Page 83 of The Dark, Dead, Deep

I scoffed.

“Come with me,” Rainn demanded, rushing forward.

“Taking me to Lady Bloodtide?” I snarled back, our faces inches from each other as I bared my teeth in warning. “I heard what you said. About using me.”

“The only way I intend to use you is in the bedroom, this I promise you,” he snapped back. “I had to make Lady Bloodtide see the worth of keeping you alive and outside the dungeon.”

My eyes narrowed. “As you can see, I am no longer in the dungeon.”

“As I can see.” Rainn moved closer, and I retreated until my back pressed into the jagged stone of the statue. “Howdidyou manage to escape, princess? Did you charm one of the guards?”

“You’re incogitable.” I ignored his question. I didn’t even know how to begin to explain.

I hadbecomethe water and moved through the bars. I had no idea what was happening to me. My way with the water was evolving, and it shouldn’t have been possible without the gods’ blessing.

“I’m here to help Cormac.” I jutted my chin and met his sky-blue eyes.

His lips ticked into their patented grin. “Are you now? I thought you hated the bugger?”

I rolled my eyes towards the heavens. “Belisama, save me. Can I not do something good and kind without being questioned?”

“As if you are good and kind, princess,” Rainn teased. “Grumpy and prickly may be more accurate.”

“Grumpy and prickly mean the same thing.” My eyes narrowed.

“Unless you’re a sea urchin.” The selkie winked.

I blinked slowly. “Take me to Cormac.”

Rainn pressed his lips together. “Demanding, aren’t we?”

“Perhaps you should add it to your list, right next to grumpy and prickly,” I scathed.

“The elderly look suits you,” Rainn said with a grin. “Finally, the world can see you for the curmudgeon you truly are.”

I flashed him a smile, but the expression was akin to a shark baring its teeth.

The door at the end of the corridor creaked as someone began to open it, and Rainn used his body to shield me as he swam forwards and pushed me through the door at the end.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the darkness. Taking in the rows and rows of shelves, I saw Rainn had pushed us into a storage cupboard. The small space was packed to the rafters with silvers, forgotten artwork, and many other artifacts that I couldn’t recognize.

I tried to ignore the throb of their magic, whispering that Rainn and I were intruding.

“Why did you push me in here?” I hissed.

“So, you wanted to be found by the guards?” Rainn replied, as if both amused and curious.

I growled in exasperation and allowed my arms to fall to my sides as I gestured helplessly. “A minute in your company, and I wish to pull my hair out.”

“You need to build up a tolerance,” Rainn suggested. “The dungeon seems to have shortened your tenuous fuse—if you ever had one, to begin with.”

“Is this the part where you tell me it’s unbecoming of a lady to snipe at clever, clever males,” I said dryly, hiding how much the subject bothered me.

I had spent my life being pushed inside a box, being told I was too loud, too angry, and toomuch. Every time I showed emotions, I was judged from a distance, as if I was finally losing my grip on reality as my mother did.

Swimming a knife’s edge made me want to scream, and I had coped the only way I knew how. To don a shield as thick as a clam skin and give the courtiers something to talk about.

Even freeing Elsbeth had been one part of altruism and several parts of rebellion.

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