Page 37 of Bombshell

“I don’t want this full time,” I whispered, still worried about voicing what Ireallywanted from Dallan because of the doubts that still filled my mind. “I don’t even really like these people.”

“You like Odette,” Dallan pointed out with a murmur.

I shook my head. “She’s different.”

Dallan snorted. “She was bred and born to be in this life, Lass. Her and her father are the closest thing to royalty that we have in this part of the world, and if he gets his way, she’s going to marry some foppish faerie prince and continue her fancy life forever regardless of whether or not you are trying to save her.”

Dallan glanced down at my frown before gently kissing it away. “Sorry, I didn’t come here to argue.”

“Why did you come here then?”

The Cthulhu grinned at me, the tentacles along his jaw curling in as he reached down to grab my hand and placed his other hand on my hip. “To dance.”

“You aren’t serious?” I asked, gawking as he started to move us around the balcony. I wasn’t a dancer, a fact that was made very clear when I stumbled over his feet. Dallan, however, moved like he’d been doing it his entire life.

He led both of us with an ease that I’d never seen from the man before and it was very different from the times we danced at the bar.

Those times the pulse of music had taken us away and it was more like very close swaying versus the measured, formal steps he was leading me through now.

“How have I known you for almost fifty years and never known that you can waltz?”

“I have many talents just waiting to be revealed.” His words were almost a purr and it was easy to forget that we were still standing just outside of a banquet hall full of people.

Dallan pulled me close and I could feel the flutter of his hearts against my chest as he gently tilted my chin up for a kiss.

“Come away with me?” he asked, golden eyes on mine.

I hesitated. “But Odette…”

He cut me off gently. “Will still be here when I return you, just come with me for a bit.”

Water began to leak onto the balcony, covering our feet as we were lifted by the same tunnel of water that had dropped Dallan off.

I glanced up at Dallan’s face of concentration, my fingers tightening on his arms as we were lowered to the sea level where waves were crashing up against the cliff below. “Doesn’t this exhaust you?”

“It does, but it’s only for a moment.”

Then we were underwater, the currents carrying us away from the cliffside and back into the bay.

Even though we were under the surface of the water, Dallan was somehow making an air pocket around us allowing for me to breathe and I settled in, only the sound of his beating heart and my own short gasps of breath filling my ears as we zipped past other sea creatures in the nearly pitch black water.

Curious, I reached for my magic and used what Alexander and I had spent the entire day yesterday working on. My body began to glow, illuminating the dark waters until we could see nearly twenty feet around us.

The light startled most of the nearby fish who scuttled off back into the darkness, not to mention the massive whale that gave a bellowing echo as it dived to get further away from us.

“You scared him, Lass,” Dallan told me as he twisted us in a barrel roll so we could get one last glimpse at the retreating behemoth.

“What kind of whale was that?” Despite the Wharf running whale watching for all of the tourists, I’d never gone. Somethingabout being out on the open ocean made my instincts go haywire—probably due to my tree nymph nature.

There were no trees in the ocean, so sailing far away from them made me ridiculously uncomfortable.

“Minke,” Dallan provided with a frown. “Which is odd because they’re rarely down this far before the summer.”

“Maybe the weird early spring is throwing them off?”

Dallan’s previously flirty demeanor was gone for a brief moment as he sat deep in thought, then when the yellow submarine that was the entrance to his home came into view the moody expression was gone and he was back again.

“Maybe,” he finally said as he reached out and touched the hatch to the submarine. Both of us were sucked magically inside until we were standing together in Dallan’s grotto, completely dry.

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