Mystic Realms: A Limited Edition Collection

by Nicole Morgan

  That Nicolas would be safe. Damn it, why did she care so much about him?

  She laid her hand on top of the water and sent a current towards the ship, giving it a boost. The ship moved more swiftly through the water, away from them.

  Hopefully, that would keep Seb from using all his energy and slipping into unconsciousness. She’d only seen him expend this much energy once before and afterwards he’d slipped into a coma for four days. Those had been the worst days of her life. Seb had been in a coma, and her father had been dying from pneumonia.

  So now she was on her own. Panic threatened to swamp her. What if she messed up? What if she couldn’t destroy it?

  What the hell was she going to do?

  “Let’s go, boy.”

  She heard a screeching noise from above but ignored it. She was too focused on finding that creature and keeping it away from the Mazu. Atlas sped through the water then dove down. She let go of him and searched around. Come on, I’m right here, fish breath. Where are you?

  How was she going to kill it? The spears the crew had thrown at it just bounced off, harmless, so the scales covering its body were strong, maybe impenetrable.

  Surely it had to have a weak spot.

  She hoped.

  The ocean sent her a warning. It was coming. Where was it? There! Spotting her, it dove forward. Fear held her frozen, but she dodged to the side at the last moment, the ocean sending a burst of current to help her. She swam underneath the creature, pulling her small knife out.

  Crap! The underside was just as scaly as the top. She stabbed at the scales, her small blade bouncing off them and nearly falling from her hand. That wasn’t going to work. Why hadn’t she thought to bring a bigger weapon with her?

  The creature folded itself in two, following her, then it struck out again. Fuck! Too close! She threw up an arm to defend herself, expecting to feel those sharp teeth sink into her flesh. A low rumble filled the ocean and something shot by her, sending her into a spin. When she managed to steady herself, she watched on in surprise as pieces of coral and shell struck the creature.

  The ocean was defending her.

  Thank you.

  Lungs burning, she kicked her legs, frantically trying to reach the surface.

  Atlas!

  The dolphin appeared, and she grabbed hold, letting him pull her up and away to the surface. She gulped in air.

  What was she going to do? She glanced around but couldn’t see the Mazu anywhere. At least the others were safe. A shadow covered her, and she looked up, crying out in alarm as a huge bird flew over her, swooping low. Oh hell, that wasn’t a bird. Or if it was, it was like no bird she’d ever seen. It had to be twice as long as she was, and there wasn’t a feather to be seen. As it flew past she realized it also had a long tail.

  Definitely not a bird.

  “Oh, for fuck's sake. One monster at a time is really enough.”

  Suddenly the ocean rocked around her. Shit!

  “Atlas! Go!”

  He squeaked a reply and took off. Behind them, the sea monster burst out of the water with a roar. Its gray-green scales glinted in the sunlight, and it was then that she realized there were no scales around its eyes. Just wonderful! How the hell was she going to stab it in the eye? Would that kill it? Or just really piss it off? Suddenly, the bird-thing dove towards the sea monster with a screech. Was it attacking it? The bird-thing turned, striking the creature with its tail. The sea creature dropped back into the water, and a wave of water burst over her, separating her from Atlas. She fell under the wave, her body rolling. The ocean brought her to a gentle stop, but she still lay dazed for a moment.

  Something shook her body, and she blinked, realizing she was floating up to the surface. She felt so relaxed. So peaceful. She loved floating. Ooh, what’s that? A giant sea creature. Oh, fuck! A giant sea creature. Panic flooded her, bringing her a much-needed dose of adrenaline. But she quickly realized it was too close for her to escape it.

  Oh hell.

  It struck, but it was slow. Maybe that bird-thing had injured it. God, she hoped so. She really needed some sort of advantage. She spun, diving under its body. Then, grabbing hold of its scales, she pulled herself around its body and started to claw her way towards its head. It moved from side to side, trying to dislodge her, but she clung on, the sharp scales digging into her skin and drawing blood.

