I try to stifle my laugh, but I can’t.
Daire emerges spluttering and coughing. He shoves the flowers off his shoulders and head.
“You look like a Shadow Merman.” I saunter to the edge of the pool.
Daire sits up amongst the pretty flowers with a laugh. His white robe has become transparent in the water, clinging to his strong chest and thighs. His silky curls and wings are soaked.
At a sudden cawing in the azure sky, I glance upwards.
Daire’s ravens flock into the courtyard, settling in the branches of the fig tree like guards.
“Nay, I hope that I don’t look like those terrifying fish-tailed bastards. Although, mermen are so beautiful that they can tempt sailors to their deaths.” He bares his neck in a way that few Alphas would to their Omegas. “I am beautiful enough to be one.”
“And modest enough to be one too.”
“Who needs modesty when you’re god-like?”
“And sitting on his ass in the middle of a pool.”
Daire holds his hand out to me with a half-hooded look, which is as seductive as any Shadow Merman’s. “Why don’t you join me?”
I put my hands on my hips. “It looks cold.”
“What you call cold, I call refreshing.”
“You’re good at double talk.”
“I’m a fae.”
“A trickster.”
“And proud of it.”
“I’ll help you out.” I grip Daire’s hand.
I realize that it’s a mistake, however, the moment that he tightens his fingers around mine and his eyes dance with amusement.
Daire drags me into the water with him.
I yelp.
Daire catches me with a playful laugh, dragging me onto his lap.
I splash water into his face. We tumble backward in a tangle of limbs.
“You asshole.” I kiss Daire’s wet lips, careful to be gentle of his injuries.
He kisses me back, however, not carefully at all. “I think you meansoulmate.”
“I do.” I stare into Daire’s lavender eyes, trying to count every one of his long, dark lashes. He was almost claimed by another pack.I almost lost him.My heart beats faster. “Don’t do that again. Don’t leave me.”
“I didn’t have a choice, love.” Daire tightens his hold around me. “I swear on the Shadow Devils that I dideverythingto survive to get back to you. I never stopped fighting. Since Maximinus and Tarquin burned my world to the ground when I was thirteen, I have accepted that I may die. You can’t go into a battle believing that you’re invincible; it’s dangerous. Death has haunted me at my shoulder for a decade. Fate is fickle. No one gets to decide when death comes for them. But I am not making it bloody easy for the bastard to take me, aye?”
I kiss down Daire’s bruised jaw, shaking with how close I came to not being able to touch him like this again. “Who left these bruises on you?”
“Sobek.” Shadows feather from Daire in sudden rage, transforming the water to an inky black. When I stare up at him in shock, I can see the primal, ancient side of him, which he hides under his charm and banter. He is as much a king…god…as Aurelius or Lanlin. “Do you think that I gave up my blood to Lanlin without making a deal? Those who killed my friend and hunted me will feel the revenge of the Raven King.”
Daire’s pheromones are dominant, washing over me in powerful waves.
