Fathom (Mermaids of Montana #3) - Elsa Jade Page 0,5
heritage, at least she’d have lava cake before the end.
She huffed down the chocolate liquid faster than maybe was elegant and if she licked the plate… Well, it wasn’t like there was anyone to see.
Afterward, she took her dishes to the beautiful kitchen to clean up. Thomas insisted on doing so much—although he was ostensibly in charge of the Wavercrest Saltwater Foundation, Lana suspected he preferred to care for people, not projects—but she wanted to contribute something, at least as long as she was able. The cool marble and stainless steel were soothing, and the occasional inadvertent zap only popped a few bubbles as it warmed the sudsy water.
Afterward, despite the cake and the cleanup, contemplating her fate had left her restless, so instead of going to bed, she made her way back to the library.
It was the prettiest room in a beautiful house. The heavy, dark wood paneling and the somber fabrics of the gold-leafed spines were lightened by the huge saltwater fish tank with its shimmering hues of emerald and aquamarine with flashes of gemstone-bright fish. She leaned close to look for her favorites, the seahorses, but was careful not to touch the glass. Dirty dishes might not mind being slightly electrocuted, but the delicate sea life certainly would.
As serene and meditative as the stunning aquarium was, the confines of it felt suddenly choking. Maybe to a clown fish who spent its entire life in the protective arms of one anemone, the tank was expansive enough, but was she really going to spend the rest of her life—however long that might be—trapped in this beautiful estate in Sunset Falls, Montana? Thomas had already said, time and again, that she was welcome to stay as long as necessary. But all the chocolate cake on Earth wouldn’t stop her from slowly boiling herself alive.
All those rootless years when she’d so dearly wished to have a home she could call her own… And when she finally found it, she was banished as a cursed monster.
A sob heaved in her throat, like a wave with nowhere to go, and she stumbled toward the double doors that opened onto a balcony looking out over the backyard toward the forest beyond.
The cold wind went right through the thin caftan she was wearing and tossed a few stinging raindrops and pine needles at her. But the way the tops of the pines swayed somehow steadied her, like looking out over the waves of a roughened sea…
Dammit, she was drifting again. It was happening more and more. If she couldn’t get it under control—
A huge figure leaped over the balcony landing in front of her with a thud that reverberated through the solid stone. She screamed.
Or she meant to. The sound that came out was more a crackling roar as the restless charge she’d built up erupted in a blue-white burst.
In the prolonged lightning flash, her attacker was frozen for a heartbeat against the black sky: huge, pale, shining silver eyes, pebbled skin glinting like druzy-encrusted stone. Alien, terrifying…
But not unfamiliar.
The enormous Tritonan warrior seemed to curl around the blast as it knocked him backward off the balcony railing into the night.
It happened so fast, the scream was still stuck in her throat.
She stood petrified for another heartbeat, much as he’d been, only trapped in darkness instead of lightning glow. She’d zapped a few people accidentally, fried electronics even—and there was that one felony fire that one time—but she’d never killed.
She raced to the balcony. No, she hadn’t killed him, she couldn’t have killed him.
Gripping the stone railing, she peered over the edge into darkness, her fingers still sparking with latent lightning and fear. “Sting?” she whispered into the night wind.
“Why’d you do that?”
The shriek she’d been holding back squeaked out of her as she whirled around, setting her spine against the banister. “Sting! I didn’t kill you.” Relief flowed through her, dissolving the strength in her knees and she half sagged against the stone.
“No.” He tilted his head. “Is that what you wanted?”
“No!” She held one hand toward him in a sort of embarrassed entreaty. But the electricity still sparking there made it look like a threat, and she whisked her clenched fist behind her. “I didn’t mean it.”
He faced her across the short distance of the balcony. Though she knocked him over two stories with a bolt bigger than any she’d mustered before, he’d bounced right back up again—at a slightly safer distance. He was angled away from the glow of the aquarium through