by Lazu, Sotia
All her mated sisters were happy, as far as she knew, but she saw Glauce more often. Probably because Glauce loved flaunting her happiness—as well as reminding everyone that her love story had been immortalized in books and movies. As if the entire Vythos didn’t know she sank the poor man’s ship so she could save him and make him fall for her.
“Not like I’m making a great sacrifice; I’m going to fall in love with someone who’ll love me back.” She looked at Delphinos challengingly. Say something, she screamed inside her head, but they were in human form, and he couldn’t read her thoughts. Which was good, because she had no clue what she wanted him to say. That he was in love with her? Pfft. Their relationship wasn’t like that.
Delphinos scoffed. “Right. Before her hundred years are up, she’ll give her heart to a single man, who shall love her upon dry land.” He spat out the part of the prophecy that referred to Halie, as if it tasted bad.
She hated seeing him like this. Why couldn’t he enjoy what they had while it lasted? “He doesn’t have my heart yet,” she said, willing him to understand... What?
He took a step toward her, and for a split second Halie believed he’d gather her in his arms and make her body sing with pleasure. But he didn’t come any closer. He squeezed his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, they were as cold as the stones they resembled. “No.” He shook his head. “I won’t be here, waiting for that.”
He strode out of the room and slammed the door behind him.
Chapter Five - Delphinos
He should just go to the Caribbean and forget all about Halie. Stay there for the next handful of moons, till she was out of his system and he could stomach seeing her with another male. A few long strokes, and he could be drowning his sorrows in the greatest human invention—rum.
The kingdom of Vythos was seated in the deepest region of the Mediterranean Sea, the Calypso Deep, but only Delphinos and his shapeshifting brothers could locate it. They also had the power to transport from there to any sea they pleased by merely thinking of their destination, which was why Nereus employed them to transport his daughters, the Nereids when he had Circe hide Vythos from outsiders.
And why Delphinos had accompanied Halie everywhere since she was first allowed to visit the surface.
Poseidon’s knotted beard. Why was he thinking about Halie again, when he should be forgetting her?
He groaned and took the flight of stairs that led to the top of the castle two at a time. He needed to get to the water before the fire in his soul devoured him whole.
He burst out the door and leaped through the bubble and into the cold sea, then willed his body to remold into his half-man, half-fish form. At least this solved the morning-erection issue.
He twirled through the water but couldn’t bring himself to put half a planet between him and Halie. It was work ethic, pure and simple. Taking her to land and making sure she returned safely was his job. And if he wasn’t around, next time she went ashore she might lose herself for good.
That was why he didn’t believe in fairy tales and legends—they got the important things wrong.
Mermaids and Nereids didn’t have to pay the sea-witch, to get legs; all they had to do was leave the water. The price they paid came later, and it was meant as a safeguard, rather than a punishment. If they stayed among the humans for more than a month without their true love, they lost their memories of Vythos forever, as did anyone they’d trusted with the secret of their dual nature.
It didn’t work the same way with sea daimons, so there went another hope of wiping Halie from his mind.
He huffed, which resulted to tiny bubbles that reflected the golden light surrounding Vythos, and mocked his frustration. He swatted at them, aware of the silly spectacle his impotent fury made.
A lap around the city might calm the blood that boiled in his veins and help him see things more clearly.
It didn’t.
His arms were sore and his tail tired as he reached his cave, outside the circle of bubbles, but he still scurried to meet Halie when he saw her hovering outside the cave’s entrance. He didn’t care if she changed her mind; he’d soak up every possible moment of her presence.
Halie’s green tail twitched from side to side, as she floated in place just out of his reach. “Are you still upset?” she asked in his mind.
He shook his head, the fight sapped out of him.
“Take me up?” She held out one hand, and Delphinos grasped it and helped her climb on his back.
“Where to?” he thought at her.
“That island...” She sent him a mental image of sea foam caressing black sand framed by tall white rocks.
He knew this beach. He’d first lain Halie on that sand and stolen her kisses, the same day she stole his heart.
“Hold on tight,” he said and sliced through the water to the surface, focusing on the image in his head and the feel of her arms around his chest. This was right. This was perfect.
The supernatural underwater glow gave way first to absolute darkness, and then to the setting sun, filtered through the clear, blue waters of the Aegean.
Halie’s laugh was the only sound to reach his ears as their heads broke the surface. Tingling, innocent, and happy, it warmed him to the core.
She let go, and cold water filled the space where her chest had been pressed to his back.
Delphinos spun, to see her swimming backward. “Where are you going, little water nymph?” he asked.
Halie arched an eyebrow and hooked her index finger at him with a smirk. When he reached for her, she used her tail to splash him and laughed again.
The white rocks surrounding the beach echoed with her mirth, and his breath caught in his throat. If only he could freeze time and live with her in this moment forever... This was how things should always be between them—light and fun. No heartache. No thinking of what came next.
Only, as she approached the sand, stood on long legs, and threw a glance at him over her shoulder, Delphinos knew things had never been that simple.
“Catch me,” she said, her voice husky.
