Page 33 of A Merman's Tail
“What do you think?” He sneered.
I flinched away. He’d never spoken to me like that before.
“When were you going to tell me you were one of them,Lyric?”
I touched his knuckles, but he jerked them from me and floated back, away from the bars that separated us. “I couldn’t speak, how was I to tell you?”
“You could have found a way,” he snapped. “You found ways to talk to me about other things.”
I hated that he spoke to me like I was one of his enemies, and it didn’t settle right with me. Pressing my forehead against the bars, I reached out for him, but he didn’t come any closer. “We’ll make them regret touching you.”
He snorted and ran a hand through his hair before making an annoyed sound at the back of his throat. “This speaking and breathing underwater shit is weird.”
“Hopefully you won’t need to get used to it,” I said, smiling sadly at him.
Ethan laughed and turned to sit on one of the rocks in the corner of his cell. I’d grown so used to seeing him above water, that watching him now through the ocean seemed bizarre, and I didn’t like it. His injuries only made it worse and anger coursed through me. I’d make Father pay for ever touching my human.
“It was me who saved you,” I whispered, and he jerked his head up again to stare at me. “That day when your boat went down with your father. I saved you. I was watching you when the boat overturned. There was no chance of saving both of you. The choice I made was you.”
“You?” He leaned back against the deteriorating stone walls that the cells were built from and huffed out a surprised breath. “You saved me?”
“Yes, as a merman. I saw thatgirlfind you, and I wanted to be there when you opened your eyes, but I couldn’t. I could barely breathe above water, and I certainly couldn’t walk on land.” I swallowed around the emotion clogging my throat and glanced away from his angry eyes. “I knew then that I wanted to be with you, and I needed legs to do that. So I went to the witch and made a deal. He took my voice and gave me legs instead.”
“Fuck.” Ethan sighed and threw his head back, but it didn’t have the impact he was probably expecting, not without the gravity that above water had. “You really were obsessed with me.”
I smiled and tightened my hold on the bars. Something dug into my right palm but I didn’t move. The pain felt good, a reminder that I was human right now. Blood floated from between my hand and the bar, drifting higher and dancing in the water, and I watched it curiously. I’d never bled as a human before.
Ethan shoved himself up and floated toward me, gaze narrowed on the blood, and then to my hand. He didn’t come in arm’s length of me, though, and emotions warred across his face, as though he was fighting with himself on what he wanted to do.
I pouted at him. “I’m sorry. Your dirty little whore is so sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”
His eyebrows shot up, and I didn’t miss the twitch of his mouth, even though the bruising swelled his face. Father would regret ever touching my human. “Oh yeah, how?”
“Any way you want me, you can have me. You can fuck me wherever you want, Ethan. You’re my human, and I’d do anything for you.” I licked my lips before gnawing at the bottom one. “I love what you do to me. I want you to fuck me like that for the rest of my life.”
“Yeah?” His mouth did stretch into a smirk this time, but he cringed in pain. “Fuck.”
I reached for him again, and he moved closer so I could caress the fresh cuts that stretched across his cheeks, chin, and forehead. Anger stirred low in my gut as I imagined all the ways I was going to make my father pay for this. I would destroy Atlantia if I had to.
“I’m gonna be an ugly asshole now,” he whispered, and I quickly shook my head in response.
“No. You’ll always be handsome to me.” Wrapping my fingers into his shirt, I dragged him closer, which was a lot easier to do in the water. He leaned forward so his forehead nearly touched mine. The only barrier was the steel bars between us. “We’ll destroy them for this. I promise.”
He nodded. “You bet your cute ass we will, Boy.”
I shivered and gasped. “I love it when you call me that. Please, when we leave, I want you to fuck me.”
His laughter startled me. “You really are fucked up. You still like me when I look like this?”
“How could I not? You’re my human.”
Someone cleared their throat, and I turned my head only slightly, keeping my fingers curled in Ethan’s shirt. I glared at Wily, Taya, and Pru, but sighed because as much as I wanted to be angry at all of them, my brothers and the witch were the most innocent.
“What did Father do to my human?” I hissed, baring my teeth at them angrily.
Taya huffed. “What he’s known for. Punishment.” Wily sent Taya a sad expression of his own, and I felt for them. But they weren’t my concern, Ethan was. “You give him a knife, and he’ll cut every traitor or enemy he can,” Taya continued with a grunt.
“Did he do that to your face?” I asked. The patterns were too similar to be a coincidence. Not only did it have the same design, but the depth and cuts were similar too.
