Page 8 of When Ashes Fall

Maybe that would make me part mermaid.

But I immediately ruled that out. I’d never sprouted a tail in water, and I’d tried holding my breath in my bath after my Needing. I couldn’t breathe underwater.

Besides, Gizzi and I spoke in the same language. I didn’t know how to talk lowleeto.

They also said the merfolk could control the waves and possessed their own brand of magic. Living under the sea must be magical.

Sensing my attention, Caspian lifted his aqua blue eyes to me. He was a handsome man with a broad face, and while he wore pants, no shirt covered his thickly muscled chest. He bowed his head to me before smiling.

Knox stepped in front of me, blocking Caspian’s view. His bright orange eyes burned as a muscle twitched in his jaw.

I gulped as he scowled at me. He was irate when he caught me in the woods earlier, but now, he was seething as his claws lengthened and retracted before lengthening once more.

I almost stepped away from him, but there was nowhere for me to go as Pierce blocked my retreat. For a moment, neither of us moved as I waited to see what he would do. I wasn’t sure if he wanted to kill me, Caspian, or everyone in this room.

CHAPTER SIX

Briar

I released my trapped breath when his attention shifted to my mother and sister, and the tension in his body amped up. The tattoo across his shoulders came to life as his rippling muscles shifted the vines.

It wasn’t just our fight earlier in the woods that had him so amped up as he resisted transitioning. Their presence had also deeply rattled him.

My apprehension of him dissipated as a sharp ache bloomed in my chest. Seeing my mother again had me on the verge of bolting out of here in tears; I couldn’t imagine what it was like for the shifters and Devnair to be back in her presence… as well as that of the other casters.

My fingers twitched as I started to reach for him before jerking my hand back. If I touched him, he might completely lose it. Seth would never strike me, but I wasn’t so sure Knox could control himself. I might trigger an explosive reaction by touching him.

The memories battering him had to be tearing free barely healed scabs and bearing the raw remnants of all the anguish and degradation he suffered at their hands.

“Is that a lowleeto?”

Petra’s question drew my attention away from Knox as Gizzi lifted his head from my shoulder. I’d managed to convince Zephyr to stay behind, but Gizzi refused.

I didn’t argue much as it was easier to have a small creature on my shoulder than to have a sprite fluttering behind me, but Gizzi came from Gorgonia, the kingdom of the gorgons. I should have anticipated the gorgons would recognize what he was, but what did it matter?

They couldn’t take him from me; I was certain he’d bite anyone who tried.

Petra’s mouth hung ajar as she looked from Gizzi to me. “Do you know what that is?”

I lifted my chin a little. “I found him in the woods.”

“So you adopted him?” she asked incredulously. “That’s one of the most venomous creatures in all the kingdoms.”

“Are you talking about the woman or the animal?” Knox drawled.

I recoiled as if he’d slapped me. Things weren’t exactly great between us, and they certainly weren’t what they were before my mother ruined our love, but I believed we’d made some headway.

Not only did his comment sting, but it also caused my mother to smirk as she tapped her long, red nails against the table. He’d proven to her that he hadn’t come for me in the harem because he still loved me. He’d confirmed she’d succeeded in destroying us, and she loved every second of it.

He’d stepped between Caspian and me, but that didn’t prove anything to her. This was what she’d come to see.

Recovering from my shock over Knox’s words, I straightened my shoulders and lifted my chin. Besides Gizzi, I was all alone in this place.

I had no one to protect me or stand up for me. No one would try to stop whatever fate these men and women decided for me. None of them gave a shit about what I wanted.

Devnair might try to stand up for me; he did say he owed me for helping to free him from the harem. And he might be as likely not to say a word.

I ignored the yawning pit of hopelessness growing within me as Gizzi rubbed his head against my cheek.