by R. E. Butler
“Let’s teach them a lesson,” Venice said. “They need to know you two are off-limits forever.”
Cassian nodded. He looked at Zia sternly. “Be careful.”
“I will. You too.”
He scanned the water’s surface and saw Ianessa and her guard watching them. They were too far away for him to get to quickly; he’d have to swim to them. But for sure they’d move away before he got near, which would leave his friends and mate in danger.
There was the rushing sound of water and the surfaced roiled and bubbled like an explosion had just gone off. Cassian braced himself against the boat as the guards rushing to Ianessa’s defense erupted from the water, some of them leaping clear, their tails shining in the afternoon sun.
“Get the exiled male and kill the one named Zia,” Ianessa shouted.
“Bitch!” Zia snarled.
“Ready to kick some fish ass?” Venice asked.
“Definitely,” Cassian growled.
“Ha!” Delaney said. “Fish ass. Yes, let’s all kick a little fish ass today.”
“A lot of fish ass,” Hadlee said, “judging by the number in the water. But we can do it.”
The three clasped their hands together and began to chant.
The merpeople swam toward them in rows, wave after wave of males and females heading for them.
“Thank you for standing with me,” Cassian said.
“Thank me when they’re gone and we’re all safe,” Venice said.
Cassian nodded. The two pushed from the railings to meet the guards head-on. They’d keep the battle as far from the boat as they could.
* * *
Zia was still rattled. She’d been drowning, then saved by dolphins, and somehow, mysteriously the witches said she’d called to them. Now the fallen angel and her beloved Cassian were swimming to meet with a horde of merpeople that seemed to be acting on orders from the female he’d been arranged to mate.
She watched as Cassian and Venice met the merpeople, Cassian using his hands and tail to flip the guards out of the water and Venice going at them with his knife.
“Ha, got one,” Hadlee said, her voice filled with glee.
Zia looked at them in confusion. “Got one what?”
“We cast a protection spell around the boat,” Hadlee said. “They can’t cross it when they plan to harm us. It burns them. Look at the male rubbing his face.”
Zia turned to the side to see a male pressing his fingers to his face, which was bright red like he’d been scalded. He cursed and shook his fist at them.
“That’s what you get for harming innocents, asshole,” Kinsley shouted.
The guards were still coming. No matter how many Cassian and Venice cut down, more appeared. She didn’t know how long anyone could hold up in battle when the odds were so overwhelming, and while she trusted Cassian and could tell he was a great fighter, she couldn’t help but worry.
And then she had a thought.
She pulled off the life jacket and dropped it on the bench, then she reached for her powers and let her wings out. She was wearing the spare top she’d packed in the boat, so her wings slipped easily through the slits in the fabric. A swell of power filled her and she smiled. Having her wings out always made her happy.
“Clear a space,” Zia said.
“For what?” Delaney asked.
“Some trash,” Zia said. She pushed her hands out and sent her power down into the water, drawing sea plants up to the surface. She called them to herself the way a person might call a dog, willing the plants to do her bidding. Because of her mating with Cassian, she felt more connected to the water plants, and could even feel the sea creatures more strongly nearby.
The dolphins who’d saved her were circling the boat, rushing forward to attack the guards who got past Cassian and Venice.
Zia knew she’d have to stop Ianessa to stop the guards.
“Ah ha,” Zia said to herself. Seaweed.
The strong, pliable plants were floating on the water. Far below, she was aware of different types of coral, an idea forming swiftly. She sent the seaweed down to the coral, pulling pieces of coral from the large growths and wrapping the seaweed tendrils around them. Then she drew the coral-studded seaweed to the surface and shoved it forward.
The huge swaths of seaweed curved around the fighters and headed right for Ianessa. The female was too busy watching the fight to see the seaweed gliding toward her until it was too late. The seaweed wrapped around Ianessa, from her shoulders to her tail, the sharp pieces of coral embedding in her flesh. Zia then pulled the female toward herself.
Ianessa shrieked as she was drawn to the boat.
She hit the protection spell with a dull thud, screeching as she was burned when she pressed against it. Instead of asking the witches to drop the spell, Zia hauled Ianessa through it, hearing her skin sizzling as she breached the spell.
The witches helped her bring the mermaid into the boat.
Ianessa’s skin was red from being pulled through the spell. She struggled at first, but then the seaweed wrapped tighter around her, the sharp coral gouging her flesh.
She seethed on the floor of the boat, her eyes dark with fury.
“How dare you!”
“Me?” Zia asked. “How dare you! Your people tried to kill me!”
“You deserve it! Let me go now or suffer.”
Zia curled her fingers together, the seaweed constricting even further. Ianessa gasped. “Stop! Stop!”
“Call off your guards!” Zia shouted.
Ianessa glared at Zia. “Never.”
She curled her fingers again, tighter. Ianessa stiffened and gritted her teeth, and then she started to sob. “Stop, please! I’ll call them off.”
Zia relaxed her fingers, the seaweed following suit. The mermaid was still bound in the seaweed and not going anywhere, but the coral wasn’t cutting into her skin.
“Help me get her up,” Zia said.
