He pulled her along.
Finally, thank the waves, they made it to his private wing. They had to go past his guards, and he signaled them not to follow. Ordinarily, without Aaron in attendance, he would have a guard continuously at his side within the palace, and every time he left the grounds. He led Cori down a short hallway, and then they were at the bottom of the stairs, leading to his room. He motioned for her to precede him.
She released his hand and moved past him, then stopped.
“Go on,” he urged, while gesturing for her to go up the stairs. She did. He came up behind her, and they surfaced and stood in a small pool in his bedroom. He moved past her and stepped out of the water. The rest of his room remained dry and looked like any other luxury apartment on land with a pool in the center of it. Well, except for the view.
“I guess I’m not in Kansas anymore,” she murmured.
Xavior grinned. He couldn’t help it.
Two entire walls in his room were giant windows that looked over his undersea kingdom. The other wall was a coral bed made up of beautiful seashells and starfish of every color of the rainbow. Some were luminous and provided stunning nightlight.
She might be in a little bit of shock. She walked around the room exploring, coming to a standstill in front of the wall of windows to his sea world.
“Welcome to my home, Cori,” he spoke the words aloud.
She swung back around to face him. “I feel like I’m at an aquarium, except I’m inside of one. How—how can this be? The palace is obviously underwater, we swam to get here for Christ sake, yet your room, your room…”
“There’s no water in my sleeping quarters, although we can sleep in water. I’d just rather not. Many of us prefer dry beds.” He grinned. “Sorry, just a bit of sea humor, everything is always wet around here.”
She took a deep breath. “Okay, but how can this be? We must be a long way down.”
“You have no idea. The oceans are actually a lot deeper than the seven or so miles human sonar says it is. Some caves provide entrance to greater depths than you can ever imagine. Such as the one we came through. We are actually about five hundred miles from the surface.”
She grabbed hold of the back of a chair. “Oh. My. God.”
He smiled noticing the way her fingers dug into the material. The chair was made from the stained bones of an extinct predecessor to a whale, and the material, while it felt like silk, was made from ocean spiders that dwelled at these depths. He thought it best though not to tell her that just yet. “And there are even deeper darker depths that we dare not venture into.”
“How can you survive the pressure, how can I?”
“As long as you wear the necklace, it will allow you to survive at these depths. How do you feel?”
She paused. “I—I feel fine. Great. A little wet.”
“I’m sorry. I’m being a poor host.” He went to a chest near his bed, then pulled out a robe and a t-shirt. These were a few of the things he’d acquired from land, but most everything in his room, in the palace, came from the sea. “Here.” He offered the robe to her while he pulled on the t-shirt. “Let’s get you out of those wet things. Through, that archway is a bathing chamber. You can have some privacy to change in there.”
“Thank you.”
Xavior watched Cori walk into the other room. No door separated the chambers in his quarters. If he remained standing, he could get a glimpse of her as she changed, but he gave her privacy by moving over to his dresser and quickly changing his own clothes. Then he stood before the sea window, so he would not be tempted to take a peek. So far so good. She seemed to accept everything about him without going into shock. Hope spiraled in his heart. The sound of a small footstep behind him made him turn around.
Cori stopped at the foot of his bed. Her hair hung in ringlets just brushing the edge of her shoulders. His robe, too large for her, engulfed her much smaller frame.
He needed to remember to ask his sisters to bring her some clothes. Not that the sea children had much use of them, they wore the equivalent of bathing suits. Smiling, he moved toward her. He raised his fingers to her face, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. His heart pounded against his ribcage when she leaned into his caress and placed her hand over his.
“I don’t know what’s going on here, but whatever it is, I should be running, or rather swimming—in the other direction as fast as I can,” she said.
“So, why aren’t you?”
In response, she wrapped her arms around his neck and he leaned down to capture her lips. “That’s a very good question,” she whispered against his mouth. “As soon as I come up with an acceptable answer, I’ll let you know.”
