“You are utterly unique,” he purred as he curled me into his chest. “I have been on this earth for over three hundred years and never seen anything as rare and beautiful.”
Heat bloomed low in my belly, and I flushed. He was undeniably handsome, but something about this attraction felt wrong.
I forced the sensation aside, shifting my focus to the Mer behind Damon’s shoulder. All around us, couples were slipping away into the shadows beyond the hall.
“Would you care to join me in the gardens?” Damon gestured to the darkness, where the naked statues of old were scattered among coral-covered ruins and no lights hung.
My throat bobbed as I noticed Skye and Alexandros slipping into those shadows. “Not tonight.” I put my hand against his sculpted chest. “I have to get some rest for the dream ceremony tomorrow.”
Damon nodded, understanding flickering in his eyes.
I scanned the table, and Finn was gone. Porphura and Layla had taken to the dancefloor, while Edward remained with the king and queen, gesturing wildly as he spoke. His maroon uniform puffed in the swell, the gold chain across his chest catching the light. I almost laughed—he looked like a wannabe drug lord.
As Damon drifted off, sweeping another mermaid into a dance, I searched for Skye, but she still hadn’t returned from the gardens.
An aching loneliness swept over me as I journeyed back to the palace through the dark Mediterranean by myself. I’d tried to fill the emptiness with Damon, but in the end, Finn was the only one who I wanted to hold me close. And he had betrayed me.
I hadn’t lied to Damon—I was tired. We’d been traveling all day, and tomorrow, if my dream was granted, I would be off searching for the prophecy.
When I reached the palace of Thálassa, it was dark. No doubt the whole court was at the pleasure party. The guards remained sentinels on the rooftop, but the castle was shrouded in shadows.
I swam toward the floor where my room lay. It was cloaked in the ocean’s gloom, but my senses guided me through the dark. I was about to open the door to my chambers when a fist closed around my arm. I turned to find myself pressed against a heaving chest as Finn pulled me in. Muscles tensed beneath me, his glittering tail flickering below. Drawn brows and a sharp jaw. He stared down at me, holding me tight against his body.
“Is everything okay?” His mouth was thin. “You’re acting differently.”
“Am I?” I replied coolly, pulling away.
“When I saw you last, you said we had hope. Now I’m starting to feel like that has changed.” His dark eyes locked with mine, and I held his gaze. There was no trace of scheming—only a brokenman, silently pleading.
“I—I...” I looked away, forcing my thoughts into order. This was King Neptunus’s most trusted enforcer. This had to be an act.
I couldn’t let him know I knew what his family had done—what I suspected he’d done. If he caught on, he might never reveal his plans... or the king’s. Slowly, I turned back to him, lifting my chin. “You’re engaged, Your Highness.”
“But you know that we have an understanding,” he breathed, reaching out to trace my bottom lip with his calloused thumb. “Morgana, I cannot get these lips from my mind.”
His tail stiffened against me, and that traitorous space between my legs warmed as a flare of the girl who’d once loved him rose to the surface. If I wanted to pretend nothing had changed, I had to cling to that feeling and use it to keep up the act.
My throat tightened as I let the sensation wash over me, and my gaze drifted to the sculpted abdominal muscles that tapered and dipped, tracing the path to his gleaming tail. Trembling, I slid my free hand to the small of Finn’s back, where firm muscles framed his spine. My fingers grazed the dimples etched just above his tail.
I can do this . . . pretend.
Grunting and biting his lip, Finn pulled me further into him, and something undulated between my thighs. The water pressure was moving between them again, stroking me.
It felt good, so good.Damn it.
I bit back the whimper that wanted to escape me as I moved my hand from Finn’s back, fingers tangling in his hair. He held me close with one hand, the other guiding my face to his. His lips brushed mine, but he didn’t kiss me. Instead, he pressed our foreheads together, savoring this moment of closeness. His breathing was ragged, matching mine, and I could tell how much he wanted this—wanted me.
The water pressure between my thighs made me throw my head back as pleasure swept through me in arching pulses. For a heartbeat, I almost surrendered to it—to him. The sensations tore me from the darkness gnawing at my soul whenever I let my guard down, a blackness that was filled with silver-stained Drowned and the Captain’s crumpled body.
But reality came crashing in, shattering the arousal in an instant. The Neptunus family killed my grandmother—this man was my enemy. A wave of guilt churned in my gut and clawed up my throat, choking me with shame. I couldn’t do this... I couldn’t even pretend.
“No,” I cried, pounding against his chest as tears filled my eyes—tears of confusion, tears of anger. Anger at him. Anger at myself. And most of all, disgust.
All composure left my being as I whipped my dagger from its sheath at my hip and pressed it against the soft skin of Finn’s throat. His eyes flared, and he threw up his hands.
I pressed the knife deeper. “I fucking hate you!”
“You hate me?” He pulled back from the gleaming blade, his eyes searching mine, but I moved with him, keeping the metal pressed against him.
