A Pirate's Dream (23 page)

When he turned to look at her, she was crying.

“Nimue?” He brushed her cheek.

Looking at him, she gave him a tender smile. “It is so beautiful, Sircco. I feel like I’ve just been given a gift.”

Smiling broadly himself, his chest puffed with pride. “This is a gift, Nim. Here rests the souls of my people. And now, your people.”

Turning into him, she wrapped her arms loosely around his waist, making him feel weak in the tail. How did she do that to him?

“I love you so much, my little pirate.”

She trembled into his touch. “I wish I could speak to my parents, Sircco. Let them know that I’m staying. That I’m happy.”

“I have told them, my love. They know, and they are happy for you.”

“I know, but...” She sighed. “It is different. I wish it to come from me. Wish I could just hear my mother tell me she was proud of me, of the decisions I’ve made.”

They’d had this talk before. He knew she understood why they couldn’t reach out to one another. Such a lengthy separation often made loved ones do foolish things, like try to come to the rescue.

“Nimue, it is not so much that you cannot speak to them, only that it makes it harder to stay away. And the terms with the hag means you cannot for any reason go into the above before the six months expire, or she’ll have a rightful claim to you again.”

“I know this, Sircco. Of course, I know this.” She hugged him tighter. “But I’m two weeks away from that time. Could you at least let me have a looking mirror? Just for a moment, so that I could speak to them. I doubt very much they would come to snatch me away now. They know I am well, and I miss them terribly.”

Weakened by her pleas, he sighed. “I can deny you nothing, my barracuda.”

Laughing, she flicked at his nose. “You are a sensible beluga.”

But soon, their laughter turned into something else, something richer and deeper. He leaned in for a kiss.

She stepped back. “If you touch me now, I will have you. And I am not certain that we should do this—”

Grasping her hand, he brought it to his lips. “This is not a graveyard, Nimue. This is life. And there can be no greater gift shared than one of love.”

She melted into him. “Well, since you put it that way.”

Closing his eyes, he made to call his magic, but he stilled when she settled her palm against the curve of his jaw.

“No.”

He frowned at her softly spoken command.

“I do not wish you to change yourself anymore. I have fallen in love with a merman, not a human. Do not be a legger simply because you think it pleases me best.”

Swallowing hard, at a loss for words, Sircco felt nothing but humbled gratitude. “You do not like me with legs?”

“Oh, Sircco.” Her laugh was bell like. “I love you anyway you come, but I wish to know you as you truly are. Would you do that? For me?”

Gritting his teeth, he nodded then watched as she stripped off her skirt and bodice. The water within the pool was warm, but even so, her rosy-tipped nipples pointed tantalizingly in his direction, begging him to touch.

But this moment was not for him.

“Stand still and let me touch you, as I’ve always wanted to.” She glanced at him.

Heart thundering in his chest, he dipped his head once, and the ground trembled the moment her hand caressed the line between flesh and fin.

Closing his eyes, he lost himself to the sensations she tugged out of him. The wonder of her. The terror of feeling so weak in her presence. And yet also the strength he felt because she was his.

Kneeling before him, Nimue ran her hands down his tail. Her fingers massaged then scratched at him, breaking him out in a wash of need the likes of which he’d never known.

And then she found him, the hidden flesh behind the fin. And her kiss was tender and sweet. She did not suckle as she would when he wore legs, but this was not merely tempestuous desire. This was so much more. This was a unification of his soul to hers.

Rubbing her face against the side of his tail, she breathed along his shaft, “You are beautifully made, my king.”

And he lost his strength, crashing down, and dragged her up so as not to crush her in the process.

She sprawled against him, and somehow, her legs were around his tail, her warm inviting center wreaking havoc with his senses.

“I have never seen you shake so, Sircco.” There was awe in her voice.

He’d never wanted to tell her how having legs had muted so much of his sense of touch. The pleasure had been great, but this was almost beyond what he could bear.

It was like being kissed by lightning.

Panting as the waters around them began to churn and the folk song rose to an exultant pitch, he framed her beloved face. Smiling sweetly, she impaled herself, sheathing him completely and making him cry out with wonder as the world began to fade to black.

