Page 131 of Rise of the Siren Queen
“Okay, tell me about it later.”
I hung up as soon as I reached my car and drovestraight to the docks.
The only way I knew to get to her was from the island, from the cave. Aetheria was beyond that pond.
It is laughable that I had to return to where all of it began.
Months ago, I sailed in search of a peaceful vacation.
Instead, I found a hurricane of a woman that shook my depths, changed my view of the world I knew and showed me what I had known to be myths were living, breathing creatures.
Mother educated me in her world, taught me how to shield my mind, how to talk telepathically and adapt to the shift.
The journey to my island was quick and smooth. Soon I found myself on the trail to the cave entrance, hidden deep in the woods.
Iryen once told me that a barrier protected the cave of the moon pond, but that barrier didn’t hide the monstrous entrance from my eyes.
The path to the pond was the same.
And I had to rethink my strategy. Diving in had a hundred percent chance of losing myself in the maze.
The unpleasant memories of both times I almost lost my life to those waters assaulted me, but her pain smoldering in every fiber of my body didn’t give me time to dwell in the past.
Taking a deep breath, I shifted, bones reshaping, flesh turning into navy-blue scales, and after a few hard breathing my tail came into view, splashing water onto the shore where I sat.
I need to see her, tell her I would rather risk dying than spend a life in endless despair without her.
Pitch darkness bathed the waters, interrupted only by the occasional glow of plankton. Every turn I took led me to dead ends and rock walls, just as the day she saved me from drowning the first time, the day I saw her tail.
Lost. I was lost. Again.
She had been right.
This labyrinth was deadly for anyone who didn’t know how to navigate or didn’t have a tail. The main issue is that I’m losing time.
Precious time away from her.
Fuck.
Tracing back to the open underwater clearing, three mesmerizing creatures appeared, their ethereal beauty both captivating and unnerving. Pale, shimmering skin glistened with an iridescent glow, each movement fluid like the water itself. Delicate fins adorned their faces, almost like gossamer wings, framing their striking, glowing pink eyes that seemed to pierce through to my very soul.
Fucking Nymphs.
They assist those in need, but if my time in these waters had taught me anything, it was never to trust beauty at face value.
And I was a very intelligent man who didn’t make the same mistake twice.
My instincts screamed caution.
Straightening my spine, I squared my shoulders, tensing as I reminded myself I wasn’t human anymore.
I had power.
Immense power, and I refused to cower to anyone but my mate.
The nymphs glided closer, their movements impossibly graceful, as if the water obeyed their every whim.
I stepped back instinctively.
