Page 41 of Cursed Waters

“It’s Claira now?” he asked, scanning my face with a look that said he was deciding whether the name suited me. When his eyes dropped to my mouth, I watched his own lips widen into a heart-piercing grin. “She’s leaving with us,” he said finally, his smooth voice as casual as if he was saying we were just going for a quick trip to a drive thru.

I wet my lips with interest as I veered back to see Leander’s reaction. Oh boy, he did not look happy.

“Whaleshit she is,” Leander spat, raking a hand through his hair as he raised his chin in the air. Then his arm tightened possessively around my waist, eliciting a startled squeak from my throat. “It was nice seeing you again, Barren, but your friend here can fuck off. She’s not going anywhere with either of you.”

“And why not leave that up to her? She sounded like she wanted to leave with us a second ago.” Kai reached for my hand, his bright eyes practically overflowing with foolish optimism, but I tightened my hands into fists. “It’s all right, Claira. You don’t have to stay in a place where they don’t appreciate you. A place where they keep you in a cage. We—”

“Fuck off!” Leander cut in. “We’re not keeping her in a cage. She’s staying with me.”

He pulled me up against his chest, and I tilted my head back in disbelief.

Oh, so we were lying now? Just going to forget all about the cage thing?

His words suddenly sank in, and I stood there blank, amazed, and very shaken.

Staying with him?Like, in his room with him, with him? When had I agreed to that?

“Oh, really? Look at her face, dude. She looks terrified,” Kai insisted. Suddenly, all eyes were on me, forcing me to hide my burning cheeks behind my palms.

“See, you’re making her uncomfortable.”

Nearly too embarrassed to think, I broke out of Leander’s arms and whipped around to face him. “Can we go somewhere? Talk about this in private for a minute?”

I nodded toward the warehouse, but he spun me back around, pointing to the gas station off in the distance. “Since you had to sneak back out here, I think we’d better let my father cool his head before he sees us again,” Leander mumbled, and I couldn’t help but notice the slight quaver in his voice.

He straightened up, suddenly raising his tone so the others could hear. “As for you two, feel free to go inside and talk your plan over with King Eamon. See how he feels about it. I’ll be back to shovel what’s left of your carcasses into the ocean later.” He ushered me forward and locked on to the titan’s shoulder, leaning in close. “Though if I were you, I’d stay out here and let your little friend here weather the storm alone, Barren.”

I kept my eyes angled up at Barren’s expressionless face as I passed, observing the tightly wound coils of dark hair dusting his masculine eyebrows. It hadn’t escaped me how his jaw seemed to relax when his eyes were on Leander and tense up when they slid back to me. The thought made my pulse surge with conflicting emotions, but I couldn’t fathom why. We were complete strangers. Plus, he was sort of trying tokidnap me. Why should it matter if he liked me or not?

Leander growled curses under his breath as we walked through the gravel. “They’re following us, aren’t they?”

I glanced back, and sure enough, both mermen were a few strides behind us. “Mmm, yep.” So much for privacy.

When we reached the gas station, I stared at the broken chain and lock lying on the ground where we’d left them. Leander didn’t hesitate, shouldering right into the closed door just like he’d done the first time. “Fuck,” he cursed, rubbing his shoulder.

I couldn’t help but snort as I pulled the other side open. “Come on, before they decide to follow us inside.”

Too late. Kai lined up right behind us like he was patiently waiting for his turn to go inside.

“You don’t get it,” Leander growled, rounding in front of Kai and stopping him with a firm hand to the chest. “We—as in, her and me—need to talk. You’re not coming a single step closer.”

“Oooh, I thought when she said we needed to talk in private, she meant…” With a hopeful look in his eyes, Kai gestured vaguely to all of us, and I pressed my lips together in response. “Well, this is awkward.” He smiled at me coyly and threw his hands in the air in a dramatic shrug. “But we might as well stick around now that we’re here.”

Swooping underneath Leander’s arm, he slid right through the open door. “Oh, wow, look how gross it is in here!”

Before Leander could pull him back out by the neck, I barricaded the front of the door. “Just wait a second,” I mouthed, beckoning to Barren with a wave of my hand. “All right, you guys win. You want to join us, too?” Moving aside, I held the door wide open.

Barren took a moment, and my body seemed overly aware that his eyes were on me. He stepped forward and threw me a dark, unreadable look that had me rethinking my plan as he crouched to fit through the doorway.

Well, he already hated me, so what did it matter?

When his massive shoulders were through, I let go of the handle. Dropping to my knees, I scrambled for the lock and chain. The door slammed shut, and I was already threading the chain through the handles, hooking what was left of the U part of the lock to secure the surrounding chain.There.

Almost certain the doors would hold for a bit, I relaxed my back against the side of the door. A force hit the glass, and I jumped.

Then came the muffled sound of Kai’s overly animated voice. “Can you believe it, Barren?” The door rattled against my back again. “Dude, she actually locked us in here!”

“Ruthless,” Leander chuckled before offering me a hand up. From down here, his legs looked even worse than before. Minor scrapes worked their way around his ankles and feet. Could a box of plates really cause this much damage?

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