by Starla Night
She hugged him. “Oh!”
“Forgive.” His teeth gritted, and he anchored his gaze on the shore.
Chapter Eight
Harmony held Faier tight.
Her pain and fright eased.
He was a rock. Steady, indomitable. Even his bumpy scars gave a pebbled texture to his skin over uncompromising muscle. He carried her to safety. But instead of relaxing her body pounded with increasing awareness.
He stepped onto the boulder and eased her onto the solid, wave-smoothed stone. He cupped her injured foot. “Can you heal?”
But his cock drew her attention. Before, lax. Now, aroused.
An answering tingle filled her veins.
He held her gaze. “Can you?”
Her heart stopped.
His dark gaze filled her soul. Mauve threads intertwined with his mesmerizing dark-brown irises. She was acutely aware of the sun’s heat. His nearness. Her flush of sexual arousal to his question.
He frowned and released her foot—gently—to rest on the boulder.
She missed his touch.
And that realization—that she craved his touch—jolted her from her stupor. “Can I?”
“Heal. Or will you…” He broke off and looked at his large, empty hands.
“Will I?”
“Scar.”
Oh. Oh, Faier. Her heart squeezed. “No.” She wiped off spots of blood with her ragged sleeve. “It’ll be fine with a Band-Aid.”
“You will not scar?” he asked again.
“I don’t think so.”
He looked up to spear her with his taut demand. “Certain?”
Her breath caught.
She nodded wordlessly.
His focus intensified.
The dangerous gash marred his brow. A smaller slash crossed his full lips.
How did he taste?
Heat kindled in her belly and flooded her veins.
His gaze trailed across her parted lips and lower. To the valley of her breasts. Over the frayed buttons of her dress.
His aura changed. Deeper mauve. Not darker. But more intense.
He noticed her attraction. No one had ever noticed before.
Wake up.
She rubbed her palms on her ripped dress. “I mean, if it does, no one will notice on my feet.”
He tore his gaze back to her injury.
Concern wrecked his expression. Like he’d failed her. “Where can I find your healing Band-Aid salves?”
“In a first aid kit.” Which they had lost in the storm. “In civilization.”
He rose. “I will seek it.”
“Wait!”
He hesitated.
A small streak of blood marked her calf.
It wasn’t hers.
“You’re bleeding too.” She pointed at the cuts on his fingers where he’d ripped out the urchin’s spines. “Will you be okay?”
He glanced at his fingers. “Okay?”
“Will you, uh, heal?”
“I am supposed to.”
“Supposed to?”
His jaw flexed again. “The sap of the Atlantis Life Tree runs in my veins. So long as it grows strong, I too will grow new skin.”
“Jean-Baptiste said Sea Opals having healing powers.”
“Sea Opals are the resin of a Life Tree.”
“So if a Sea Opal washed ashore, then we could both heal…”
“Unfortunately, Sea Opals do not ‘wash ashore.’ Warriors guard them, and they only reach the surface at sacred islands as offerings to treasured brides.”
She studied the island anyway.
Waves had undercut the steep, sheer cliff nearest them. Birds rustled and chirped in the foliage, but there was no way either of them could reach the top.
A strangely familiar shape was carved into the top of the cliff. Eyes, nose, and the cliff made a tuft of hair. Almost like…
“Look!”
He turned.
She pointed out the formation. “It’s a face. Badly weathered, but you can see it. Hey!” She squinted at the other two outcroppings above the waves. “Are faces carved into those rocks too?”
Several minutes of study passed, broken only by the crash of surf, the caw of distant seabirds, and the whine of insects on the harsh wind.
Faier leaned onto his heels. “What does it signify?”
“I think this might be my mom’s island.”
His chin dropped.
She was still becoming familiar with his expressions, and this one was not happy.
“Your sacred island?”
“Er, yeah. I guess.”
He studied the waves with new intensity. “You are sure this is your sacred island?”
“No.”
He looked at her sharply.
“These could be the ‘Three Ancestors’ of water, wind, and land. They were carved into the three hillsides. Probably.”
“Why do you not know?”
“My mom only talked about her island once.”
“Only once…”
“The night I graduated high school.” She poked at the stinging pink punctures on her instep. The star pattern throbbed red. “She got drunk for the first time ever and said my brothers’ spirits were proud. That was the first time I learned I’d had brothers. She’d had a whole family before I was born. They’d all died in the storm.”
“A storm?”
“The storm. The one that destroyed her island and forced my mom’s tribe to leave.”
She explained how, over generations, the sea had risen. The worst tropical storm of the century had whipped a tsunami across their village. The survivors had gathered their meager belongings and cast their fortunes across the sea.
“My mom stayed behind to lead the Sea Lords to the tribe’s new location on Haiti. But she didn’t. According to my great-grandmother, she betrayed the tribe.”
“Betrayed how?”
“No Sea Lords are swimming to Haiti, for one thing. My mom didn’t end up there either.”
“You did not know?”