Without releasing her from their embrace, he picked her up and carried her over to the bed. Laying her down, he removed the belt from the robe, spreading the covering open, so he could see the woman within. “Beautiful,” he whispered.
He’d just pulled his shirt off and tossed it to the floor when the pool of water beside the bed began to flash multiple colors. A signal of something requiring his immediate attention. He tried to ignore it, but when it began to bubble, he knew it to be something he couldn’t ignore. It meant trouble. Glancing at the bounty before him, he groaned. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. You have no idea how much.”
She sat up and pulled the robe around her. “What? What’s wrong?”
He frowned. “Duty calls. Something is going on, and I have to go see what that something might be.”
“Oh. Right. You’re royalty. Okay, well when you get back, Your Highness, you and I are going to talk.”
He grinned, and leaning forward, kissed her quickly. “I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I’ll send my sisters to you with some food and clothes.” He turned, took two strides and dove into the pool of water.
His guards waited for him at the bottom of the steps. “Our Prince,” they said in unison. Ballen, the tallest of the two, and the one in charge of his safety when Aaron was not around, spoke, “We’ve spotted denizens of the dark, circling the perimeter of the city, about a hundred kilometers from the forbidden grounds. Within the treaty limits, but still closer than they’ve ever come.”
“I’m not surprised. One of the white witch’s pets attacked us yesterday.”
“Is she the one?” Ballen asked.
He glanced at the man. Ballen, always the quick one. He originally pointed out before anyone else realized it that Xavior had begun to age. So, bringing a strange landwalker among them could mean only one thing.
Xavior grinned. “I think so, my friend.”
“Then the sooner we test her in the chair, the sooner we can put an end to this war,” Ballen argued.
“Not yet. Let me take a look at what we’re up against right now.”
“Is that why you were attacked?” Ballen frowned. “The bitch witch was after her.”
“Ah, I see Aaron has already been in contact with you.” At Ballen’s nod, he continued, “Yes. And don’t say it…I know. Her life remains in danger the longer she isn’t tested. But she’s safe for now. I need time. Just a little time for her to come to know me.”
Ballen had been one of the fortunate ones. He’d known his fated mate all his life. “As you wish. I just hope we have that time.”
“Sevvern, you remain here. You guard that which is most precious to me. Have one of the dolphins find my sisters and bring them to you. Ask them to take some food and clothes to my guest. Her name is Cori. And tell them not to pester her with questions.”
Sevvern had the ability to communicate with dolphins, not many of them could talk to sea creatures. “Done, Highness,” he replied.
His second-in-command laughed and moved aside, so he could swim down the corridor and out of the palace. He left through a different entrance and went past several of his people, swimming in the opposite direction away from any possible confrontation. His warriors, however, were moving with him up to the top ridge where they could see the farthest.
The dark moving area just beyond the spelled treaty markers, flashing red at their approach looked like an oil spill spreading across a couple of acres beyond the city. “By Poseidon’s beard, the white witch is bold to come so close to the King’s city,” Ballen observed.
“Looks like she’s calling up all of the dark depths. She knows I cannot allow her to do that.” He raised his hand and his trident appeared in his palm, the tips already glowing bright red until the red light surrounded him. “Halt!” His roar travelled across the distance between the royal city and the insidious darkness creeping toward it. All its movement stopped. “By the king’s rite, I command you to leave this place and return from whence you came.”
At first, nothing moved. Then slowly, gradually, a lone figure formed and rose up out of the dark muck. The black slid from her, revealing a woman. She sailed over the darkness covering the ground, her white hair waved around her, the color stark against the blue depths. The last time the white witch challenged Poseidon for his throne, he’d marked her so she would not forget who the victor was that day. Her hair had once been vivacious red.
Poseidon had gone even beyond the known depths and had not shown himself in eons. His enemies were becoming overly bold. This one hated his legacy more than any other.
