Total pages in book: 46
Estimated words: 43197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43197 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 216(@200wpm)___ 173(@250wpm)___ 144(@300wpm)
“I don’t know, and it does no good to yell and curse at me about it. He got married to this Martha right after he sold the villa in Greece—about two years after he left Atlantis. Kailar was homeschooled before that, according to the stepmom, and she met Theos when she was on vacation to Greece. She said it was a whirlwind romance and he swept her off her feet. It was his idea to resettle in the States right away—his being married to a US citizen made that possible.”
“Do you think he was using her to get out of the country?”
Keion shrugged. “I think so. It’s possible anyway.”
“Why haven’t I heard of this before now?”
“I was planning to discuss it with you once you’d calmed down some. You’ve been in a frenzy of worry since Kailar got here.”
“Well, of course I have. Just like you’ve been worried sick over Aden.”
“I don’t want to talk about Aden!” My brother snapped, his face like a thundercloud. Maybe it was too painful for him to discuss. I could totally understand that. We had both faced our king’s wrath when he discovered just how badly we’d fucked this thing up. Not to mention how Kailar and Aden’s father reacted.
About six months earlier, Adan had gone missing. Though Keion had searched for him everywhere, we’d found no trace of him. Oddly enough, that was about the same time as Kailar’s experience at Tybee Island—the one that had made him afraid to go in the water ever again. Wed needed to question him about that event as soon as he calmed down some.
The worst of all this was that we’d only recently realized what a huge mistake we’d made in all this. It seemed incredibly selfish that we could so easily put them out of our minds that way. Like they were disposable and some burden to us. But we had. Once we’d made our plans and sent them away, we went blithely back to our lives in the Atlantean military and hadn’t looked back. Yeah, we were young and the skirmishes with Beathag and her creatures were frequent, but that didn’t account for all of it. Not by a long shot. I wasn’t sure if either of them would ever forgive us. And Aden was still missing.
When we’d first gotten word of his disappearance, we’d launched an all-out search right away, but he was nowhere to be found. He had simply vanished, and he was nowhere inside the city. Still, Keion urged me to step up my efforts to find Kailar and bring him back home. We both hoped that their intense connection—the one they used to have anyway—might lead him to Aden once we got back home. I was in despair at that point because Theos was still missing and had taken Kailar who knew where. They’d both vanished without a trace.
“Should I totally submerge him in the water?” I asked Keion.
“If you do and he wakes up, I have a feeling the shit’s going to hit the fan again. But I’ll stay here to compel him.”
“I know we feel that what we’re doing is for the best, but it still feels wrong, Keion. And how can he be so afraid of water? He can’t be afraid of the ocean. He’s a Merman, for fuck’s sake.”
Keion was pacing back and forth, massaging his temples. “I’m only telling you what I think…what you’ve already seen today. I think it happened when he went to Tybee. Something happened in that water. In the open sea. His stepmother told me that he used to love the water and spent lots of time at the pools even after Theos died, but after that time at Tybee Island six months ago, he’s avoided the water at all costs. Won’t even go into a pool. I think it was the shock of whatever happened and the lack of water on his skin that put him in the condition we first saw him in. He was dying, just like he said.”
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“But just look at the difference in him in the short time he’s been back in the water.”
I was amazed at what I was seeing. Kailar, still wrapped protectively in my arms but floating in the salty water, was still changing almost by the second. Physically changing. He was still unconscious, but his breathing was much easier, and he looked drastically different. Where his hair had been stark white, it was now a mixture of purple, coral, blue, and green. When Theos took him to the mortal world, he’d put a glamour on him to give him black hair and green eyes. He’d been far too beautiful to be simply human with his natural coloring, even as a child.
Now his hair had such stark, bold, beautiful colors. I’d forgotten how radiant he could be. His skin had been sickly white, but though his skin was still pale, like all the Mer Folk, at least now it looked vibrant and was glowing with good health.