Shield weed covered me like a shroud of green, and I sneaked my hand to my chest, wrapping it around the stone. Yanking it slowly free. Then dropped it, feeling it plink to the bottom of the tank, and denied myself the urge to look down at it to ensure it was hidden.
Thaan’s chin tipped impatiently toward the ceiling as he gazed down at me, using his watery grip to turn me back and forth. “I don’t think so. Not the Royal Family’s benign private castle. Not with the way you look right now. And not without your husband.” His eyes roamed my naked skin, and I shifted away from his stare, crossing my arms over my chest and curling my pale-gold tail in front of my body for extra measure. He didn’t examine me with lust, but something about his bored, haughty eyes delved into my flesh. Fleas crawling along my skin, biting and stinging. Urging me to shudder his gaze away.
Hands gripping the edge of the lid, he leaned in so close he almost touched the algae-stained glass, then stopped. His head tilted, eyes drifting toward the door to Selena’s apartment. “Is his the heart beating outside in the hall?”
My mouth parted as I suddenly focused on the sounds nearby, but before I could speak, he turned to Cain. “Bring him in here.”
I snarled through the glass. Thaan glanced at me as though I were an afterthought.
Would Kye think of looking for me in Selena’s apartment? The entrance to Thaan’s apartment sat in a hallway separate from Selena’s. Wherever Thaan had come from, he wouldn’t have passed by her door. I tried to listen. To hear whatever sound Thaan heard. I’d have recognized it instantly if it were Kye’s. I knew his heart.
But the glass was so thick, it devoured all the distant noises of the palace, leaving me in auditory exile. Cain turned toward the door leading through Selena’s apartment and a surge of terror flooded my thoughts. I held no misconceptions that Thaan would hurt Kye to punish me.
Taunt him. Delay him. Distract him.I scoured my arsenal for a barbed word to shove into Thaan’s hide. I’d infuriated him once—enough to make him slap me—by demanding to know who he was. What chord had that struck, and how could I do it again?
Cain reached for the doorknob.
“What is it like, bartering your soul to Darkness?” I said, twisting my neck so my mouth was free of the water and my eyes could track him as he descended the stairs. Thaan sent me a withering glance from over his shoulder. Cain paused as well, one hand on the door as he adjusted his glasses. I swallowed, pushing out of Thaan’s water-grip, and he let me force it away, an odd flicker in his cursed eyes. “What’s it like, living life as a walking corpse? You deteriorate more every time I see you. I don’t think I’ll have to wait for the King to pass on. You’ll end our contract just by dying.”
“Will I?” he asked, his voice wrapped in boredom. But his scent told another story. Metallic and acrid, even through theiron of the lid. He turned away, Cain as well, and I splayed one hand wide, banging my fist with the other, though it made me flag under the surface again. “Bringing another stick into battle, Maren? You’ll have to be more creative than that. I’ve been accused of making deals with the foulest of creatures since before you were sired by your mouth-breather father. You’re not the first to jest at my supposed dealings with Darkness.”
“Fine,” I said breathlessly. “We’ll talk about your hatred for humans instead, and how it grew after they murdered Leibra.”
Thaan’s head tipped slowly to the side in an unearthly slant. He rounded on his heel, the motion ice-cold and threatening, and sent me a penetrating look. Long and venomous. “Where did you hear that?”
I swallowed, tightening my fist, ignoring the prickles in my flesh under his stare. “Enough that you led yourcordaeto destroy an entire island.”
He turned fully, taking a step toward the glass.
“By inciting a trade with Caecus,” I finished.
Inches from my face, Thaan’s eyes delved into mine. “You visited her. The Sea Witch.” His lip curled. “You little fool. Do you realize what you’ve done?” In the doorway, Cain hadn’t moved, watching us both with a stare drenched in cold and cloying revulsion.
My breath fogged the pane. “Was it worth it? Exchanging your humanity when you could have grieved with your mate instead? When you could have let go of your hate enough that she’d welcome another child with you?”
“How ironic that you would speak to me of hate, knowing that’s the one thing that drives your blood into action.” His eyes flickered, his white pupils fracturing against the raw void of his dark irises. “That’s the one thing we have in common, you and I. I hate the world, and so do you.”
“I do not hate the world.”
He smiled slowly, the skin across his cheeks ripping as he did. “You will. It’s in your blood, Maren. Look at your mother—”
“Don’t speak to me about my mother.”
He laughed, though the sound was more like choking. “She harbored so much hate she destroyed herself. Hate is inevitable for Naiads like us. You and I. Those who have had everything stripped from them, one thread of happiness at a time.”
I shook my head, squaring my shoulders. My nostrils flared. “You were born aPrizivac Vode. A prince among sirens. You inherited the most beautiful waters in the world. Youcordaedwith the Naiad of your choice. Your friends existed on land and at sea. If anyone stripped you of your happiness, it was yourself.”
“Is that so?”
“It is.” I smiled. “You’re alone, Thaan. You live alone and you’ll die alone. No one loves you, least of all the people you keep so close. Me or Selena.”
He vibrated in front of me, teeth clenched, one fist flexing and relaxing as though he wanted to wrap it around my throat.
And then a knock came from Selena’s door.
Our three heads swiveled toward the sound.
“Maren?” came a voice from the other side. Selena.