Hadlee hurried to them and grabbed Ianessa under one arm while Zia grabbed her under the other. Ianessa moaned as they lifted her to stand, blood dripping onto the floor of the boat from the scratches and gouges of the coral.
“Call off your henchmen,” Zia said. “Call them off now.”
Ianessa lifted her chin, and for a moment Zia thought she might not do what she said she would. Then she did.
“Guards! Stand down.” She repeated herself a second time, her voice rising. “You will stand down now!”
The guards all stopped fighting and moved away from Cassian and Venice.
Zia held her breath.
What would happen next?
Chapter Thirteen
Cassian watched warily as the guards moved away from them. Once they were out of arms’ reach and seemed to be watching the boat more intently than they were watching him and Venice, he nudged the fallen angel and jerked his head.
Venice nodded and the two swam toward the boat.
He stayed in his shifted form in the water, but Venice used the swim ladder to climb onto the platform, where he stood with knife at the ready.
Zia gave Cassian a worried look. “You’re bleeding.”
“Scratches.”
She rolled her eyes. “Sharks.”
“I told you about sharks, remember? And also, the dolphins are keeping a perimeter around the boat, so none will come near no matter what they smell in the water.”
“And there’s our spell,” Kinsley said. “Oh wait, does that work for sea creatures too?”
Cassian actually didn’t know, but it didn’t matter. He let out a quick scan with his power and didn’t sense any sharks heading their way.
“We’re good. How are you?” Zia looked rattled, like she was still in shock from almost drowning, but she lifted her chin, her eyes flashing with determination.
Damn, he loved her.
“I want to take out the trash,” she said.
“Me too.” He gripped the railing and hauled himself partially out of the water so he could see
Ianessa. She was covered in small scratches and some larger gouges, and after a quick inspection, he realized the seaweed had something embedded in it that was cutting her whenever she moved. Her pale skin was slick with her blood. She’d shifted at some point, so her tail was gone, and she was standing on her own, her legs bare but the seaweed doing a good job of keeping her private areas private.
That was not something he had any desire to see.
“What are you doing here, Ianessa?” he demanded.
She looked down at him, anger flashing in her dark eyes. When she didn’t answer, Zia lifted her hand and slowly closed her fingers into a fist. The seaweed responded and Ianessa stiffened. “Okay, okay! Stop, please.”
Cassian mouthed “you’re amazing” to Zia, and she beamed at him.
“Tell the truth or my mate will stop being so nice,” Cassian warned.
Ianessa, a princess of her clan, dropped her head with a disappointed sigh. “No one will mate me.”
“How is that my fault?”
She lifted her head slowly. “You’re not supposed to be happy.”
“You’re not serious,” he said. “How the hell would you even know what I’m up to, and furthermore, why would you care? I have no intention of mating you, and in case you missed it, I’m mated to Zia.”
“You chose exile over our arranged mating, over me.” Her voice started to rise, her cheeks pinking with her ire. “No male of worth will have me now. They think something is wrong with me because you chose to walk away from everyone and everything rather than be with me.”
Hell yes, she was a crazy bitch. Attacking them was proof of just how bone-deep nuts she was.
“Did you ever think they weren’t willing to mate you because you’re a bitch and a half and off your gourd?” Zia asked.
“I’m a princess,” Ianessa said. She straightened slightly, wincing when the coral dug into her skin. “I was highly prized before he ran off, shirking his duties. Now I’m a pariah as well. If you would have chosen to remain without a mate for the rest of your days, I wouldn’t have come after you and your female. But you had to go and get mated. Had to find happiness. It’s not fair!” Her voice went up an octave at the end, and Cassian winced.
“How did you know we got mated?” Zia asked.
“I had sea creatures watching you,” Ianessa said. “When I was told you rescued a female, I brought up a contingent of guards to stop you from mating her, but it was too late. So I did what I had to do.”
Cassian shook his head in disbelief. “You’ve been watching me for two years?”
He’d never had an inkling that there were sea creatures watching him and reporting to her. It was like finding out a camera had been hidden in your house and someone was reviewing the footage and sharing details with others.
“I had no choice,” Ianessa said.
“You had tons of choices,” Zia said. “Moving on should’ve been the first one. You tried to kill me to get back at Cassian, when the only thing he did was choose not to be mated to someone he didn’t love. He shouldn’t have been punished for that choice.”
“I can’t change our laws,” Ianessa said. “You did what you did, and I’m the one suffering. You should suffer too.”
“Yikes, this is going in circles,” Delaney said. “I think we should bind her and toss her back in the water.”
Ianessa lifted her chin. “Do your worst. My people will save me.”
“We won’t bind you with something physical,” Delaney explained. “We’ll be binding you from doing harm to others. You won’t be able to come against Cassian or Zia ever again. Consider it a curse but also a blessing. Move on, find someone who doesn’t think you’re terrible, and get on with your life.”
Ianessa scoffed.
Delaney took Zia’s place. Kinsley joined them as Zia moved to the swim platform and sat down, her legs dangling in the water. He swam to her and pushed up on the platform to lift himself from the water and give her a kiss. “You sure you’re okay?” he whispered.
“Just glad that we’re both safe.”
