Page 76 of Bride of the Sea King

I ran up the stairs, my heart pounding violently.

“Kill anyone who gets close to the castle,”Triton said just to me. His voice was dark and deadly.

“What happened to keeping prisoners?”

“Anyone who tries to come for you dies,”he growled.“This is a targeted attack. The squids are focused on me, even with other warriors around. The selkies are here for the throne.”

“If they’re all going after you, you had better be really fucking careful.”

“I will. Keep the beach clear, Sweetheart. I lo?—“

“If you tell me you love me for the first time right now, I swear to the goddess that I will end your life myself.”

He chuckled.“Alright. Take care of yourself.”

“You too.”

I kicked him out of my head as I reached the top floor of the castle. I needed every ounce of my focus if I was going to keep the beach clear. He needed his to keep himself alive.

There was a flat platform on the tallest of the castle’s domes that had been built to help the king or queen see all the way around the structure in case of an attack. It made it really damn easy to do my job.

There were only a few selkies on the beach at the moment, but I recognized their leader, Eila, among them.

They had to have been in front of the group with the squids that the sea had warned me about.

When Triton and I had practiced what I needed to do, he had explained that he and the rest of the warriors would attack from behind while I controlled the front line of defense. Right now, they were busy with the squids, so I was on my own.

Damn, I hoped I had enough power to keep us safe.

When I reached for the sea, it welcomed the embrace of my magic. There was no denying that the power I’d felt earlier was the ocean itself.

The small group of selkies were sprinting toward the castle, but I was focused on the ocean. I’d practiced so intensely that picturing a large wave rising only took a heartbeat—and a heartbeat later, I had that wave rushing toward the beach powerfully enough to wash it clean.

The wave crashed into the castle. I stopped the water at the closed doors—though a little had probably already slipped through the cracks—and shoved the wave back into the ocean hard and fast. Triton had taught me how to do it without allowing anyone or anything to cling to the castle’s walls or the sand, so I did it exactly the way he’d shown me.

The drain on my energy was significant, but it was manageable.

The wave wiped the selkies off the beach—but when the water cleared, I saw one remaining.

Eila. Their leader.

She held a massive spear that was buried deep in the sand, her chiseled muscles tense. She ripped it free and started to sprint forward again.

Shit.

As fast as I’d removed them, the other selkies were surging up the sand again, too.

I gathered another wave, focusing on the queen. She was nearly to the castle. And while the doors were locked, I was pretty sure she could climb it with muscles like those.

If she climbed it, she could reach me. Unlike her, I didn’t have a big-ass spear to keep myself safe.

My second wave crashed harder than the first.

When it rolled back, the queen’s spear was buried in the sand again, her shoulders hunched as she held on with everything she had.

The woman was an absolute badass.

It was really unfortunate that she wanted to kill me and Triton, because I respected the hell out of her strength.

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