“Except for that one time after graduation, she talked like her life began on a beach in Miami. She reminisced about being a house cleaner in Dayton, relying on kind strangers to understand basics like how to clean—and even use—a toilet, and blaming the cleaning supplies for what turned out to be morning sickness. She had no idea she was pregnant with me.”
“Humans have a ‘pregnancy test.’”
“Oh, yeah, but you’d only test yourself if you had a reason to think you were pregnant. I mean, the way my mom used to tell it, I was like an immaculate conception. But she must have had a little clue.”
“This is your sacred island.” He squared his broad shoulders. “There must be a sacred church.”
“I’ll search too.” She stood and hobbled one painful step.
“You cannot.”
His rejection slapped her. She fought through the sting. “But I want to.”
“It lies beneath the waves.”
Oh. “It does?”
“When a sacred island sinks, the church also submerges. I will hunt it underwater.”
The raft made a terrible cracking noise. It scraped against the coral but remained in place.
She took another hobbling step. Her ankle panged. “Do you have enough time?”
“I do not know.”
Great. She rubbed her forehead. “So what should I do?”
“Prepare to repel enemy warriors.”
“What!”
“Practice. Channel your inner confidence as queen.”
“Without you?” She held out her palms to stop him. “Warriors come on land?”
“This is your sacred island.”
“I believe. I mean…” Suddenly, she felt hot and lightheaded. She sat with a thump and rested her head against the boulder. “Don’t make me.”
He knelt. “I will not force you to do anything you do not wish, Harmony.”
His tone held a huge “but.”
“But enemy war
riors might,” she finished.
“They will not. Not if you order them.”
Except how would she order armed warriors? She wouldn’t. It was impossible. They’d hurt her.
Once she’d been brave but then life—and Lifet—had kicked the snot out of her and now she was a tiny mouse jumping at every whiff of a cat.
“Maybe they won’t visit.”
“Probably they will not,” he agreed. “But you have been called here. It is likely your soul has called them.”
“My soul?”
“So you must enforce your will, Harmony. Do not let them insist on a course of action you do not wish.”
“But I supposedly kissed you, right? Can you just tell them I claimed you or something ridiculous?”
“Yes.” He met her minimizing, flustered gestures with a solid, unshakeable honor. “To my race, a kiss is very serious. To surface-dwelling humans, it is ‘ridiculous.’ I understand.”
Her heart hurt. She kept hurting Faier when all she wanted to do was climb into his arms and stay there, sheltering him, forever. “Sorry. That’s not what I meant.”
“Your soul darkens with fear.”
“Because I can’t do this without you.”
“I will protect you. I swear this.”
He rested his palm on his chest. His fingers covered the scars so his tattoos looked as if they were whole. The spikes circled his heart like a compass rose.
“You are safe with me.”
Her heart cracked in half, and all the pain, stress, fears of the past decade leaked out.
She hugged her elbows.
Faier wouldn’t manipulate her. She’d known it as soon as she’d seen past her fears on the life raft. The tears threatening to spill out weren’t because she didn’t believe him. They welled because she did believe him.
And that was terrifying.
“Harmony?”
She shook her head, trying to bite her lip.
His breath brushed her cheek. “Harmony?”
She savored the gentle timbre of his voice. Soft, intimate. Kind. For her. It had been so long since she’d felt kindness.
Safety.
She sucked in a shaky breath. Wiping away hints of moisture at her eyelids, she apologized. “I’m sorry. My last boyfriend wasn’t safe. I’m used to listening for a hint of a lie in every promise.”
“I do not lie.”
She laughed through her tears like a sprinkle of fresh rain. “I know. And that’s something I love about y—”
Wait. What was she saying?
She coughed hard, choking on the unfinished words. That’s something I love about you.
Faier waited for her to finish her sentence.
She cleared her throat. New tears in her eyes mixed with the old. “Um, anyway. I hope the Coast Guard makes him regret stranding us out here.”
“If they do not, then you will do so.”
“Me?”
Faier stood and waded into the island’s tides. “Believe, Harmony.”
“Yeah, right.” She hobbled after him and favored her tender instep. “Sure. We’ll just bring Lifet to justice. No problem.”
“Yes, it will be no problem. You plan. I will return.” He splashed to the ledge, dove in, and disappeared.
“Sure, I’ll plot how to dismantle a Haitian gang with money, political allies, and warehouses of guns.” She laughed hysterically. “We’ll do it in our bare feet.”
The empty, windswept island echoed her crazy laughter back at her, and she sat back down on the bumpy rock.
Deep in her heart, it was cathartic.
She’d never have the chance to bring a man like Lifet—or Jean-Baptiste, the real enemy—to justice. But fantasizing about it lifted the unending grind of fear and survival.
Her amusement died. She hugged herself and scanned the water.
Thank goodness Faier was on her side. He was a Sea Lord. He said he would protect her. And he would never, ever betray her.
Chapter Nine
Faier circled the island, searching for what Harmony would only see as a betrayal.
Fear thudded in his chest.
