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)
When I’d first cradled him in my arms, he’d been frail, and skinny. Now, his body was nothing but lean muscles. More than any of this, though, was the fact that his aura was a bright, beautiful color and it called out to my soul, whereas before his aura had been weak, pale and faded. Suddenly, a wave of protectiveness like I’d never felt before washed over me. He was mine. Or at least I badly wanted him to be. He was perfect in my arms. Attraction buzzed wildly through my veins, but I felt despair too, knowing how much he would soon come to hate me—as soon as he fully realized the truth.
I wanted him to be healed first of all before anything else, though. Sadly, I wasn’t certain that I could help. Our magic, regardless of how powerful our powers were, just didn’t work on our mates. I had to defer to Keion.
Keion’s stared down at him. “Are you worried about his illness? I’ll be able to fix that, Keion. You know I will. Well, the water and I together.”
“Why would he deprive himself of…of what he needed to survive? What would cause him to do such a thing? He hasn’t mentioned Aden at all, has he?”
“No. I’m telling you, Alyx, something isn’t right. Why is Aden and why can’t we find him? It’s like he’s disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“We’ll find Aden, Keion, and we’ll make all of this right. Now that Kailar’s regaining his memories—at least some of them—he’ll be able to find his twin, regardless of what separated them or how long they’ve been apart.” I glanced back down at him. I didn’t have a clue what had happened to my mate at this Tybee place, but I’d be damned if I didn’t put an end to it. Kailar was mine and I’d protect him with my dying breath. Keion would do the same for Aden. Assuming of course that they’d allow us to.
“Uh oh,” Keion muttered. “He’s waking up. Get ready.”
I frowned. “Ready for what?”
“Anything.”
Kailar blinked his eyes as he looked around, saw he was in the water, and starting flailing and flopping around in my arms like a slippery… Well, fish. Before I knew it, he slipped right out of my grasp and disappeared beneath the surface, his arms and legs splashing salt water in my face and pretty much every other thing in a twenty-foot radius. His head popped up and he screamed loud enough to do damage to both mine and Keion’s hearing.
“Easy, Kailar. Don’t panic,” I pleaded as I tried to scoop him back up in my arms. He wasn’t having any of it. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I yelped when he accidentally punched me in the face and kicked me in the balls. Or maybe not so accidentally.
Stepping away from him for my own protection, I heard Keion whispering an incantation, Petrificus Totalus, which caused Kailar to float up in the air, safely away from the water—water that he should love but obviously was scared to death of.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Kailar screamed at the top of his lungs as he floated up a couple of feet above the water level. Keion had managed to make things far worse, though I had to admit Kailar was a little difficult to please. He didn’t want to be in the water, nor did he want to be floating above it. I put my arms around him and lowered him back down until he was safely back on the surface and not floating above it.
“Come on, love. Everything’s all right. Don’t be frightened. You’re safe.” I jerked my head toward the lovely fish tail. “Keion, a little help here with the…”
“Oh!” he said and muttered a few words so that Kailar’s legs made a reappearance. Thank the gods. If he had looked down and seen that merman tail again, I think he would have climbed me like a tree again.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Keion roll his eyes and bite back a laugh. I was certain he was finding it quite humorous to see me try to be nice and patient…it wasn’t one of my strong suits, to be honest. With everyone else, I was usually extremely blunt and to the point. I think I was honest, although maybe not as tactful as I could be.
“Get me out of this water right now!” Kailar’s head turned in every direction. “Oh, jeez, where are my clothes? Fuck, what’s happening? I should have known this job was too good to be true,” he whispered to himself. “Are you going to kill me?” He shut his eyes tightly. “Do it quick, okay? I’m a pretty nice guy. I’ve suffered enough with my illness. Don’t make me suffer when I die!”
It was honestly no more than six steps for me to take to get him out of the pool, but he said all that in the few seconds it took. I would have placed a magical gag on anyone else—I think I might have been able to manage one for my mate, though maybe not. But his voice was like music to my ears. I could listen to him chitter-chatter all day…no, for the rest of eternity. That had to be true love.