The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (12 page)

“I am not, your mate,” I remind him, eyes slits now. He laughs again, careless. He is…
Perfectly
Wicked.
I muse with a smile to myself, I need fodder like him
.
So I let him live. For now. He rolls his eyes over my form as I turn away, I feel them continue to stare, settling on my back and hear him sucking water up under his pointed cheekbones. Alyssa is watching us, amused and unmoving as I dart back over to the throne, using it to assert my dominance. I turn and drape myself over it again lazily, casually, erasing my humiliation. Vex slinks out of the room slowly. With a smirk of victory my eyes find Alyssa’s dark eyes once more.

“I like him. He’s smart. We need more of that around here. I can’t be the only one,” she nods to me, not dismayed as to the inclination that she’s as stupid as I know she is. You’d have to be to put up with that human loving ex of hers, Gideon.

“I’ll go and find Regus.”

“No. Not Regus,” I muse, I think about the simple intelligence in how Vexus had bested me, not using his emotions but allowing logic to rule all. Like all great rulers I speak my mind, unafraid of the opinions of those submissive challengers. “I don’t just want raw strength. I want tactics, I want wit, I want skill and unity,” I command her, feeling the regality of my destiny bearing down upon me.

“Then who?” Alyssa queries.

“I will command my own army,” I make the gesture, selfless and generous, quite unlike me. It is time to start paying my debt, toiling to achieve the greatness I know I am destined for. It is true, if you want something done right. Do it yourself.

“Very well Your Highness,” Alyssa purrs, moving to touch me. I flinch away from her, fearing her touch like poison.

“Gather them,” I bark. It is time to make the gaggle of cursed children into an army of men. It is time to rise.

CALLIE

I’m staring at Orion, mouth hanging open, my heart thudding so loudly it’s the only thing I can hear. I can feel the eyes of the anxious onlookers bearing into me, waiting for the answer. My answer.
 

“I…” I begin, my voice a squeak. Orion is beginning to look stony faced as we hang there, suspended in an answerless void. I look at the ring, nuzzled inside the shell he’s still holding open. A giant sparkling diamond, cushioned by tiny ice blue pearls and aquamarines. It’s beautiful. I can’t move though. Can’t move to take it, can’t move to answer. I am suspended, the silence and my blood rushing around my body, the only actualities within the awkward bubble. A voice within me says only one word.
Flee.
 

I turn, past the gasping figures and swim as fast as I can from the room, past a smirking Saturnus.
What the hell are you looking at?
I snap internally, working my tail against the surrounding water, moving from the room at a speed I have never reached in my life.
Oh my Goddess, am I actually doing this?
I ask myself, but I don’t have time to think it through, I just know I can’t answer him. I can’t humiliate him by refusing, but I can’t say yes! Who the hell ever heard of an eighteen-year-old marrying someone she’s known for just six months! What was he thinking?!
 

I swim, out the double doors of the Alcazar Oceania and out into the city streets. They’re deserted except for the odd patrolling Knight, everyone else is inside. I move up under the heat of the morning sun, the water protecting me from its rays. I long for its heat on my skin, something familiar and comfortable but know that’s suicide. I move up through the sea, getting as close to the surface as I can, skimming in thoughtless rhythm away from the city. Away from the crushing pressure that has been mounting. Apparently proposal is my breaking point.
Who knew?

I move with increasing speed away from my problems, until I see a Commerson dolphin in the distance. It stops me in my watery tracks. The memories come at me like a tidal wave of arctic proportions, chilling me to the bone. Orion filling the buoy with air, Orion smiling, Orion laughing. Orion bending me over the kitchen counter in our beach house, Orion kissing me, Orion loving me, Orion needing me.
 

“No!” I cry out, trying to stop the flood of nostalgia that is making me short of breath. I move my hands up to my throat, clutching at my gills which are rapidly opening and closing, pulling in water which floods my gullet, but still can’t quench my thirst for air. I start moving again, fleeing from the memories, the cascade of horror that is making my heart ache with the uncertainty of my return to the other half of my soul. I say I don’t believe it’s true, that I think it is all crap, but swimming out, roaming the water and the barren expanses of sand, I have never felt my longing for him more. I have never felt him so necessary and yet I cannot give him my vow of eternity. I have never felt so alone.

The sun falls from the sky as I feel my muscles clenching, enjoying the pain of each stroke that my tailfin makes, pushing me through the water. My mind is racing wearily, struggling to put the jumbled pieces of the puzzle together. Orion getting down on bended fin, Orion looking at me, Orion asking me to marry him. It just doesn’t make sense. Or does it?
 

