Merrick’s head snapped toward her, and she tried to quench the laughter when he began walking her way, his silver hair plastered around his stern face and dark leathers shining from drops running down them.
But it proved challenging when Raine screamed something incomprehensible at Ydren, and her only response was to splash him with more water.
A wheezing sound escaped her lips when she took a stumbling step backward to escape Merrick’s glower, and for some reason, that made her laugh even harder.
Not even clamping a hand over her mouth could drown out the bubbling laughter.
Staring at her as if she’d lost her mind, Merrick asked, “This? This is what makes you laugh?”
Another wheezy giggle left her, and he shook his head.
Then he took one more step, threw her over his shoulder, and as she made a startled sound, he flung them both into the calm ocean.
“What the fuck, Merrick?” she spat as she broke the surface.
Saltwater stung her eyes as they widened upon finding Merrick grinning back at her.
Actually grinning.
Not the menacing curl of his lips that she’d seen before.
But a genuine smile.
Merrick’s hands shifted beneath the surface as he moved toward her, and she realized a second before he did it what he was planning.
“No!” She threw herself to the side when he sent a spray of water toward her. “Merrick!”
A low chuckle escaped him as she stared at his bright face.
Moving before he could anticipate it, she dragged her fingers through the water, pelting him with a surge of it.
His eyes crinkled as he shook his head, sending his hair flying around it, and she couldn’t help but smile back when he began swimming toward her, looking more like a young boy than the menacing Death Whisperer.
“What. Are. You. Doing?” Raine stared at them from the shore. “That’s Alarin’s ship, if you hadn’t noticed.”
Lessia’s smile fell.
And a moment after, so did Merrick’s.
Keeping her eyes down, she swam the few strokes needed to get to the beach to drag her weary body to a spot next to Raine.
“Merrick?” Raine hissed as the Fae followed her up the beach.
Merrick set his jaw. “What?”
Raine’s eyes were wild as they sliced from her to Merrick.
“You’re playing with fire,” he mumbled before he shook his head. “They’ll be here in a few minutes.”
Her eyes flew to Merrick’s as her heart began pounding against her rib cage.
“You are strong enough,” he said, sidling up beside her.
She gave him a shadow of a smile when his lips curled, trying to let the gratitude for the way he’d tried to take her mind off what was to come shine through.
Closing her eyes, she tried to let the conviction within him flow into her as she listened to the soft waves and wind whistling across the sea.
When she opened them again, the vessel had docked.