“Me too.”
They watched as the witches spoke a spell, repeating the same phrases three times. At the first set of phrases, there was no change to Ianessa’s demeanor; she looked just as pissed as when they started. By the end of the second set, her eyes went luminous with unshed tears. When the last word was spoken of the third set of phrases, she let out a sob, her head falling to her chest as she wept.
“Why’s she crying?” Zia whispered.
“Maybe because she knows she has no choice but to move on. She can’t cause us harm.”
“That’s right,” Hadlee said. “No more sending sea creatures to watch over Cassian and Zia and report back to you. No more trying to harm them, or anyone else.”
“And you’re forbidden from coming into the waters of Sable Cove ever again,” Delaney said as her fingers began to glow with a blue light as if they were illuminated from within. “This is a curse, Ianessa, mermaid of Sitnalta. If you come to Sable Cove for any reason, you will be harmed through the protection spell we’ve cast, and this curse levied on you by our coven. Cassian and Zia are under our protection. Stay far, far away.”
“You got that?” Kinsley said as little blue sparks shot from Delaney’s fingers, settling on Ianessa’s skin and then disappearing.
“Yes.” Ianessa’s bravado was gone, her tone defeated.
“Good. Now get your guards out of here and heed our warnings,” Kinsley said. “You don’t want our coven to come hunting for mermaids.”
With Venice’s help, they lowered the mermaid into the water. Zia used her fairy powers to unwind the coral and seaweed from her. The coral separated from the seaweed and sank into the water and the seaweed moved away like it had a mind of its own and knew just where to go.
Ianessa didn’t look back as she swam for the guards. The group dove, their tails making the water churn as they descended.
“Wow, your ex is crazy,” Delaney said.
“She’s not my ex,” Cassian said. “Not really.”
“Still...crazy.”
“Yeah.” Cassian chuckled. “Thank you for your help.”
“It’s our pleasure,” Hadlee said.
“Do you really think she’ll be able to find someone to mate her?” Zia asked.
“There’s an ass for every saddle,” he quipped.
Zia giggled. “Indeed.”
Cassian swam to their boat and climbed aboard, then drove it back to the other boat and helped Zia inside.
“Will she really not be able to come into the cove again?” Zia asked the witches.
“Yep. Just like the protection spell we cast around the boat burned those with bad intentions, the spell we cast over the cove will alert us if she’s near. She’ll be burned, but if she was determined, she could keep going through. Even if she did get through the protection spell, though, she couldn’t harm either of you. The binding spell will ensure that.”
“It will last forever?” Cassian asked as he pulled on a pair of pants from his duffel.
“Yep. Or until her heart truly moves on and closes the door to the past,” Hadlee said. “Once you’re not the focus of her anger or her need for revenge dissipates, the spell will naturally fade.”
“Speaking of spells,” Zia said. “You guys said that I called to you, like I was a witch. What did you mean by that?”
“Just that we felt like a fellow witch was in trouble. If you didn’t call to us, then I don’t know why it happened,” Delaney said. “Are you sure there’s no witches or warlocks in your family history?”
“Positive. But I can talk to my parents.”
“Maybe you’ve got some skeletons in your closet,” Kinsley said. “The most interesting people usually do.”
Cassian communicated his thanks to the dolphins who wanted to escort them wherever they were going.
After saying goodbye to their friends and pushing his boat away, he watched Venice navigate back toward the
docks and then turned to face Zia. “Do you still want to go on to your parents?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”
“You were just traumatized.”
“True.” She hummed. “But some good came from it. We now know that Ianessa can’t ever harm you or me again. While it was scary, it also proved something to me.”
“What’s that?”
“That I can call the sea creatures for help and they’ll listen. Like the dolphins.”
“And the seaweed and coral.”
“Yep.”
“Do you think you have a witch in your family somewhere?”
“I don’t know. I’ll find out though.”
“So onward to your family?”
“Definitely. I can’t wait for you to meet my parents.”
He was looking forward to it too. Engaging the engine, he eased the throttle forward and settled into the seat with Zia at his side. She leaned her head on his shoulder and yawned. He couldn’t believe what had nearly happened. An unspeakable evil had come against them, intent on her death and perhaps his own. Whatever powers or magic she’d wielded had saved both of them, and he was grateful for it.
Whatever his beautiful mate was didn’t really matter to him. He only cared that she was safe and that they could start the next chapter of their lives together.
Chapter Fourteen
Zia reached for the piling at the end of the dock and guided the bow of the boat into the slip. Two young male dockhands hurried from the marina’s main building and tied their boat up to the dock.
“We’re glad you’re okay, Zia,” one of the young males said. “Everyone was really frantic when you didn’t show up when you were supposed to.”
“Both times,” the other male said ruefully.
“I’ve caused quite a stir lately,” Zia said with a smile. “I’m such a troublemaker.”
“Good thing you’ve got me to watch out for you,” Cassian said, winking.
She grinned.
Cassian put their bags on the dock and climbed out, then helped Zia up. She went to lift her bag from the dock, but he grabbed hers and his, shouldering both. The dock bobbed as they walked along it. She took his hand and smiled. “Thank you for bringing me here.”