Page 31 of The Demons in the Deep: Extended Edition
When Jazadri moved in on Mai’s other side, she felt braver. His bulk was a comfort, a silent assurance of security. His enormous torso was encased in a maroon brocade corset that laced up the back. The strings strained against the flex of his rolling muscles.
Flay wore a corset, too, with a plunging V in the front so it looked more like a vest. It had taken Kestra a very long time to lace him into it. Beneath the corset he wore a tight, crisp shirt with a stand-up collar, lying open to show his tanned chest. The blue of the shirt matched his eyes. Judging by the amount of time he and Kestra had spent kissing in the carriage on the way, she approved of the look. Though Mai wondered if perhaps the kissing had less to do with Flay’s appearance and more to do with him and Kestra distracting themselves from the anxiety of the night’s events.
Mai herself felt like an accessory, an unnecessary observer. Kestra and Flay and Rake—the trio, together again—and she was being left behind, just like last time. Even though Flay had assured her how vital she was, she couldn’t help feeling that things had gotten out of her control, and that once more she was being swept along by a current of their making.
Back on Kiken Island, she’d been the first one to suggest capturing a mermaid for study. She had been the one determined to discover a weakness and rid the ocean of the mermaid plague. And yet, when Rake had appeared, Mai had been pushed aside—too young, too vulnerable, too bookish and studious. They’d left her behind when they journeyed to find the Entity. She had suffered for days in their absence, wretched and frustrated, desperate to know what they were doing and if they’d return alive.
Her only comfort during that time had been Rake’s tiny offspring, Jewel. She’d loved him at once, from his sharp little teeth to his flashing gold-flecked eyes. She’d loved his intensity, his curiosity, his savagery, his passionate interest in the hawk-master’s birds. Granted, he’d eaten one of the birds before he knew better, but after Takajo’s patient training, Jewel had come to adore and protect the creatures with a ferocity that Mai found utterly charming. She’d been his constant companion during those days while Kestra, Flay, and Rake were gone. She had prepared salt baths for him, fed him raw fish and whatever else he wanted to try, explained human words for objects he’d never encountered before. At night, after Aunt Lumina had put him to bed, she would slink into his room and read him fairy tales from an old book. He said he liked the scary ones best, so she would hunt for the most terrifying tales and embellish them with her own gory details.
Horrifying though Jewel’s life had been, he didn’t like being coddled and served tame tales with soft characters. He liked the harsh, the sharp, the vivid. Stories with the hard-bitten agony of truth. As did she, and so they had gotten along well.
A pang shot through her heart at the thought of him. But she had no time, no luxury for missing small mer-boys, and she tried to squelch the memory of Jewel as she stepped into the grandeur and glory of the Magnate’s home.
Someone was announcing them—a man with a loud, nasal voice who drawled their names at the top of his lungs. And then Mai saw a resplendent, enormous man with a jowly face and chains of gold across his bulging corset. His thick fingers were laden with rings.
The Magnate. She knew it even before Flay led Kestra up to him.
“Father.” Flay bowed, stiff and glamorous, his golden curls tumbling with the motion. Kestra sank into a graceful curtsy, and the Magnate made a low sound of grudging approval in his throat.
“Welcome,” he said. “Enjoy the party.”
Jazadri stepped forward as Kestra and Flay moved on. He drew Mai up with him. “My lord.” He also bowed, and Mai did her best imitation of Kestra’s obeisance.
“And who are you?” The Magnate’s steely eyes swerved to hers.
“I’m Mai,” she said, breathless. “Kestra’s cousin. Scientist, inventor.”
“Inventor?” The Magnate looked her up and down, while a mocking smile played across his loose lips. “Scientist?”
“Yes, my lord.” Mai dipped her head again, but a hot flush coursed through her veins, over her skin. She felt her cheeks burning.
“What, exactly, have you invented?” asked the Magnate.
Mai opened her mouth to speak of the mermaid cage, but she closed it again. She couldn’t talk about the mermaids, not to this man. Discussing them would lead to questions, and she was supposed to be from Meroa, not Kiken Island.
“I—I’m working on a device to replace Captain Flay’s hand,” she said.
The Magnate chuckled. “Lucky him. He’ll end up with a string of baubles or a pretty gold comb as a replacement.”
Some of the men and women hovering near the Magnate tittered at the comment, and Mai flushed hotter.
Jazadri’s hand tightened on her elbow. He was trying to draw her away, but all she could do was stand rooted, ready to stream fire from her tongue at the sneering Magnate.
“I’d like to see those designs,” said a deep voice behind her.
Mai turned and looked straight at a broad, corset-clad chest. She had to tilt back her head to see the man’s face—deeply tanned and handsome, with pale scars along the left side. One scar cut through his lip, but somehow the odd wrench of his mouth made it all the more appealing.
His massive corset was of gold and ebony brocade, with gold satin straps running over the arched muscles of his shoulders—but underneath, his skin was bare. When Mai glanced down, she glimpsed a swath of rippling coppery stomach between the corset and the man’s black pants. Long black hair swept down his back, tendrils of it brushing against his cheekbones. His eyes locked with hers, interest mingling with incisive humor.
“Dance with me,” he said.
Not a request, not from someone like him, brimming with power and rugged beauty.
Mai swallowed, and her pulse fluttered. Any escape from the Magnate and his ridicule was a welcome one.
She glanced at Jazadri and nodded. The first mate’s face remained expressionless, and he released her arm; but there was a flicker of apprehension in his eyes. “Captain Feral,” he said with a cool nod.
Mai’s stomach thrilled with panic and shock. Captain Feral? Flay’s brother?
