I flashed Salem a dark smile, thrilled at how my body felt—like the sea was crashing through my muscles.
Salem pushed through a door onto a wooden pier, and at that point, I knew just where we were. Brighton.
Along with the brine, I caught the sugary scent of donuts in the air. I turned, my body wild.
Below the pier, waves crashed against the pebbled shore. The sound was like my own heartbeat.
As I walked along the pier, I kicked off my heels, walking over the boards barefoot. The sea spray dampened my face. Screw high heels. Why did I wear those things? I didn’t need to be taller.
Ossian lifted his arms in the air. He still wasn’t wearing a shirt. What was it with fae males and not wearing shirts?
“We’re home!” he shouted at the sea.
I glanced at the ocean to the left of the pier, and the force of it hit me like a fist. All that power, all that life, glittering bright under the moonlight. I felt in tune with the distant sea turtles, sharks, tiny mollusks in shells drifting through the shadowy quiet… ice floes in the north… For a moment, dizziness whirled in my mind, and I had to steady myself, gripping the wooden railing. I took a deep breath, pulse racing.
It’s too much… I was going to lose my damn mind.
I closed my eyes, trying to ground myself by thinking of the steadiness of the wood beneath my feet. Slowly, I got some control again.
But what I really wanted was something familiar. Someone familiar. A friend.
I imagined myself sitting at home in the ol’ dirt hole with Gina, eating a cheap pizza. She’d demand pineapples on it, the maniac.
Shit… Gina. I hadn’t thought about it until now, but Lyr was the one who’d arranged for her to stay at the Savoy. What if—what if he used her as leverage to get to me?
I bit my lip. He wouldn’t do that, would he? I didn’t think he would…
Suddenly, I had a desperate urge to talk to her.
“Why do you look like you’re about to lose your lunch, Aenor of Meriadoc?” asked Salem.
I turned to Ossian. “Do you have a mobile phone?”
He stared at me. “You want to use a mobile phone now?”
“I just need to call someone. One minute, tops. Just, like, a check-in.”
“Who and why?” he asked.
For crying out loud, I hated having to explain myself to him. “A human friend, and I just want to say hi and see how she is. And make sure she’s okay.”
Salem took a step closer, eyes burning with curiosity. Something cold and dangerous crackled up my spine.
Then he nodded at Ossian, who pulled out his cell phone.
I brought up the internet to search for the Savoy Hotel, then dialed the number. Energy coursed wildly through my veins, and I bounced from foot to foot as I asked to be connected to Gina’s room.
As the phone rang, we started walking again, heading for the foot of the pier. My heart hammered as I waited for her to answer.
After a few moments, she picked up. “Yeah?”
“Gina. I can’t talk long. I just wanted to tell you that I got my magic back.” I held my hand over the phone, whispering. “All of it. I’m a sea goddess now. I can merge with ocean life. The moon is so bright, Gina. The sea is life.”
A long pause hung in the air. “Are you high?”
“High on magic,” I whispered.
“Okay, you need to settle down. Get a snack.”
“But the thing is—” I shot a sharp look at Salem and Ossian, who were watching me, and stepped away from them. I whispered, “Look, I don’t want to go into it right now, but do you have a friend you can stay with instead of staying in the Savoy?”
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“I might, yeah. Gemma. But now? I’m watching a TV show about women who are competing to get funding for plastic surgery. They have to do these dance routines to win. One of them, this woman from Essex named Jenna, just did a Pennywise-themed striptease. You know, like the scary clown from the movie It?”
I blinked. “That’s… I don’t know what to say to that. Can you get to your friend’s house? And don’t speak to any knights.”
“Yeah. Fine. I’m on it.”
I took a deep breath. “I gotta go.”
I turned off the phone and handed it back to Ossian. We’d arrived on the slick stones that filled Brighton’s shoreline. The rocks felt smooth and perfect beneath my feet.
I stepped closer to the waves, until the cold Atlantic water lapped over my toes. This was my domain. Some of the wildness arcing through me began to simmer down, and I focused on the feel of my feet on the stones.
“What happens next?” I asked.
Salem’s eyes burned bright in the darkness. “You wade into the water, and you tell me how to get to the Merrow. Without causing any tsunamis.”
“And what are you going to do if I do cause a tsunami?”
He nodded at Ossian. “He’s here to help control the waves if you do.”
Ossian’s birds fluttered around his head. He blew out a puff of smoke, then dropped his joint on the wet rocks. “You can count on me.”
The rocks seemed to rumble rhythmically beneath my feet. Boom. Boom. Boom.
But this wasn’t Salem’s magic.
“Hang on,” I said. “I hear something.”
Ossian turned, his attention caught by something in the distance. “Do you see that?”
Salem’s body tensed.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to pick out what they were seeing. Just tiny pinpricks in the distance. But their magic pounded over the rocks.
Salem turned to me, eyes cold and blue as dusk. “Did you call these sea creatures forth?”
I blinked. “Me? No. I wish I had, though. Brilliant idea.”
Salem took a step closer, towering over me as his eyes bored into mine. His magic had a sensual feel on my skin, like a forbidden touch. “How convenient for you, that group of armed sea fae are heading for us right now. Perhaps that phone call had something to do with it?”
He pulled his sword from its sheath, and flames flickered over the naked blade.
I felt as if ice were sliding down from my shoulders to my wrists, and my fingers tightened into fists. I stared down the beach at the sea fae running for us.
Like Salem, they had swords, though theirs weren’t on fire.
“I didn’t call them,” I said. “And I don’t think they’re coming to help me.”
Instinctively, magic snaked down my arm, until a sword of ice formed in my palm. It glinted in the moonlight.
“Prove it, then,” Salem said. “Kill them.”
A shiver rippled up my spine, mingling with the rush of magic.
The sea fae’s bodies glowed as they moved closer, air slick and wet around us. I counted six of them.
To my left, the ocean receded, but it wasn’t me controlling it now. Ossian was using his magic to summon a wave that would slam into our attackers. They were nearly upon us.
One of them was heading right for me, his scaled skin glistening in the moonlight. His long green hair streamed behind him, and his teeth were sharp points. Just a few feet away from me, he raised his sword over his head, ready to strike my head from my body.
Definitely not a rescue mission.
Instinct took over, and I lunged forward, swinging my sword to meet the attacker’s. I am a queen of the sea.