Page 128 of Cruel Tides

“I’m sure you can figure out a solution.” His arm slid low, hooking around my waist and pulling me up against him. Fantastic—even more blood. His searing gaze followed the deep red stains dotting the top of my shirt. My insides turned to liquid, the heat from it rising up my face. “If not,” he said slowly, like his tongue was toying with the words. “Allow me to assist.”

My lips parted. His eyebrows quirked as he awaited my answer, but I couldn’t find the words. Now that he’d shed his docile puppet persona, he was too close, too bold for me to properly gauge.

“No?” he asked with a deep hum that brought me back to when he’d bound me to the walls of King Eamon’s dungeon cavern. I couldn’t help but arch my back as his thumb stroked over the column of my spine. “You wish to return covered in my blood?”

I shook my head. “Please, I…” The words tore out of me, but what I was pleading for, I wasn’t sure.

With that, he chuckled. Darkness drained from his eyes, leaving a stark white that matched his smirk. With a sudden lash of dark magic, the air pulsed with energy. The floor vanished in a haze of smoke. Only this time, when the new surroundings materialized around us, my feet did not find the ground.

Off-balance, I jerked forward. I seized a desperate hold of the sea wizard’s shoulders, but his arm hooked around me kept me from falling.

We’d materialized, suspended in the middle of the air. Well,Ihad.The sea wizard was perfectly balanced, the end of his black shoes expertly braced against a smooth edge of glass. He held his other arm far above his head, grasping the long pole of a skylight that ran parallel to the ceiling.

Lights and finery glittered overhead, and I looked up, instantly dizzied by the circular mural that sprawled above us.

He’d teleported us next to thedamned ceiling.

Which meant the glass he was standing on was…

I glanced back down, and immediately regretted it, my stomach rolling.

Yep. A giant freaking tank of water.

The sea wizard held me there, dangling me over the ledge, his white eyes more piercing than the surrounding lights. When his lips finally parted, his voice was steeped in dark humor. “Not the solution you were hoping for?”

And then, he let go. I fell straight down, a cold rush hitting as I splashed into the enormous tank of water below.

31

Claira

When I resurfaced, a long string of curses accompanied the water that shot out of my mouth. Rage boiled inside me.Thiswas how the sea wizard planned to take care of my blood-splattered clothes?

Pulling me close, toying with me with smooth words… It seemed so obvious now that I should have seen something like this coming.

“Fuckingcreep,” I spat out as I tossed the wet hair back from my face.

Wait—where was my bag? Had I lost it when he dropped me? Treading water, I searched around me, dreading the long way down to the bottom of the tank. I was a passable swimmer with legs, sure, but I’d never dived in water deeper than a standard backyard pool.

“Quite the foul tongue you have,” a smooth voice called from above, and my lips immediately drew together.

Of course, the sea wizard hadn’t vanished yet. Why wouldn’t he want to watch me flounder?

“Stick around, and I’ll show you a foul tongue,” I threw back up at him. It was far from a clever retort, but I was still recovering from the initial shock of the fall. For a casino on an island, this water was freakingcold.

Black wisps of magic rippled off the sea wizard’s shoulders as he leisurely braced on the skylight above me. “Forget about this?” he asked.

My eyes widened. Amidst the haze of magic smoke, a long, black trident came into view, my bag’s strap looped over one of its lengthy prongs. “Thought I’d keep it dry for you,” he admitted, extending the weapon out over the water for me to take.

My mind whirled, and my bag was suddenly the last thing on my mind. Was he really holding the same trident I’d seen concealed within his body only moments ago?

“But, I—you—” It didn’t make sense. I’d seen the marks on him. How was this possible?

One of the sea wizard’s eyebrows arched, and his trident sagged until the bottom of my bag dipped into the water. “Not interested in your things?” And as abruptly as the black trident had appeared, it vanished into threads of smoke. My bag dropped, and I barely had the sense to grab it before it could sink.

When I looked back up, the sea wizard had a hand over the wrap I’d put against his neck. “Thank you for this,” he said in a tone bordering on sarcastic, making it impossible to tell if he was thanking me for the wrap or because he’d gotten the wound in the first place.

“Wait, but—your trident.” As I spoke, the air grew colder. Streams of dark magic flowed from the tips of his fingers, and all at once, it hit me—he was about to teleport.

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