Page 52 of Kiss of Embers

I didn’t think. Just closed my lips around the stem and sucked. Crisp oxygen flooded my lungs. I seized the long, waxy tube from Struan and gulped greedily, my lips fastened around the tube so tightly it was a miracle it didn’t snap in half. The blackness receded, and clarity returned.

Struan gripped the edge of one miniature window, his eyes concerned as he watched me recover.

The mermaids swam into view, stopping on the opposite side of the castle. They glared at Struan, their eyes glowing a sickly green that cut through the water like headlights. The redhead fingered one of her necklaces.

The blond hissed softly, displaying multiple rows of sharp teeth that hadn’t been there before. “You’re cheating! You aren’t supposed to come back!”

The redhead flicked her tail fin in an agitated rhythm, creating a wake that rippled outward. “What do the rules say about this? Can we punish him?” She stared at Struan intently, her gaze moving down his chest like she was checking him out in a bar. But the hunger in her eyes wasn’t sexual.

It was just…hunger. Horror froze me in place. Struan noticed, and he gripped my hand. Fingers wrapped around mine, he offered me a reassuring smile as he leaned forward and closed his lips around the stem I still held. He winked at me as he drew air into his lungs.

Heat snaked through me. Even in the middle of the lake, with a pair of bloodthirsty mermaids sizing us up as their next meal, his wink set a fire simmering low in my belly.

“We can’t do anything,” the blond snarled. “All we can do is wait for the tideflower to run out of oxygen.”

The redhead’s lips curved in a malicious smile. She tipped her head back, her eyes trained on the surface above. “Maybe it won’t refill in time for the next one. Delphine is fetching him.”

Struan released the stem. He pointed into the distance, then mouthed,Keep going. He mimed sucking air from the tube. Pointing to the tube, his lips moved again.You’ll know.

I nodded, showing him I understood. Somewhere ahead of us, other tideflowers waited. And, somehow, I’d sense them. Apparently, the challenge involved finding them before I drowned—or became a mermaid’s picnic.

Struan beamed at me. Then he pressed a quick kiss to my cheek and swam away, moving much faster than a man his size should have been able to. For a moment, I clung to the castle in a daze, one hand lifting to my cheek.

He’d come back for me. He and Finn were competing to save their queen—and their people. They were serious about winning the elixir. Perhaps more importantly, they’d shared their secret with me. They trusted me not to tell anyone about Queen Isolde’s illness. And yet, despite needing that elixir just as much as I did, Struan had returned to help me. He’d just saved my life.

Because I was his mate. His fated female. The knowledge slammed into me, threatening to knock my world off its axis. But deep down, I’d known all along.

“Is she going to leave?” a feminine voice intruded. “Or is she just going to hang around with that dopey expression on her face?”

I looked at the mermaids. The redhead hissed halfheartedly, her eyes flashing green. “Congratulations. You found a big, strong man to save you.” She flicked her fingers at me. “Now, shoo.”

Anger rose. She had a point, but I wasn’t going to feel bad about accepting Struan’s help. Independence was useless if I was dead.

I took another pull of oxygen from the tideflower. When my lungs were full, I shoved away from the castle, leaving the mermaids behind.

But more flitted into my path as I swam. Some circled me, throwing out taunts and insults. Others were friendly, even accommodating, as they gave me directions to the next bank of tideflowers. But it quickly became apparent that they were trying to trick me. When I failed to change my course, they hissed and switched to name-calling.

And they watched me closely, waiting for me to run out of breath and falter. They were stunning, tempting predators. Sharks who looked like beauty queens. Behind every pair of full, red lips were rows of serrated teeth ready to shred my flesh from my bones.

As with the sand geysers, my muscles ached from the effort of propelling myself through the water. My eyes burned, and my hair constantly floated in my face. The mermaids circled and sneered, effortlessly gliding in and out of my path. But I stayed the course, instinct leading me from tideflower to tideflower. Some were tucked at the bottom of small, stone lighthouses. Others adorned the crowns of sea gods and goddesses who stood tall on their pedestals, their stony gazes pointed toward the next crop of flowers.

Slowly, I made my way across the lake. And, finally, the rocky bottom sloped upward. Excitement pumped through my veins, giving me the last push I needed to get my feet under me. When my head broke the surface at last, I laughed with relief.

And when the jungle melted away and another yawning chasm took its place, I put my shoulders back and strode toward the next phase of the challenge.

Chapter

Fourteen

STRUAN

Two challenges down. Two to go.

And one fated female saved.

Relief coursed through me as I shook off the last of the lake and jogged forward. I wasn’t sure Zara realized how close she’d come to danger. Mermaids were the mean girls of the sea, infamous for throwing more shade than a solar eclipse—right before they made ropes out of your intestines.

Ahead, the temple walls wavered, signaling another transition. As I ran, the stone under my feet rippled and then turned into rust-colored rock covered with small pebbles. A few dozen feet ahead, the floor disappeared completely, and another vast chasm took its place. A cliff’s edge loomed ahead, like the Grand Canyon I’d dragged Finn to on one of the vacations he bitched about but ended up enjoying.

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