“Two thousand empty calories.”
“Onions are really healthy. I’m so hungry. You should make me something Soremni.”
“I don’t cook Soremni food.”
“Why not? You cook really well.”
“Soremni men don’t cook. Didn’t you notice?”
My stomach tightened as I thought of Soremni men. One in particular. Oliver. “Hm. Now that you mention it.”
He ran his hands up my arms and down the small of my back. “I don’t want anything Soremni for a long time. Except you. And you aren’t Soremni. Don’t ask me if I want to breed. I’ll think you actually want to talk about logistics.”
I felt my face heat up. “You know better than that. We’re not married for real. I’m with Flop. Breeding should be post marriage.”
He stared at me for a long time. “You mean human marriage specifically? That’s real to you?”
I shrugged and shifted uncomfortably. “Like you said, we’ll work through all the kinds of marriages. When we’re finished with all of them, and the obsession is over, and I’m not a physical threat to your entire world, we’ll be married for real.”
“In that case, I probably shouldn’t get you a bigger bed.”
My heart pounded as I stared at Sean, my pretend Vashni husband who had felt really, really real in Terramore. “It wouldn’t fit up the stairs anyway.”
He sighed and brushed my face with his fingers. “Are we going to Cierdeep or staying here?”
“How can you stay here? You decided that you were going to do the games again this year. All the monsters are counting on it.”
“We decided that we were going to Cierdeep together. I’m not going without you. You’d probably drown an entire continent if I left you here without your squiggy fish.”
“But, Sean, I can’t live in the ocean again. I wiped out Terramore.”
He brushed my cheek with his hand. “I’d like to think of it as a group effort. I took you there because I needed to know your limits. We found them and there were no fatalities. Not only did we experience your amazing range of control, we got treaties with the Deepness. You don’t know how rare that is. Both the prince and myself are convinced that if precautions are taken, you’ll be perfectly safe in Cierdeep.”
“You mean Cierdeep will be perfectly safe from me.”
He smiled and brushed my lips with his before pulling back to stare at me, not adoringly, but a little bit sweet. “If you want to stay here and work on breeding, I’m not going to protest too much. We’ll build a kingdom on land if you’d like.”
I stared at him, glancing down at his strong chest, the long, muscular lines of him. I didn’t even blush before I refocused on his face and shook my head. “You and your beautiful genetics. Before that horrible night, the one where we watched the movies in your basement and I saw in the dark for the first time, Flop was talking about how adorable our babies would be.” I squeezed my eyes closed for a second before I sighed and shook my head. “You sacrificed so much to get where you are in the games. All those people, the so-called monsters who believe in you, how could you let them down? They can’t blend in with humans on land.”
He kissed me, slow and sweet before he pulled away and shook his head. “You come first. I made it very public. The only reason for not going that people would understand would be breeding. My father’s right about that. I can’t believe the two of you had that conversation. You should have killed him.”
“I kind of thought he’d lock me up again.”
His eyes widened. “Oh no. The only danger is that you’re going to hurt him. You don’t understand Soremni males. Your children are my father’s immortality, that and his work, which I’m doing as long as he keeps you protected. You’re perfectly entitled to scream at him, though. Break his ears, make his eyes bleed. He’s the one who let my mother blow up Junie and Dean.”
Cole was so right to stay out of my life. I sighed. “Like I’d hurt my fake-husband’s dad.”
“Fake?”
I held up my left hand. “Do you see a ring?”
He threaded his fingers in mine. “Human traditions are so strange. What does jewelry have to do with anything?”
“I don’t really know. Does it make less sense than milking a brogge?”
“Milking a brogge together proves that you’re capable of performing basic subsistence tasks. You are ready to breed and your children won’t starve. You can wear a ring all by yourself.”
I frowned at my hands. “Huh. I haven’t managed yet. Are you serious about staying here with me if I don’t take the risk of destroying Cierdeep and the millions of people who live there, even if we weren’t breeding?”
“Of course. How could I abandon my fake-wife at the first sign of inconvenience?”
I snorted and shook my head, staring at him. “You really would make a great husband and dad.”
He raised his eyebrows. “And you sound surprised.”
I shrugged. “I never really thought about you like that.”
“Really? Performing all these marriage customs didn’t give you the idea that I might be husband material?”
“Not real husband. Definitely fake husband, but real ones last a long time, don’t they?”
“Generally.” He sat up, dumping me on the bed. “This conversation makes me want to breed. Imagine Genevieve Castle finally noticing that I’m husband material. I think I might weep.”
“I’m not wife material.” Not as long as I was obsessed with someone else and a threat to the entire world. I pulled up my knees and stared at him. He was so beautiful as he stretched his arms over his head and rolled his neck. It couldn’t be all that comfortable for me to sleep on him.
“You’ve had thousands of marriage proposals from Soremni males who witnessed your moving musical performance. I think it’s safe to say that your opinion is in the minority.”
“What? Are you crazy?”
“Don’t let it get to your head. I’ve had twice as many as you, at least. Remind me to never sing in public again.”
“Never sing in public again.”
He brushed my cheek with his fingers. “You didn’t tell me how amazing I was.”