He let his tail give way to his legs and walked toward her till his cock bobbed above the water level. “And then?”
Halie raised her arms over her head, to twist the water off her long, red tresses. She had to be aware of how the position pushed out her breasts.
A trickle of water making its way down her belly, around her pierced belly button, and to the soft down between her legs. Delphinos watched it, mesmerized, when she said, “You can do whatever you want with me.”
He let out a growl and lunged at her. She turned away with a squeal. It only took three strides, and he tackled her to the dark sand. She squirmed, but he rolled her on her back and pinned her down with his body. “Guess you’re mine now.”
She wriggled beneath him, and he was about to let her up, but she spread her legs and shifted so his hips were cradled between her thighs. “Oh no. Now what?” She batted her eyelashes in exaggerated fear, but her hazel eyes burned with a yearning that rivaled his.
His palms framing Halie’s head, he splayed his fingers on the sand and propped himself up, to take her in. Her naked skin glistened with seawater, goose flesh perking her creamy breasts and tightening her nipples. Her hair was matted with sand, and drops of water on her lashes caught the dimming light.
There was a laugh hidden at the corners of her lips, and Delphinos had to kiss it. He adjusted his position and twisted one hand in her locks, to slant his lips over hers. She tasted like love, and when she parted her lips and her tongue played with his, he couldn’t hold back a groan.
Halie moaned, and he was overtaken with the need to be inside her.
He broke the kiss and rolled his hips, reveling at her heat against his length. “I want you,” he whispered in her ear. “Only you.”
She wrapped her fingers around his erection and tugged, until he looked up at her. Then, holding his gaze, she arched her back and led him between her folds.
&nbs
p; “What do you desire?” he asked. He meant to make her say the words, but she wrapped her legs around him, and he was lost. He buried his shaft inside her in one hard stroke. His body tensed with the effort to hold back when every instinct told him to pound her into the sand, but this might be the last time she was his so totally. He had to take his time. He held her in place with his hands on her hips and rose up on his knees, as he glided back out. “You know you burn for me,” he rasped, driving forward again. “The sun and the sea know it too. No other man will ever make you feel this way.”
Halie tensed, and he was afraid she’d tell him to stop, but she planted her feet on the ground for support and met his thrusts, urging him to take her faster. The breeze almost stole her voice, but he still heard her whisper, “Don’t. Don’t spoil this.”
This was about so much more than the friction building up to their release. She had to know. She had to see.
The unshed tears glimmering in her eyes kept him quiet, while her velvet heat drew him closer to the edge. She raised her arms, and he pulled her up and lay back, so she was on top of him. He drove inside her time and again, trying to emblazon every sensation in his mind for eternity. The sand, warm against his skin. Halie, clenching around him. Her nails, digging into his shoulders. Her knees, pressed to his sides. He needed more. All of her. He wanted to turn himself into a wave and surround her every moment of every day she spent in the sea, then become the air that filled her lungs when she walked the Earth.
Halie’s breath came out in pants, a flush spreading from her chest up her neck. His hearts bouncing against his ribs, he used his grip on her hips to slam her down on his cock. He pressed his thumb to her clit and rubbed, until her back bowed with her release and her cries reached his ears, amplified by the echo.
She leaned forward and sealed his mouth with hers as she swiveled her hips. Her choked sob broke Delphinos’ heart, but he kept ploughing her body, until he was spent inside her. Still she sucked on his tongue and bit at his lips with a frenzy that tasted of desperation.
“Hey.” Delphinos broke the kiss and tried to look her in the eye, but she buried her face in his shoulder. “Hey,” he said again. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t.”
The muffled words hit him with the force of a thunderbolt. “Can’t what?” But he knew the answer.
She rolled off him and stood without facing him. “Take me home, please.”
“Halie—”
She shook her head, and he knew no words could change her mind. She’d never be his.
Chapter Six - Halie
The moment Vythos was in sight, Halie let go of Delphinos and swam toward the castle without a look back. What he said during their coupling made it impossibly hard to say goodbye. If she saw his beautiful eyes one more time, she’d never be able to leave, and then her people would be doomed.
She made it to the castle bubble and dove through it, then pulled on a robe. The same green as his hair. Okay, she had to snap out of it and hurry inside.
Only she took her time, tying the sash into a bow. Part of her wanted him to chase her. To force her to admit she—
Nope. Not going there.
She threw open the door and almost ran into her brother.
Nerites clasped her shoulders, steadying her. “Woah, there. Is the mighty Poseidon after you?” His face—so beautiful, Helios himself once vied for his affections—lit up with a smile that wilted when Halie sniffled. “Are you all right? Has something happened to Delphinos?” he asked.
Halie’s heart constricted, but she channeled her pain into an angry glare. “Why does it have to be about him? Can’t I be upset about... global warming?”
Nerites shook his head, his shoulder-length golden curls swaying around his face like a halo. He studied her so intently, Halie raised mental walls around her thoughts, though he shouldn’t be able to read her mind now. His deep-blue eyes, always hiding a sadness since Aphrodite left him for Olympus, were filled with sympathy. “Come on, sister. I know he pines for you, and I’ve seen how you look at him.”
