Page 182 of Cruel Tides

“No need to read my mind,” I continued. “Ask me whatever you wish, and I’ll tell you. Don’t believe sweet Claira would come to me willingly? Well, I can be quite persuasive. If you don’t believe me, ask Kai.”

“The fuck is he talking about, Kaius?” Prince Leander’s distrust was palpable, yet his attention had been locked on me since releasing the bolt, his gaze refusing to waver.

“I—” Kai started, but his voice trailed off.

It appeared he was unable to utter the words I sought. How disappointing.

With a theatrical sigh, I extracted a seashell from my collection. “I suppose I’ll have to enlighten you on the situation myself.”

Smoke billowed from my hand as I cracked the shell in my fist, releasing the magic stored within it, and the shock and anguish on their faces when Claira’s voice started playing in the air were a sight to behold.

“What would I say to them?”

With a grin, I mouthed along with the recording of my voice. “Do you wish they were here with you now instead of me?”

“No, I—I need time to figure out how to tell them.”

This was absolute perfection.

The air felt still and thick as her sweet voice lingered on the wind. Even the clouds seemed to momentarily cease their movement.

“Ah—I suppose you couldn’t hear the full effect,” I added, smirking down at my captive audience even as the waves pummeled, tossing me about. “Her voice… it calls to me solovingly. I cannot wait to become more intimately acquainted. I think I’ll enjoy our time together immensely.”

Kai was the first to shatter the silence that followed, his voice leaden and desperate. “Leander—Barren. Don’t you dare listen to anything that demon says.” Then he turned to me, determination lighting his eyes. “You’re lying. You could never be one of Claira’s mates.”

“Oh?” I countered, thoroughly amused. “And what makes you so sure of that?”

“Because of what youare, dark spawn,” he declared, planting a foot deep into the sand. “Cold, unfeeling. Claira would never be drawn to a creature like you.”

“A creature like me…” My lips tightened over my teeth.

Perhaps this was the very reason behind my little captive’s trembling, her struggle to embrace her true nature.How infuriating.

“I suppose we’ll see about that,” I replied, not bothering to temper my spite. “Better yet, why not follow me down to the Undersea and ask her for yourself? Ah, yes—I suppose that would be a problem, given your current?—”

A deafening crack of thunder interrupted our exchange, and I found myself forcibly blocking another bolt of lightning.

“Ha!” With a snarl, I hurled the lightning bolt back into the dark sky. My patience was quickly waning. “How tireso—UGH.”

A second bolt darted down from the heavens, its path a chaotic zigzag that I hadn’t anticipated. The bolt bounded off the crest of a wave and found its mark. Intense white light blinded me as the energy of the strike blasted my shoulder with punishing force, and I bit down on the agony.

Up until this very moment, my meticulous plan had unfolded flawlessly.

Yet now, pain surged through me, nearly drowning out everything else. My tentacles writhed, every muscle contracting as my body overloaded. And my hearts—were they still beating?

The Atlantic prince lunged toward the water, but his figure blurred in my doubled vision even as his mouth moved in a maelstrom of curses. “I fucking… rip…spawn!”

Waiting around for the golden prince to hurl himself into the ocean in a fit of rage would serve no purpose.

With my objective achieved, it was time to retreat.

I pressed my eyes shut and searched for the power to vanish from their sight, then gasped down water the moment I reappeared at my desk.

The pain in my arm reached its peak, and I crumpled over my scrolls, wondering what it might feel like if one of my hearts had truly exploded.

Struck by lightning…

It shouldn’t have been such a surprise that the Atlantic prince was so adept at commanding the heavens. His every feature mirrored that of his forefather, Poseidon, the god of storms, not that the prince was aware of this kinship of his.

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