Tabatha the White, as she liked to call herself, stopped a few feet from the border where the city limits began. “Ah, you may hold the trident, Xavior, but you are not king. Only the king commands the depths.”
“Perhaps, but I do hold the power to destroy you,” he replied. The trident glowed, turning the surrounding water red. “We can do this easily or not. Up to you.”
Her shrill laughter caused ripples in the water. “Neither, Xavior. I come to claim the challenge rite. For I too, hold Poseidon’s blood. I claim chair rite.”
“You!” Ballen shouted.
“Xavior has no mate. And he is of age. He has never found her, thus the legacy passes to next in line or whoever wishes to test the chair. I claim chair rite. I need only to sit the chair and have it accept me as his mate.”
“You are not his mate!” Ballen shouted again, murmurs could be heard around them from the warriors behind him.
“Only the chair can decide that,” she countered.
Ballen took a step forward and Xavior raised his arm to stop him. “That is true, but it will not be you. For you see, I have already found my mate.”
“Oh!” She raised one delicate eyebrow in disbelief. “If that were true, the chair would have accepted her and all sea children would know we now have a queen and that Xavior is king.” She glanced around and spread her arms wide. “I see no proof of that, Xavior, therefore…” She boldly took a step forward. “By Poseidon’s law, I may try the chair.”
The chill of fear snaked down Xavior’s spine, and he tightened his grip on the trident, making the red around him pulse like a living flame. “No! There is one other who must try it first. That is my right!”
“True. And should it not accept me, then you can certainly try. But it will. For I am your mate.”
“This isn’t right…” Ballen’s mind spoke directly to Xavior.
“Yes, on that we agree.” Xavior raised his head and turned to look at the white witch.
Some would call her beautiful. Even among the sea people, she stood out, but he found her beauty cold. No warmth dwelled in the emerald depths of her eyes.
“I have one circle of the sun. That is also the law.” He knew the laws as well as she did. But she was also right, she did have standing to sit the chair and be tested, but he also had the right to test someone of his choosing. The problem was time. He did not have much of it. Also, if she risked the chair, something else was going on which he did not understand. He knew in his soul, the witch was not his mate. Cori was.
“No!” She shook her head, her hair whipping around her like agitated tentacles.
“You dare to question me?” The red of the trident flared even brighter, reflecting his anger.
She raised her hand, unable to stare directly at the powerful light coming from him. “Very well. One circle of the sun.” She turned around, and eventually the darkness swallowed her up.
He heard a gasp behind him and spun around to see Cori and his sisters watching the white witch. Cori’s gaze swung back and forth between him and where the witch had disappeared. He extinguished his powers and sent the trident back to the in-between realm until he was ready to call it forth again.
Chapter Six
“Who or what the hell was that?” Cori asked. The woman looked stunning. When Xavior’s sisters came to the chamber with clothes, she thought they were kidding. The two strips of flimsy silk-like material they brought for her to put on, only marginally qualified as a bathing suit. But at least she wasn’t topless or naked.
Unlike the beautiful woman with the opal-colored hair and blue sheen to her skin. The only thing she wore was her long hair, and part of it seemed to wrap around her thighs and nether region, but her breasts were bare for all to see.
“Mate?” Cori said, hating the confusion and hurt in the sound of her voice. “She’s your mate, as in wife?”
“Dark depths, no!” Xavior and Ballen stated in unison.
“What is going on?” she asked, staring at Xavior.
“She is not my mate,” he seethed. “Nor, will she ever be.”
“Okay.” The denial was forceful enough and she believed him, but still, something was going on. “So, what’s with this chair thing and who do you have in mind to try it?” The thought of someone else as his mate choked her. Something inside her silently screamed, no.
One of his sisters must have sensed her distress and wrapped her arm around her shoulders, drawing her attention. “Cori, among our people there is only one person for each of us, only one person that triggers our aging. That happens when we meet our mates.”
“I don’t understand.”
