Page 28 of Cruel Tides

Although he flipped the lever to keep the door cracked for me, I didn’t follow him in. Something about standing in the open felt safer, and I couldn’t help but think over Rocci’s words as I looked down the empty hall.

“Everyone is on standby, waiting for his signal to take you.”

Merfolk were savage—I knew that—so why would the Indian Ocean be any different? They’d bought a whole hotel at some point, though I’d assumed they’d done it when the curse had hit to monitor the Atlantic. But what if they’d purchased it to keep an eye onme?

I pondered that thought until the door creaked as Barren came back through it. He’d gotten dressed so quickly, he was still straightening out his suit jacket so the buttons would lie flat underneath the strap of his brace.

“That was fast.” I offered a smile, then noticed his curls had gone flat. His hair spilled over his eyes. “Did you get a shower?” That had to be some sort of record.

“Mmh,” was all he said, and it made me nervous.

“Don’t let his silence fool you.”

“So, where are we going?” I asked, then held my breath as I waited his answer. At the top of his pocket, his car keys were just visible.

Barren froze to look at me from under his curls, his hand still on his jacket. “To breakfast.”

I exhaled. Breakfast sounded innocent enough, and I’d never known Barren to joke about food.

“Great. We ate all the food you left for Kai in the fridge hours ago. It was delicious, but now I’m starving.”

It was barely noticeable, but the corner of his mouth lifted, just a hair.

Then he mussed his wet hair, looking up at the ceiling. “And then I thought we could go for a drive,” he said, carefully. Too carefully.

Dammit.

9

Claira

Sitting in the front seat of Barren’s car felt strange. Especially since Laverne hadn’t been shy in letting everyone know this seat washers. But after Barren walked me to his car, he’d opened the passenger door for me, so I took the cue and climbed inside like a good little hostage.

Okay, maybe I wasn’t a hostage. Not yet, anyway.

But Barren’s phone had buzzed so much during breakfast, it sounded like he had a vibrator hidden in his pants. He’d somehow managed to ignore it, though, leaving his phone in his pocket while he assembled breakfast sandwiches for us. Then there was the tell of his jaw. It was so tense, when it came time to eat, he could barely pry his molars apart long enough to take a bite.

Clearly, something was about to go down.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled as I fastened my seatbelt. I was on high alert, and not just because I was half expecting Laverne to pop out of nowhere, landing on the hood of the car to give me the stink eye for daring to sit in her seat. If Barren’s queen was aiming to steal me, merfolk from the Indian Ocean had to be close by, and I wasn’t about to let someone throw a burlap sack over my head again.

Using my hand as a visor, I looked through the windows as the driver’s side door opened. “Damn, it’s bright out,” I mumbled. The car rocked as Barren dropped in next to me, folding up like a lawn chair just to get his legs inside. I eyed Laverne’s sunglasses and wondered if putting them on my face would be enough of an affront to summon her soul out of thin air to smite me.

Barren unclipped his sunglasses from his visor and offered them to me. “Here.”

“That’s sweet of you.” I waved him off, not wanting him to have sun in his eyes. “But that’s okay. You’re the one driving.”

His arm didn’t budge. “Take them.” He looked oddly concerned, like my comfort during this kidnapping was important to him. Maybe he thought giving me sunglasses would soften the blow of this horrible betrayal. Okay—now I was being dramatic.

Barren’s eyebrows sank further, and the slight frown of his mouth chipped away at my icy heart.

“Thanks,” I breathed out, relenting. I put his sunglasses on and was immediately surprised by the clarity of the lenses. The ones I wore on the boat were always smudged and scratched from salt water. I wasn’t used to looking through a clean pair. “The curse of being born with these eyes,” I said wryly, shaking my head.

Barren turned on the engine and threw me a puzzled look.

“They say lighter eyes are more sensitive to light.” I slid the frames down my nose to show him my gray eyes. Then I leaned into the center console so he could get a closer look. “See?”

Barren blinked at me, his dark eyes on mine long enough to make me feel self-conscious for showing off my eye color—likegraywas spectacularly rare or something. “I see,” he finally mumbled as he shifted the car into reverse.

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