The Kiss That Saved Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 2) (21 page)

“Well maybe I should have!” He counters coming in close to me.

“Fine!” I yell, unable to think of a witty retort.

“Fine!” He says, looking exasperated. I can’t help but notice the look of hilarity behind his lilac irises. God he makes me furious.

“So, do you wanna go to a party?” He looks me in the eyes and I bust out laughing.

“Oh my God! I just told you to butt out. Are you deaf? What are you like two hundred? Your hearing going, grandpa tentacles??” I blurt out, feeling a catharsis I didn’t know I’d needed at bantering with him…and as of now, winning.

“I’m actually twenty-one and my hearing is just fine,” he snorts and my mouth pops open a little.

“You’re twenty-one?” I look up at him shocked. I thought all the Psiren’s were old.

“Yeah. So?”

“I thought all the Psiren’s were old. How long have you been like this?” I ask him and he shrugs.

“Couple of months, Love. No big deal.” I look at him, surprised. His tentacles move slowly, eerily in the water.
 

I still can’t get my head around how odd it must feel for him. He is just like me in a way, from the modern world, ripped out of his normal life.

Suddenly the thought of finding someone to relate to has great appeal, even if he is evil. I scrunch up my forehead in thought.

“Don’t hurt yourself.” he jokes and I look at him and roll my eyes.

“Oh shut up. You said there was a party?” I ask him and he nods.
 

“Yeah. A rave.”
 

“Okay. I’ll go, but only because I want to de-stress. Not because you asked,” I snap.

“Fine by me, Love, and don’t worry, if you get tackled to the ground by Cthulhu himself I’ll let him suck your face off and kill you. Won’t be making the mistake of saving you again.”

ORION

I wake up slowly, bringing myself back to consciousness willingly. None the less, I can’t deny that I’m feeling less than inclined to deal with what is waiting for me outside the confines of the clamshell bed.
 

I reach over for her, wanting so badly to run my fingers over her lithe back and pull her close to me. I want to wrap myself up in her skin, her scent, in that way that calms me. I want to run my fingers through her cascades of blonde hair. I move my hands further across in the darkness, provided by the closed hood of the bed, realising she isn’t there.
 

I meet the feel of velvet beneath my fingers from the white blankets, but no skin, no scent, no blonde curtain of hair. No Callie. My eyes widen as I remember that she’s gone. I told her to go. Go and not come back.
 

I push the lid up from the bed suddenly with both my palms, the sprung mechanism responding as the clam opens, revealing the emptiness of our suite in the too bright light of sunset. I get up from the mattress, feeling panic clutch at my gut.
 

What the hell have I done?
I think momentarily.
 

Starlet was right. What was I thinking? I take a few breaths before musing that I am probably panicking for nothing, Callie is probably back by now, she’s probably sorted through her feelings and come back, just like she always does. I accused her of fleeing too often, but it is a fact that she always returns.
 

I calm myself, straightening my spine and slowing the tense movement of my tailfin, before descending through the porthole entrance to the royal suite and down into the Alcazar in search of my Queen.

She’s not in the throne room, she’s not in the entrance hall either, or the library. I feel my heart turn icy every time I round a corner and don’t find her there. I wonder if I’ve gone too far. No of course not. It was just a misunderstanding, wasn’t it?

 
Callie has to want to marry me, because I know she feels the same way I do. After all, our souls are one. How can she not?
 

I breathe out again, huffing and puffing like a whale coming up from great depth. I wonder if it is too optimistic for me to believe she would be in the palace at all. I know she has friends, mermaids who she can go and have a chat to if she needs it. I hope, in a way, that she is with another mermaid, because I know that the mermaids would be all for her marrying me. I decide to go and see the one mermaid I know she’s closest to, above anyone else.

With the idea immediately striking me as the best course of action, I move from the Alcazar quickly and head across the courtyard and into the city, searching for the thing I need most.

I knock on the door of the apartment, remembering myself leaving here stunned a few months ago. I was with Callie then and she had in her hands the scythe that would prove to be the judge, jury, and executioner of her story.
 

The door falls back and a pale face and wide chocolate brown eyes look surprised to see me hovering in the doorway.

“Your Highness. What are you doing here?” Sophia asks me, bowing her head slightly.

“I need to talk to you,” I announce, using my regal claim to force myself past her and into the room full of old fashioned looking furniture and stacked with books on weaponry. The room that holds Oscar’s anvil, and his workspace is curtained off. “Is Oscar here?” I ask her impatiently.

“No, he’s at the forge. I just like to come here sometimes. It’s quieter than our other place. The couple downstairs have a tendency to serenade one another,” she smiles shyly and I want to remove it from her lips. I want to make everyone feel the pain I’m feeling, make them realise how important finding my soulmate truly is.

“Is Callie here?” I ask her, my pectorals rising and falling dramatically.

“No. I haven’t seen her,” Sophia replies, closing the door slowly. “What’s this about Orion?” She looks at me suspiciously, having dropped the formalities as she can clearly see that I’m distressed.

“She’s gone. We had a fight about getting married… I proposed after the coronation and then she ran off. She came back and told me she didn’t want to get married, that it was too soon and that I was doing it for the wrong reasons and…” I stop, feeling out of breath, which is ridiculous considering how fit I am physically. It’s like my chest has constricted at the loss of my girl. “I told her to leave and never come back.” Sophia, at these words, looks at me and frowns.

“Well, then why are you looking for her here?” She looks confused.

“You two, well, I know she comes to you for advice and to talk sometimes. I was hoping she hadn’t listened to me and come to you instead,” I look at her and she looks back at me, I can tell she’s almost disappointed.

