Page 74 of The Never List
“Depends on whose claws they are,” I answer. She smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
Kal shifts away, giving us some space as he admires the ocean at my back.
I reach down and swipe my thumb over Rylee’s cheek, studying those blue eyes of hers. There’s more happening in them than what occurred last night, and part of me wonders if that’s why Kal is here, too. Not that I mind. “You weren’t worrying about coming here, were you?”
Concern gnaws on my gut. In the past, some of the potentials have been outwardly scared of me—my size, for one. I can’t help it that I’m a six-foot-six giant with over two hundred pounds of pure muscle. Give that credit to my goddess of a mother, Tareena. Add to that my control over water, and more are sent running from me thantome.
“Not at all,” she says without a hint of hesitation, clearing some of the worry from my chest. She glances at where Kal has wandered closer to the water, his feet bare in the white sand. “Asking Kal to come with me wasn’t about you,” she continues. “It felt impossible to cut our time, despite the month being up.”
A slow grin stretches my lips. “He was that good to you, huh?”
Her eyes practically glitter. “Verygood to me.”
Heat slices through my veins, and the image of Kal fucking her senseless splays over my eyes. That quickly, I want her.
I lower my voice, gliding my hand down her arm. “I bet he made you scream in public, didn’t he, kitten?”
A shudder trembles her body. “Maybe,” she whispers. “Maybe I know how to be quiet when I need to be.”
I laugh, a pure shot of adrenaline bursting beneath my skin at her words. She’s not timid, this one, and I love it. Maybe we won’t break her.
“Does it bother you?” she asks more seriously. “That I asked him to come?”
I smirk. “There’s very little that bothers me, kitten,” I explain. I glance at Kal, then back to her. “And sharing you certainly isn’t one of them.” I take the smallest step away from her, needing the space. If not, I’ll throw her over my shoulder and take her on the closest available surface. “You choose,” I say, clearing my voice and doing my best to get the image of me and Kal taking her at the same time from my mind.
It’s impossible.
The instinct to mark her as mine isthatstrong. Fuck, it’s never been like this before. Maybe that’s because the kings are putting on all the pressure this time, but it feels…different.
“I just want you to be comfortable,” I tell her. “This is all new to you. I know it can be overwhelming.”
“You two aren’t,” she says, motioning to Kal, then me. “But there are elements that certainly are,” she continues, turning to look back toward where the two Occuli linger onthe main road that winds through my coastal city. Mirren is standing outside the carriage, dutifully ignoring them and waiting on us with a practiced patience that’s come from years of taking care of our chaotic asses.
I smile and wave at her while she gently smooths her hand over one of the horses hitched to her carriage. She gives me a tight smile, but there is real love in her eyes. She’ll never admit it, but that woman is closer to a mother to us than our own.
A spike of sadness ripples through me. It’s an old kind of hurt that’s claimed a solid, raw spot on my soul. I barely remember my mother—only snippets from before she went to sleep.
“Kal told me what happened in the Ruby Aire with the Occuli,” I say. “That won’t happen here.” I make sure she sees the truth of that in my eyes, and Kal comes to stand at my side, gaze on Rylee, too. “Fuck those conjurers,” I continue. “They try to scare you again, they’ll find themselves in the deepest pits of the ocean.”
Her eyebrows rise, but that’s not fear churning in her eyes; it’s something else… Excitement?
Fuck me, maybe she’s Legend material after all.
“That’s only if I haven’t dropped them from a mountaintop first,” Kal adds, and I grin at my friend.
We’re almost always on the same page, despite my impulsive instincts and his calm, careful ones.
“What do you think?” I ask, motioning to the ocean behind us and then my city in front of us.
“It’s so different than the Ruby Aire,” she says, eyes on the clusters of colorful buildings. Narrow cobblestone roads split up the townhomes that seem to stack atop one another,all situated on a jutting cliff that overlooks the ocean. “It’s…cozier,” she says, returning her focus to the descent. “No offense, Kal,” she adds, smiling up at him.
“None taken.” He waves her off, eyes trailing the view. “I’ve always thought that, too.”
“I love your city,” I admit to Kal. “But I’m a sucker for the beach and the camaraderie you get from a small town that works together.”
“Small,” she says, laughing. “You think this is small?”
“Compared to the Ruby and Obsidian Cities? Yeah,” I say. She shakes her head, eyes marveling. “I guess Cedar and Silk is smaller by comparison.” I forget that she isn’t like the other potentials we’ve known—isn’t from a booming royal city that has flourished and thrived for generations. It must be an adjustment.