  Suddenly, it plunged downwards, and she had to hold on for dear life. Her lungs started burning, warning her that she didn’t have long before she’d need air. All this creature had to do was stay under until she couldn’t last any longer without air then strike when she let go.

  Shit. Should have thought through this plan better.

  A burst of current pushed against them, slowing them down. The sea creature shook its body back and forth, trying to dislodge her. If she let go, she was dead. If she didn’t let go, she was also dead.

  Hell of a choice.

  Suddenly something dove down from above her. Atlas! He slammed into the creature then swam off just as the creature swung towards him. Worry for her pet filled her, even as she realized she needed all the help she could get. While Atlas distracted the creature, she carefully climbed her way up its body towards the vulnerable head. She had to kill this thing. And quickly.

  Just a few more inches. A few more inches. She reached back and grabbed her blade, pulling it free. Suddenly the creature shook itself, and she found herself clinging to it with just one hand. She couldn’t hold on much longer. It was now or never.

  With a herculean effort, she pulled herself up then swung the hand holding the knife down. It banged against a hard scale, and she nearly cried. This was hopeless. She was going to die down here.

  No! She wasn’t ready to die, damn it. She hadn’t achieved half the things she wanted to. She wanted to find Miriama’s treasure. She wanted to learn how to fight with a blade. She wanted to be kissed. By Nicolas. She had too many things to do to die now. She pulled back, then drew her legs up, and, wrapping them around the creature’s body, she pushed up through the water and with both hands wrapped around the blade, she struck.

  And it sunk into flesh.

  Thank fuck.

  The creature spun, and she tugged at the blade uselessly. Her strength was waning, the need for air so great that she now didn’t care about anything else. Blackness circled her vision and suddenly the need for air dissipated.

  She floated.

  Chapter Six

  “Kaley! Kaley! Open your eyes.”

  Damn it, couldn’t Nicolas let her sleep in for just one day?

  “Go away, Nicolas, I don’t wanna work out today.”

  There was silence. Good, he was gone.

  “You don’t have to work out. Just open your eyes.”

  She attempted to roll over. Her clothing squelched, and she shivered despite the sun beating down on her. Wait a minute. Wet clothes? Sunshine? This wasn’t her bed.

  She opened her eyes. Nicolas peered down at her, his face filled with concern. She glanced around. Why was she lying on a beach? In wet clothes? And why was Nicolas…

  “Holy shit, you’re naked!”

  She looked away then glanced back again. Could you blame her? The man was ripped. Strong. His shoulders were wide, his biceps large, his stomach firm, her gaze drifted lower. Maybe she could just catch a glimpse…just a little one.

  Well, hopefully not too little.

  He cleared his throat. “My eyes are up here.”

  Her gaze shot up to his, heat filling her cheeks. Whoops.

  “You’re naked.”

  “Yes,” he said dryly. “I did notice.”

  “I’m not.” She glanced down at herself to make certain. Nope, fully clothed.

  “We could change that if you liked.”

  “No,” she squeaked. “I’m good.”

  Heat filled his gaze. “Really? Because you could get sick if you stay in those wet clothes. Maybe for the good of your health, I should strip you bare.”


  For the good of her health?

  “That line ever work for you before?” she asked.

  His gaze narrowed, his face darkening. “Funnily enough, I’ve never had to use it before. But then it’s not every day that my woman dives into the ocean to fight a huge monster.”

  His woman? What the hell? But before she could protest the rest of his words registered.

  The sea monster. What happened? She could remember clawing her way up its body, stabbing with her knife and then what…

  “Atlas?” She sat up, looking around frantically. “Where’s Atlas?”

  “Easy.” Nicolas placed his hand on her arm to still her as she tried to stand. “He’s down by the shoreline, barking at fish. Sometimes I think he’s the smartest dog I’ve ever met and then he does things like that.”

