Page 132 of Midnightsong
Adrielle pointed toward her right. “With Angie.”
Kaden followed the direction of her pointer finger, where Angie had continued on without him.
Adrielle was putting it mildly. His niece and nephew were swimming circles around her, poking and prodding at her legs. Though she jerked her legs back when they pulled on her toes, she was laughing. His heart soared at the sight.
“What were you going to ask?” Kaden directed his question at his older brother.
“Now that I’m recovering, I wished to ask if you wanted to keep the throne.” Cyrus’ back and tail were ramrod straight, like one of their sentinels floating at attention.
“We only want to give you the option. If you wish to keep it, you know you have our full support,” Adrielle added. “Turns out you’re a great king, after all.” She gave him a playful smirk.
“Well.” Kaden cast another glance at Angie, who was still playing with Hadrien and Libbi. He didn’t have the first idea of what they were playing, and they carried on some sort of conversation he couldn’t hear. “I’ve gotten used to ruling, but I don’t want to do this forever. I’m exhausted already, and it hasn’t even been that long. So yes. I want to give it up.”
Cyrus gave him a firm nod. “Then we will go to the council at high suntide.”
“You will be our high advisor, yes?” Adrielle raised a thick eyebrow at him, urging him to say yes. “Since you travel so much and can advise us on the goings-on in the seven seas.”
Not that he had any intention of saying no. Being high advisor to Cyrus and Adrielle would be much more preferable than when he was Saeryn’s. “Absolutely, I accept. Queen Adrielle and King Cyrus have a nice ring to it.”
“Then it is settled.” Cyrus returned his attention to Adrielle. “Should we get our merlings?”
Adrielle agreed, and the three of them swam to Angie and the children.
Angie leaned in to kiss Kaden, and he gave her hands a tug, pulling her flush to him and enveloping her in a warm hug.
“You look like you’re having fun,” he said.
“I was.” Angie motioned with her head to Hadrien and Libbi, who dutifully returned to their parents.
Kaden chuckled. “When you’re ready, let me know. We’ll go for a swim?”
Angie swallowed before speaking again. “I’m good. Ate way too much.” She reached back to fix her long ponytail, which she had tied back with a cut piece of elastic kombu. A small seashell rested above her ear, which Kaden had given to her before the banquet, bringing out her high cheekbones and the luscious curve of her lips. It killed him that he hadn’t been able to ravish her yet.
He tucked a lock of stray hair behind her ear, only for it to be carried away by the sea’s grasp shortly after. “If you’re good, let’s slip out.” Kaden unraveled his arms and tail from around her, and keeping her hand encased around his, they swam above the mer’s heads to leave the hall.
“You, okay? Didn’t want to stay to say goodbye to everyone?” Angie asked with a chuckle, putting her hands on his chest once they were out in the open sea.
“I’d rather be with you.” He drew her into a long kiss, savoring the sweet, salty, and spicy notes on her lips and tongue. “I’ll say my goodbyes later. Much later.” Kaden forced himself to pull back, the things he wanted to say swirling in an endless infinity loop in his mind. She watched him under hooded eyes. “Now that we have a breather.” He kept his fingers entwined with hers. “Can I talk to you? About what lies in store for us?”
He swore Angie jerked her head and shoulders back. “Uh, sure. What about?”
Kaden’s next words caught in his lips. To gather himself, he made a noise not even he knew the meaning of, and he led her another half-seamile west, farther from the palace.
Branching, fan-shaped and feather-shaped deep-sea coral beds decorated the seafloor beneath them, a lovely garden to behold. Shibanyu and yanyu danced around them, darting in and out of their hiding places and from the darkness. “Remember how I told you if we committed to each other, I would be yours for life?”
“I, um. Yeah, I do.” Angie’s eyes had popped wide open, resembling what she would call a tattooed emperor fish as she drew her shoulders to her ears.
“Do you ever want children?” Why was that question so hard for him to ask? Fear they might not want the same things, perhaps? He fumbled with the small pack slung around his hips, holding a precious gift inside.
“Oh.” Her chest and shoulders deflated. “No, I don’t want to bring another life into the world if I didn’t want them with all my heart and soul.”
So, she felt the same as he did, and the notion was a swell of comfort in him.
“But we can’t even have biological children, anyway,” she added. “Right? I mean, has there ever been a mer and a human who tried?”
“Yes, over three hundred tidesyears ago, before we closed ourselves off from humans, we had a mer-human ruling couple. The only one there ever was,” Kaden replied. “But they could not conceive, though they were both healthy and fertile. The healers told them mer and human biology is incompatible for reproduction.”
“Why are you asking me about kids?” Her smooth brow wrinkled.
