Rory watched him through a mental fog. He was so fucking proud of Fionn for not taking this shit any more.
And he wasn’t about to let Fionn face down the Red King on his own.
The seething portal still churned overhead. Spilling its toxic water into the chamber. Rory tasted its foulness. It curled around the Blue King’s throne, causing the corals to shudder and shrink.
I’m all in. This is my ocean.
Rory lurched forward, suddenly ungainly in the water. A few choked exclamations followed him from the crowd. He glimpsed a patch of blood-red flesh on his arm. His fins seemed longer. His fingernails had turned to dark claws. He didn’t so much swim through the water as cut through it. And when he reached the Red King, his jaws were open and fanged.
The Red King jolted in shock as Rory made contact. He hadn’t been expecting a charged assault. Rory’s clawed hands closed around his throat.
The Red King’s silver crown teetered on his head as he fought back. He scored deep gouges down Rory’s arms, spilling his blood into the water like mist. Then he drew a pearlescent dagger and struck for Rory’s abdomen.
Rory acted on instincts he didn’t know he had. He released his grip, ducked his head and rolled forward and under his own legs. There was a softswishas his wickedly sharp spines made contact with the Red King’s face, followed by a scream of agony.
So that’s what those are for,Rory thought dimly.
All this happened in seconds, so fast that no one else had time to react—except for Fionn, who it seemed was being bodily held back from the fight by Iomhar.
Rory darted backwards to get some distance from the Red King. They sized each other up, both panting and in pain. The king’s face was scored by several fine, bloody lacerations from Rory’s spines.
The Red King’s gaze landed on something over Rory’s shoulder. His savage scowl morphed into a look of horror.
Rory felt a strange weight hanging on his spines. He reached back and plucked the Red King’s crown off them.
‘This yours?’ Rory couldn’t keep the shit-eating grin from his voice.
Singing through clenched teeth, the Red King demanded, ‘Kill me, then.’
Reason flooded back into Rory’s brain. The Redfolk all seemed to be craning their necks. Their eyes were fixed on the crown. Rory held it up and their gazes followed. ‘I’m not going to kill you.’
‘You have taken the crown from my head.’ The Red King’s lip curled. Rory tasted his hatred: bitter and peppery. ‘Our laws dictate that you end my life. Take my throne. Rule my ocean.’
Still snarling, the Red King exposed his throat as though expecting a lethal blow.
Fucking hell.
Rory heard Fionn utter a similar expletive behind him. These fae mermen were completely off their nut.
‘I don’t want anyone’s throne. Or to rule an ocean. I just want to protect it.’ Rory held out the crown. ‘But if you come back here, I might kill you.’
Rhiath glowered at the peace offering. ‘What do you want?’
‘I want you to get out of my ocean.’ Rory felt ten times the size of himself. ‘You won’t ever threaten it again, you understand? Or the blue mermen here. You go away in peace. Get it?’
The king snatched back the silver crown. He thrust it onto his head so ruthlessly that little trickles of blood ran down his face from the thorns scraping into his flesh. The Red King snapped at his party. ‘We return to the citadel.’
All at once the Redfolk hurried toward the shining whirlpool portal, spurred on by the wrath of their ruler.
The Red King held out an arm to block the young Redfolk who had spoken earlier.
‘You will stay here, Liath,’ the king snarled at him. ‘You have failed in your purpose.’
Liath jerked back as though struck. ‘But Uncle, I had no say in—’
The fins along the Red King’s arm stiffened into nasty points under Liath’s chin. ‘I have no further use for you. I will not have your presence reminding me of this black day. Be gone.’
Liath fell back as he was released, gasping. The Red King didn’t even deign to give the Blue King a cursory salute before he, too, disappeared through the portal. The whirlpool closed with a suckingwhooshthat robbed the chamber of its heat.
