“There is no we, shifter.”
I inhaled deeply, stealing myself before she even took another step away from me. “We had a deal.” I graveled out.
Remnant raised a haughty brow. “And I will fulfill it, eventually.” She stepped into the water and peered back over her shoulder with a challenging smirk. “Follow if you must, mylittlepet beast.”
My eyes narrowed when she turned her back on me and I shook to refrain from dragging her back to safety. Kira giggled and covered her mouth with a webbed hand to hide her victorious smile.
Gnashing my teeth, I hissed before following Remnant like the loyal little pet beast I was. "Challenge accepted," I growled out, watching her body stiffen before stepping into Kira's welcoming arms.
Kira’s eyes met mine and I tensed from the urge to rip them clear out of her head. But first I would start with her leering webbed hands that were trailing lower and lower down the sides of my soulmate.
Remnant grasped onto Kira’s salacious hands and pulled them from her body. Grumbling, I stepped into the water next to them both, purposefully stomping on the dead water fae still floating freely, and shoving its prone body into the submerged murky sands below.
My cat groaned.“You're going to get us killed again, aren’t you?”
“Undoubtedly.”I answered back.
Turning towards Remnant and ignoring the scathing glare the water fae leader gave me, I spoke truthfully, knowing what she saw in my eyes right now would scare her. “I will always be here for you. If that means I must play the role of yourlittlepet beast and follow,then I will obey.Nothing will ever harm you again, not on my watch.” With emphasis, I snapped the spine of the submerged dead fae with my waterlogged boot.
The others stiffened with vengeful fury but I paid them no heed. I studied my soulmate intimately. Her green eyes shuttered closed, hiding the pain my words created, and then opened with the same iced coldness as before. “So be it, shifter.”
Kira laughed cruelly, the scent of her anger not so easily hidden from my senses. “They are so cute when they are desperate aren’t they Solaire?” Kira snapped her fingers and another water fae guard with orange hair stepped forward holding something akin to black tar in her webbed hands while keeping her spear pointed far away from my soulmate.
I flashed a brief smile of appreciation in her direction and lifted my boot from her dead comrade. Allowing the mangled body to rise to the surface and float away from us. My thanks for her caution around my soulmate.
Remnant’s lip curled up in disgust at the sludge, paying no attention to my games. “You think after all these years, you’d at least find a way to make this process a bit more pleasant.”
The water fae leader laughed again. “Where would the fun in that be? Besides then everyone would come to our lands. The Under is ours and we don’t share it. Nay, the sludge will always be the only way to transform into a water fae to explore our world.”
That was the truth, the water fae kept their secrets in their own watery depths. Much of their culture was unknown and even those whom I befriended, who were no longer loyal to the deep, never gave up their buried secrets.
Remnant took the sludge from the orange haired warrior, scowling. “Unfortunate that. Bottoms up.” Swallowing it with a shudder, she plunged elegantly below the glittering crystal surface of the river just moments before her pale skin transformed with black scales.
Kira’s satisfied smile sent a foreboding chill down my spine before it turned on me.
“Welllittle pet shifter? Are you loyal enough to follow? Males usually can never be trusted in this manner.” She said flippantly, brushing her long pink hair away.
A deep guttural growl escaped me. “Give it to me.”
Chapter 14
MyeyesheldKiraswhen her guard extended a trembling hand in my direction. The sour scent of the fae’s fear and rage didn’t even come close to the foul smell of the sludge she presented. It reminded me of a rotting maggot filled corpse left out in the blistering sun for far too long.
“I’d rather eat the rotting corpse.”My beast hacked.
Whether he meant it or not, his utter disgust was enough to motivate me forward and I choked down the sludge with a grimace. It tasted the same as its revolting scent.
I felt the change immediately. The fluttering of gills could be heard at the side of my neck and they beckoned for the swirling pools of water I stumbled toward.
Plunging into its cold depths, I gasped for oxygen while my body transformed into a cascading array of black scales.
I was now a water fae.
My beast gagged.
I blinked rapidly, adjusting to my new magnified sight before realizing I was no longer in the river waters but an expansive body of water reaching far beyond what even my enhanced vision could reveal.
We were in The Under.