The golden wash of magic he always kept a tight leash on, the one that could kill or bestow grace, suddenly exploded out of him. Filling every crevice, every inch of the space, it was too much to be contained within the star pool alone. And so it spread outward, casting an eternal net throughout the breadth of Seren.

The waters rolled; the lands shook.

Her eyes sparkled as she rode him, unafraid of his elemental nature. She was not afraid as his nails tipped into claws. His features shifted just slightly, turning him from merely a merman into a demi-god, who, in a rage, could slaughter hundreds of thousands of leggers with one strike of his trident.

His Nimue did not fear him. His Nimue adored him and cherished every part of who he was. He was a man. He was a god. And he was all hers.

Howling, she tipped her neck back, clutching onto him for dear life as her orgasm spilled from her into him.

And when he roared his own release, Calypso smiled.

*

T
hey returned to the palace later in the evening, famished.

Nimue had made love to her merman, and by the Gods, had it been amazing. Stumbling into her room, she kicked off her boots and sighed dreamily. He’d left her only long enough to procure them some food and a looking glass. But her stomach was grumbling, and spying the basket of cake, she tore off a corner section and crammed it into her mouth. Her great-mother’s cake was as delicious, as always.

She loved him. Well, of course she’d known she loved him. But this went so far deeper than what she’d thought love could be.

Sircco had been breathtaking in his elemental form—wild and savage—and her heart melted, thinking of the pleasure he’d brought her.

“No more legs. Definitely not.” She smirked then picked up her dagger. She twirled it about, spinning the tip of the blade on her finger as father had once taught her to do, so happy, she began to dance.

Swaying about the room and looking utterly ridiculous and not giving one fig. She was in love, and nothing else matter— Frowning, she pulled up short, all of sudden catching the glint of a familiar-looking object resting on the center of her bed.

“What is this?” Rushing forward, she reached for the looking glass—Ariana’s looking glass.

The mirror inside wavered. Had her friend been by? Was this a peace offering? But immediately, those questions were shoved aside as the ability to speak with her mother suddenly impressed itself upon her.

Delighted, she tapped her finger to it, smiling as the colors within coalesced. One only needed to think of whom they wished to speak with, and it would be done.

“Mother!” she squealed, before the image even had a moment to settle itself. However, when it did, it wasn’t her mother’s face she saw, but Peter Pan’s—and he was leering.

“It’s about bloody damn time, fish lover!” he snapped.

And then she screamed as an invisible hand tugged her through the mirror in a dizzying rush. The next thing she knew, she was back in the above, surrounded by a swarm of devils dressed in green.

––––––––

A
riana sat at Maiven’s table, drawing with desperate fingers. Her friends were bad people—bad leggers. She did not know their names. But she knew their faces. They’d told her to do a bad thing. And she’d said, “No. No. No!”

But they’d done something to the mirror. She’d lost it. It was always in her pouch, and now it was not, and she was afraid.

“Ariana?” Maiven said in an arched voice. “Please, girl, what are you doing?”

But she did not listen. She had to draw them so she could show them to the king.

“Mirror gone. Gone. I say no. They say yes.” Her words came out a ramble. She couldn’t think well right now. Her head hurt.

She scratched at the paper with the pencil, tears streaming from her face. They had to save her friend.

Then Maiven gasped. “Ariana. Where have you seen that boy?” Her words were low but pricked through her frenzy.

Sobbing, she turned to stare at Maiven and whispered, “Above. They gave me shinies, and she told me not to trust. But I did. Because the shinies were pretty.”

“Oh, dear Goddess.” Maiven’s clutched at Ariana’s shoulders, shaking her roughly. “Are you telling me that they’ve got Nimue?” she screeched, whites of her eyes wide and dripping panic.

“Can’t find mirror. Can’t find mirror. They said they would. I gave it back. And then it just kept reappearing and reappearing and reappearing. They told me I was bad, and then they said they magicked it to her, and I’m so scared, Maiven.”

Grabbing two shawls, Maiven tossed one at Ariana then said, “Come with me now and bring the drawings.”

