“I’m really tired,” I tell him, trying to cover up my rudeness.
Zale nods as he stands. “Want to take the books with you for later?”
He is so thoughtful, and I can’t help reaching out to give him a hug. Warm breath filters through my hair right before I pull away from him. I walk over to pick up the books, which he immediately takes away from me. With his other arm, Zale offers me the crook of his elbow. The guilt is still hanging around from a few moments ago, plus I simply don’t want to be impolite, so I take it.
We walk out of the study, and he takes a new route. I love how this palace of sorts, even if it started out being a prison a few short hours ago, isn’t overloaded with gawky pretentious decor. It’s got subtle light tones with dark undertones. The fixtures attached to the ceiling are the fanciest thing in this whole place. Thinking of mundane things is a good distraction.
“How do you have light in those?” I ask Zale. “I mean, I’m assuming it’s not regular electricity and all.”
His gaze follows mine to the ceiling. When he doesn’t answer me right away, I look down to find him watching my face. Whatever he sees there makes him smile.
Wiggling his fingers at me, he says, “It’s magic.”
I roll my eyes, but a short laugh escapes at his theatrics. My absentmindedness follows us all the way through the halls until we come to a set of double doors. The crest etched into the main door is present here as well.
Zale turns his body to me looking sheepish. “I know you said that you were tired, but I wanted to show you something first. You may consider it a little weird, so just try to keep an open mind.”
He waits until I nod before opening the door. I’m not remotely frightened because Zale wouldn’t hurt me intentionally. However, that doesn’t stop the small flutter of butterflies of nervousness in my stomach. After the shortest of hesitations, I follow him inside, my feet coming to a stop just over the threshold.
My eyes must be bugging out of my head. “What the...umm, Zale?”
“It’s not as scary as it looks,” a warm breath says in my ear, causing a shiver that races through my body. Which of course, said body betrays me by stepping back into Zephyr’s embrace so that his hands find my hips. A wicked look crosses Zale’s face as he watches Zephyr pull my face to him.
Coming to my senses seconds before our lips touch, I pull away from him. Instead of the hurt look Zale wore before, Zephyr has determination burning in his eyes.
Too many more looks like that and I won’t be able to hang on to my resolve no matter who it hurts. Distractions. Distractions are good.
I clear my throat and step away from him. “Where are we?”
The loss of his body heat hits me like a ton of bricks immediately. I ignore it as Zale starts talking.
“This is what you’d call our crypts,” he replies, shooting a weird look over my shoulder to Zephyr.
Well, that much is quite obvious by all of the skeletons around the room. Normal crypts never have the bones just lying around. They’re all in coffins, urns, or cement. I’m not sure I want to understand why they’d do it this way because the effect is overall creeptastic. When I voice this to them, they laugh.
“They’re just bones,” Zale says. “They won’t come back to life or anything, but there’s magic still there. All of our past generations of royalty are here.”
We come to stand beside the largest one in the room. I get the whole merpeople thing, but it’s still shocking to see a skeleton with a tail. Especially one that makes the person at least eight-foot long. This one was their father, and something about the magic calls to me. Nowhere near as strong as the guys, but it’s still there. That’s not the only reason I know. The stone statue beside it would have given it away. She is absolutely stunning, even etched in stone. It’s clear where the guys got their looks from.
“She was your mother,” I say, not questioning if I am right.
Zale steps up to my right as Zephyr comes to my left. It’s Zale that asks, “How did you know?”
I let out an unladylike snort. “It’s obvious where you three get your good looks from. She’s beautiful.”
They both stare down at me as I continue to look over the statue of their mother. A sick feeling in my stomach makes me want to throw up in the middle of the floor.
“She was taken, wasn’t she? That’s why she has a statue instead of bones,” I whisper sadly.
From the corner of my eye, I see Zale nod. “She had just as much right to be here as any of them. More so, in my opinion. This was one of the ways that we could honor her.”
“I’m sorry,” I tell them.
“Us too,” Zale replies. “We knew your family. They were good mers. It’s a tragedy what happened to them.”
“That’s the story of our lives. One big fucking tragic mess,” Zanthus says from behind us.
A glance over my shoulder rewards me with a view of him propped against the door, arms crossed against his chest as he watches us.
“True, but without all of the bad, we’d never genuinely appreciate the good,” I tell him.
An actual smile crosses his face, and I don’t know if it’s from a spare moment of happiness or the fact that we are having a civil conversation. Either way, it’s a massive reminder of just how much the three of them look alike. In their own smoking hot ways. I stand for longer than I should, staring at that smile. When my eyes rise to meet his, it’s clear as day that he knows what I’m thinking.
He straightens from the wall and stalks toward me. The only warning I have is the predatory look in his eyes before he grabs my neck and pulls my face to his. Holy Hades, for a brutish merman, he really knows how to kiss. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t go anywhere at this point. His mother’s statue at my back and his brothers’ warm bodies on either side of me, leave me trapped. It’s that last thought that has me pulling away. I was kissing Zale and feeling the same for him a few short hours ago, and now I’m with his brother, while he stands next to me, nonetheless. Damn, there’s something firing wrong in my brain.
“I’m sorry,” I say to them as my face turns red. I can’t help the lifting of my fingers to my lips where they’re still tingling.
“What are you sorry for?” Zephyr asks, now turned towards us.
I angle my face to him and catch his eyes. Boy, is that a huge mistake. All I can think is he’s the only one that I haven’t kissed. And holy hell, do I want to. Shaking my head answers his question and helps to dislodge the stray thought.
I try to blow it off. “I’m just really tired.”
That’s the biggest copout of all time, but it works. At least, I think it does, before I see the grin that Zanthus tries to hide.
This time, it’s his arm that is offered and leading me from the room. His brothers follow quietly behind us, and I think, I’ve really mucked things up this time.
I’m a very superstitious person, so I should have known better than to ask myself how much worse this could possibly get. It can always get worse.
"I'm telling you, Zan. You spooked her," Zephyr complains the moment we drop Rubi off in her room, and she requests to be alone.