Shattered by the Sea Lord - Starla Night Page 0,25
water.
“We must go now,” Ciran told her. “Hurry.”
She flicked her fingers and then threw her arms around his neck, holding him tight.
Ah.
“You have done well.” He stroked her trembling back. The dress floated around her body like a fluffy halo. “We are not in immediate danger.”
She nodded against his shoulder and squeezed him tighter.
All right. She must be feeling the after-effects of the encounter. How sad that danger had tainted his bride’s first experience in the water.
Ciran unwrapped her strangling arms and fitted Dannika to his chest, where she belonged. He kicked them through the gaping wreck, out the open tail and toward the surface.
She squeezed him tighter. Her body slid, and her feet tangled with his knees.
He slowed to reposition. “Relax. We are safe now.”
“Don’t I need to breathe out?”
“Why?”
“Because we’re rising. The pressure on the air…I don’t want to pop a lung.”
“You do not have air in your lungs.”
She blinked. “Oh. Right.”
He skimmed under the surface currents toward Val’s raft. It was visible in the distance, and he ought to reach it quickly.
Dannika’s grip tightened again.
When a bride swam with his warrior, they usually formed a perfect fit and experienced a boost of speed. But the tight human clothing hampered their movement, and Dannika’s tight hugs put her body at the wrong angle.
He tried to reposition her again.
She clung harder than a limpet, crushing him.
Hadali kicked beside them at an easy pace. “You’re a mainland woman, aren’t you? Are you his bride?”
“Kind of. Not yet, exactly.” She grappled Ciran in a stranglehold. “It’s complicated. How—”
“What is complicated?” Ciran interrupted. “You are my bride. You pledged yourself to me.”
“Right, but we haven’t held the marriage ceremony at the Life Tree of Atlantis, so technically—”
“You are still my bride. You always have been. Now, you have accepted my claim. You are my bride.”
“Right. On the surface, we’d call it a fiancée. That’s all I meant.”
But her soul light had dimmed. That was not all she had meant.
Unease seeped into his heart.
“I know you’re hurt.” Hadali craned his neck over his shoulder. “But can you hurry? You don’t want to run into the patrol on the open water. Trust me.”
Ciran kicked harder than ever before, striving to regain his pace when every shock, inside and out, jolted him off-rhythm and made him feel like he was churning the water against himself.
“Where are you from?” Hadali asked Dannika. “New York or Florida or China?”
“Maryland,” she said. “I have a studio in New York so I can be close to—”
“New York! I have a stepbrother in New York. Maybe you know him?”
Dannika smiled for the first time since the plane was still flying high, and her soul light glowed. All at once, Ciran’s kicks smoothed and he could finally jump their speed.
“Maybe I do,” she said. “What’s his name?”
“Hunter.”
“Hmm. Well, I know a few Hunters, but no one mentioned being related to a merman.”
“You must know him. That’s why my mom received a sign and sent us to help. If Lieutenant Orike had gotten to you first, we would have found nothing but chum.”
“Your mother received a sign?” Dannika rested her head on Ciran’s shoulder, finally relaxing. “That’s funny. What kind of a sign?”
“We saw your plane go down. Mom said you'd be important.”
Tulu shouted. “There, the raft!”
“Oh, good.” Hadali veered toward it. “We found it before the Luscans doubled back.”
They aimed for the small square dwarfed by the endless ocean.
“You have a mother,” Ciran repeated because only a few cities had allowed women to stay on as queens. Lusca, so far as he knew, was not one of those cities.
“Yes, she’s a mainland woman like Dannika.”
“How does she know us?” Dannika asked.
“She doesn’t, but you’re going to be important.”
“Important for what?”
Hadali and Tulu hovered below the raft. They looked at each other, then at Ciran and Dannika.
“For taking over Lusca, of course,” Hadali said.
Chapter Ten
Taking over Lusca?
Wait, what?
“What do you mean, taking over Lusca?” Dannika asked the two teens.
“The All-Council tried.” Ciran’s dark, certain vibration sent ticklish thrills up her spine. “It is impossible.”
“Not with you it isn’t.” Hadali beamed, energetic and hopeful. Tulu nodded. “Our moms will explain.”
The two boys seized the edges of the raft and popped out of the water.
Val screamed.
It echoed strangely in Dannika’s water-filled ears.
Oops.
Dannika fumbled for the raft. Ciran grabbed the edge and hauled her onto the puffy orange plastic.
The water ran off her skin like peeling off a gel. It drained out of her mouth and throat. Her chest lightened. She took a familiar breath.