“I remember saving our asses a couple times.”
“Dumb luck.”
“Doesn’t mean I wasn’t useful.”
Liam rolled his eyes, stood from the rock, and moved toward the bush. He bent over, then pulled aside the leaves. As I’d guessed, there was a body of water behind the bushes. And it was huge. The water shone, emanating a green light that reflected off the hard edges of Liam’s face and body.
“How the hell did we miss that?” I asked.
A finned tail whipped out from the surface of the lake. I couldn’t get a good look of it, but I noticed it was gray. A moment later, something emerged from the lake and flopped onto its shore. I squinted, trying to make out its lumpy shape.
A seal.
What in the world was a seal doing in the middle of the forest?
I looked toward Liam, hoping he might give me some answers, but he was just as shocked as I.
Hesitantly, I gave a little finger wave. “Uh…hi, seal?”
“Hello,” the seal replied in an uppity, feminine voice.
I jolted. The seal was actually talking to me. I shouldn’t be taken aback. I’d just met horse men with antlers. Talking seals weren’t exactly far-fetched. A moment later, mist emerged from the sides of the seal’s skin and swallowed its frame. I cocked my head, enraptured by the mystical sight. The mist puffed away shortly after, and in place of the seal was a beautiful—and naked—woman with shells in her hair. She had a heart-shaped face, pink eyes, and wavy, damp blond hair that draped over her breasts and reached toward her waist. She drew a sensual tongue across her full lower lip, then smiled. Her smile shone with an exuberance that would make the happiest human on earth look sad.
“Welcome to the Amethyst Lake,” she said. She pinched a lock of her golden hair and twirled it around with her index finger. “Home of the selkies. We haven’t had visitors in a while, and…” She paused. “You look familiar.”
“I’ve never been here before,” I said, “so that can’t be it. Are you referring to my parents again? Because all the magical creatures around here can’t seem to let me forget my parentage.”
“Aphrodite,” she said. “Are you Aphrodite?”
I shook my head. “She’s supposedly my mother.”
Her eyes brightened. She stood from the shore and ambled toward me, not caring that she was completely nude. I noticed Liam staring at her, admiring her svelte form, and although I didn’t blame him (who wouldn’t want to stare at a perfect figure like that?), I couldn’t ignore my sudden need to force his gaze away so that he stared at only me.
The selkie reached for my cheek and cupped it. She studied my face carefully. Her pink irises were distracting. “Yes,” she said. “I can see the resemblance. You are her daughter.”
I scratched the back of my elbow. She looked at me so intensely that she made me nervous. “We just want to get the life elix—”
“This is a momentous occasion,” the selkie said. “My sisters must know of this. Our Madaami must know of this!” She bunched her hair into her hands excitedly, then spun around to rush toward the lake. I arched a brow. What did Aphrodite have to do with the selkies? The selkie ran into the water. She threw herself into it and disappeared beneath the surface, leaving Liam and I together in the silence of the forest.
I looked at Liam. “What was that?”
“I have no idea. Oh, wait.” His jaw dropped. A pod of seals emerged from the lake, barking and flapping their fins on the shore. “That’s a lot of selkies.”
There had to be twenty—no, maybe more of them. They surrounded us, not giving us much space to maneuver. Liam drew his knife, but the seals weren’t discouraged, and they picked us up on their sleek backs.
“Wait!” I shouted. “Can somebody explain what’s going on?”
“We are welcoming you,” a seal responded in her high-pitched voice. “Let us take care of you for what we owe your mother.”
“Welcome?” I asked. “There’s no need to be this aggressive.”
“Please! Let us show our gratitude.”
I reached for my love powers, but they refused to come because of my sickness that had come from eating the fruit. A seal knocked Liam’s dagger out from his hand, preventing him from fighting back. He summoned flames to attack the seals, but magical water burst from them in response, stopping those fires.
