Page 153 of Cruel Tides

“You can stop worrying about being found,” he said simply. His front tentacles retreated, coiling neatly underneath him while his back ones flicked lazily over the waves. “Nobody can see beyond this veil.”

Mesmerized, I held a palm out to the wall of smoke, surprised by the haze’s icy temperature. “You can make yourself invisible?” Now that seemed like a useful trick.

His eyes were as cold as the magical mist that surrounded us. “My magic can do many things.”

Realizing I was still poking at the veil he’d conjured, I dropped my hand, trying to play my admiration off as indifference. “So it seems.” I didn’t know why I kept letting him surprise me.Wizardwas right there in his title. Of course he could do all sorts of strange magic.

“I have a question,” I said, stepping closer to him. The sand squishing under my boots made me anxious, but I couldn’t afford to show any more weakness. “How are you able to remove your trident from inside of you?”

His lips peeled back from his teeth, a deadly blade of a look that raised every hair on the back of my neck. “Excuse me?”

Well… I could already tell this wasn’t going to go well.

Although my intuition was screaming, I persisted. “Don’t deny it.” I pointed a finger right up against his porcelain smooth, freakishly unblemished chest. “I know that trident was inside you.”

“Hm.” His eyes cast down where my finger prodded. With his slicked-back hair and lips canting into a calculating smirk, he looked ready to devour this mouse in one bite.

Wait—why was he suddenly smirking?

“And if I tell you,” he said, each softly spoken word wrapped in velvet, “what will you give me in return?”

“In… return?” Warning bells rang inside me, too loud to ignore. I stumbled back a step, but he was already there, catching me by the waist. His tentacles cinched, sweeping me close enough for far more than just my finger to press against him.

Worst of all, he didn’t seem to care about the magical switchblade I held. The shell’s ribbed ridges pressed against my thigh, caught between us, leading me to believe it somehow hadn’t filleted him.

Damp, suction-cupped flesh brushed against my shoulders and my forehead, teasing back my hair. I shivered when one tendril seemed to find the bump hidden underneath.

To call his look amused would be an understatement. No, he looked thrilled to have caught this little mouse.Dammit.

“I cannot give away that kind of knowledge for free, can I?” His white eyes bore into me, a sharp focus that should have made my skin crawl. But instead, my body grew hot, igniting a cascade of flutters that stirred from the depths of my belly.

Double dammit.

He leaned in, close enough for me to taste the salt water in his cool breath. “And since you’re such acurious creature… You should have no problem striking a deal with me.”

“I—” My throat choked up.

A deal? What kind of deal?

“Uh…” My brain stalled. This wasn’t what I had in mind. He was too close, his expression all cunning and slyness, his cool skin causing goosebumps to form over my arms.

Shit. And my clothes were soaking up enough salt water from off his body there was a good chance I might transform right here and now.

As if to coax me into agreement, his hand holding the trident opened, and the weapon vanished, dissolving into smoke. The tattoo-like mark took shape before my eyes, a dark slash that worked up his arm, branching out over his chest in three broad deadly-tipped lines. “Well?” he asked. The muscles surrounding his neck tightened, as if maybe the bonding hurt him, but he gave no other indication of pain.

Wait—

My gaze snapped to his neck, the place where the gash had been only hours before. The skin there was as perfectly smooth as the rest of him. Did cecaelia heal even faster than merfolk, or was this anotherthinghis magic could do?

While awaiting my response, he lifted a strand of my hair, toying with it between his fingers. “If you don’t wish to part with more of your blood, there are other ways,” he said gently. “A lock of your hair, perhaps.”

More blood? My hair?I took a steadying breath, recognizing I didn’t feel anywhere near as threatened as I should have. While the sea wizard communicated in riddles, he’d yet to hurt me. Well—other than dropping me into a tank of water, but that had hurt my ego more than anything else.

The corner of my mouth tilted. “I’ve watched too many crime shows to ever let you have my hair.”

A chuckle rippled from the base of his chest. “No?” He let my hair slip from his fingers. “There are other things I could take. Your voice. A kiss.”

“Akiss?” I breathed out. What the heck kind of deal was this?

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