Was this Harmony’s sacred island? Had he brought her to the single most dangerous place in the entire ocean?
There. A dark cave near the surface was too narrow to be a church entrance. He flicked his fins to inspect it anyway.
Ba-whoomph. Ba-woomph. The deadly bass note of the animal’s soul jolted him backward.
Predator.
Apex predator.
He knew this deadly apex predator. What did the humans call it? It had a long, narrow body, four clawed limbs, and one long, flat tail. A land creature that hunted in water, it feasted on unwary fish and birds that perched on its rough, scaled back.
The name would come to him.
He veered from its hole.
Harmony’s blood had doused the water with a tempting scent. But now she rested on a safe boulder. Her blood had dissipated.
It would not lead this apex predator back to her.
And the predator was not the worst danger.
Faier continued his island tour.
What city was nearest to this surface location? Sireno’s rebellious King Jolan pretended to be traditional, but he had refused the All-Council’s bloodthirsty demands. He would shelter them.
Surely they were too far from Sireno.
Then, which city?
Aiycaya?
Faier swam. His heart pounded like the ticking of a human clock, urging him to speed.
I will protect you.
Warriors terrified Harmony. Now Faier searched for a way to make her vulnerable to them. She should fear Faier.
He searched for the sacred church. He would steal a mouthful of elixir. The liquid steeped with generations of Sea Opals would heal her injuries.
And it will transform her into a mermaid.
But only if their souls resonated.
At first, he had not thought she would ever resonate with him. He’d thought he resonated with her alone. As the nights and days passed, he wondered. She seemed closer. And just now she had become aware of his desires. She’d gazed on his hard cock and her pink tongue had touched her lips with interest. More than interest, her soul light had flared. She’d shared his desires.
His cock throbbed with welcome heat.
Was it possible? Had she begun to look past his scars and see the warrior within?
But now he searched for elixir that would destroy Harmony’s trust. Yes, it was to heal her, but she feared being dragged to the bottom of the sea. If she never drank the elixir she would never transform and she would not descend.
So he must tell her before she consumed the healing elixir. Even if she refused to drink it. He must not lie. He would bring her the elixir and tell her the risk.
Unless she had succumbed to her injuries. Many sea animals poisoned humans. Box jellyfish. Portuguese man-of-war. Blue-ring octopus. He had not memorized all.
Her foot and ankle had swelled.
Were urchins fatal as well?
If she became so ill that she could not communicate —if she were dying—would Faier respect her wishes? His heart thudded hard. No. Even though it would destroy this fragile trust growing between them, he could not let his soul mate die. He would feed her the elixir against her will.
Even thinking about betraying her made his chest clench.
Faier swam harder. His right leg twinged with the first warning signs of a cramp. He’d overextended by pushing the raft onto the shelf.
Harmony cannot swim.
Faier surfaced.
The second spire was forbidding and steep. Was it carved into a profile?
Perhaps.
Claw marks showed the apex predator hunted here. It attacked low-level prey.
Like Harmony…
Faier submerged and kicked to the third pillar. He lifted his head in passing—first to check for Harmony, then to look for the carvings—and now the raft surged between them, blocking hi
s view.
Except it wasn’t.
The raft coasted over the shallow rocks. The tide flooded in! Harmony hobbled across the dangerous, urchin-infested white coral after it. She winced.
She was bleeding again. And the waves carried her blood off the shelf in both directions over the water.
He kicked out of the surf to scream. Water choked him. His right leg cramped. He fell back, sealed his lungs to human, and shouted just before he submerged, “Harmony!”
She paused.
Water closed over his view.
He struggled to the surface, massaging his stabbing calf with one hand.
The raft broke free of the rocks with a shriek.
She hurried after it.
“Harmony!”
She paused again.
A long green log swam toward her.
The apex predator.
His blood ran cold. “Harmony!”
She hobbled closer and closer.
He dove, transitioning to mer, and kicked through the pain.
Life Tree, give me speed. Do not let me be too late.
Chapter Ten
Harmony chased the raft, cursing and crying.
Her foot hurt, her throat hurt, and Faier was taking an awfully long time. Long enough for the tide to change and the raft she needed for survival to float away.
She hobbled around the long spikes of the urchins and lunged for the raft—and missed. It was way too heavy for her to control. Her soaked, ragged dress clung to her knees.
Maybe he’d found something exciting.
A secret door that opened into the Mall of America food court.
Two kids selling fresh pineapple juice.
An old lady hawking thick sausage paté. A young, cool guy selling a calorie-dense, blended spaghetti shake. This kind of meal-replacement shake—as in, a full dinner plate was dumped directly into a blender—was found only in Haiti…
One tall, frosty glass of tap water.
Sure.
She lunged again.
A wave knocked the raft into her knees.
“Ack!”
She fell on her butt.
Her dress buttons ripped down the front. Her breasts flew free.
Great.
Just great.
The raft drifted in the opposite direction, scraping coral on the way. Its main support beam tore loose. The raft hung up on the coral and rocked.