Page 172 of Cruel Tides

I clapped a hand on his shoulder, ready to spin him around myself, but the moment I touched him, he shrunk away. When he finally turned around, his eyes were filled with a deep, unspoken sorrow.

“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” This wasn’t the Barren I knew. Barren was a warrior. Unmovable. Not this sad, withdrawn version of himself he’d been since taking Claira to see his sister.

“This is my fault,” he said, and I knew that tone well—self-blame and regret. “I told her about me. About my arm, and now…” He lurched forward, his body swaying as though the wood beneath him had given way.

“Barren.” His weight bore down on me as I steadied him by his shoulders. “You know Claira’s not that kind of mermaid. She wouldn’t care about something like that, so let’s take a breath and focus on finding her.”

But all he did was shake his head, his eyes glassy and unfocused. “I shouldn’t have let her leave my sight. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep.”

“Barren!” I shook his shoulders, hoping to snap him out of it. “Even if you’d kept an eye on her, Claira has a mind and will of her own. We can’t control what she does, believe me—Now, we need to find her. You read her mind, right? You know which bastard took her last time?”

Barren’s head tilted upward to stare hopelessly up at the sky, the veins in his neck bulging like thick ropes. “No,” he grunted through gritted teeth. “I didn’t read her mind.”

“What?” I growled, releasing his shoulders. “Why the fuck not?” Rage churned up inside me like the waves crashing against the dock. “You knew someone was after her, Barren. You knew she wasn’t safe.”

Shame was scrawled all over his face. “I can’t. I won’t. It’s not safe, I could—” Eyes wide, Barren turned down to his palm. His fingers flexed as he stared at his hand like it might betray him. “I could hurt her.”

“Hurt her?Fucking hell!” I barked, seizing his shoulders again. “You’d never hurt her. I know you better than that. Once we find her, you have to?—”

“I can’t,” he shouted, stumbling steps away from me. “Her mind isn’t safe for me. I can’t risk it. I won’t.”

What in Poseidon’s Deep was wrong with him? He was acting crazed, as disturbed as Claira’s father had been before he’d attacked me during my last trip to the warehouse. Only Claira’s father had been just as worried about me having hurt her as he was about himself hurting her.

I took a deep breath, trying to force my emotions down. It wouldn’t help to lash out now, to sink this whole fucking island down around us. Claira’s safety was the only thing that mattered.

“Hey, guys?” Kai’s voice came from back inside the bedchamber. “What’s this note about?”

I glanced up, and Kai was waving something in the air.

“Just stay here and don’t fall off the damn dock,” I grumbled to Barren before stalking back into the bedroom.

Kai was clutching a square of white parchment in his hand. “I finished my repetitions,” he said, the sweat soaking through his shirt proving it. I could tell from the way his face pinked that he’d spotted Barren stumbling around in his naked daze outside. “Where’s Claira?”

I snatched the note from Kai’s hands, my heart sinking as I read over the scrawled message. “Don’t worry?” If Claira had written this, then too fucking late, beautiful. The words were circled, but what were these other pictograms?

I turned the note around, trying to make sense of them. “Do you think Claira wrote this?” I asked.

“I found it on top of her luggage, so… I think it’s a drawing of Laverne,” Kai proclaimed, pointing at the flippered blob scribbled next to the note’s edge. Then his finger slid over the four identical symbols next to it. “Getting ready to eat four clams.”

“Sorry, I’m doing what now?”Laverne waddled into the chamber, a fishtail dangling from the corner of her mouth. However, just as she entered, Barren staggered in as well. Laverne’s jaw dropped, and the fish slid out, plummeting to the floor.

Barren froze, his gaze fixated on the fish as Laverne took in an enormous breath. But before she could release one of her piercing shrieks, Kai leaped forward, swiftly positioning himself in front of her, shielding her eyes from the sight.

“What’s going on here?” she demanded, her head weaving down in between Kai’s legs to get another look. “And why wasn’t I invited?”

“Laverne!” Kai yelled, pushing her out of the bedchamber while she snarled and snapped at him.

This was fucking chaos.

“Do you know where Claira is?” I yelled out to Kai’s pet above the noise, holding up the note as Kai fought to shove her out the door.

“Ew. Do you think I care about that harlot?”

Kai collapsed in a heap as Laverne swung around, heading back for the main room, her nose pitched high.“Be a dear, Kai-Kai, and bring me my snack.”

Go figure that Kai’s pet would be of zero use to us.

I turned to Barren, my heart racing as I passed the note to his chest.

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