Chapter Thirty-Four #2
“I don’t need you.”
“I just mean—”
“I have one.”
“Oh.” Laurence sounded genuinely disappointed. “That doesn’t explain the eggs you threw at Adonis. Adonis could hardly get a word out about it, he was so angry, but Bee and Dew told me in detail what you did. They keep going on about it, actually. Whenever Adonis is in earshot.”
“Yes. It was funny.”
Laurence twisted to scowl at him.
Austin smiled sweetly back, and Laurence’s red cheeks went even darker.
“Can you please cover up?”
“He was marching around the throne room naked,” Connor said. “He doesn’t care that we can see him without clothes.” Slowly, Connor tugged off the towel, squinting at the fading light in the sky. “You were always like that,” he added to Austin.
“I grew up in a lab. I never learned to be shy.”
Laurence sat roughly at Connor’s side, crossing his legs. “I doubt that’s it. You’re just like the other mermen. They don’t care about being totally naked when they shift, even if people are there.”
Austin considered that. “Maybe.” He had always enjoyed swimming nude. The only time being seen nude had bothered him was when Hal came by, and Austin wasn’t yet secure with Tristan. He turned his attention to Connor. “Is your headache better?”
“A bit.” Connor sighed. He tossed the towel aside and angled his head towards Austin.
“Why were you looking for me?”
Connor waved a hand at Laurence. “He wanted to apologise.”
Laurence’s head bowed. It didn’t seem like an apology wanted to come out.
“I am sorry about how I spoke to you that day. It was uncalled for, and I realise now that you hadn’t been aggressive or anything.
I was the one who escalated it. I still think throwing eggs at Adonis is stupid, but I suppose it’s no worse than Bee and Dew throwing fish at people…
Actually, now that I think about it…” Laurence’s dark eyes flicked up, studying Austin’s face with a thoughtful look.
“You really do act more like a merman. Way more than Connor ever does. And you can transform.”
“What?” Connor frowned.
“Did I not mention that to you? Bee was going on about a whirlpool—I don’t know what that was about—and Dew said Austin’s tail was almost as pretty as his, which means he thinks it’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen.”
Two pairs of curious eyes were on Austin now.
Curiosity stirring despite himself, Austin gazed back at Connor. “You can’t?”
“No.”
“How did it happen?” Laurence asked, all animosity eclipsed by curiosity.
Austin didn’t particularly care to answer him, but he thought Connor might benefit from the information. “It happened in bursts. My gills appeared first at my throat, and then across my ribs. My tail came last. It wasn’t intentional the first time, but shifting between the two is easy now.”
“Really? It’s not easy for the other merfolk.
Goldilocks is fine, but Adonis has to really concentrate to hold legs,” Laurence said.
“And Bee and Dew almost never shift. The only times they’ll take on legs are when I convince them to go clubbing with me.
Dew loves it because everyone calls him beautiful.
” Laurence rolled his eyes, but an envious look crept over his expression as his eyes slid back to Austin. “Why are mermen all so good-looking?”
Austin ignored the last remark, though he quite agreed with it. “Tristan can’t take on legs at all in our world.”
“Adonis couldn’t do it for a few months either,” Connor said. “And for those clubbing nights with Bee and Dew, it’s only possible when I’m around.”
“Because you bring the depths of the ocean around with you,” Austin said.
Connor made a dismissive gesture. Laurence’s eyes burned with curiosity at Austin’s remark, but after a glance at Connor, he visibly swallowed his question.
“I need to talk to Connor alone,” Austin said.
“I’ll go for a swim.” Laurence stood.
“I wouldn’t if I were you. Tristan doesn’t like you,” Austin warned.
Laurence fixed a brilliant, challenging look on Austin before disappearing into the cabin. As the door shut, Austin couldn’t help but think that perhaps he didn’t hate Laurence after all.
“Your fever has burned through the cold you were spreading in the throne room,” Austin said. “I thought the air was about to spontaneously turn into water.”
“Would you have knelt, if that merman had ordered you to?”
As if. Austin would have brought Hal to his knees and torn out his throat for trying. “You lost, and it’s mine.”
