Page 11 of Whispers Beneath the Deep
His eyes went to my throat, to where he’d cut off my waterway. I was sure, even in the dimly lit cove, he could make out the shadowing of a bruise there. He tugged lightly at my hand, but with enough command that I found myself falling into his lap. His arm went around my waist to hold me there, to keep me from protesting.
I didn’t.
Maybe I was weak. Maybe I always had been. Or maybe it was just him. Elias’ energy was something else entirely. He was hypnotizing and I wanted to be closer to him, despite what he’d done or would do.
I sat there, breath hitching up in my throat as I watched every single thing about him soften. His whole demeanor changed. Fingers came up to brush along my throat. I swallowed, a lump rising up my throat that I was sure he could feel with his fingertips.
“I am sorry,” he whispered.
I tried not to shiver and failed. “I don’t believe you.” My voice was hoarse with some unknown emotion that clenched tightly in my gut.
He leaned forward, so close that our noses almost touched. Then he bent to my neck and pressed his lips against my bruised skin. The feel of his warmth at the base of my throat had my pulse quickening to an impossible speed. I was sure he felt it. Felt the way my heart was racing against his mouth. He kissed me there and I remained entirely too still under his care. He kissed his way lower, lips touching my collarbone, and then lower still, to the top swells of my breasts.
He stopped, pulled away when I was sure I would melt like molten lava.
Elias looked me in the eyes with lowered lids. A soft smile touched his mouth and my face and body heated in response. I wasn’t sure why my gut was tightening, why my belly coiled in his presence.
“I would never truly hurt you, Maisie.” He said the words like they were a promise he meant to keep forever between the two of us.
My breath hitched. “If that were true,” I began, “then you wouldn’t really tell anyone my secret.”
His fingers grazed down the length of my arm. “I had to ensure you would help me and that was the only way I knew how.”
“By abducting me. By tricking me. By hurting me.”
His own breath hitched at that. “You were safe with me, little fish. I had to pretend. That’s all. You have to know…”
“Know what?” I was breathless and the words came out in a panting whisper.
His touch glided against my collarbones, up my neck. His eyes seemed bright in the darkness as he drank me in. “You have to know that you are my second blade. My match. My other half.”
I closed my eyes against the words, feeling them carve a pathway down to my soul. I should have replied with something similar. But I didn’t. I opened my eyes and said, “Then there’s nothing stopping me from telling the guards where you are and turning you in.”
He smiled, but it wasn’t the arrogant smile I was so accustomed to seeing on him. It was derisive but beautiful just the same. “You won’t,” he said. It was a dare. A challenge.
I bit my bottom lip, and his eyes followed the movement. Slowly, I released it and sighed, shaking my head. “You’re right, I won’t.”
And he’d seen right through me. Because it didn’t matter what had happened. Deep down, the Black Blade was still my hero. And Elias Blackfin was still my friend.
He’d been ready to face certain death, and I’d made myself an easy target. He had done what he always did. Survived, using whatever means he could. It stung my pride, made a strange vulnerability bury itself in my chest, but I understood. We were one and the same, after all.
I was suddenly aware of our position. Of me on his lap, tail curling beside his. His arm around my waist, fingers hovering over my bare skin. We were pressed together intimately, and for some reason, in this moment, my mind flashed to Prince Kai and to Captain Saber.
Prince Kai was not mine. I had to remind myself of that. He belonged to Princess Odele. Once she was found, they would marry and have children, and rule a kingdom. And Captain Saber? I wasn’t sure why I thought of him. All I knew was that he belonged to the princess as much as the prince did. He was direly in love with her and would be happy to be rid of me.
I was just Maisie. And maybe Elias and I could actually be together, but for some reason even he suddenly seemed far away. He was the Black Blade. He was doing something for Thalassar. For its merpeople. While I was failing from the inside.
“I have to go,” I whispered abruptly.
Elias did not look surprised. He just gave me a single nod, and pushed lightly at my waist. I flushed and slid off of him, taking a few strokes back. Maybe distance would clear my head. Maybe distance would make the burning feel of his lips against my skin vanish entirely.
Or maybe it wouldn’t.
“Goodbye, Elias,” I said before whirling around and swimming away from him. At the top of the cove, my hands pressed against stone. The doorway opened and I swam out, practically gasping once it closed behind me. When it did, I pressed my back against the wall and tried to calm my erratic breathing. My heart was incessantly pounding in my chest.
I swallowed and started forward. If I stopped now, it’d only give me time to think about Elias and the confusing feelings coursing through my body. That was something I didn’t need. Not now.
So I swam to the mouth of the alley and down the street. There were guards all around, and merpeople screaming. My blood went cold at the sight of it. Were they looking for me?
