Enchanted Ever After (Mystic Circle) (32 page)

Chapter 33

LATHYR’S EYES
DARKENED,
the iris becoming blue-black, gaze intent. With a single
sweet note he had the door opening and slamming behind them.

Then he just stood, cradling her, and it felt good and
right...for now.

Slowly he walked back the way they’d come to the entrance room.
The atmosphere charged around her, as if every molecule that held a bit of water
slid against her skin, leaving a tingle.

He said, “There will be a warm, natural pool in our suite. Will
you let me take you there and make love with me beneath the water?” His voice
lilted, his mer accent noticeable.

She stared up at him, matching his gaze, her mouth drying.
“I...I’m not sure how that is done.”

His head tilted back as he laughed, then bent and kissed her
temple. His pace picked up. “Much as humans mate. We use our legged form.
But...in the water, it is a true dance, our coming together.”

She thought of the glass walls of the palace, was sure that the
Waterfolk area would be surrounded by ocean, and wondered how the pool would
look, what kind of light might be there. What other mers might be outside
watching.

“Um, we’ll be private, won’t we?”

“Yes, lovely Kiri. All the panes in the palace can be tinted to
various shades that will shield our loving. Don’t worry and don’t plan. I
promise you will think of nothing. You will only follow me into blissful
sensation.”

He couldn’t enthrall her again with glamour, but she didn’t
want to deny him or herself. Just thinking of the sensual excitement ahead had
her nipples beading, her breasts feeling heavy, her sex aching. She stared once
more into his indigo eyes. “I would like that very much.” Her own voice
whispered from her lips.

As they left the warm living room behind them and stepped into
a glassy area, anticipation wound tight within her. This was special, a loving
in the night, in the water.

Soon they were in a dry chamber with a pool inset into the
floor. The glass walls on three sides of them appeared clear but Kiri sensed a
magical coating. There
were
mers swimming beyond the
windows, though those outside paid no attention to her and Lathyr.

A slight whisk of air brought the scent of night-blooming
jasmine. She could almost believe this was the conservatory at the Castle in
Mystic Circle...then schools of colorful fish swam by.

Lathyr put her down, and keeping his eyes on hers, he took off
his robe and her own, then led her into the pool. It was warm, and large
and...deep enough.

And as they circled, danced, swam, sliding hands, teasing with
light feather touches, and magic enveloped them as much as the water—hers
matching his—she understood that in this matter, it would be harder for a male
to force a female. And that she was being wooed and seduced by a master.

Kiri panted as they came together, then rocked with her lover
until waves of sensation crashed over her and she swirled away in pleasure.

* * *

Early the next morning they stood in the top dome of one of the
glass towers that was designated as a transportation room.

Though they’d spent the night in submerged chambers, this one
was dry. It even had a huge tree growing in the center. Nice magical trick.

Kiri was getting very good at changing from form to form,
breathing with her bilungs, and using her nictitating eyelids. She was sure
she’d learned more in the past couple of days than she would have in weeks if
she hadn’t gone into the Mississippi River. And time was so relative! Those
hours did feel like weeks ago, her job at Eight Corp months ago...and it had
been at least a year since she’d been human.

And Lathyr had been with her for most of it, supporting her.
Would have been with her for all her lessons if she hadn’t been tempted by the
ocean salt smell. He stuck with her like most people hadn’t.

Maybe her lessons wouldn’t have been hard, wouldn’t have forced
her to grow as a mer...but she thought the time with him, as the time with him
now, had helped her become a better person.

Caring for another, considering their wants and needs as well
as your own did that to you.

Lathyr gestured to a portal opening into a stationary water
funnel outside the palace. “Hold my hand. We’ll go through and I will take us to
Agat Bay, Guam, the closest water I know personally to Challenger Deep.”

“Know personally?”

He whirled his hands. “The
feel
of
the water, the pressure and scent of it, the temperature, the emanations of
humans and mer and fish.”

“Oh.”

His brows knit. “Guam is about two hundred miles from
Challenger Deep and the great Pearl. I am vaguely familiar with the waters and
we will be able to move quickly through the ocean. We will be at the trench in
under an hour.”