Connor sighed. “I really was just there on Laurence’s behalf.
He’s tried a few times to get back to that estate to apologise, but nobody would let him anywhere near it.
” He sat up with a groan, moving stiffly, like his muscles and joints were sore.
He was only a shade less pale than when Austin had dumped that octopus onto his lap.
“You should try diving down,” Austin said. “When I don’t feel good, that’s what I do, and it helps. Having the pressure pushing in on me. Tristan has to swim at least once a day. Hal, once every few weeks. I think I get two days out of the ocean before I start feeling sick.”
“I’ve done that already.” Connor tipped his head back. “It’ll pass in a few hours. I just have to ride it out.”
“Are the headaches from using your power?”
Connor didn’t answer.
“I get tired if I use my voice too much.”
“Who do you use it on?” Connor asked.
Austin tensed, but there was nothing accusatory in Connor’s tone. “The ocean.”
“Does it listen?”
“I make it.”
Connor huffed, as though Austin had said something funny. “Always so bossy.” There was an amused glint in his eye when he cast a sideways look at Austin. “I suppose having a city to order around suits you.”
“I have an empire in our world.”
“Yeah. And I’d say you get the same amount of enjoyment out of that as I do from what my dad left me.” Connor rose to his feet, muscles creaking. Pain flashed briefly in his eyes. Before Austin could comment on it, Connor offered a hand to help him stand. “Can I see you change?”
Austin accepted the offered hand. He felt odd inside, the conversation so calm that he wasn’t sure what to make of it. He’d expected confrontation and accusations, on both sides. “You can.”
Connor walked to the edge of the yacht and dropped into the water, fully clothed. Austin frowned at his stiff, lethargic movements and followed.
Below them, Adonis and Tristan circled. Adonis flashed his teeth and growled.
Tristan watched him with unwavering focus.
It was a purposeful tilt of Tristan’s head that took his attention away from Adonis.
He glanced at Austin, read his face, and returned his attention to Adonis.
Adonis started for Connor, only to turn back with a growl toward Tristan, realising he was showing his vulnerable back.
His movements were erratic against Tristan’s calm, steady circling.
“You’re dating a predator,” Connor said, surfacing after observing the two of them.
Austin bobbed next to him, chin just above the water. “Do you think I’d settle for prey? And I’m dating an apex predator.”
Connor snorted.
“Connor.” Austin waited until Connor looked at him head-on.
“He chased off all the other merfolk that used to live here. He hesitated because Adonis had a hold of Hal, and you were radiating power like you could sink the world, but he wouldn’t have hesitated forever.
He would have killed you in that hall for hurting his brother. He won’t because of me.”
There was a flare in Connor’s grey eyes, a glimpse of a tempest stirring. “I wouldn’t bet on that.” He made pointed, dangerous eye contact with Austin. But almost immediately, Connor shook himself, and the tempest faded.
With a long exhale and a stretch, Austin’s legs merged and lengthened into a tail, silver and decorative.
Minuscule compared to the two mermen close to him, but that didn’t alarm him like it had the first time he had changed.
Connor ducked underwater to look, but he didn’t reach out to touch him.
Tristan drifted closer, his circles winding in gradually until he was almost swimming a connected ring directly below Austin.
Connor looked from Austin’s gleaming, unblemished tail to the scars that covered Tristan’s.
When they rose again to break the surface, Laurence was perched on the yacht’s deck, sketching furiously.
“You’re like a lionfish,” Laurence said distractedly to Austin. “Could you come back on deck so I can see better?”
Austin turned his back on Laurence. “Was there anything else you were looking for me for?”
“I wanted to check how you were doing,” Connor said. “But I can see you’re doing perfectly fine. Sam wants to see you by the way. Something about being friends.” He swam to the ladder rungs. “We’ll stay out of your city, but you’re welcome to come see me whenever you want.”
Austin cast a final worried look over Connor, but he was moving more easily up the ladder than he had been when dropping off the deck. Austin plunged underwater and swam to Tristan, catching him by the hand and leading him home.