I frowned in thought. “Oh, I guess I forgot about it.”
His eyes narrowed. “Of course you did.”
I grabbed him and kissed him before he could get off my bed. I tugged him closer to me until he pulled me on his lap and wrapped his arms around me. He tasted salty, sweet, and like Sean.
“Sean,” I whispered before I kissed him again, gripping his shirt and sliding my lips over his silky ones until my whole body was alive with shivers. I pulled away and pressed my lips together. “I feel like I’m cheating, kissing you like a human. How weird is it to be human?”
He cupped my face and kissed me, long, slow before it became something frantic and devouring. My lips parted and I tasted him, the sweet depths of him like the ocean, an ocean that would buoy me up instead of drowning me.
He sighed and ran his hands through my hair. “We’re going to that horrible French restaurant and we’re going to make a list about pros and cons. Wear the red sheath dress in your closet. I’ll go change in the miniscule bathroom downstairs.” He kissed me again before he shook his head and rolled off my bed. “I honestly thought you’d beg me to sing with you again. I was all prepared to tell you no. Do you have no taste?”
I laughed and grabbed his hand for a second. “None, but you knew that. I loved singing with you. It was the most perfect and exquisite, completely happy moment of my entire life. That sound will haunt me for the rest of forever. But, it’s too much for me. You know how I get when you’re sweet. It makes me crazy. It makes the water crazy.”
He kissed my hand, slow, staring at me over my knuckles like I was the only thing in the world. I gazed at him adoringly before I blinked and tugged my hand out of his.
“Like that. Don’t make me stupid about you. I’m already stupid enough.”
“That remain
s to be seen. I’ll be waiting when you’re ready.”
The list was like this.
Pros for Cierdeep
1-Junie’s there.
2-Junie won’t kill me for bailing on the monster cause.
3-We could change the world.
4-Soremni food is good.
5-I could intern with my dream composer.
Pros for Home
1-No water.
2-I could go to a crappy college.
3-Less potential for killing millions.
4-I could pretend to be human.
5-I liked my dad.
I exhaled and flung the notebook down on the crisp white tablecloth of the fancy French restaurant. “Basically we’d stay here because I’m scared. Going is all the risk and all the reward, here is all the safe and boring.”
He picked up the notebook and tapped it. “I can guarantee that you’ll find some way to make it exciting here.”
I bit my bottom lip. “We wouldn’t actually be breeding, not until…”
His eyes narrowed. “I’m aware. No, actually I was talking about the lake outside this window. Can you calm it down?”
I turned to see the swirling eddies on the water. I focused the way I’d focused on the way home from Terramore, going through the water and forcing my way through the ocean. The lake went flat without the slightest movement, eerily still before I relaxed and it began to eddy and flow like normal.
“Sorry.”
He shook his head, leaning back like the chairs were anything close to comfortable. “Don’t be. You actually have an impressive amount of control. What do you think about Siren’s rock?”
“Don’t you think people will expect me to go there and maybe capture me?”
“My dad owns it, has for generations. It can be our romantic getaway.”
“Is it romantic?”
“If you like rocks and gulls, cloudy skies and constant breakers.” He shrugged his enormous shoulders beneath the lines of his suit. He was too big to be dressed so fine, but at the same time, it suited him, even with the red line across his forehead and the tattoos at the neck, he still had that refined, rich thing going on.
I fiddled with my napkin. “I like you. If we did go to Cierdeep and I went to Siren’s rock on the weekends, how could you come with me every week? Don’t you need to train fourteen hours a day and do parades?”
“I’m getting a double.”
“This is such a weird conversation. You’re firing Yamwe? That is really great. I hope he finds a better career because he is the worst double in the world.”
“Having doubles is stranger than calming the lake with your emotions? I’m not firing Yamwe. He’s staying in Maine. I’m hiring a gladiator double. He’s been working very hard for the part. He’s a relative of Yamwe’s, actually. He’s a little bit infatuated with you.”
I stared at him. “They found someone who has a chest like yours?”
“Pretty close. Are you disappointed?”
“Of course not. There should be millions of your chests in the world. Is it ethical to use a double in the games?”
He shrugged and buttered a lovely flaky roll. “Of course. He’ll be on my team. It’ll give us more flexibility. Like your doubles. Triples, I should say.”
“Sean, do you want to go to Cierdeep?”
He took my hand and gazed into my eyes. “Not if you can’t take a shower without panicking.”
I sighed. “But if I can?”
“If you’re willing to follow the rules, and be very, very careful, I think it’s the most logical step.”
“What about the Soremni marriage customs?” My heart pounded as he gazed at me.
“I can survive kissing your hand while performing various acts of triviality. Hopefully you’ll speak Soremni as rarely as possible.”
“Why does it bother you so much?”
He studied me coldly. “It brings out the Soremni male in me. It’s become excessively clear why a Siren is not her best as a Soremni. You were lost in me. I’ve never seen a female that utterly lost in anything other than the obsession. You’re like a Soremni female on crack. I still crave you.”