I had little to time to react, overwhelmed by their sheer enthusiasm and numbers. They tossed me into the water. Splashing noises surrounded me, disorienting me.
An icy sensation shocked me to be more alert. I panicked, thinking I was going to drown, but when I opened my mouth and gasped in shock, I realized I could breathe underwater.
A seal wrapped its fin around my arm. It dragged me deeper into the lake, through the glowing amethyst waters, and toward the place it called home.
The selkies didn’t give me time for much questions. They kept talking about how thankful they were to Aphrodite, and how they had to treat me well. They dragged me around, eager to be of use and provide good hospitality.
They called their main palace the Shell. Outside, in the waters of the lake, the selkies swam around as seals, but indoors, they turned back into their feminine forms, walking around in thin, billowy robes. Most of them had long locks adorned with colorful seashells. The one who’d led us to our room wore hers in a ponytail. She guided us into the room with a bounce in her step.
I blinked at the room before me, almost grossed out by how obscenely romantic it looked. Candles gave the interiors a warm glow. I never thought I’d see candles underneath a lake. Flower petals had been scattered across satin sheets, and the bed was covered by thin but fancy chiffon drapes.
The selkie who’d led us in had her hand on the doorknob. “Her majesty thought you might like a place to consummate your relationship.”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
The selkie pursed her lips. “To have sexual intercourse?”
I glanced at Liam, sensing the same level of awkwardness coming from him.
“Uh,” I said, “I’m not really in the mood to—”
“We can sense that you haven’t mated yet,” the selkie said. “And we can tell that there is desire between you two. It is good for a half-blood to have strong ties with her vassals.”
I raised my hands. How did the selkies sense this? Did this have something to do with their powers, perhaps? “That won’t be necessary. I’m not sure how you’re getting the idea that I want to bang Liam, but I can assure you that I find him entirely un-bang-able.”
Liam lifted a brow. “Are you sure about that?” A lazy smirk inched up the sides of his lips—a display of his confidence in his own bang-ability.
“We can see through your lies,” the selkie said, clasping her hands together. “However white they are. Enjoy your time in this room. We will check back tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” I said. “We don’t have until tomorrow to wait. Devon’s going to—”
But the selkie slammed the door in my face before I could finish. I reached for the doorknob and shook it. The door wouldn’t budge. I grunted, then used more force, hoping to pry the damn thing open, but all my efforts at pushing were useless. I took a step back to kick at the door.
“Let me,” Liam said, rudely pushing me away.
He slammed himself against the wood. Like me, he couldn’t open it. He summoned fire and tried burning the door away, but the flames fizzled out quickly.
Liam sighed. “There has to be another way to get out.” He spun toward me. “What are you doing now?”
I fiddled with the sides of my shirt. My nausea had, surprisingly, disappeared ever since I’d come into this room. After I recovered, however, my shirt had started feeling too tight. I needed to get it off because it restricted my breathing.
Liam stiffened. “You’re not actually thinking of following the selkies’ plan, are you? Just because they want us to fuck doesn’t mean we have to.”
“It’s not that,” I said. “I just
want to get this shirt off.”
“And why, exactly? You’re not tormenting me on purpose, are you? I’m not really in the mood for games, and you look…”
He trailed off when I pulled my shirt off, leaving myself just in my bra. My body wasn’t perfect. I had more fat around my waist than I’d prefer, and I could use some toning on my arms, but I wasn’t ashamed of it, either. Liam could stare all he wanted and I didn’t mind, except for maybe that uncomfortable feeling his staring incited between my thighs.
Liam groaned and turned away.
“How do I look? Hideous? Is that why you can’t look me in the eye?” I knew I was playing a dangerous game, standing half-naked in front of Liam. Already, heat crawled toward my belly and thoughts about kissing him flashed through my mind. It was mostly the hormones talking.
“Not hideous,” he said. “Still a pain to look at, though.”
“In a good or bad way?”
He coughed, answering my question with silence.
