"Where are we going?" My voice sounded strange in the depths, smaller, and I tightened my grip on Kaelan's hand.
"Somewhere special." Vale's voice was silk in the darkness, wrapping around me like a caress. "Somewhere we've never shown anyone." We swam through a narrow passage between two underwater cliffs, and then the world opened up. I stopped swimming. Stopped breathing. Stopped everything.
A garden.
An underwater garden unlike anything I'd ever seen. Bioluminescent plants swayed in currents I couldn't feel, their light pulsing in soft rhythms of blue and green and purple. Fish that glowed like stars darted between coral formations thatspiraled toward the surface in impossible shapes. Anemones waved their tendrils like hands reaching for something beautiful.
"This is ours." Thane's voice was soft beside me, his golden-brown eyes reflecting the light, tears already gathering at the corners. "It's been ours for centuries. A place we come when the ocean feels too big, too empty." He looked at me, and the vulnerability in his face made my chest ache. "Now it's yours too."
"Thane..." I couldn't find words, reaching out to touch his face, feeling the wetness on his cheeks. The beauty of it, the trust of them sharing this secret place—it was too much.
"Swim with us." Vale took my other hand, his silver hair floating around his face like moonlight, and together the five of us drifted into the garden. They showed me everything. Riven brought me shells, pressing them into my hands like offerings. Strange shells I'd never seen before, spiraled and iridescent and warm against my palms.
"This one," he said, holding up a shell that shimmered with crimson undertones, his scarred face softening as he looked at me, "reminds me of the color you turn when I make you blush."
"I don't blush." I lifted my chin, trying to look defiant and failing miserably.
"You're blushing now." His grin was sharp, predatory, his golden eyes dancing with amusement.
I was. I could feel the heat in my cheeks, spreading down my neck. He laughed, low and rough, and pressed a kiss to my temple before swimming off to find more shells.
Thane named every plant we passed. His voice was soft, reverent, as he pointed out species I'd never imagined existed.
"This one is called moonweaver." He touched a delicate frond that glowed faint silver, his golden-brown eyes distant with memory. "It only blooms once every hundred years, but when it does, the light is so bright you can see it from the surface.We saw it bloom once, all four of us together. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen." His eyes found mine, wet and wondering. "Until you."
Vale hummed melodies that made the fish gather. I watched in amazement as creatures I couldn't name swam toward us, drawn by his voice, circling us in patterns that seemed almost like dancing.
"They like music." His voice held that teasing edge that made my stomach flutter, his silver eyes catching the bioluminescent light. "All creatures do, I think. It speaks to something primal. Something that exists before words, before thought." His gaze dropped to my mouth. "Do you like my music, little human?"
"You know I do." I'd told him before, how his humming made me feel safe, made me feel like everything might actually be okay, and I watched his smile grow.
"Good." His smile was slow, knowing, full of promises. Kaelan pulled me onto a ledge of coral that jutted out over the garden like a balcony. He settled against the stone and pulled me into his lap, his arms wrapping around me, his face buried in my hair.
He didn't speak. Didn't need to. Just held me, breathing me in, his chest rumbling with that possessive purr that made my omega melt. We stayed like that for a long time. Just watching the lights. Just being.
"I want to add to your braid." Vale's voice drifted up from below, and I looked down to see him hovering in the water, something glinting in his hand.
"What is it?" I leaned forward in Kaelan's arms, curiosity pulling at me. He rose to our level, and I saw what he was holding. A ruby. Small but perfect, catching the bioluminescent light and throwing red sparks across his silver scales.
"I found it in a shipwreck." He drifted behind me, his fingers beginning to work through my hair, gentle and sure. "A hundredyears ago, maybe more. I kept it because it reminded me of sunset. Of warmth." He wove the ruby into my braid, securing it with practiced fingers. "Now I know what I was saving it for."
"I can't wear this on the ship." The words hurt to say, and I touched the gem in my hair, feeling its warmth. "Someone might try to steal it. Might hurt me for it."
All four of them went rigid. The thought of someone touching me, hurting me for a gem, a thing.
"We'll remove it before you go back." Kaelan's voice was tight against my hair, his arms tightening around me. "But while you're with us, you wear our treasures. You wear us." Riven surfaced beside us, and in his scarred hand was an emerald, green as the deep kelp forests.
"For you." He didn't ask, just began weaving it into my braid alongside Vale's ruby, his claws careful not to snag a single strand. "Found it in the gut of a shark that tried to eat me. Killed the shark. Kept the emerald." He paused, his golden eyes finding mine. "Seemed fitting."
"That's... very you." I couldn't help the laugh that escaped, shaking my head at him. "Killing a shark and keeping its treasure."
"Everything precious in the ocean belongs to us." His grin was fierce, possessive, as his fingers lingered in my hair. "Including you."
Thane was last. He approached slowly, shyly, holding something that caught the light differently than the gems."Sea glass." His voice was barely a whisper, his golden-brown eyes fixed on the object in his palm. "I've been collecting it since before I can remember. Pieces of human things, worn smooth by centuries of water." He held it up, and I saw it was a soft gold color, the exact shade of his eyes. "This one has been with me the longest. I don't know what it was before. A bottle, maybe. A window. Something that mattered to someone once."
He wove it into my braid with trembling fingers, and I felt tears prick at my eyes."Now it matters to you."
I caught his hand when he finished, pressed a kiss to his palm, and agreed to his words, "Now it matters to me."
