The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (53 page)

“What’s that?” He strokes the round of my shoulder.

“It’s about Vex.” His finger halts in its track and he looks up at me. “I…I slept with him,” I admit, watching the colour drain from Orion’s face. “I’m sorry… I was drunk and Titus’ darkness was at its worst. We’d just had that fight near the shoreline and I…” Orion doesn’t say anything. He just holds a finger up to my lips, shakes his head with a disappointed look and disappears beneath the still water’s surface, leaving me alone on the top of Big Blue.
 

I sigh,
so close… and yet so far.

AZURE

Whispers keep coming from behind; the maidens are talking about me. I’m ignoring them. I want to look in on what’s happening with Star, check she’s okay, but the fog won’t roll in. I wonder if that’s because I’m really scared of knowing what’s going on. As long as I can’t see her, I can imagine her at least alive from the two way looking glass.
 

I’m also pissed at Callie. It’s irrational I know, but her darkness was taken from her, she doesn’t have to bear it any longer. She’s back in the Goddess’ favour, being rewarded and bathed in the glory of the sea. I have no such relief, constantly keeping my temper in check, feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. Callie gets to go back, be a Queen, adored by all who lay eyes on her. While I’m stuck with black roots and eyes that unnerve even the bravest of warriors. I’ve always thought of my darkness as power, but right now I am an outsider to everyone, and the understanding that I would have gotten from Callie has disappeared along with her own dark roots. I’m not quite a mer, neither am I Psiren. I don’t belong.
 

The whispers of the mermaids are riding on my last nerve and as I look around Orion and Callie are nowhere to be seen. I guess I’d better shut them up then. I turn Philippe, yanking the reins and lay eyes on them, the Equinox beneath me treading water. The maidens look startled and erect themselves from the position in which they’re swimming.

“If you have something to say to me, I suggest you say it to my face. Your whispers are shockingly not all that discreet. You guys know you have to actually lower your voices right?” I cock an eyebrow and allow my lips to pull back over my teeth. Rose, the one with seemingly more backbone than the others, narrows her eyes.

“We were just saying about how we wish we could fight like you. Orion said you pulled him out of the rubble… you know, when the Psirens attacked.” She shrugs and I’m taken aback for a second. What, they like me now?

“Uh, yeah. I did,” I say, dumbfounded. They shift, uncomfortable.

“We’re sorry. About your sister. None of us knew her that well, but she seemed nice,” the one with the mint green scales adds.

“Don’t give me that shit. You and I both know that Starlet is an acquired taste,” I bite out.

“Anyway, we just wanted to say we’re sorry about your father too. We don’t want you to think we don’t care. You were one of us once. We can see you’re trying,” Sophia pipes up and once again I’m surprised. My heart feels weird, like it’s squeezing slightly in my chest. I shrug it off. Must be the change in temperature.

“Um… thanks.”

“We also… we had questions,” Rose blurts. Ghazi’s wife is behind her, looking worried.

“What questions? I’m not the answer type.” I look at her suspiciously as Philippe continues to keep us stationary with a steady beating of his scaled wings.

“Your eyes… why do they do that thing? Is it because of the visions, I never saw Starlet’s eyes go like that,” Skye is curious, too curious for my liking. I note Cole and Ghazi are almost with us now, we’ve been stationary for long enough for them to catch up from the rear of the group. I can only hope one of them will save me.

“The dark magic… that’s how it presents itself. When I get angry or excited. It helps me see in the dark too. It’s nothing to do with my visions,” I give a blasé explanation, bored of the conversation and pull on the reigns so the Equinox moves away.

“How do the visions… how do they work?” Skye is still tentative, but the other mermaids are absorbed.

“Why didn’t you ask Star all this?” I sigh, shrugging my shoulders.

“She wasn’t around much,” Alannah cuts in, interrupting Skye.

“My visions work two ways. I get them sent to me from upstairs and I can also look in through Starlet’s eyes. It’s how we kept an eye on each other when I was…” I trail off, not wanting to remember being with Titus again. The girls look fascinated. I don’t know why I’m still talking to them. I guess I must like the attention.

“So you can see what’s happening right now, you know, back in the Occulta Mirum?” The question comes from the back of the group. It’s from Sophia and I know she’s asking for her soulmate.

“Not really, it’s not something you can pick and choose. It doesn’t work all the time,” I explain, still bored. I look at my nails. Damn, I need a manicure. All this saving the world stuff is really cutting into my personal time.
 

“Do you think you could teach us to fight?” A squeaky voice reaches me and my head snaps up. I dismount Philippe momentarily, letting him move ahead.

“What did you just ask me?” They back up.

“We want to know how to fight. We want you to teach us.” The voice comes from the shy girl with blonde hair and baby blue fins. I’m kind of flattered and at the same time half offended that they think I’d so easily relinquish my secrets.

“Why don’t you ask Callie or Orion? Or Ghazi?” I enquire, sure there must be some kind of catch here.

“We don’t want a man to teach us. We’ve seen you fight, we watched from my apartment when you fought the lion-fish looking guy,” Rose cocks her head and furrows her brow; clearly thinking is hard work for her.

“Caedes?” I look at them and they nod. Rose continues.

“Yes, we saw how you outwitted him. You’re small like us, and you don’t have big muscles like the men, but you still won.”
 

“You know I had help with Caedes, right? That Psiren with the slingshot, he…” I begin.

