Page 34 of Cruel Tides

Barren’s head tilted, sending dark curls spilling over his eyebrows. “You’ll go?”

My hand tightened over his. “But only if Leander and Kai can go—well, if they want.” That monstrous part of me shuddered, possessiveness coiling around my insides like a vise. I knew Barren and Kai had traveled to see the circus freak who still had a tail, but could princes take off for other kingdoms? I hoped they would. How could I leave any of them?

A speechless Barren stared me down, jaw set, his dark eyes searching mine.

“I think Leander is planning on leaving, anyway,” I added, brushing my fingers over the back of his hand. His skin was rough, but also clean and well groomed. “Maybe I should hear his plans before I decide on anything.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to your island,” a voice called. Leander came around the car—thankfully from the side I hadn’t been sick on—with my backpack slung over one of his shoulders. Barren pulled away from me, straightening to full height, and I frowned down at my hands, surprised by how much I missed the feel of his hand in mine.

“You have an island?” As I blinked up at Barren, he frowned.

His shoulders shrugged. “My kingdom has an island.”

An island didn’t sound so bad. Gram’s cousin had a beach house on an island where we occasionally stayed for a weekend.

I turned to Leander. “You’re okay with leaving? Won’t King Eamon be upset?”

He let my backpack fall from his shoulder and passed it over to me. “I don’t care what my father thinks. I’ve already talked to the captains. They know that I’m leaving and that I intend to come back.” Anger rose over his face, his fist clenching as he ran a hand through his hair. “I know if I stay here, with how I am now, I’ll end up killing him.” Then he turned away as if it embarrassed him to admit to such a dark thought.

Honestly, if he did kill him, I wouldn’t blame him. I slid my bottle of water into the side of my backpack, then toyed with the bag’s zipper. It was nice of him to get my things for me. I wasn’t sure if I could handle going back in there, especially if my father was still screaming. “But what about your stuff?”

“I already grabbed it.” As he let go of his hair, he sighed. “It’s just one thing. I put it in with yours.”

Curious, I unzipped the bag to poke around inside and immediately saw turquoise and black. “You wanted to give back my pajama pants?”

“Fuck no, those are mine.” Leander gave me a heart-melting smirk. “They’re my favorite.”

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Barren. “Can I ask you for a favor before we leave?”

Barren cut a quick glance over at Leander before saying, “Anything.”

“Could you take me to see my dad and Gram first? I want to make sure they’re okay before I leave.” Was I really doing this? Going to a strange island to be forced underwater yet again? Now that I knew we weren’t the only ones seeking tridents, there was no telling what awaited us down there. But somehow, with both of them accompanying me, the thought wasn’t as scary as it should have been.

Barren nodded, his hand sliding to his pocket. Then he took his phone out, and his thumb swiped over the screen. “I can arrange it,” he mumbled, and my heart leaped.

10

Kai

“Ican’t believe you’d turn your back on me to chase after this—this harlot!”

Claira had only just returned, and already, Laverne was upset.

I froze while stuffing clothes into my bag, one hand supporting my back to dull the lingering ache. “Laverne,” I warned, keeping my voice low as I cast a look at Claira. Thank goodness—her mind hadn’t seemed to pick up Laverne’s scathing words. As usual, Laverne was doing everything she could to exclude her.

Claira was crouched next to the couch, crimson hair pooling over her shoulder, holding tight to a spiral shell she’d pulled from underneath it. A shiver ran through me when I noticed her bottom lip pop between her perfectly polished teeth. My nipples stiffened at the memory of those teeth tugging, raking against my skin, until my shirt pulled uncomfortably across my chest.

I swallowed as I watched Claira stuff the shell into her backpack, then turned my attention back to Laverne. “That isn’t how we should talk about our frien?—”

Laverne screeched, and the bed underneath her released a similar note as she lunged to the foot of it.“How dare you!”Whiskers splaying, she tossed her nose up to the air.“I willneverbe friends with that algae-haired sea slug. And neither should you!”She cast a downward glance across the room, her eyes narrowing on Claira’s back.“A friend wouldn’t have let you get hurt,”she added, a sharp wave of her fury stabbing into my head alongside her words.“She left you for dead, Big Brother. Or are you too bewitched by her glamour to remember that?”

Wincing, I held up a hand. “Laverne, stop.” Emotions were powerful manipulators, and although we typically held them back when we communicated, Laverne’s anger had a habit of slipping through unchecked.

But she kept going, her teeth bared and neck pitched like she was preparing to lunge off the bed and chase Claira out of my room again.“Have you forgotten why we came here? Forgotten about Freechia? How can you not see that this mermaid is using you?”She stopped to let out a round of barks that had Claira nearly toppling over herself to scramble behind the couch for cover.

“The moment she gets me away from you, I come back to both of you canoodling, stuck together like a couple of mantis shrimp?—!”

“That’s enough, Laverne!” I banged my drawers shut as I got up, the jerky movements sending a harrowing pain up my spine as I fought and failed to distinguish Laverne’s invading rage from my own. Anger wasn’t what I was used to. It solved nothing—only made matters worse. No moral decisions could be made from it.

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