“She’s going to kill him,” I heard Seidon announce. “I’m going to enjoy it.”
Brushe let out a strangled noise right as we entered a large room with several enormous pools. We had just enough time to watch a tentacle wrap around Brushe’s neck and drag his now fish man shifted ass, if more Human looking than Dax, under the water.
“What the hell’s going on?” Brine from the front desk asked.
“Per is going to kill your baby brother,” Seidon commented idly. “We’re all going to watch.”
Dax made a noise that translated to,We need popcorn.
His mate laughed and leaned into him. “Yes. Yes, we do,” she answered aloud, cradling her baby in his sling to her, “but Brushe ate it all the other day.”
Dax made a noise that had his female laughing.
“This isn’t so bad,” I whispered to Segrid, who glanced up at me and grinned. A soft chuckle left him at the look on my face. It didn’t take me long to realize his moods were starting to match mine. Was I the cause for all his upset? Sympathy mood swings?
“You are troubled,” Segrid murmured, “all will be well, my heart. Despite their resident fool and his ramblings, I believe your water teachings are in good hands.” I could still barely wrap my head around the idea of being an unbound Elemental witch of water, a Kelpy, and on top of that, gifted earth magicks lent to me from my Troll King, and a land beneath the ground of which I was now his Queen. It was a mouthful of titles and I was sure I was missing a few. Oh, and I was preggers. It’s been an eventful past… oh, who was really counting?
Eyeing Brushe dispassionately as he cried out and his shifted mate, some kind of tentacled woman—it was hard to tell with her mostly beneath the water—wrestled the enormous male in the water, I was just going to have to take my mate’s word on that one. “He’s not going to be teaching me anything, right?” I murmured. Brushe had some kind of juju going on, but not like Dax or Seidon. Per was the shocker. She was somehow blocking the majority of her magicks, muffling them, camouflaging them, if you will, in her Human form. Cursed magicks clung to her. I could scent it from all the way over here. They were dark and inky.
“That daft beast?” Seidon snorted from where he stood to our left. His gaze was so intent on the pool massacre in the making I was surprised he’d even heard me. “Fear not, Troll Queen, I will be your instructor.”
“Oh, thank god,” I said with no small amount of relief.
“Ooh, really? Awesome! A third. Hmm.” Dax’s mate turned to study me. “Not a Mer-dwyn… I smell witchy magicks and… No, wait. Let me have this! I want to guess,” she said before anyone could speak. “Troll mated, and they’re…” she looked to Seidon, “really wild… odd… Earth magicks?”
Seidon grinned. “Very good.”
“Thank you, sensei,” she retorted tartly, with a short mock bow.
“And, sweet Cinnia?” Seidon pressed.
“And...water, I’m smelling water, and she shifted… Uhm… Damn. I don’t know. Huh. She kinda smells like…” Her gaze shifted to her mate. “I thought Guardians were only males? Nope. Okay, I can’t take it anymore. Just tell me,” Cinnia caved.
Seidon gave me a look that said I could answer if I wished. Shrugging, I blurted, “Kelpy, some type of Mer thing, Elemental witch, of water, and whatever juju my Segrid shares with me.”
Segrid beamed as I declared him mine so openly.
“Wow,” Cinnia breathed. Instead of looking repulsed or worried, she seemed downright giddy. “And, hey, we’re kind of like Seidon’s Sea Angel’s now. There are three crazy bitches on the roster!” Cinnia crowed.
Dax wrinkled his nose at the mention of Seidon but let it pass.
“Damn straight we are!” Per called, grinning wickedly, naked but wholly Human again, Brushe shaking his head as he clutched her to his chest.
“No fair,” Brushe nearly pouted, “why does fishsticks get to be the cool guy with all the chicks and I’m the towel boy?”
Per reached up and squished her man’s cheeks, until his lips were a fishmouthed pucker. She gave his pinched face a shake. “Because, my dirty little tub toy, my overgrown oaf of a lover, metaphorical fish Jesus over there has all the moves.”
Seidon burst out laughing at that. Turning to us, ignoring Brushe’s put out bitching and Per’s witch cackling, Cin’s joining hers, the disgustingly handsome brunette with those crazy eyes gave us an arch look. “Shall we start lessons, then?” he queried. Lifting his arms, Merman Ken’s hands slapped together in a booming clap I wasn’t expecting.
Startling, I let out a yelp and exploded.
Blinking, Seidon took several steps closer. His hands went behind his back and he bent forward. “I see we’ll be starting small. Lesson one. How to keep one’s form, no matter what.”
“Fish paste… totally missing an opportunity to get this shit done right, my man. Lesson One!” Brushe boomed out, approaching with a towel wrapped around his waist, Per hot on his heels as she tried to knot the towel she now wore. “How not to wet yourself!” He bellowed down at me like I couldn't hear him.
Segrid snarled and lunged, sending Brushe flying. “She is in a liquid state of form, fish man, not deaf!” Segrid bellowed, like Brushe had suddenly grown hard of hearing.
“I really, really like you,” Seidon murmured to my Troll King. “I mean,” he said emphatically, glancing at Brushe from where he had landed in the pool at the end of the room, “I really like you.”
