Page 62 of Cruel Tides

“That was fucking insane,” Leander said through labored breaths. “Didn’t know anyone could swim that fast. Did you see we were passing fucking marlins?”

On the other side of me, Kai groaned in agreement, his free arm thrown over his face as he gasped for air.

Despite being on land, Barren still held me close. His hard chest rose and fell beneath me as he settled on his back, his muscles tight from the journey. Leander lay out on the other side of us. He swept his wet hair back with a swish of his hand to look up at the dull afternoon sky.

I wasn’t sure what was going on with Leander’s mood swings, but I was grateful his sudden burst of energy had allowed us to swim back so quickly. Discovering that we were being watched at the portal’s wreckage was terrifying. Not because of what the eel was—or who it might have been—but because of the warning it had projected into my mind moments after our eyes had met.

Even though its words hadn’t been particularly threatening, something about how the eel had spoken them to me had fear clawing up my throat. I huffed out a breath, remembering how its weakly rasped words had burned a trail through my mind like poison.

“Swim, little captive,”it had said, its long body coiling through the rocks, slithering closer.“Swim to a place beyond our reach if you value your freedom.”

It was a striking contrast to the sea wizard’s smoky voice. But the eel had addressed me as ‘little captive,’ and who else would call me that apart from the sea wizard? Unless he’d told the eel about his little pet name for me, which would have been an odd thing to do, right? Even for a self-proclaimed wizard.

My teeth ground as I thought over how the eel had told me to swim away. The sea wizard had known about my useless tail. He’d worked that much out about me quickly enough, and still, he’d told me toswim?“Freaking jerk,” I grumbled aloud, not even thinking that there were others around me.

Underneath me, Barren tensed. “Should I… release you?”

I rocked my head against Barren’s chest. “Oh—not you.” Honestly, even if he was only doing so because of the curse, I still liked the way he held me. Maybe it was athrallthing, but then again, I wasn’t even sure if my voice had ever called to him like his has done to me. “I was thinking about the eel. It sent me a warning. Told me to swim and, well…” I let out a harsh laugh. “If only it were that easy for me.”

“Don’t worry, Claira,” Kai said, a sharp tooth peeking out of his gentle smile. “We’ve got you.” The words were so full of love that it was impossible to doubt them.

I feigned a sniffle. “Aww, thanks, guys.”

After being abandoned all those years ago, I’d told myself I would never be dependent on anyone like I’d had to be with Papa. But maybe depending on these three wouldn’t be such a terrible fate.

Even now, each of them had a hand on me, Kai’s laced with mine, pulled at an awkward angle thanks to Barren propping me up, and Leander’s grip was firm on my other wrist. Barren’s arm was like an iron band around me. His massive hand and fingers splayed across my stomach, making me feel like no danger could ever reach me. It was… a lot, though, always having all three of them there, their grips constantly shifting as we moved.

“I appreciate it, guys. Really, I do. But there has to be a better way to do this,” I said, wishing that there were more of me or maybe less of them. I held up my arms to show how we were all connected. Then I looked around at all their tight, glistening skin and sleek tails, and something deep in my belly warmed.

Maybe this wasn’t all bad.

A moan escaped Kai as I eased their arms back down. “My arms,” he said, and a mist of water droplets flew everywhere as he shook them out, the movement carrying up our joined hands like a wave. “Theyhurt!Gosh, Laverne, why are you so?—”

Laverne interrupted him with an overly dramatic gasp.“Excuse me?”Her voice in my head was drawn out, seething. Her whiskers shot forward, splaying like she might lunge at his face.

“Slippery!” Kai blurted, scuttling backward in the sand to get away from her. He was dangerously close to joining me on top of Barren. “I was going to say slippery!”

Laverne pitched her nose high in the air.“Uh-huh. Of course, you were.”Her nostrils flared as she exhaled, seawater bubbling around them in a sound like a wet sneeze.“I cannot believe you would say such a thing, Big Brother.”

Leander scoffed, and I wasn’t sure if he was referring to Laverne or Kai when he mumbled, “Get used to it.”

Laverne gave another dismissive snort as Leander propped himself up on the sand, his eyebrows furrowing while he looked out at where the waves broke across the sandbank. He paused for a moment, watching the seawater drip down his tail, then asked, “Do you think there’s enough magic in me now to undo the curse?”

Oh, great. We were back to this again. Was Leander determined to keep using the trident’s magic, despite his promise to me? Before I could even shoot him a glare, Barren’s arm lifted off me. His hand went straight up with a karate chop motion that popped Leander’s hand off my wrist, severing our connection.

Pop.

Leander’s body vanished in an implosion of magic, and my heart staggered a beat. “Barren!” I cried out, shooting upright. I almost rolled off him until I realized that landing wrong might mean squashing Leander. Beside us, gold glinted off his small fish form as he flopped over the gritty sand.

Barren’s voice was low, unaffected. “He wondered.” I felt my body sway with his shrug. “Now he knows.”

“Dude!” Kai laughed, leaning forward to watch the spectacle. “I can’t believe you did that, big guy.” He gave Barren’s shoulder a nudge, but his laughter was cut short when I extended a finger to Leander. One touch and sand pelted us, sandblasting the shore from his transformation back to a merman.

The moment Leander was back to himself, he let out a fierce growl. He threw his head back, shouting Barren’s name.

“Whoa, whoa, hold it.” I pressed a hand against his chest to try to hold him back. “Can all of us be mature for a second?”

Maturity looked like the last thing on Leander’s mind. His eyes were like two frozen shards, catching the light with a dangerous glint. “The fuck is wrong with you, Barren?” he spat. “I thought we were friends.”

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