Could Delphinos be pining for her, when he had her mere minutes ago? Perhaps. She already missed his touch.
She averted her gaze. “Well, he doesn’t control my mood. I’m just not feeling very well, and I need to head to the surface soon.” The sooner the better, or she might lose heart.
Nerites grasped her wrists and tugged till she faced him again. “I was once given a choice between love and duty, and I chose the latter. Are you certain you want to make the same mistake?”
Halie’s body said no, but was that wasn’t an option. Nerites didn’t have a destiny to fulfill when he chose the sea.
She steeled herself. “It’s not the same. I look forward to finding my mate. What could be better than giving my heart to my true love?”
“Is it still yours to give?”
The soft question made her shiver. Was it?
Their sister Pherusa rounded the corner, gloomy as ever, though she managed a watery smile when she saw them. “Here you are, Halie. Mother missed you this morning and requested your company. She wishes to hear more about life up top,” she said.
Halie sighed with relief. Anything was better than dealing with Nerites right now.
“I’ll see you later.” She stole a glance at his pained expression. He was convinced he’d never love again. Was this what fate awaited Halie? But the sea witch said Halie would fall in love, and the witch had never been mistaken before.
She shook away the doubts and followed Pherusa to their parents’ bedroom. “Aren’t you coming?” she asked when her sister turned to go.
“She needs time alone with you. She’s missed you.”
Halie made to knock on the door, but paused. “Pherusa, have you ever been in love?” The two of them had a couple millennia between them and were never that close.
“Once.” Pherusa’s voice grew wistful. “He was fearsome, yet kind. Strong as a god, but with the warmest heart I’ve ever known. And he had the most beautiful, golden eyes.”
“What happened?”
“His name was Prometheus.” Pherusa’s gaze held a challenge. “You know the story.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry.” Halie couldn’t think of anything more to say. Prometheus hadn’t been punished for giving humans fire, as humans believed. He had, however, been sent to Tartarus—like the rest of the Titans—when Zeus took over as king of the gods, long before Halie was born. The Titans hadn’t been heard of since, and their fate was meant to be eternal.
“It is all in the past now,” Pherusa said and scurried off.
A fist clenching around her heart, Halie watched her sister go. If Pherusa’s last love was more than three thousand years ago, it certainly wasn’t forgotten, and it explained the shadow permanently cast over her. Halie, on the other hand, had forgotten Delphinos, even for a few minutes, until he found her. And why was she thinking about him again? She’d forgotten her parents and siblings, for Pontos’ sake, and it wasn’t the first time.
It’d be the last.
Halie schooled her face into a happy smile and knocked. When her mother bade her enter, she let herself in the room with a bounce in her step.
“Halie.” Mother’s expression shone with love, and it was that, more than Delphinos’ pain and Nerites’ insight, that almost broke Halie and made her pour her heart out. If only she could be a child again, looking to her mom to solve her problems.
But it wouldn’t be fair to burden Mother with such frivolous issues as a childish crush. Delphinos was the first male Halie’d been with. The only one she’d been with, though she wouldn’t admit it out loud. The connection she felt to him was an involuntary response to the fear of opening up to someone new.
“Come.” Her mother set aside her needlework and patted the seat beside her. “Tell me about America. I have not been there since it was part of the English Commonwealth.”
Halie laid a kiss on her mother’s smooth cheek and joined her on the corral bench by t
he window looking out of the bubble. “I didn’t see all of it, Mother. Only a small part of Los Angeles. They have buildings that almost touch the sky and vehicles that run as fast as Helios’s chariot.” A hyperbole, but Mother enjoyed Halie’s stories from the places she visited. She and Father never went to the surface anymore.
“And how are the people?” her mother asked.
Halie gave this some thought. “Different. In a hurry all the time.” Chasing success and money and love and sex, but that didn’t sound very poetic, and she liked to show her mother the best of her experiences. “But they’re also smart and creative. They’re fun. And volatile.”
Doris laughed. “That is how humans always have been—driven by their vices and passions. It is what makes them so interesting.”
Halie nodded. Not like the gods were much different.
“And what have you been keeping yourself busy with, now that you are back?” Mother asked.
“You know... Catching up with friends.”
Her mother’s look said she definitely knew. “Delphinos must be happy to see you.”
Halie jumped up and paced the length of the room, before turning to glare at her mother. “Why is everything about Delphinos? People ask me about him in the same breath they ask about my health. We’re not joined at the fin, you know.”
Mother’s lips twitched in an unformed smile. “You could’ve fooled me.” The informal speak made Halie do a double-take, and her mother smiled fully. “One of your sisters found a... tablet, I believe it’s called. The witch has bespelled it to never run out of power, and we have been reading stories. Quite entertaining, though some are too raunchy for your father’s tastes.”
Halie gaped.
Mother waved a hand. “Back to Delphinos, dearest. Why are you so defensive? You and he have been friends all your lives. It is only natural you are interwoven in our minds.”