Clutching them to her chest, Ariana followed behind her friend, swimming as fast as they could to the king. Sircco would find her. He would save her.

It wasn’t too late.

It couldn’t be.

Nimue was her friend.

*

S
ircco hummed a tune beneath his breath as he swam through the door, but he frowned when he could not find Nimue.

“Nimue?” he called out. Setting aside the tray of food, he rushed toward the bathroom as a sick, disquieting feeling began to worm through him. “Nimue!” he tried again, but the bathroom, just as the room, was empty.

Twirling, feeling a rise of panic, he was almost out the door when, from the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Jian lying in a heap upon the bed, gasping and shuddering weakly.

Nimue would never abandon her dragon.

Fueled by terror, he rushed to the dragon’s side and cried out to his sister, “Sirenade, to me now!”

The waters of the palace began to churn, whipping into a frenzy of fury.

She was by his side in seconds, her gaze wide, and looking at the room. “What is it? What is the matter? Where is Nimue?”

He handed Jian to her. “Save him. He is dying. Nimue is not here.”

Snatching Nimue’s beloved dragon from him, Sirenade bathed the little creature in healing light. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know!” He scrubbed fingers through his hair. “I left her for only a moment, to get us some food...” He spied the basket of cakes on her vanity, one of them partially eaten.

Stygia had brought the cakes.

“She would never say she was sorry.” He snarled, and the waters began to turn deep and black. The hermits on his crown quivered, hiding behind his hair.

Sirenade’s hair snapped and curled, hissing at him as they fed off the power of his dark magic.

“I will kill her!” He swam from the room and down the stairs. Lightning crashing in his wake, exploding in brilliant arcs around him, obliterating anything it touched.

Where was she?

He prayed to Calypso, prayed with all his soul and all his might that she was still okay. If she wasn’t, he would end them all.

“My king!” Maiven’s voice snapped through his rage. “I know where she is!”

“Where is she?” He twirled, his body now as large as a leviathan’s. The crown of his head brushed against the twenty-foot domed ceiling as he became a monster, a creature feared by all.

“Pan has her. Pan’s stolen her.”

It made no sense. The world around him trembled with the fury of his wrath, a rage not even his sister could touch. He struggled to understand her, to see beyond his fear.

“How?” His teeth had grown to sharp, jagged points. Clenching his eyes shut, he willed himself to focus, to listen; it was what she would want, what she needed now.

That was when Ariana swam forward, head hanging low and grasping onto rolled sheaves of weathered parchment. “Me.”

He shook his head.

“No,” Maiven cried. “They used her, Sircco. They enchanted a mirror they’d given her. Nimue must have used it.”

To speak with her parents
.

Struck by the reality of that truth, his fangs receded. The lightning died, but the waters still rolled a deep black. Trembling from fear, picturing her as Talia had been, skewered by one of Pan’s blades, his nostrils flared as his fists clenched.

An eruption rocketed through Seren, and the land came awake, not from his power alone, but Calypso’s, as well.

The All Mother had awoken.

“Where is she now? Exactly?”

Ariana held the papers out to him.

Snatching them from her, he stared at the illustrative drawing, then snarling, he wadded them up and tossed them down.

There would be death this day.

*

N
imue screamed a sound of such fury and rage that Peter looked startled for half a moment.

“You do not know what you have done, you foolish boy!” she snapped as the waters behind her frothed and churned with unmatched violence.

“You belong to me now, crocodile’s daughter!” His chubby face contorted, but she did not mistake the trembles of fear coursing through his eyes.

Piss would be running down his pants before she was through with him. For years, she’d hated him. For years, she’d sworn that should she ever see him, she’d end him, and not just for her father, but also for what he’d done to Talia.

The skies above swirled black and rained with hail. It bounced off her skull and his, but she felt none of it.

How dare this insignificant boy think he could mess with her? How dare he?

Standing to her feet, she whipped the dirk up and grinned. “You are pathetic that you think I would fear you.” Glaring at the Lost Boys now crowding behind their leader, the stench of their fear made her laugh. “Come at me, any of you, and you shall feel the kiss of my blade.”