I poked his hand. “But you sucked on my neck to get a sample of those hormones, in case it helped with the cure, right? It was all logical.” The cure. My heart pounded harder. I’d been trying not to think about it, not when I wanted so, so, so, so much to be the kind of person who would break Oliver’s face for touching me, the kind of person who could marry Sean for real without knowing I might betray him any time.
“It was part of my decision, but to be honest, I’ve been wanting to bite the back of your neck since the first time you marked me. Since before that. Since the first time I heard that you kissed Oliver.” He ran a hand over his face. “I was not thinking of you as my fake wife. I was thinking of you as mine to take in any way I craved. If we’d been alone, I would have…” He scowled at me. “Which is part of why I delayed returning to you on Oliver’s ship and probably makes me as bad as Oliver.”
“I asked you to nibble on my neck. I’m pretty sure I would have been ecstatic with anything you did other than leaving me.”
“But it wasn’t you.”
I shrugged and rubbed my arms. My neck prickled and throbbed. “I don’t know. Sometimes I think that there are lots of me’s just waiting. Like the Cleaver Queen. She kind of scares me. And that girl who wandered into the bay and brought it to life? Terrifying. The Soremni female inside of me who wants you to nibble on her neck is positively harmless compared to others.” Like the obsessed girl who ached for Oliver even when Sean was right here.
He inhaled sharply. “And you aren’t even speaking Soremni.” He stood up, threw some bills on the table and held his hand out to me. “Don’t tell me that you liked it. That’s a slippery slope that will lead to breeding before we’re married for real.”
We left the restaurant, him holding my hand in a firm grip. When we got outside we stood there waiting for the valet to bring around Sean’s gunmetal Maserati. He gripped my hand tighter and tighter until I couldn’t feel my fingers.
I breathed shallowly but didn’t say anything. Was he freaking out? When the car came around, he opened the door, barely waited until I was in before slamming it and going around. He took a few minutes standing by his door, staring at the lake before he got in. He turned on the engine, the purring rumble that went through my bones and reminded me of my Terramore composition. I needed to work on it some more.
“Gen, I gave Oliver a sample of your excretions.”
“Excretions. Good thing we’re on a romantic date. Ew.”
“I traded it for his as well as the lake.”
“The lake? My lake? Stinky belongs to me? Huh. So my excretions are enough to pay for a lake. Awesome.” My stomach churned. This was a big deal that he hadn’t wanted to talk about.
“More than that. It’s priceless. I wouldn’t have given them for anything besides a cross-trade of all of Oliver’s samples. My father isn’t certain I should have done that. We have him if we need a royal sample, but Oliver’s resources are vast. Spyguy is worried that they aren’t secure, but when I had him try to break into Oliver’s lab, he failed. That’s something.”
“When did Spyguy do that?”
“Before I gave the sample, of course.”
I held up a hand. “You’re saying that after our mind-blowing duet, you sucked on my neck, then spit whatever you got out into baggies and handed them out like party favors?”
“Exactly. No. I swallowed it. Had to regurgitate it back up later.”
I wrinkled my face. “Huh. This feels real.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m not this sexy in your dreams? I’ll have to work on that.”
“I mean this feels like real husband stuff. Not just perfect kisses but spit and slime. Couldn’t you have talked to me about the trade before you bartered away my excretions?” I should be angry at him. Thing is, I’d demolished his home. This just didn’t seem like a
s big a thing for some reason.
“I was in a highly emotional state. Terramore was being destroyed while you were lost to me. I made the choice like a true Soremni male. I didn’t tell you right away because, you have to admit, it’s not a pretty conversation.”
I sat back and stared out the window. “Go to Stinky.”
He shifted down. “Is that an order from my fake Vashni wife?”
“It’s my lake, isn’t it?”
“It’s your lake.”
I smiled slightly and wrote a few notes on the foggy part of the window.
“We’ll go, see how well I can control it. If I can rile it up and calm it back down three times without getting either of us wet, we’ll consider the possibility of going to Cierdeep.”
He grabbed my hand and kissed the back of it. “I’m sorry we haven’t found a cure yet.”
I shrugged and clung to his hand before I turned to him. “You are my cure.”
Chapter 18
Turns out I had almost perfect control over Stinky. Not a drop of spray touched us even though it whirled all around. I couldn’t quite believe it.
I turned to Sean who stood, arms crossed, looking bored. “You aren’t surprised.”
“I told you that I think you’ll be fine in Cierdeep so long as you don’t sing. I wouldn’t lie about that.”
Still, I had my doubts and very justified paranoia.
I spent a lot of time in the dojo. I’d been mostly okay at the lake with Sean, but when I tried to go back alone, one look at my lake and the way it waited, breathlessly expecting my call to kill someone, had me biking back home.
I was in the dojo, working on katas when Spyguy came in. Still blonde.
“When are you going to dye it back to normal?” I asked. Lunge. Thrust. Turn.
“This is closer to natural than the black. How are you doing?”
I stood, breathing hard and wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. I should turn up the air conditioning. The humidity was the pits in August. He was wearing soft black pants and shirt with white running shoes. He looked kind of cool, like a stylish human or something. He really put everything into his personas. He was an artist of the lie.
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