“I can’t speak for Callie, but I can say that if I had just become a Queen at eighteen years old, after only having been a part of this world for a few months, I’d probably be wondering why that wasn’t enough of a commitment for you? Becoming a sovereign is slightly more of a legal bind than marriage, Orion.” I look at her dumbly. She’s right, but that’s so not the point of this conversation. I don’t want a scolding. I want to know where Callie is.

“That’s not the point. We’re destined. She should want to marry me,” I say it like a small child and Sophia suddenly looks bolder than I have ever seen her before.

“Marriage to Callie isn’t like marriage to you. We come from a different world Orion. Marriage when we were alive, becoming a wife wasn’t a choice. It was circumstance. If you didn’t get married you couldn’t survive, you ended up on the streets. Women can work now. Everything is different. Callie loves you. But she also comes from a place where marriage is a choice. If you ask me, it’s something she feels is a big choice. She wants to know more about you before she commits to, let’s be honest, what is slightly longer than the average nuptials.”
 

“You’re saying she thinks she doesn’t know me?” I ask her looking incredulously at her. I wonder when she got so bold. Maybe it was Callie rubbing off on her, she used to be so much meeker.

“She’s told me that you won’t talk to her about your past. She’s also told me, or as much implied, that you won’t open up to her about your grief.” She looks serious now, and slightly uncomfortable. I feel slightly shocked. I didn’t realise Callie still had a problem with my past.

“Why should I open up to her about my grief? She can’t fix anything. She can’t bring my father back,” I stiffen at the mention of his name, feeling it like a stab to the gut.

“It’s not about her fixing something. It’s about her letting you rely on her. Have a safe place to go and talk about things that bother you. You were alone for so long, Orion. I can honestly see why that’s tough, but Callie is there to protect you and support you too. It’s not just about her. There has to be a balance of power in a relationship. You do everything for her, I’ve seen you, how protective and loving you are. But she wants to do the same for you and you push her away,” Sophia shakes her head and I feel slightly shocked, who knew she was so observant.

“So you’re saying she won’t marry me because…” I ask the question, not knowing whether I want to hear the answer or not.

“I think she feels like you’re trapping her a little. You became Crowned Ruler and so she took the role of Queen in her stride. She wants to do things on her own terms.”

“But the last time she took things into her own hands she got herself killed,” I remind Sophia and she shakes her head.

“I can see why you want to stop that happening again, but I wonder why you think putting a ring on her finger is going to change anything. She comes from a different time, as I’ve already said, marriage doesn’t mean she’ll bend to you and act like a wife. It means she’ll be Callie with a ring on her finger. That’s about it. I wonder if that’s what she means when she says you’re doing it for the wrong reasons,” Sophia moves toward me, closing the gap across which we’ve been exchanging words.

“I just want to protect her.”

“I want to protect Oscar, but I can’t do anything to stop him getting hurt.” She reminds me and I look into her chocolate irises. She looks like she really cares about Callie and me. I soften slightly.
 

“That’s true,” I admit, wondering how Callie must feel, knowing I could be called away to fight at any second.

“I also think you may have a big problem on your hands. Callie takes what you say to heart. So if you’ve told her to leave and not come back. I’m pretty sure that’s what she will do.”

“I really fucked this up,” I say cussing, the word doesn’t usually pass my lips, but since I’ve heard her use it in bed when I’m teasing her, I can’t think of anything else that would express the frustration I’m feeling.

“It’s your first ever, serious relationship. You’re going to make mistakes.” Sophia floats absentmindedly. I look at her and realise that I don’t deserve her kindness.

“I should go. If Callie really has taken my advice, I need to fix it. I need to find out where she is and go after her. It’s not safe out there.”

“Okay, well, if you need to talk again… don’t come to me. Talk to Callie. She’s the only person who can really tell you what she is feeling. Just make sure if you ask her, you listen to what she says. Not just hear her response. Really listen,” she ushers me back out the door. I haven’t moved to sit the entire time I’ve been in her apartment.

“Sorry for the intrusion,” I mumble, but she smiles.

“You are quite welcome, Your Highness. Now please, go and find our girl, make sure she’s safe.”
 
My eyes jump up to find hers before she closes the door softly. She really cares for Callie. I don’t know why I’m surprised to find such affection for her in another, after all, she is one of those people you can’t help but fall a little bit in love with.

“Orion!!!!” I hear my name bellowed once I’m back inside the Alcazar, ready to mobilise search parties to find my Callie. I turn and Starlet swims up to me, a flash of magenta moving so quickly that she nearly bowls me over with an inability to quell her own momentum.

“Callie…” She pants. Her eyes are bloodshot through. She only gets like this when she’s had a vision. My stomach drops immediately and terror clutches at me.

“What? What did you see?” I shake her and she clutches my arms with her sharp fingernails.

“I saw her, through Azure, I saw her…” She pants again, looking like she may pass out. I look into her face, I know that the visions from the Goddess are hard on her, but I also know that the visions she sees through the eyes of her twin are the worst. Journeying into the darkness of Azure’s psyche constantly causes her pain and grief. It’s an extension of a soulmate’s ability to share memories, and I also know it’s how she and Azure had been communicating while our sister was with the Psirens and with Titus. I give her a moment, but only a moment, impatient.

“What? Where is she?” I ask her and her face contorts slightly, as though she doesn’t want to tell me. “Tell me Star!” I bark at her and she flinches, actually flinches in my grip.

“I don’t know… where they were… they were in the middle of the sea somewhere, no landmarks that I could make out. She attacked Azure…”

“Then what good is that to me? I need to find her!” I look at her and she breathes in, calming herself as her gills open and close in quick succession.