“You saw a great deal through your power just now,” Iason murmured. “I would appreciate your discretion.”
“You put too much weight on such things,” Levi said. “None of it will matter in a few centuries.”
Iason thought of the man he’d seen in the vision, clutching an empty necklace, and Levi’s careless dismissal when Iason had asked about him. “You’ll find it matters more when youliveduring those centuries, not just… flit about in the ocean.”
Levi’s eyes narrowed. “What, in what you witnessed, suggests that Iflit?”
Levi’s power was pressing down on Iason, more powerful than any dominance, but Iason was too exhausted to fight it. “You loved a mortal once. That you’re so flippant about humans now implies you’ve been wasting your time—”
“Wasting!” Levi stepped closer. He was a few inches taller than Iason, and when he braced his shoulders, Iason could feel the invisible presence of his dragon shape, imagine the enormous wings blotting out the sun. “Wasting my time? I created continents between that day and this.”
“Wasting your time with your mountains and storms while the mortals you ignore have taken those mountains from you,” Iason said, raising his voice. “We named those mountains. We gave them legends and myths; we mined them for iron and steel and gold. And if you aren’t careful,flitting aroundin your ocean squalls with no care for us insignificant beings, maybe we’ll tameyouone day, just as we tamed them.”
Levi gripped Iason’s chin, tilting his head up to meet his cold, pitiless gaze. “I could have let you destroy half the countryside, Sophie included, as you struggled and failed to bear the weight of my power. None of you can tame me. Do not suggest it again.”
Iason reached for the place at his belt where his knives would usually hang, then gasped as water sloshed over his face and chest. He and Levi blinked at each other, dripping, before turning to see Sophie, bucket swinging in her hand.
“Maybe if you hadn’t been clucking like hens, you wouldn’t be wet right now,” she said.
For a second, Iason feared Levi would snarl at her. But the Tempest grinned. “Water doesn’t bother me.”
“Yeah, but it caught you off guard.”
Levi tilted his head thoughtfully, then tossed his damp hair over his shoulder. “Good point,” he said, and moved toward Sophie. Iason rushed to intercept, but Levi got to her before he could, sweeping her up in his arms.
“What are you doing?” Sophie asked, trying to wriggle away as he walked down the beach.
“Catchingyouoff guard,” Levi said. Then, before Iason could stop him, he raced into the gentle waves and tossed Sophie in. She disappeared with a shriek, and Iason ran into the surf as Levi started shuffling his feet, looking down with a smile.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Iason asked. “What if she can’t swim? She isn’t coming up!”
“She’s tugging on my ankles, actually,” Levi said. “Trying to trip me, I think. It won’t work,” he shouted, and Sophie emerged with a gasp.
“Fine,” she said, and splashed Levi in the face. Levi splashed her back. Sophie then splashed Iason, which was deeply unfair, and she and Levi both stared at him in quiet anticipation.
“What?”
“And he says I’m out of touch,” Levi said. Iason splashed him before he could finish speaking. “Oh. You do know you’re in my realm now, you impudent—”
Iason splashed him again.
“See, this is how you argue,” Sophie said, then yelped as a wave lifted her off her feet. Iason reached for her, but it was Levi who took her hand, tugging her toward shallow ground. “Ugh, I wish I were better at this.”
“It’s easy enough,” Levi said. “You might even be able to surf when the waves pick up.”
“What? No. People tried that at the port where I grew up, but—really?”
“Maybe,” Levi said. “I could teach you, if you stop throwing buckets of water at people.”
“Sure, if you stop pecking at each other,” Sophie said. She gestured with a hand, making the shape of a beak pecking the air. “Like chickens. You know how they… how they, like… they try to eat each other sometimes?”
“What.” Iason’s voice was inflectionless.
“Yeah! Everyone knows it. It’s why farmers have this thing they give them to make them stop?”
“Staria is an unsettling place,” Iason said.
Sophie splashed him again. “We’re proud of our farms, actually.”