“We grow until the age of human puberty, fourteen to sixteen, and then we remain that way. But unlike humans, we are unable to reproduce until we begin to age again. That doesn’t happen until we met our mates. Something, a chemical hormone, whatever, is released into our system, kick starting the aging process again. Then we age but continue to look no older than a human in their mid to late twenties.”
She glanced at the adult Xavior. He obviously found his mate. His sister continued, while Cori’s heart cracked. “However, we don’t or can’t always tell who the person is who triggered it, or even when exactly it was triggered.”
“Sounds pretty clinical to me.” And sad. “What about love?” She needed to know, did he love this unknown female? How could he?
At this, both sisters laughed. “The one who triggers it is the one we will love for a lifetime.”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry for being so dense, but just because you have a chemical reaction to someone, doesn’t mean you automatically fall in love with that person.” But some part of her continued to die inside, because Xavior’s destined mate was not her. Yet, who else had he brought to test the chair? It had to be someone already here.
“For us, yes. That is what happens,” Xavior agreed.
Then— oh God, he’d met his intended, and he did love this person. Yet, he slept with her, so obviously monogamy didn’t mean a thing to them. She needed to get out of there. She must get away from him. Her hands trembled, but she hid it by moving them in the water. “Oh, okay. Uh, listen, Xavior, thank you for bringing me here and showing me all of these wonders.” She couldn’t look at him. Instead, she glanced around, stared at his sisters and the other man beside him. The last thing she wanted to do was burst into tears for her stupidity. But what the hell, she was already in water. If she cried, there would be nothing to see. Still, she blinked and swallowed, then continued to talk as if nothing was wrong.
They all remained quiet around her as she paused.
“…And I promise you have nothing to fear from me. I won’t say a word about you or the sea people. But I think
I really should be getting back. Des will be worried and I was having a great time on the ship. Oh, not that I’m not enjoying myself visiting this wonderful world—but it looks like you’re going be busy and all, so perhaps your sisters or someone can point me in the direction I need to go and I’ll be on my way.” The words tumbled over each other, but what else could she do? He had a mate. And it was not her. Her thoughts and behavior were irrational, a part of her recognized that, yet the pain of his rejection hurt like a bitch.
“Come with me.” Xavior wrapped her in his arms, her smaller frame trembling against him. Glancing over at his sisters and Ballen, he murmured, “Excuse us.”
“Highness—” Ballen began.
“Don’t worry, we won’t go far. To the city center.”
“Good. About time you put someone in that chair.”
“Dismiss the warriors but maintain a perimeter guard.”
Ballen nodded, he and his sisters would remain near the edge of King’s City.
Xavior swam with Cori to the heart of it. They remained silent during the short swim. There in the center, in the middle of a coral bed, sat the chair, placed there when the world was young to determine who would have the right to rule the inhabitants of the waters, both the upper and lower depths, even the dark ones.
They came to a stop before it.
“What is this? Why—why did you bring me here?”
“I am ready to tell you everything.”
She shook her head. She’d parted her hair in the center and wore it in two braids, one on each side of her head. She looked adorable, young and innocent. A faint memory flashed before him, but her sadness beat at him. It hurt his heart. His precious Cori was in pain and he could not allow it.
“No, it’s okay, you don’t owe me any explanations,” she continued on, “We had sex, it was just one night or day. Really great sex but no big deal, right? Right. So, no worries, I misunderstood your intentions, Your Highness.”
She could not have caused him more pain if she’d stuck a knife in his chest. To think what lay between them was meaningless or that he would ever be unfaithful to his mate. He grabbed her hands and forced her to meet his gaze. He wanted her to see into him, to read the depths of his feelings for her and the truth in his words. “Listen to me. I am a son of Poseidon. One of many, but yes, I am also the heir, named the next in line for the sea throne. But I cannot take my rightful place as king until I take a bride.”
Sea Bride- Children of the Waves Page 5