the white sands currently invisible in the dark—“but every few feet, there’s a razorfish.
It’s more than enough to dissuade people from walking it.
There are warnings signposted everywhere about how dangerous it is…
I liked it there. So I told them all to go to my beach.
So many that nobody can take so much as a step onto it without hurting.
” He remembered it so vaguely that he was likely drunk when he did it.
“A man was on the shore.”
Austin tensed. “Describe him.”
Tristan described a man wearing plain black trousers and a muted green jacket. He had a beard, wavy brown hair with some silver, and wore a strange hat.
“Liam. Was he okay?”
“He had a chair on the shore and was sitting reading a book. He checked the water a few times. I got the sense he was waiting.”
A gut punch of guilt landed hard in Austin.
Had Liam been waiting on the beach this whole time? While Austin had been here, feasting and lounging?
“Is Liam who you wish to shield from your voice?” Tristan asked.
When Austin didn’t answer, Tristan cast him a cautious look.
Austin drew a knee to his chest, folding his arm around the limb.
“I can’t always help the way my voice comes out.
Liam will stay by my side no matter my mood, so he ends up getting hurt.
I want him around, but I can’t stand that I make him feel like—well, like I told you earlier.
” His voice came out gritty. “Like he needs to jump off a cliff because I’m upset about something. ”
Tristan left the far edge of the couch and slid closer, stopping beside Austin’s folded knee.
Austin tensed, deciding whether to snap at him for getting closer, but the urge didn’t come.
He folded forward, propping his cheek on his knee, and gazed sideways at Tristan.
He could see his robe, a hint of lightly tanned skin where it parted across his chest. He didn’t bother raising his eyes to read Tristan’s expression.
“I sent him away,” Austin said. “He came back. And I…I don’t want to send him away again, even though I know I hurt him.”
“If he was stubborn enough to return against your wishes, then he must greatly desire to be by your side,” Tristan said calmly. “If your voice has hurt him in the past, then he is aware of your power and its effects. His decision to return was not made in ignorance.”
Tristan cupped Austin’s knee, fingertips tracing the line of his cheekbone in a fond gesture.
“Maybe not made in ignorance, but made with free will?” Austin asked.
His voice dropped low, pain threading through every word.
“I told you that I drove someone mad with my voice. I didn’t do it on purpose—I felt it happen, I drew on the power—but the effect went far beyond anything I meant to do…
I have never purposefully used this power on Liam, but I make him flinch and hurt him daily without meaning to.
Who’s to say I didn’t plant an obsession in his mind when I was too young to even feel that I’d done it? ”
“You worry that his affection is disingenuous?”
“I’d hardly describe Liam as affectionate in the first place,” Austin muttered. “He’s like a slow-moving cow! Slow to anger, slow to smile, slow to react to anything that doesn’t go his way, thinking he can make me yield first.”
“He’s calm?”
“Stupidly so.”
“He thinks before he acts?”
“For far too long!”
“So he isn’t mad.”
Austin’s thoughts snagged. He lifted his head to meet Tristan’s eyes.
“No, I mean, he…he came back from America. That’s the other side of the world.
He was meant to go be with his family, but he said he wasn’t even living with them.
He was staying with Tammy—who works for me—instead.
And I know he went to her so that he could get updates on me!
That is clearly a sign of obsession. Right? ”
“He’s been with you since you were a child?”
Austin nodded.
“Then I would consider his actions closer to care than obsession,” Tristan said steadily. “Worry and fondness for one he watched grow from child to adult?”
Austin stared blankly at Tristan. He blinked several times, then looked away towards the horizon where a red sun was rising. They’d been up all night.
“I’m tired,” Austin said, voice gritty again.
Tristan hummed. “Then we’ll retire. I’ll ensure the household remains quiet and doesn’t disturb your rest. And perhaps if you are pleased with me—though I seek no reward—I might make a request of you?”
At Austin’s narrowed-eyed look, Tristan tipped up his chin, offering the white of his throat.
“My brother would like to meet you.”
Austin reached, prodding that flare of delicate white with a fingertip. “The brother who runs the city?”
“I have only the one,” Tristan confirmed.
“I’ll think about it.”
Tristan’s hum vibrated against Austin’s fingertip.
“Also…you are tired from your illness, and it is a long swim to your territory,” Tristan continued, each word a carefully placed foot on thin, melting ice. “I can accompany you if you want to check on your territory personally. If you’d have me as a guest, of course.”