Page 91 of Cruel Tides

I glanced around the room. Aside from the one necklace, there were no other personal items in sight.

“Find something you like?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin, backing up right into a wall of muscle. The heat from Barren’s stomach hit my back, and I almost dropped the necklace. “No—I mean, yes. It’s pink—err, beautiful. I was just thinking that this necklace was beautiful.”

Was I really this much of an idiot? Smooth, Claira. I might as well have come out and said,it looks like it belongs to a woman.

Barren’s hand came underneath the chain, and I let it fall into his palm. “It was given to me.”

My face flushed. “Really? That’s, uh, nice,” I said, my stomach knotting. It made sense. I hadn’t known Barren long, and what did I really know about him other than the parts of himself he’d let me see? He could have a girlfriend, for all I knew.

In fact, now that I thought about it, had I ever asked any of them if they were attached? The only one of them I that I knew was for sure single was Laverne.

So, it was given to him. But that didn’t have to mean it was from a significant other, right? Maybe someone from his family had?—

His voice was rough when he abruptly added, “By my mate.”

My stomach dropped straight out of me, and my knees? Gone. I had no knees, just jelly that was doing an extraordinarily poor job of keeping me upright. I grasped the front of the dresser, my lungs completely devoid of breath as I tried to force out, “Yourmate.”

Behind me, Barren’s chest vibrated and erupted into a full-on chuckle. I looked up at the mirror and saw a rare humor in his expression as he watched my reflection. He smiled, and my knees nearly gave out on me again. “Your face,” he said through his laugh.

My face? My hands shot to it. It was an inferno, of course.

“You were… teasing me?” I couldn’t believe it. For a second, I really thought he’d meant that hismatehad given the necklace to him.

I hadn’t realized how hard I was pressing into him until his phone went off, vibrating against my back. Barren’s chuckle died away, and he dropped the necklace back into the glass. “I know it’s late,” he said, moving away from me. “But I have to leave soon.” With a glum expression, he started spreading the new sheets out over the mattress.

My heart was still racing, but thankfully my legs worked well enough to follow him over to the bed. “You’re leaving?”

“I won’t be gone too long,” he assured me, tucking down one of those crazy straight corners like some sort of fitted sheet wizard. The atmosphere seemed to shift around him when he added, “My queen… She wishes to meet with me.”

That didn’t sound good.

23

Barren

As expected, I had no difficulties reaching my sister. Few were privy to the queen’s location, but I was among the select few who knew where to find her. Many assumed she was posted on the highest floor, but no. Queen Javalynn chose to remain on ground level, hidden beyond the final door at the end of a labyrinthine hallway reserved for our kingdom’s wealthiest guests.

Sounds of liveliness came and went with each open doorway I passed—carefree laughter, flirtatious words dripping with glamour, and clinks of overfull glasses. I continued down the extended hallway, heading toward the most luxurious room of all. Queen Javalynn’s office.

The guards posted at her door were two of the Indian Ocean’s fastest swimmers. Favored sons from influential families who had been serving the crown for generations, draped in shimmering silk and lace. Here on land, they served as nothing more than my sister’s decorations. They remained close to her at all times, preening themselves in anticipation of their queen’s call.

The mermen knew better than to stop me, and their quick parting revealed a door adorned with a figure of Poseidon’s likeness on the waves etched in gold. The mermen’s eyes, darkened with kohl, darted away as I passed, as if they feared revealing their innermost secrets by meeting my gaze.

There were rumors in the kingdom that I pried into every mind I came across, and perhaps that had once been true. To survive under my father’s laws, I’d had to sharpen my unique ability. Only the thoughts those around me wished to keep hidden weren’t ever pleasant to see.

But that was a different time. A time when I was meant to be a king. In my current position, I rarely used my ability on the merfolk here unless I was commanded to do so by my queen.

I knocked on the crest of a golden wave—three slow raps—then waited in tense silence as the mermen slid down the hall, further shying away from their post.

Behind me, the beads embellishing one of the guard’s outfits rattled as he shook. He must have held a secret he feared would reach his queen.

Only, I had no interest in their minds. My sister’s secrets were the only ones I cared about, and she kept them tightly wrapped, carefully hidden under layers of falsehoods and illusions. Had I cared to look, it was likely I would find an intricately woven net of lies waiting for me in the minds of her lovers. Information she’d shared directly or allowed them to overhear, giving them a sense of significance, yet ultimately meant to trap and manipulate.

If only our father could see his successor. It was no secret that he’d resented that Javalynn had been born without his unique affinity for reading those around him. If the trident hadn’t stolen his life away, perhaps he’d have lived long enough to realize that his daughter had possessed a unique gift as well. One that she’d honed all on her own.

Although Queen Javalynn couldn’t see into minds, I’d learned the hard way that she had a way of manipulating them. The years had taught me she could make those around her believe whatever she wished, as well as cloak her true thoughts with false ones.

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