Seduced by the Sea Lord

Chapter 19

Of all the timing!

Torun heard those funny words in his mind as clearly as if Lucy had spoken them aloud. Was it even a real communication? The foreign thought pushed into his mind, and then Lucy rubbed her stomach. It had to be from her. She was ravenous, and his castle was not far.

He tugged her through the city, swimming between the king's castle and council castles, and outward, to the periphery. They met no one, thankfully, on the approach to his domicile.

The city was empty. The border guards acted watchful, not warlike, meaning there was not a risk of attack. Perhaps the jack migrations had come early and the city emptied for a great hunt. Had the city been occupied, the entire community would have assembled at the Life Tree's single note, sounded when Lucy had kissed the trunk.

What did the note mean?

He had not heard any song from the Life Tree in decades. Not since Prince Jolan's birth, the last presentation of a young fry.

Had the tree recognized Lucy's resonance? The note had tapered to a minor key. Did it hold a different, more sinister warning?

No. Impossible.

Lucy was his mate. He accepted no other woman as his queen.

But what if the Life Tree did not heal her?

The thought jarred him with shocking awareness.

He had intended to claim a bride. The brightest soul, whoever she was. But that was no longer true.

Now, he knew Lucy more deeply than any other. Even more deeply than his own warriors. He had met her friends and listened to her dreams. She was not his bride. She was his Lucy.

She resisted him. She threw herself at him. She spoke of transferring his attraction to another woman. She spoke of an incurable illness.

Madness. She would be healed by the Life Tree. She had to be. No other bride would ever satisfy him.

This odd, jarring note from the Life Tree was just its attempt to recognize and welcome her after so many years without a bride.

Yes.

Joining would sweep all doubts away.

Torun squeezed Lucy's hands and pulled her faster through the water. They approached his family's castle, and the entrance appeared as a pinprick in the center of the bulb.

"This is your castle?" she asked.

"Yes. Do you like it?"

"It's big."

His stomach churned. Everything she said and did took on extra significance as he evaluated whether her answers proved she was fit for this life or whether the Life Tree's note had been a warning of disaster. "Is that a problem?"

"No, it's just new." She looked way up. "A perfect sphere and one tiny entrance."

Although tiny in comparison to the overall size of the castle, the main entrance gaped wide enough for six mer warriors to enter, shoulder to shoulder. Thick walls dampened the music of the ocean to a quiet, fanlike hum of privacy.

They entered his castle. She craned her neck to look behind them. "No door?"

"If we are attacked, this passage will seal off the uninvited."

"That's handy."

They swam into the inner courtyard.

Windows of rooms dotted the inner walls. His family's castle was old, so the rooms had grown several layers thick. Soil was tilled in the inner courtyard, and gardens burst with overgrown food. Torun's ancestors had once housed large families of ten, fifteen, twenty grown mer and their young fry. Now, as in so many other emptied castles, he was the last of his line to survive.