“Yes. But you fought in the first Psiren attack too and survived. You’ve survived with the Psirens for longer than anyone. We’d like you to teach us. If you want. If not, we could always ask Callie,” Rose puts this to me as a challenge. I accept, my eyes turning a little darker as my temper flares.

“Okay. When we make it to where we’re going I’ll put aside some time. But it won’t be easy and I don’t want any whiners!” I scold them and they blanche a little, I smile. I like the fact that they’re still ever so slightly afraid of me. They all look like they’re holding their breaths. I goad them.

“Thank you, Azure,” I harp with a high-pitched girly tone. They all suddenly gush forward with thanks and I roll my eyes. “Whatever.” I turn on my tailfin’s axis and whirl away from them, leaving them to eat my bubbles.

When I finally catch up to Philippe, he’s not alone. Orion is slumped lengthways, lying along his spine.

“Hey,” I mutter, feeling annoyed. He doesn’t reply; he looks rather pissed actually. “I said hey!” I repeat, not enjoying being ignored one bit. “What the hell is wrong with you?” I poke him in the abs, moving upward and examining him the way a coroner examines a corpse.

“He had his hands on her. He touched her…” I can’t quite make out what he’s blithering on about and so I roll my eyes. I’ll use my simple words.

“Orion. Use words,” I motion for him to hurry the hell up. I don’t have time for his drama.

“Vex and Callie…” He begins and my stomach flips in a horrible vomit inducing type somersault. I don’t know why.
 

“Oh my God! You freaking serious? That’s gross… I thought Callie had better taste… Then she did agree to be with you. Jesus,” I try to perk him up, jibing him with faux insults that I’m so used to dishing out.

“Azure. Go away,” he’s seriously heartbroken. Or pissed, I can’t tell. I still can’t wrap my head around Callie and that tentacle sporting douchebag bumping uglies. Oh man that is so wrong. What the hell was she thinking? I knew something had gone on between them, that much was obvious. I mean he had pulled the darkness out of her according to Callie. But sex? Ew. Wrong. No.

 
I shake my head, trying to stop my wicked imagination from putting images into my mind that I somehow can’t stomach.

I look up at Orion, unfocused and wallowing in his own misery.

“Hey, it could be worse,” I remind him, I regret this immediately when I’m subject yet again to more whining, courtesy of the Callie and Orion relationship drama of the week.

“How? How could this be worse?!” He exclaims sitting upright on horseback, twisting his body so his long tailfin hangs down the side of the Equinox.

“OUR SISTER COULD BE DEAD!” I yell, finally having enough. I feel my voice reverberate, echoing back at me through the empty space of the water. Silence falls from the rear of the group. “How self-absorbed can you be? There are BIGGER problems here than your goddamn love life. Get a freaking grip on yourself!” I go to raise my hand, disgusted, to slap him across the face again, my eyes dilating and turning black with my rage. He grips my wrist, his eyes softening.

“Okay. You’re right. I’m sorry,” he whispers, stroking my cheek slightly with his index finger. I yield, letting the rage dissipate and lowering my hand. He lets it drop, suddenly looking crushed beyond compare. “Why did it have to be her?” He shakes his head, now I’m sure he’s talking about Starlet.

“I’ve been thinking about that. Callie said about purity. I thought we were talking in purely sexual terms, but I’m pretty sure that Solustus has never gotten any either. So why not him?” I’m thinking aloud. “It’s about her connection to the Goddess, and more than that, I think it’s about the fact she’s never killed.”

“Never? Wait, that can’t be right?” Orion looks confused.

“You’re telling me father let her go out and fight? That doesn’t seem like him,” I mumble, wondering if I am in fact wrong. Maybe Starlet has killed before.

“No… I guess not. She’s gone all this time never killing anyone.”

“At least we know why she’s so damn cranky now. No sex. No bloodshed. How awfully boring,” I comment and Orion scowls. I shrug unapologetically.

“I think it’s more to do with the fact that by the time she turned you were already gone. She’s been alone a long time,” Orion reminds me.

“You think that’s an excuse? I wasn’t exactly destined to be with Titus, but I still went there. It was that damn convent. They brainwashed her. I’m telling you,” I babble on, finding my stride for the first time in a while, but still can’t get out of the habit of clipping my sentences short with disdain.

“Convent?” He looks confused and I scowl at him, wondering why he’s not up to speed. He spent more time with my sister than I did.

“Oh… she didn’t tell you about that?” I cock an eyebrow, and he’s still pulling the dumbfounded, stupid expression. Guess not.

“After Katriona married me off, Starlet started having visions in public. Katriona sent her to a religious convent, to prevent her getting herself put to death. You know how our people are about the devil.” Orion suddenly looks startled at my candour, it’s the first time I’ve used our mother’s name in centuries.
 

“I should have known. I should have gone back for you two. I should have…”

“Shoulda, woulda, coulda. If you spend your life worrying about what you should’ve done, you’ll be topping yourself before you know it. Don’t worry about Starlet. If she didn’t tell you, then there has to be a reason.”

“Maybe she was ashamed,” he muses.

“Maybe those nuns had a bigger impact than I thought. These rituals are so damn non-descript. Either way, we’ll definitely never know if we don’t get her out of there. We have to save her, Orion,” I plead with him, for the only thing I really want. The safety of my sister.

“I know, we will,” he comforts me, but something behind his eyes tells me he doesn’t know whether it’s possible. I wonder if it actually is possible, saving Starlet, or if it’s too late.

After all, we are so very far away from home.