Page 143 of Cruel Tides

“The illusion needs refreshing,” he said with a grunt. “Much like your lanterns do in the Atlantic.”

“Let me guess—the trident’s power is the only way to refresh it?” I asked, and he nodded grimly.

“I had a suspicion she kept it hidden on land. Now I’m certain.”

Damn. It made sense now why Barren’s sister hadn’t wanted me to go into the water. It seemed she didn’t want the other kingdoms to know that her trident had always been in her possession.

“Well, that’s good, right? There’s no point for us to go looking for it when it was never lost,” I offered, and Barren’s jaw tensed.

“No. It means my fears are correct.” He swallowed, his tail falling into impossibly long strokes. “You’re in danger no matter where you go. At sea and on land.”

“Well,” I mumbled, my unease quickly compounding. “As long as your sister doesn’t find out about this trip, maybe I’ll be able to stay safe on land.”

“She won’t,” he said immediately. “No one will know what we saw. Not Leander, not Kai.”

He wanted me to keep this a secret from the others? Now that seemed a bit extreme. They were my mates, after all. What harm would there be in them knowing that Barren’s sister still had her trident? “But?—”

“No one can know,” Barren said firmly, the desperation in his tone hinting that there may be more danger in the knowledge than I first thought.

I relented with a sigh. My secrets sure were mounting. “All right, I suppose we can keep one secret,” I said, my eyes narrowing on the underside of his jaw. “But only because you’re my fake husband, and I’m trying to be a good fake wife.”

The tension broke as the corner of Barren’s lips cracked into a smile. Yeah—I thought that would get him. “I wasn’t sure you still wanted to be my fake wife,” he said, his voice husky with amusement.

“Of course.” A smile of my own crept over my lips. “I plan on traveling all over the world with that passport.”

Then my face flushed, because while he probably thought we were innocently flirting, I meant it. I wanted to see the world, and traveling asClaira Arwawas my first and only opportunity to make it happen.

The ocean grew increasingly shallow as we neared the bungalow. Barren took a slow breath of salt water, and I felt it to—the disappointment we both shared that we’d already returned, and our outing together would soon be over. The movement of his tail came to a stop, and the water grew more serene around us as we drifted closer to the surface.

Barren turned down to me, one eyebrow arched in inquiry. “Do you have a companion in mind for these trips?”

I bit my lip, trying to hide my eagerness. “Actually, I was hoping one of my mates would want to go with me,” I said, feeling my cheeks flush with a mix of embarrassment and anticipation.

Barren’s gaze darted away, his throat working in a nervous bob. “I see,” he muttered, his tail flicking back into motion, bringing us over to the side of the dock.

Refusing to let the moment slip away, I reached up to turn his jaw back to me. Our eyes met, and my heart fluttered as I mustered the courage to ask the question that had lingered between us for far too long.

“Tell me, Barren,” I said softly, my fingers grazing his cheek as he positioned himself to lift me back up to the dock, “Does my voice… ever call to you?”

For a moment, his dark eyes held mine, a mixture of surprise and something else, something that set my heart pounding even faster.

Then shock overtook his expression, and I must have really surprised him because he seemed to have lost all control of his strength as he hoisted me up. And instead of lifting me onto the dock, he missed the surface completely, and a thunderous crack reverberated through the water as my head met the wood with a solidthud.

A hundred glowing sprites twinkled in my vision, and when my head lolled forward, everything turned dark.

34

Claira

The abrupt shock of icy water jolted me awake. A presence loomed above me, muttering impassioned words in an unfamiliar language.

Barren?

Slowly, I opened my eyes, only to be greeted by a blinding stream of water cold enough to make me gasp. My arms dangled at my sides, my legs twisting in an awkward position.What the heck happened to me?

Memories flooded in as I tried to piece everything together—the lights beneath the water’s surface, the invisible gates, the nervousness that gripped me when I held Barren’s wide jaw between my hands…

Breaking through the barrage of foreign words, the deep voice let slip my name. “Claira?”

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