  He nodded over to where Atlas stood with his paws in the ocean, his gaze intent as he stared down at the water. He let out a loud bark, and she smiled.

  “He’s so cute. Wait, there are fish in the water now?” She turned back towards him so sharply that her head spun.

  His face serious, he nodded. “Yes, there are fish in the ocean.”

  “So I killed it? I wasn’t sure. I was running out of air, and I made one last stab with my knife. I thought I’d hit it, but I didn’t know if it would be enough…” she trailed off as she noticed the thunderous look on his face.

  He looked like he was about to explode.

  Uh-oh.

  “You had no business diving into the water after that thing. You had no right to risk yourself like that.”

  She studied him as he stood then turned. Drat! He’d moved so quickly, she hadn’t managed to catch a glimpse…not that she wanted to see anything, really. After all, she didn’t want to be disappointed when real life didn’t match her fantasies.

  “I’m not sure why you care so much. I don’t mean anything to you, why do you care what I do?”

  He swung back, and she got an eyeful. And boy, was it an eyeful. Okay, so what was a girl supposed to do when reality far exceeded her fantasy? She gulped as she studied his thick, firm cock. The appendage stuck out, showing her that it was possible for him to be both spitting mad and thoroughly aroused at the same time.

  She forced herself to raise her gaze when she realized she’d been staring a bit too long. She glanced up into his face to find him glaring down at her. He raised one eyebrow. “You finished ogling me?”

  Oh hell.

  “Sorry,” she muttered. What else could she say? No, she wasn’t finished and could he hold off on the lecture she could sense coming so she could stare at him some more?

  Hmm, somehow, she thought that wasn’t going to go over well.

  Get it together, Kaley. You’re acting like this is the first time you’ve seen a naked man.

  It wasn’t. She’d been raised by four men and lived on a ship with anywhere from ten to forty other men at one time. She’d seen her fair share of penises. Then there had been that one terrible encounter when she’d turned twenty-one and decided it was time to lose her virginity with the first cute guy she’d encountered.

  As you could imagine, that had been a disaster just waiting to happen.

  But this was her first time seeing Nicolas naked. Something she’d fantasized about in the dark of night when no one else was around. But she’d never thought that her fantasy would come true. Come to think of it, why had it come true?

  “Where are we? How did we get here? And why are you naked?”

  The last thing she remembered was stabbing that sea creature with her knife…then everything went dark. Had she fainted? How was she still alive?

  “Did Atlas bring me here?” She looked around at the crystal blue waters, white sand and thick forest of tress behind them. This place was paradise. “But how did you find us?”

  “Atlas brought you to the surface. He had your top held in his mouth. And don’t think I’ve forgotten that your dog can somehow shapeshift into a dolphin.”

  No, she’d known she’d have to explain that one.

  “You weren’t breathing when you reached the surface, so I scooped you up and brought you here, I thought I was going to lose you.”

  The very real fear she could hear in his voice stopped her in her tracks for a moment, and she just stared at him. He’d been afraid for her.

  “I never thought that the first time I got to touch your lips with mine would be when I was giving you mouth-to-mouth.”

  “Wait, what do you mean you brought me here? How? Where are the others?” She rubbed at her temple, feeling a headache developing. She felt exhausted and sore. She wanted some dry clothes, food, and her bed. She couldn’t believe she’d killed the sea monster. Was it definitely dead? She glanced over at Atlas who let out another bark, dancing back and forth. If the fish were back, then she must have killed it, right?

  “I don’t know where they are and they can all rot in hell for all I care.”

  She stared at him in shocked surprise. “You’re Seb’s friend. You don’t mean that.”

  “He left you to die. He let you go after that creature, he encouraged you to go, and then he just sailed away. If I hadn’t been there, you would have died.”

  She swallowed heavily, realizing she had to tell him the truth about her. It was something she’d never really discussed with anyone but her dad and brothers. The crew all knew she had a special gift, but they never talked about it.

  “He didn’t leave me to die, Nicolas,” she explained.