Something behind my back felt heavy. Was that why my shirt had been so tight in the first place? I reached over my shoulder, wondering what exactly was weighing me down, and felt something fluffy brushing my fingertips. I frowned, then grabbed the thing behind my back. Was there a mirror around here somewhere?
A knocking sound bounced off the ground. It was followed by clattering. I spun, turning to the direction of that sound, and saw the edges of wings sweeping across the room. A cup had fallen on the floor, then a bunch of figurines dropped to the ground.
“Liam, look,” I said.
“Don’t go knocking things around just to make me give you attention.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not that desperate. It’s something else.”
“What?”
“Just look.”
He spun around. “Athena’s tits.”
“Huh?” What did Athena’s tits have to do with anything?
“Common saying,” he said, swatting his hand in front of him. “Cara, you have wings.”
“I do.” I bit my inner cheek, not believing what I felt behind my back.
“They’re big.”
“They are.”
“Can you control them?”
“I don’t know.”
I tried flapping the wings, and they knocked more figurines over. I almost tipped the vase that was next to Liam over, but he caught it just before it shattered.
“Okay, I’m not in awe anymore,” I said, placing my hands on my hips. “These things are annoying. How do I remove them, and why are they behind my back in the first place?”
“I’m guessing it has something to do with the fig.” Liam moved to a nearby couch and sat down. I noticed him still avoiding looking at me. Did he have problem with eye contact? His inability to meet my eyes only seemed to have arisen after I took my shirt off. “It has different effects, depending on who eats the fruit. It’s mostly been the centaurs that have controlled it ever since it was created, and not once has a half-blood eaten it before. It could be that it causes half-bloods to manifest wings.”
“I want them off me.” I shook my head. “I have trouble controlling the four limbs I have already, and now we’re adding an extra two to the equation? They’re heavy, and they’re going to make me the clumsiest person in both realms.”
Silence fell between us. I began tapping my foot on the wooden floor.
“What?” Liam asked. “Don’t look at me for answers. I don’t know.”
I sighed. I tried sitting down. My wings dragged against the ground and made moving so much more difficult, but I gained a semblance of control over them and managed to tuck them closer to my back. That minimized the knocking. Gingerly, I lowered my bum onto the seat across from the couch Liam was on. “Agness should have answers when we get back.”
“If we get back,” Liam replied. His gaze had fixated on a painting to his left. It was a washed-out artwork of a seal lounging next to a lake. “I don’t know if we’re ever going to get out of this room. There aren’t any windows whatsoever, and it seems to be spelled so we can’t leave.”
“What do you know about the selkies?” I asked.
“Not much. I don’t understand them as well as I know the centaurs.” Liam scratched his chin. “They keep to themselves for the most part, and don’t bother with the other races. From what I’ve heard, they seem to be peaceful and happy with what they have.”
I slumped my shoulders, allowing myself to relax. “Happy. I couldn’t agree more. Ever since coming here, they’ve been nothing but smiles.”
“That’s on the surface. I’m not sure about what really goes on here in the Shell. Considering the first thing they did after meeting us was keep us prisoner, I’m not optimistic.”
“They say it like they’re doing us a favor,” I said.
Liam finally turned to look my way. “They’re not.”
My stomach pitched from the intensity of his gaze. This time, he let it linger over me. He dragged his eyes down my frame, and as he did, it felt like he was slowly undressing me. I sat still. Frozen. Letting him study my body. His inspection gave me thrills that caused my heartbeat to race. The excitement was intoxicating, and I got lost in the tension that pulled tightly between us.
“Liam, I—”
He snorted. Pretending he didn’t find me interesting, he turned to look at the painting again. “Why did you have to eat the damn fruit?”
“I was compelled.”
“I know.”
“Then why ask?”
“It was a rhetorical question. I told you we couldn’t trust the centaurs, and throughout the banquet I had a suspicion that they had something up their sleeves. I just wasn’t sure what. Benjie used his magic to make you eat the fruit. They were after the chiasma’s powers all along.”
