Page 24 of Cruel Tides

My arm closed around Claira’s bare waist as the barking faded. Seeing Claira like this, it should have been obvious Kai had awoken, but the realization hit like a blow to the chest. Relief that Kai was alive mixed with something charged and dark, making my jaw clench.

Laverne’s joyous cries filled my head as she retreated into the room, her flippers pounding the carpet in a gallop.“Big Brother! You’re awake!”

“Wait, Claira, don’t lea—oof.” Kai’s voice cut off, and I didn’t need to look back to know that Laverne had done a belly flop, tackling him back down to the bed.

My mind was blank when I scooped Claira up with my arm.

“I thought she was going to murder me,” Claira said, shaking where I held her against my chest. She was nearly breathless, like she had just come back from the fitness center herself. I pushed that thought from my mind, and it wasn’t until I was already down the hall that I realized I was carrying her back to my room.

“How is a sea lion scarier than a cecaelia?” Claira panted the words against my neck as I shouldered my door open.

The door knocked against the wedge as I set her down in the center of the room. My heartbeat hammered in my head as I straightened up, suddenly faced with the question of why I’d brought her here, and what I was going to do now that I had.

I watched her initial relief fade away from her face, replaced by a flair of panic as the same questions likely popped into her mind, neither of which I had an answer to.

So we stood there, pausing for a breath, taking each other in. I could tell she was waiting for me to say something, to react in some way, but my mind was blank; I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think.

Say something.

My mouth opened, but her eyelashes fell before I could force any words out. She slanted away from me, awkwardly folding her arms over her chest.

“I’m sorry.” Color rose over her face. “I should have known she would barge in like that. I should have been… prepared.” She took a hesitant step toward my bed, like she was thinking of using its sheets to cover up, but had thought better of it. “Do you have something I could wear?”

Sweat pooled down my back as I realized that, for once, I didn’t want to clothe her.

I wanted her on my bed, wrapped in my sheets, my body next to her so she could use me as she saw fit. As a shield, as a lover, I would do anything to get my voice to call to her. I didn’t care how she used me, as long as it gave me the chance to prove my worth.

Her eyes darted to where my luggage sat. “Just like a T-shirt or something?” she whispered, and the vulnerability in her voice tore my selfish thoughts away.

I could barely speak while she was around, and I thought that taking her to my bed would be enough to prove my worth?

I managed a strained, “Mmh,” as I went for my luggage.

My gaze landed on the side of her neck as I passed, and my vision tunneled, everything in me going blank. Before I was aware I’d moved, I was in front of her, brushing her hair away to inspect the side of her neck and shoulder.

Red marks swept down her skin like footprints scattered in sand. I didn’t realize my thumb was tracing down the line, feeling the slight swells, until her skin shuddered underneath my touch.

Friendship meant nothing to me as I growled out three low words. “He hurt you?”

Her shoulders shivered as she craned her chin to meet my gaze. A bold defiance glittered in her eyes. “I liked it.”

Another gut punch. “You… liked it.” My shoulders slumped as I sank away, going for the counter. My fingers shook with lost restraint as I grabbed my phone, my mind drowning in a surge of thoughts.

I needed to have clothes delivered to her. To cover her up, so I wouldn’t have to see what he’d done.

He had hurt her. But shelikedit.

My body burned, overwhelmed by conflicting emotions. Before I realized it, I was at her neck again, brushing more hair away to get a second look.

She swallowed down a gulp, her lips slowly parting as she watched the madness overtake me. “You believe me, don’t you, Barren?”

I froze, reminded of the last time I’d doubted her sincerity. In the ocean, I’d taken a look inside her mind that had resulted in my hand clamping around her throat. In that moment, it had taken everything in me to hold back my strength, and even though I’d successfully fought the impulse, I’d still hurt her before I’d forced my hand to let go.

I’d used my magic to look inside thousands of minds, but Claira’s was like nothing I’d ever seen. Layers of darkness crowded its corners like a fog, impenetrable except for a glimpse that I sorely regretted. A dark truth hidden so deep, even she wasn’t aware.

Telepathically linking to her had been a mistake I would never repeat.

I pulled away from her, letting her hair fall back in place against her neck. My jaw barely moved as I answered. “I believe you.”

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