I’m starting to wonder whether I’ve missed something, whether that’s what his aggressive desperation since Atlas’ death has been leading up to. I feel myself wilt slightly. Looking at the fish stirring around me, darting in hues of yellows, greens, and blues. I watch the moon rise over a bloody horizon and continue to ponder.
 

ORION

“I don’t care if she’s not in the city! Find her!!!! I want every stone upturned, every inch of every cave searched. I want her found!” I bellow, slamming my fist down onto the wooden armrest of my father’s throne; or should I say my throne now. It sounds wrong no matter how many times I think it. Ghazi is kneeling before me, nodding with a look of puzzled pity knitting his brow together. Cole is beside him, his eyes darting between myself and Saturnus who is floating next to me, unmoving and inexpressive. The water is stirring, vibrations of displaced air rippling in my surroundings. They look too afraid to move, afraid of what I might do. “Well? What the hell are you waiting for? GO!” I feel rage move up through me. They don’t bow in respect but instead bolt for the exit.
 

“Might I suggest you calm down?” Saturnus comes before me in an effortless momentum.

“May I suggest that you shut up?” I bite out. He looks surprised, but then the mask of calm falls over his features once more.

“It is not my fault the girl was not as pliable as expected, Your Highness.” He takes a formal approach and I find myself unreceptive.

“The ‘girl’ was just cornered in front of the entire city’s population on a piece of advice YOU gave me Saturnus,” I accuse him, suddenly realising with whom this fault belongs.
 

“I swear to you; I have heard her speak of engagement. I have heard her long for such a vow,” Saturnus runs his hand through his hair, looking concerned but I see that it is a faux gesture. I cock my head, looking at him, suspicious. I feel my eyes narrow.

“Yes. Well. I suppose these women can be temperamental. She is young,” I speak the words and watch him with careful intent.

“Indeed Your Highness. Of course it is no surprise she has swum out into the open ocean. She is not a creature with much regard for her own safety, I’m sure you’d agree,” Saturnus smiles slightly, almost sympathetically toward me. I nod.
 

“Agreed. I want her found,” I mutter.

“Let your men do their job. It’s what they’re there for,” Saturnus reminds me.
 

“Will you go and watch over them. Make sure they are taking necessary precautions for mobilisation?” I request and he nods. Slamming his fist into his heart.

“Of course. It would be my honour,” he responds, bowing his feathered mane of bloody hair and turning swiftly, leaving a trail of refracted rainbows in the wake of his diamond encrusted tailfin. I rise from the throne, moving to suspend myself inches from the panoramic glass window, surveying the city.

 
I watch the horizon as the moon rises, light falling over everything, dulling it by comparison to sunlight. How can Callie not want to be here beside me? I wonder, feeling my heart fragment.

 
I watch the Knights of Atargatis, few in number now, depart the city to find her. I wonder if she’ll come back willingly. Then I think to myself about the notion of marrying her. I can’t help but know now, despite my nerves about asking her, that I need her to be my wife. Is that unreasonable? Perhaps. But what is there to stop us? She may only be eighteen years old, but when you know someone is who you want to spend eternity with, why should that matter? I know she feels the connection, the pairing of our souls, so why would she run? I let a sense of foreboding ambivalence settle over me.

The emotions within pull in different directions so I silence them, stopping them from pulling me apart. I need her. Physically, emotionally, and soulfully and I always will. Does it matter if we are wed?
Yes. She must be mine and mine alone.
I whisper internally, this confession of need so sacred I shudder at the vulnerability it sets loose within.

I feel my shoulders hunch as the prospect of her absence, anger and pain looms like a dark cloud over me. My own anger simmers beneath my slouched exterior as I curse all women. What the hell are they playing at, being so fragile but refusing protection? So loveable and yet so unwilling to be loved? So coveted and yet so unattainable? Why won’t she just let me love her for Goddesses sake?

Then I feel my own pride vanquished as I wonder if it’s not her at all, but instead me. Am I worth marrying? Has my sordid past been bothering her again? I wish she would talk to me. I want to read her as an open book, splay out her pages and study all her intricate calligraphy. Trace my fingers across her inky curves and study her intricate gliding lines. As I look out over the horizon, into the stormy shadows, I cannot help but wonder if she can be found. If she will return to me. I am still, suspended in a state of waiting, my back to the throne I have just taken and as onyx dusted clouds begin to swirl overhead, a single diamond falls in pitted silence.