Page 84 of The Dark, Dead, Deep

After all, I was crazy; that sort of behavior was expected.

“I like it,” Rainn declared.

“Pardon?” My mouth popped open.

Rainn didn’t repeat himself; he just gave me that smile. So full of mischief. His sky-blue eyes hidden behind the waves of his ear-length hair as the water teased the curls and made them dance.

His smile dropped as we held each other’s eyes. I could feel his warmth, and it felt like I hadn’t felt such a thing in so long.

I didn’t know how to act or what to say.

I was so used to putting shields, walls, and jagged sea glass between me and whoever orbited me that I didn’t know how to be genuine even though I wanted to more than anything.

“The blanket.” I cleared my throat. “Urma said that it was a selkie coat.”

An indecipherable emotion passed Rainn’s eyes. He did not confirm or deny; he simply hummed.

“That’s preposterous.” I laughed, the sound shrill and strange. “Why would you give me a selkie coat. Whose is it? Yours?”

Rainn avoided my eyes, inhaling deeply as he searched for something to say. “It is not a coat. It is a blanket,” he confirmed. His voice was calm and measured.

“Oh,” I said dumbly.

“Though to gift a coat to someone is seen as a marriage proposal, I did no more than allow you to borrow one of the blankets from my travel pack,” he clarified, gesturing to the chain on his hip. “This Urma person was mistaken. I am sorry to disappoint you. Though I’m certain that as an undine, you wouldn’t be too happy with a selkie mate.”

My brow furrowed. “I haven’t thought about mating at all, really. I was waiting to reach my magical majority to find my shíorghrá.” I didn’t add that it was unlikely that would happen now.

“Come.” Rainn shifted, craning his head to listen to the corridor outside. “Let us return to Cormac.”

Rainn led me through the hallways until we finally reached the King’s Chambers.

I had expected a dark and dim sickroom, based on the lamenting that both Rainn and Tormalugh had done when they had visited me in the dungeon, but it appeared that my visions of Cormac Illfin alone on a wooden board were nothing but my imagination.

The room shone; half of the wall was taken up by a half-cut amethyst crystal behind glass, like a purple city made of jagged crystal, with buildings rising to the sky and fighting to be the tallest.

The bed was the largest I had ever seen, and Cormac lay prone in the middle of the covers. His body was still from his head to his crimson tail.

Shay sat by the side of the bed with a book in his hands, the pages made of vellum that repelled water, and the ink was spelled not to dissolve. Books were a rarity, even in the castle at Cruinn. Seeing so many on Cormac’s shelves made my stomach clench in a way that straddled both jealousy and amazement.

Cormac had seemingly no good qualities, save for those favored by men. He was vulgar, angry, and arrogant—racing head first into the Whispering Pass proved that he was brash and stupid.

But the books gave me pause.

Had I fallen prey to the same snap thinking that made Cormac storm into the pass to spite me?

If Cormac had read even one of the books on his wall, he couldn’t be as bad as I thought.

Though I reserved the right to judge him further if I ever managed to wake up the drama queen.

“He hasn’t moved?” I asked.

Shay startled and snapped the book closed, placing it on the bedside table. He blinked, staring into my face as if he had been struck.

It took a moment to realize that I wore the guise of a wrinkled mermaid. “It’s Maeve,” I said, waving a hand towards my glamoured tail.

Shay’s expression smoothed. “I recognized your voice. I was simply in awe of your beautiful disguise.”

I quirked a brow before shaking my head in disbelief. “Nymphs,” I muttered.

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