“I hope Hansel and Theo are okay.”
“They’ll figure a way out.”
I tipped a wing over to my front and brushed my hand across its silky feathers. Since I couldn’t remove my new appendages, I might as well get used to them. “You’re not always an asshole, huh?”
Liam raised a brow, prompting me to elaborate.
“You’re good with Benjie. Friendly and open. You seem to have shared a brotherly relationship that I don’t see you have with the vassals, so you can make friends after all.”
“Yeah, and?”
I rested my chin in my hand. “You really hate being a vassal, don’t you?”
“I wonder what gave it away.”
“Is it that bad?” I cocked my head. “We’re stuck together, anyway. We can try to make the most of it. You can be as friendly with us as with Benjie, right? You just need to learn to open yourself up a bit more. No need to be standoffish and distant all the time.”
“Are you lecturing me now?”
“Just trying to make peace.” We might as well use this alone time to work things out.
“It’s not so simple,” Liam said.
“Making friends?” I paused, considering my next words carefully. “It’s just a change in mindset. And maybe you’ve just gotta smile more.” I wasn’t one to give advice on that, however. Back on Earth, I didn’t have that many friends either. Sometimes it was just difficult to find people I could click with, and Liam was a challenge to get along with.
“Yep.” Liam folded his arms across his chest. “And how I think about you isn’t something that’s so easily changed.”
“How so?” I asked. “It’s not about my IQ, is it? Do you have something against people who like to knock their heads on things randomly?”
“You’re clumsy. That’s one thing. Though Devon did help with that using the bracelet.”
“So, what is it?”
“You’re Aphrodite’s daughter.”
I pursed my lips. Narrowed my eyes. “This again? Why is it always about my parents?”
“She wasn’t a good person.”
“I’m not her.”
“You share her blood.”
“Humans came from ap
es, didn’t they? By that dumbass logic, we’re all fucking monkeys.” Then again, I wasn’t sure how that whole genetic thing worked with half-bloods and goddesses. Now that magic was involved, how did all that science-y shit play into it? I decided I didn’t want to waste my brain cells on things I couldn’t understand. I was an in-the-moment person. “I’m not Aphrodite. I might have popped out of her divine, sparkling vagina, but that doesn’t mean I share much in common with her other than blood. So give me a chance and maybe we can make something out of this.” I twirled my hand over my head. “Whatever this is.”
Liam blew out a breath through his nose. “I think you share more in common with her than you think.”
“I wouldn’t know.” I shrugged. “I’ve never met her. So what about her, anyway? Why do you dislike her?”
“My last name’s Javerion.”
“Uh huh,” I said. “Come to think of it, this is the first time I’m hearing your last name.” From previous conversations, I’d learned that Hansel’s was Mason, and Theo’s was Wilson, but Liam had kept his distance so much that the opportunity to find his out never came up. “So, what about it?”
“Ever heard of the guardian massacre during the Vassal War?”
“Where have you been the last few weeks? I think you should know by now that I have God-awful memory, and history’s one of my worst subjects.” It involved too much reading. I wondered if Medusa’s bracelet had a variation that could also make me smart. It would be nice and convenient if my shortcomings could all be solved by magical artifacts littered around Haven.
Liam scoffed at my statement. “During the Vassal War, the guardians were a strong force of a thousand families. Mythical creatures grew in abundance throughout Haven, too. They all banded together to face Ares and his armies, so they posed a major threat to Ares and Aphrodite. Aphrodite used her love powers, exhausting herself, to create infighting between the families. She didn’t give a fuck about the children in those families. Made them kill each other all the same. After all the fighting, only one family was left. The Javerions.”
“Sounds brutal,” I said. I continued using the soft texture of my new wings to calm myself. Liam’s words sounded like they’d been ripped out of fiction. The horribleness of it all was too grand for me to fathom.
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