Page 122 of Oceansong
“You were still being held hostage when I left. I wanted to see you, take you away from my mother, but I was too late. Saw the gun aimed for the two of you. Better my life than yours and my mother’s. Losing her would be too much. For Cyrus, for the queendom, for me.”
She gazed into his eyes. He lived, and nothing else mattered. She knew she would never find anyone else like him.
Small creatures wiggled in her hair, coupled with tiny pecks on her scalp, and she jolted, searching for whatever bit her.
“What the Hells?” A smattering of longfin smelt the size of her hand, fled.
Next to her, Kaden’s cheeks were puffed and his lips tight, his eyes holding back laughter. “Remember how I told you to keep your hair tied back? Now, there’s fish wandering around the sea, and they will seek to make a temporary home in your long flowing hair. They think it’s seaweed.”
Angie laughed with him then, burying her face in her hands. “Alright, smartass. Tying my hair was the last thing on my mind when I heard youwere alive.”
“Ah, I jest.” He grinned, and she laid back down, pressing her chest to his so she wouldn’t float. “I thought I lost you. That I would never see you again, and that’s the way I had to see you go.” Her voice laced thick with emotion, and he stroked his knuckles along her spine, her nerves awakening and sending warm, comforting signals to the rest of her body.
A low chuckle sent a rumble through his chest, tickling her cheek. “You think I would leave you without telling you I loved you one last time?”
She pushed herself up onto her forearms, gazing into those striking amber eyes she’d missed seeing. “I love you. I love you so much.” She leaned in and kissed him, and he put one hand behind her head, drawing her in closer. The tension she carried melted with the undulating, caressing deep, and she lost herself in him.
Angie pulled back, breaking their embrace. Adrielle had been watching them from the corner of her eye, but turned her attention back to Cyrus with a lowered head and a smile after her gaze connected with Angie’s.
“We will have to make up for lost time.” Kaden reached for a lock of her hair and smoothed it. “When I’m better.”
“I’d like that.” Angie wound her fingers in between his.
“You know, my mother said my love for you cost her her lifemate. Sent her oldest son into an infirm state, and she thought her remaining son was mortally wounded. She held a grudge for some days, but—”
“But because of you, my sons live to see another tidesday.”
Angie hadn’t heard Serapha approach them from behind. “Mer-Queen,” she said at the same time Kaden said “Mother.”
Serapha gave them both a head bow of acknowledgment and swam aside to reveal Bàba behind her. His eyes were swollen, his nose red, his cheeks puffed. He approached Angie to hug her, and then moved to Kaden to shake his hand.
“Kaden, I want to tell you. What happened to you that day at the shore, should not have happened,” Bàba started. “I was only looking for Angie. I did not expect to see the two of you together, and Nick fired before I could stop him.”
“I told you, Mother,” Kaden added. “She wouldn’t set a trap for me after agreeing to rescue Cyrus, and then keeping her word.”
“I was doing exactly what I promised. Getting your message to my dad. I mean, before I lost the bottle,” Angie said. “I also helped get King Aqilus back into the sea. I figured at least he would be home.”
“Yes. Sentinels recovered him recently, and we’ve provided him with a burial. That still doesn’t explain how you knew where to find them,” Serapha cut in, the second part of her statement directed at Bàba. “It seemed much too coincidental.”
Angie listened as Bàba filled Serapha in on what Nick had said about the mermaid, Aurora. When he was finished, Serapha thinned her lips. “I see. It is certainly a shame she felt that way. But she would not be the first. War will divide even the most united of mer.”
Bàba clasped his hands behind his back, his legs scissoring under him. “I have seen war in my past, and now this. It divides humans, as well.”
Serapha gave Bàba a nearly imperceptible nod in response. “I would have felt similar in Aurora’s position. My lifemate was taken from me, as well.” She went silent, gaze dropping to the seafloor.
Perhaps if Serapha had listened to her that day in the mer prisons, the bloodbath at the shoreline would never have happened. Yet Angie understood. Losing her lifemate, having one son injured and her other son tortured and drained to the point of unconsciousness by the same enemy would cause rational thought to flee her mind, as well.
“Mother.” Kaden reached toward her.
She shook out her shoulders. “He will be properly grieved, once we have a moment to breathe. And he will be taken care of in the afterlife. I will await him when he reincarnates.”
“I am waiting for that day with my wife, as well,” Bàba murmured.
“Did you see Mama?” Angie studied his still face.
“I did. It has been so long. To see her face again,” he said, his voice breathy and his hands clasped over his chest. “Thank you, Queen Serapha, for bringing me to see her.” He looked at Angie. “Beibei, are you ready to go back?”
“Yes, I think so.”
