“Yes, I hate you.” I let out a cold laugh—a hollow, wretched sound. The knife had drawn blood, and a glistening trickle ran down Finn’s neck before the water licked it clean.
“I deserve it,” he gasped, and his sharp teeth and globe-like eyes flickered.
I pressed the blade deeper, and Finn closed his eyes, his monstrous form fading, chest rising and falling beneath me.
“Don’t. Put. Your. Hands. On. Me. Again,” I said. Each word sliced like the razor that was kissing his flesh.
Finn lifted his chin, pressing into the dagger, and another drop ofblood slid down his neck. “Do it. End this torment. Since the moment I first saw you, some part of me has always known you would be my undoing.”
My hands were trembling, and with a stifled sob, I withdrew the knife. “Let’s just find the prophecy and be done with this.”
Finn brought his webbed hand to his throat, where a small cut remained. “Why do you hate me now? What’s changed?” His tone was sharp. Too sharp.
A few glasses of Mer wine, and I was throwing my plans out the window and giving myself away. I was better than this. I exhaled slowly. Once I had the dream of the prophecy, I could set out to find it alone, and I’d never have to see Finn or pretend again.
I remembered all the times he had met my heart with a façade of impenetrable ice. Pain lanced through my chest, but I stood motionless, forcing it down until the darkness I’d been fighting swallowed my soul.
“While I was on land, I had some time to think.” I steadied my breathing. “You’re right. I do deserve better than this, and you. I’m sorry if I seem cold, but let me clarify. There is no longer hope for us.”
“This is truly what you want?”
“Yes.” Tears tried to spill from my eyes, and I was grateful for the watery atmosphere as I kept my expression impassive.
He pulled back, eyes darting across my face. An excruciating silence followed. It took everything I had to keep my features cold, holding his gaze as he continued to survey me.
“I understand.” Finn finally spoke. He dipped his chin in the barest of nods, his pained expression pulling into one of indifference, before he moved away into the shadows of the corridor beyond.
24
Skye
I’d slept with five men before I met Parker, and I thought about them now as I followed Alexandros into the gloomy gardens beyond the party’s lights.
This was a pleasure party. I knew the rules. It was the Mer equivalent of “Netflix and chill.” I’d known what this merman wanted when I agreed to leave with him, and I desired it too. I wanted to lose myself in the sweet wine swirling through me, and in Alexandros’s sculpted body. I wanted toforget.
As the gorgeous lavender-haired merman led me between the crumbled nymph statues, Parker’s dead eyes slunk into my mind, and I could almost feel his fury at the thought of me being here, with someone as handsome as this. But maybe that was the point. Maybe that was why I needed this.
The air between us thickened, and I breathed it in. Moans and gasps rose from the shadows where other Mer lay together in the gardens. How would this even work with a tail? Alexandros’s amethyst-tinted tailflickered before me as he led the way further and further from the light. I figured I would find out soon enough.
We reached a glade, where the lifeless eyes of eroded statues looked down upon the sand and sea life before them, and the merman stopped, turning to face me. I dragged my gaze from his dark eyes to his muscular chest, covered with the same stubble that adorned his jawline.
I moved forward, taking hesitant steps, until I was standing before him. Hovering on his magnificent tail, he loomed above me, and I tilted my head back, taking in his sharp features and the subtle flex of his chiseled torso. Bubbles emerged from the rocky masses on the edges of the glade, and I gasped as heated water caressed my ankle.
“They call this place Campi Flegrei. The whole of Naples sits inside a giant volcanic crater.” Alexandros stared at me thoughtfully.
“Oh.” My throat bobbed.
The merman flicked his fin lazily. My gaze rested on his chest, then drifted lower to the shaped lines carved into his abdomen and the trail of dark hair that disappeared into the seam of his deep purple tail.
“Pleasure is not something we should feel ashamed of.” Alexandros thumbed my chin, guiding my gaze to his, as if he’d read my thoughts and seen the storm of feelings warring inside me. “I have had many lovers—men, women—and it is always something sacred.”
I nodded, pushing down the nerves rising inside me.
His eyes searched mine, and his face was gentle. “Bella, you’re so sad, and I want to make you happy.”
A sudden wave of emotion surged up, blurring my vision with unshed tears and causing my shoulders to tremble. I hadn’t had time to process Parker’s death, my fight with Aranare, or the disorienting grief of leaving everything I’d known behind. But Alexandros’s understanding eyes unlocked it all, and I began to sob.
Without a word, the merman pulled me into his arms, and I surrendered to the flood of feelings. My body heaved against his, and I cried and cried, burrowing my face into his neck and tangling my fingers in his fuchsia hair. All the while, he held me close, strong and silent.