  He waved his hand through the air. “Like hell, he didn’t!”

  “No, he didn’t. You don’t understand.”

  “Then explain it to me, so I do.”

  “Maybe you should sit down first,” she suggested. Watching him pace back and forth was kind of distracting.

  He sat next to her, his face filled with thunder. “Explain.”

  “Okay, well, the women in my family have always been different. For as far back as anyone can remember, anyway. We’ve always had this affinity with the ocean. The men have it too but in a different way. We need to be close to the water, to breathe its scent into our lungs. Being on land is fine, but after a while I get antsy, it’s almost painful. My skin itches and all I can think about is getting back out there on the water. My father used to say it was the key to his sanity.” She looked out over the water. “I don’t know how Bear isn’t going insane, being locked up in a box, unable to see or hear the ocean.”

  “Have you seen him since he was incarcerated?”

  She shook her head. “He’s refused to see me every time I’ve tried.” She’d finally stopped trying, unable to take the heartache every time the warden sent her away. Even he’d started to feel sorry for her; the last time he’d given her a small smile and a pat on the shoulder as he turned her away.

  “I guess Seb hasn’t been?”

  She shook her head. “Seb never leaves the Mazu. I’m not sure that he can.”

  He narrowed his gaze thoughtfully. “You think something will happen to him if he leaves?”

  “Or something will happen to the Mazu. I don’t know. Seb won’t tell me. Maybe even he doesn’t know. But Seb never leaves the Mazu. So there was no way he could have fought the sea creature.”

  “And that meant it had to be you? Why couldn’t someone else have done it?”

  “I had the best chance of surviving.”

  “How do you figure that? You’re smaller and weaker than everyone else on the Mazu. What made you think you had a chance of fighting that creature?”

  Smaller. Weaker.

  She ground her teeth together. Asshole.

  “And this is why you and I fight so much,” she told him.

  He just looked confused, and she sighed. “You know how I was saying the women in our family are different? Well, it’s going to sound kind of crazy, but we can understand the ocean. Not like it speaks to us, but I get impressions from it. For instance, I know it was unhappy that creature invaded it. The creature was an outside
r. Unwanted. It scared away all of the ocean life, and she wanted it gone.”

  “You could feel all of that?” he asked, looking skeptical.

  “Yes, I told you it would sound crazy, but it seems to be some skill or talent passed down through the women in our family. The ocean feels like another home to me. I feel at peace there.”

  “Can you communicate back?”

  “Sort of, yeah. I can ask for things. Like for a current to send the Mazu farther away so that creature wouldn’t attack it again.”

  “You’re saying you sent the Mazu away?”

  “Yes. Seb was close to unconsciousness from expending too much energy protecting the Mazu. I had to do something. So, I asked the ocean to send the ship farther away. A current pushed it along. Seb didn’t abandon me, he had no choice.” She looked around. “Do you have any idea where we are? Will they be able to find us?”

  “They’ll find us. We aren’t too far from where that creature attacked. How did you learn about this talent? From your mother?”

  She shook her head. “It doesn’t run through my mother’s family. It goes through my dad’s side. There is usually only one female born in every generation who can do this. Besides, I never knew my mom. She died giving birth to me. The doctors warned her not to have me. She was older, and they were worried about her heart. She’d had some problems since giving birth to Micah.”

  He reached over and clasped hold of her hand. “I’m sorry, I knew she died, but I didn’t realize you were so young when she passed. It had to be hard, not knowing her.”

  She shrugged. “It’s not like I wasn’t loved. But there are times I missed not having her around. I used to feel like I was to blame for her death.”

  “It wasn’t your fault. You were a baby. She chose to have you, knowing the risks.”

  She smiled sadly. “I know. Now. But it took me a while to get there. My dad sat me down and explained to me that mom was fully aware of the risks, but that I was more important. To both of them. That she’d given her life so I could live and that I shouldn’t ever waste a minute of my life.”