It was too dangerous to do this here, where anyone could see, anyone could hear. But I couldn’t focus on a tost with her moving like that. “Stop talking.”
“Rían—”
“For the love of all this is holy, shut your beautiful mouth and—”
Something glinted in my peripherals. A flash of iridescent scales.I dropped her so quickly, she vanished beneath the water. Merrow rarely traveled alone. Where there was one, more would follow.
Aveen came up sputtering. “What the hell was—”
“Quiet.” I threw Aveen behind me, counting at least three separate flashes beneath the water.
“What is it?” she asked, clutching the back of my shirt.
“Merrow.”
“Merrow don’t live in our sea.”
I caught the closest one using magic, lifting her straight from the waves before she could get any closer. “Then what is this?” The merrow’s bulbous eyes bulged when I choked her. She thought she could spy on me and get away with it?“I’m in no mood to play today. Tell your friends to return to the depths, or I’ll boil the feckin’ ocean and feed you to my mother for dinner.”
I sent the bitch and the rest of her friends swimming for their lives.
Aveen’s hand began to tremble where she held my shirt. I said nothing, unsure whether all of them were gone. What if they’d been sent by the Queen? I was a fool for bringing her here. For thinking anywhere on this island was safe from the Queen’s influence. She rarely left the Forest, but she had plenty of eyes in Airren, waiting to feed her information for her own nefarious purposes.
Aveen waded toward the shore. I followed, keeping my eyes on the water, not the way the soaked skirts clung to her hips and curves.
All right. I looked. I looked long and hard, because I may have been a monster, but I was also a man, and Aveen was my own personal fantasy come to life.“Get out of that dress before you die from the cold,” I said.
“And wear what?”she snapped.
I shifted one of the dresses from the back of Aveen’s closet where I’d hidden last night.
She didn’t bother to thank me. Not that I’d expected thanks after putting her in jeopardy like that.
Trembling like a leaf in a gale wasn’t very intimidating, so I shifted a fire bigger than the woman trying unsuccessfully to unbutton the top of her dress.
“Hurry it on. I have places to be.”Let any lingering ears hear how terribly I spoke to her. Let them lose interest in watching us.
“T-then go. I d-d-don’t want your h-help.”
“Will I take back the dress and leave you in that then?” Or I could offer to cut her out of all of it and warm her naked body with mine. Wouldn’t the merrow have a feckin’ field day with that?
When Aveen demanded I turn around, I traded my damp clothes for dry ones, shifting the first shirt Aveen had ruined.
She cursed and stomped her foot in the stones. I could hear her teeth chattering over the crackling fire. What was taking so long? I glanced over my shoulder to find her still struggling with the first feckin’ button.
With a bit of magic, the seams split right open.
Even after she changed, she’d still be freezing.I shifted a blue cloak lined with fur that I’d purchased on a whim the other day. Speaking of—when Aveen awoke, she’d need clothes, wouldn’t she? I couldn’t very well leave her off somewhere without anything to wear.
“I’ll have you know that was my favorite gardening dress,” she told me, as if I cared.
“And I’ll have you know this was my favorite shirt.” And now it was well and truly ruined.
“All you have to do is wash it.”
Even clean, there was no hope of removing the stains she’d left there. “Are you asking me to go for another swim?”
“Shove off.”