She had left me.
She had left me all alone.
Alone.
I was alone.
There was nothing else to do, nothing else to say.
Around me, the walls began to laugh, the noise taunting. Somewhere in the twinkling cacophony, Sasha’s laughter echoed.
Alone.
Alone.
The walls whispered it to me.
I curled into a ball, placing my hands over my ears to block out the onslaught of noise. Too much. Too much.
Death.
Alone.
Always alone.
What was left besides waiting for death to find me?
TWENTY-FOUR
Z
I blew out an irritated breath, staring through the window of our transport. Dair’s knee touched mine as he gently wrapped an arm around me.
“He’s fine,” he assured me for what felt like the billionth time.
“It just makes me worried.”
Before we had left, I had searched and rounded up the majority of my mates. Except for Jax. The Vampire had been suspiciously missing, and no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find him. Dair had promised me that the eccentric man was no doubt hiding in the walls or beneath a bed, but fear niggled me.
Still, we were out of options. With one last reluctant look at the Capital, I had slid into the car.
Now, we were curving up steep roads and hills on our way to the Mermaid Kingdom. The first kingdom I had ever traveled to.
Living in the human communities, just on the outskirts of the Capital, felt like living in a war zone. A sect of land breeding slaves and food. There had been little to no electricity, the houses had been in disarray, and the people had been either cold or crazy.
Despite my mission, I felt myself bounce in my seat, eager to see all this world had to offer.
“You’re talking about the Vampire, right?” one of the twins asked. I still couldn’t recall his name. His hair was slightly darker than Dair’s, and his eyes were a blue-green color. Turning towards Dair, he flashed a malicious smirk. “How does it feel to know your mate shares a bed with another man? Or...more than one man.” He tittered, his twin joining in. Turning towards me, he asked, “Doesn’t that make you a slut?”
When Dair’s face flushed red, hands clenching, I put a placating hand on his shoulder to calm him. I could handle a bunch of bullies.
Leaning over Dair, I flashed Twin One a sultry smile. “Yes,” I answered breezily. “It does.”
Twin One and Twin Two sputtered, not expecting me to agree with them, while Dair choked on a laugh. Tightening his arm around my shoulder, he pulled me into his side, lips caressing the top of my head.
It seemed that my presence helped abate the tension constantly thrumming through him.
Tavvy glanced back from where he sat in the passenger seat, beside a driver I wasn’t given the name of. His blue eyes were fixated on the sliver of space between my body and Dair’s, brows furrowing. When he spotted me looking, his expression smoothed over to be replaced by icy indifference.
Fate really hated me. For some reason, it had chosen my car buddies to be the princes from hell. At least I had snagged Dair before the car took off. The last thing I wanted to be was alone with three men who looked at me with predatory, carnal hunger.
Ryland, Lupe, and Bash rode in the car behind us, the latter of which had been sullen and moodier than normal. He had gifted me with a glare when he had arrived, suitcase swung over his shoulder. I had canted my hip to the side.
“What are you doing here, Bash?” I had asked curtly. His lips had pressed into a thin line, but he didn’t automatically respond. He seemed to have been choosing his words carefully.
I had waited, silence stretching, before he had turned on his heel and stomped towards the second car.
The whole weird exchange had lasted only a few minutes, though it had felt like a year.
Devlin had to stay behind. Something with his father, he had stated, though the details hadn’t been explicitly given. Killian had also stayed behind at the Capital after completely devouring my lips and cupping my ass.
His cheeks flushed - though I couldn’t discern if it was from embarrassment or lust - he had made me promise to contact him if I ran into any trouble. Killian didn’t feel right leaving Jax alone, and I had never loved my Incubus as much as I did at that moment.
Wait...love? No.
Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I glanced once more out the window.
The sight was something to behold, something you would see in an intricately crafted painting. There were rocky, russet-colored cliffs falling into a turbulent sea. The water itself was frothy in appearance, white foam cresting the shoreline. From our perch high above the ocean, I could see dozens and dozens of tiny islands. Some were small, barely capable of hosting one house, while others were large and sheathed in green tapestries.
My mouth dropped open as complete and utter awe filled me. This place...it was stunning.
Dair chuckled as he took in my expression eagerly, devouring it. His arm tightened around my shoulders almost imperceptibly.
“You see that island?” Dair asked softly, pointing towards a particularly small one floating in the violent sea. There was nothing on it besides a single tree and a wooden hut.
“Yes.”
“My mom used to live there,” he explained. “With her parents and mate. When my father chose her as a bride and my grandparents died, she kept the house. Said it helped her feel connected to what she once had.”
It felt odd to be having this intimate conversation in front of an audience, but if Dair wasn’t bothered by it, I wasn’t going to be either.
I turned fully in his arms, so I could see his expression easier. His blue eyes were wistful, trained on the splotch of green land. There was so much tenderness in his face as he reflected on his family home.
“She used to take me there a lot,” he continued. “When I needed an escape.