Yoga breaths...she’d learned how to do those, even underwater.
“Oh-kay,” she said, stood a little taller. “Better sooner than later.”

He took her hands and smiled down at her, at least his lips
curved and she felt tenderness, maybe even more from him, though his eyes were
dark and held secrets.

The door of the elevator opened and the Water Queen strode
in.

Lathyr bowed. Kiri did the same, even managed a modified hand
swirl, while studying the voluptuous merfem. Her heart-shaped face held a
determined expression that hardened her soft features. Her hair was dark green
and her pale green skin had the faintest tint of blue that Kiri hadn’t noticed
before.

“Salutations, my Queen,” Lathyr said.

“Your distant cousin,” she corrected in a slightly husky
voice.

“As you wish, Highness.”

She strolled toward them. “Or perhaps a distant auntie.” Her
gaze was fixed on him, and Kiri stood still, since a thread of yearning ran
between the two.

“My last relative,” the queen said softly, stopping near them.
She was about the same height as Kiri.

“My last relative,” Lathyr echoed, then blinked and bowed his
head. “If you please.”

“I do please to acknowledge you.”

“And your king?” asked Lathyr.

Her voice hardened. “He knows not to thwart me in this any
longer.” She put her hands around his face. “Tadling.” She smiled and was so
sensual and beautiful that Kiri wanted to be her.

“I acknowledge you and we will speak after this quest is done.
Come back to me, Lathyr Squall-Tricurrent.”

Before he could answer, the queen turned to Kiri. “You will
bring him back to me healthy and whole,” she ordered.

Kiri raised her brows. “I hope to. I hope we both come back
healthy and whole.”

“Good,” the queen said, then stared at Kiri. “A new merfem from
a human, powerful in magic.” She shook her head. “Astonishing, though I knew of
the experiment, of course.” She narrowed her eyes, and Kiri
felt
the woman’s magic trace her angular scale pattern. The queen
had very few curves in her design. She nodded, but didn’t comment. She glanced
at Lathyr again. “You are lovers?”

“Yes.”

Her smile curved as she studied them. “It is well.”

The door opened and two merfems hurried through, hand in hand,
also obviously lovers and a couple.

“There you are, Highness,” the taller, thinner one said.

“I have come to see my nephew off to his quest for the great
Pearl,” the queen said calmly. “Lathyr, I make you known to Frond Seamont, the
Water King’s heir.” Then the queen gestured to the smaller merfem, who had
totally different features and skin tone from the first, “and my heir, Urchin
Seamont.”

Kiri kept her sigh between her teeth as she used her bow again.
“Honored,” she said.

“As are we,” said Frond. The two new merfems did some fancy
curtsy dips and Kiri decided she’d stick with bows.

Urchin’s full mouth thinned. “The Water King is...annoyed.”

The queen lifted and dropped a shoulder. “He will grow out of
it.” She flashed an apologetic smile at Lathyr. “I should have broken him of
some of his bad habits long ago, but the truth is—” she sighed “—I love him
madly.”

“I never doubted that,” Lathyr said. Everyone looked at
everyone else, and finally he said, “And I do not expect to garner a tenth of
that love you feel for him as affection to myself.”

“I suppose you think those pretty words will make me like you
more.” The king simply appeared in the room, and
Kiri’s mind went off in
speculation about how he could do that, until she gave up.

“You are too high above me for me to understand,” Lathyr said
with such simple sincerity it had to be believed.

One side of the king’s mouth kicked up in a half smile. “I
suppose I might regret placing such an onerous geas on you,” the merman said,
offering his wife his arm. “Come, we Eight are discussing our primary
project.”

“Very well.” The queen took his arm, but moved to angle them
both to face Lathyr and Kiri. Then she lifted her hands and chanted and a soft
web engulfed Kiri. Lathyr made a quiet noise beside her. “You have my
blessing.”

“Thank you,” Kiri said.

The queen nudged the king sharply in the ribs. He turned his
large and handsome head toward Kiri and met her eyes. She felt the pull of him,
and his anger, but dug her webbed feet into the tile floor. “You can do it,
girl.”

“Th-thank you.”

