Page 51 of The Hunted

Whether or not she would hear him … Well, that didn’t really matter.

He just wished that ache in his chest would go away. A part of him had to wonder if the ache was because of her … had she stayed when he told her to, would he still be feeling whatever this was?

“Prince!”

Eryx finally looked toward the ship. One of the men on deck seemed to have caught sight of him, if the way he waved erratically in his general direction before shouting at someone behind him was any indication.

He didn’t even bother to wave back. Didn’t have the energy.

Instead, Eryx’s knees hit the wet rocks, the stab of pain from the stone cutting into skin echoing through his entire body. He wished he cared.

Nothing felt right. Everything was wrong.

Eryx wasn’t sure how long it took for the ship to make its way to where he still kneeled on the ground. Long enough, he supposed, for the sun to move quite a bit. He heard the oars of a boat slapping against water, and it was only then that he raised his head to see who was coming onto shore. Quite a ways back, they’d dropped the anchor for the ship before putting a smaller boat into the water.

“Prince,” the man at the front of the boat called, “is that you?”

“Does it look like me?”

He didn’t get a reply.

Eryx figured he didn’t need one. Neither did they.

It was only once the men had climbed out of the boat and brought Eryx a blanket, which they quickly used to cover his shoulders and mostly naked form, that the one who’d been at the front of the boat spoke again.

“Lucky a man saw the bitch bringing you this way, Prince,” he muttered, slapping Eryx on the back.

“I can’t remember,” Eryx lied.

He remembered perfectly fine, and if the men were smart enough to think … they would notice that the flattened spot of ground where Eryx had slept happily beside the mermaid was big enough for two people and not just himself.

“Caught one of two,” the guy added, watching as two other men helped Eryx to his feet. “A fighter, she is.”

“She’s not the one I want.”

“Have to discuss that with Corval, then, Prince.”

Oh?

“Corval made it?”

“One of three on that ship who did,” the man muttered. “You included.”

Well, then …

“Take me home.”

The man didn’t even question Eryx, he was simply directed to the waiting rowboat before he found a seat to sit in alone while he surveyed the calm waters of the sea, and the sky that was just now starting to lose the purple tones that had colored it earlier. Eryx said nothing as they docked alongside the ship, ropes were dropped down, and then they were lifted up to the deck.

In fact, he said nothing at all until he stood beside Corval on the deck.

“I suppose the captain was right,” Eryx said.

“And we’d have been out a mermaid, yes?”

“She’s not the right one, though.”

“But the other one was?”