He touches my chin. A brief, gentle touch. “Hey,” he murmurs. “Don’t.”
I blink wide eyes at him, forcing a grin. “What?”
“Whatever you’re thinking, you’re wrong. And you’re not fuckinghearing me. I see your tail. I remember the ocean in my lungs when you were drowning me. I don’t fuckingcare. So be here with me because I’m choosing you. Fuck the warlocks. Fuck Mortia. I’d even say, ‘fuck the heart’ if we didn’t need it to save our lives.” He kisses me. Short. Brief.
Too short.
Too brief.
And that’s when I know—I’ve fallen for him.
For the man I should hate more than anyone else. For the man I’m shackled to.
For a fucking warlock.
My heart pounds between us, but if he can feel my realization through the bond, he doesn’t show it. He doesn’t react in any way. I ache and I ache and I ache. Forhim. “You didn’t come,” I say abruptly, because I can’t say anything else. I can’t tell him I could love him. Ican’t admit that if things were different, I’d choose him over anything and anyone else. Instead, I climb up onto my elbows and lick my lips. “Will you let me taste you?”
His gaze flashes. Darkens. “If this is you changing the subject—”
“It’s not,” I hasten to say, wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him into me.He doesn’t flinch away from my scales.The warmth inside me pools hotter. “Let me makeyouhappy, Arion. After all, you just made me come five times. In a row.”
He runs his hands down my waist, over my chest, touching me everywhere. Reveling inallof me. My insides knot. The cord beams—so bright, it’s white now. Ethereal and sparkling. It paints him completely divine.
I move my hands to his shoulders and shove him so that he lands on his back. And before he can say anything else, before he can ensnare my heart any further, I pull myself forward, lick up the length of his cock, and choke on it until he’s the one unraveling. Until he’s groaning and cursing and breathing heavily, his hand fisted in my hair and his hips slamming his cock into the back of my throat.
“That’s it, Zephyra. Don’t you dare fucking stop.”
And then when he comes, “Mine,” he growls. “You aremyfucking mermaid.”
For once, the possessiveness of the words doesn’t evoke fear or terror. For once, I really fucking like the sound of them. Because if it was my choice, Arion would be mine too. We would belong to each other.
I sink into his arms when we finish and the salt water has dried from my skin, our legs tangled and Arion combing soothing fingers through my hair, pressing soft kisses to my cheeks and neck and forehead. Hours pass, and we lie there just like that. As two people without another care in the world. As two people who have a chance. As two people who might actually have a future together.
Even though that couldn’t be further from the truth.
PART
4
THESCELERATUSTRENCH
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
ZEPHYRA
I stare out over pitch-dark waters and try not to puke.
Six months. I ran awaysix monthsago and vowed to never return. But here I am, as if no time has passed, as if I never fucking left. I can almost hear the sorcerer’s phantom laughter in my ear, a dark storm of vengeful irony. He won. Whether the others know it yet doesn’t matter. The High Sorcerer of the Four Seasalwayswins. I tuck my hands under my arms, leaning over the starboard side of the ship to peer into the unnaturally still sea.
The Sceleratus Trench lies beneath, tens of thousands of feet below.
A shiver racks my spine.
“You know there’s a world where this plan—bleeding me into the seas to trick the sorcerer—didn’t work, right? He could be down there. Right now. He could be waiting for us, and as soon as I drain it, we’re all as good as dead.”Worsethan dead. We’ll be his. My stomach churns uneasily. Every instinct in my body begs me to turn this ship around, to force it as far from here as possible. Every instinct screams that I need to run.
But there is no more running.
Arion takes my hand, brushing a kiss along my knuckles as his wings stretch out around his new silver armor. Amaya has fitted the entire crew. Silver breastplates and silver swords and that samesilvered cord between us. “I know,” he says shortly. “But if that happens, we’ll figure it out. This isn’t over for us.”