The king turned and strode back to the door.

“And she will bring him back safe to me,” the queen said.

Grunting, the king waved and Kiri felt another touch of magic
smack her, energizing her. Huh.

“My thanks,” Lathyr gasped, just as the royal Water couple
entered the elevator and the doors closed behind them.

“He can be quite annoying himself,” Urchin said.

“True,” Frond said. She smiled at them. “We wish you well.”

Kiri blinked. “You went on this quest.”

Both merfems nodded and wrapped arms around each other’s waist.
“Indeed we did,” Urchin said.

They looked at each other, and like the queen, Kiri sensed they
were keeping themselves from talking about the quest.

“Thank you for your hospitality.” Another swept bow from
Lathyr.

“You are quite welcome,” Frond said, paused, then continued
delicately. “You have the guardians on your side, too.”

“They informed us that you are to be considered occupants of
their wing.”

“They’re very kind,” Kiri murmured.

“They aren’t,” Urchin said. “But they take fancies to people
and apparently you are a couple of them.”

“It’s the Mystic Circle connection,” Kiri said decidedly.

The women appeared clueless.

“Mystic Circle, the balanced area where Princess Jindesfarne
Emberdrake lives,” Lathyr explained.

“Balanced magic does boost power,” Frond said.

Urchin angled her head. “We’re being called to the meeting.
Good luck. Hopefully, more changes will be coming, like Marin Greendepths
mellowing.”

“That would be fine with me,” Frond said, then called out,
“Good luck!”

“Thanks!” Kiri said before they entered the elevator. Then she
looked up at Lathyr. “Did you get the idea that we’d need luck?”

He nodded. “Oh, yes.”

* * *

No more than two hours later, they hovered before the dark
crevice in the earth. Lathyr turned her in his arms and kissed her and she
shuddered at the sensuality of his tongue and his taste.

He drew away first. “We will do this together.”

“Of course,” she said.

He formed a shield around himself and she followed suit.
Linking hands, they started down.

Dark. Cold. Strangeness and hideous pressure. Ghosts of her
human origin haunted her.

They stopped some way down, Kiri didn’t know where—
either
in relation to the ocean floor or the surface, or the bottom.

Lathyr let go of her hand
. I can descend
no farther with you—the pressure and the water demands only one who is pure
water elemental proceed. I have too much air elemental.

He had barely any air elemental in his blood, and his face was
impassive so she couldn’t see whether he was disappointed. He twined tails with
her, put his hands on her face and brushed her lips with his; she felt the
pressure of them even through her shield that lay like a second skin around her.
His tail squeezed hers, then released and he backswam and now he was smiling.
Go on!

She stared at him, let the gentle current sweep her long hair
in front of her face and mask her expression.

She wanted this. Wanted to fulfill every last bit of her
potential. She hesitated, but her inner self yearned too much for the
experience. So she nodded, and blew him a kiss and swam down.

She knew the water was odd, very different than most of the
ocean. There were creatures she couldn’t see. Those she sensed were nearly pure
magic and glided in the shadows around her, themselves hardly more than a quick
blur in her vision.

Strangeness enveloped her, the acidity of the water, the quiet
of the deep, the knowledge she was completely alone.

That was more frightening than she’d anticipated, and had a
lonely note echoing dull and low in her heart. Lathyr waited on a ledge in the
trench, as far as he could go, and she descended alone.

Down and down and down and with every flick of fin, the dark
became more oppressive.

Then she saw the glow. A coral-pink-peach glow that wasn’t at
all how it appeared in the game—and wasn’t a true glow of light, but of magic.
She stilled in momentary surprise that the game of Transformation had resembled
reality once more, then resumed swimming.

She swam toward the glow that lured her.

Finally, she saw it.

Unlike the great Pearl in the game, this was not huge, nor was
it partially embedded in the side of the trench. But it emanated more magic.

Tiny worm things and magical creatures circled around it in a
graceful pattern, dancing in their way as other beings did in other atmospheres.
She watched them and loneliness seeped even more into her blood. This sight
would mean more if shared. Who could she talk with about this, the Water Queen
who thought of her as a child? The king, who found her uninteresting?