Caelion insisted on one last stop before we left the underwater city. His mother’s quarters, he explained, were in the eastern spire, a place of coral gardens and private pools where the queen kept her private collection of mates. He needed to show respect, he said. Needed to tell her that he had found his place in the world, that he was not the failure she had cast away.
We waited in an antechamber of living coral, surrounded by anemones that pulsed with soft pink light. The water here was warmer, scented with exotic oils that clung to my skin like perfume. Minutes stretched into hours. Servants swam past with downcast eyes, pretending not to see us.
Finally, the queen’s chamber doors opened.
She emerged like a vision of cruel beauty, hair the color of blood coral, eyes like cut emeralds, lips curved in a permanent sneer of displeasure. She was exquisite, ageless, the kind of beauty that made you understand why men would die for her. She wore chains of pearls and shark teeth around her neck, and her tail was scaled in iridescent black that shifted to violet in the light.
But she did not look at Caelion. She did not look at me. She did not acknowledge our existence at all.
Instead, she turned to the young merman at her side, her fifth mate, I presumed, and let him lift her hand to his lips with shameless adoration. He was beautiful in the way of youth, all sharp cheekbones and silver scales and eager eyes. He kissed her fingers, her wrist, her neck, right there in front of us, while she arched into his touch with a laugh that sounded like breaking glass.
"My love," the young merman purred, nuzzling her throat. "Shall we retire to the gardens? The moon pearls are blooming, and I would show you how they pale beside your beauty."
"Perhaps," the queen said, her fingers tangling in his hair. Then, as if remembering we existed, she waved one dismissive hand in our direction. "Deal with them," she said to no one in particular. "I have no time for disappointments today."
She swam away, her fifth mate trailing behind her, his hands roaming her waist, his lips finding hers in a kiss that was performative and hungry all at once. They disappeared around a corner, still entwined, leaving Caelion standing in the water like a statue carved from ash.
He did not move for a long moment. Then he turned to me, and his smile was terrible in its emptiness.
"Well," he said. "Now you have met my mother."
We left the city after that. No one spoke. The journey back through the water was silent, heavy with Caelion’s unspoken grief and my helpless rage on his behalf. We broke the surface near the shore where we had entered, and I gasped as air hit my lungs, suddenly cold and thin after the dense warmth of the ocean.
Ravin helped me onto the beach. Leon and Soryn shifted to their human forms, shaking water from their hair. Caelion remained in the shallows, his tail flicking slowly, his eyes distant.
"We should go," Ravin said, gathering our things. "The sun is setting. We can make camp in the forest before..."
The shadow fell over us without warning.
I looked up, and my heart stopped.
It was massive, a bird the size of a horse, wings spanning twenty feet or more, feathers the color of burnished copper and gold. It had the face of a hawk, all cruel curved beak and golden eyes that fixed on me with predatory intensity.
"Krys!" Ravin shouted.
I didn’t have time to run. The hawk dove, talons extended and snatched me from the beach like I weighed nothing. The world tilted violently, sand, sky, ocean spinning in a blur of motion. I screamed, thrashing in the creature’s grip, but the talons were like iron bands around my waist, pinning my arms to my sides.
"Ravin!" I shrieked.
Below me, I saw my lion mate lunging, his massive form stretching upward, paws swiping at empty air. He missed by inches. The hawk beat its wings once, twice, and we shot upward with impossible speed.
"Soryn!" Leon’s voice, raw with terror.
I twisted my head, saw Soryn’s form shifting, expanding, growing into his serpent shape. He rose like a tower of scales and fury, fifty feet of coiling muscle lunging toward us. His jaws snapped shut on empty air. The hawk was faster, more agile, dancing through the sky with contemptuous ease.
I twisted and bucked, trying to break free, but the talons only tightened. Pain lanced through my ribs. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, could only watch as my mates grew smaller and smaller below, their screams fading into the wind.
The hawk climbed higher, carrying me toward jagged peaks that pierced the clouds. The air grew thin and cold, burning my lungs. I struggled, kicking at empty air, but the creature’s grip was unbreakable.
We reached a cave high in the mountain, a hollow gouged from the rock, sheltered from wind and weather. The hawk dove into it, released me, and I tumbled to the stone floor, gasping, bruised, my vision spinning.
I scrambled backward, pressing against the cave wall, as the hawk shifted.
The transformation was fluid and elegant. Feathers melted into flesh, wings became arms, talons became hands. The creature became a man, tall, lean, with copper hair that fell to his shoulders and golden eyes that matched his hawk form. He was beautiful in the way of predators, all sharp angles and confident grace. High cheekbones, full lips, a body carved from flight and hunger.
He was not ugly. That was the worst part. He was beautiful, and he knew it.
"At last," he said, his voice like honey over gravel. "I have been watching you, little female. I saw you a day before you reached the sea, walking through the forest with your beasts. I wanted you then. I have waited, patient as the wind, for you to emerge from the water. Watching you swim with those water beasts. Watching you let them touch you." He smiled, and it was all teeth. "You deserve better. You deserve wings."
"Stay away from me," I spat, my voice raw from screaming.
He knelt before me, close enough that I could smell the wind on his skin, the scent of high places and freedom. "I am Aeric," he said, as if bestowing a gift. "Lord of the Sky Clans. And I have chosen you to be my mate."
I laughed, hysterical and bitter. "Chosen? You mean kidnapped. Snatched from my family like a rabbit from a field." I pulled myself up, standing on shaking legs, facing him with all the defiance I could muster. "There is no way I would be some bird’s mate. Especially not when you had to force me. Especially not when you tore me from the men I love."
Aeric’s golden eyes flashed. The smile vanished, replaced by something cold and calculating. "You speak of love," he said softly. "But love is weakness. Love is chains. I offer you the sky. Freedom. Power." He reached out, his fingers brushing my cheek, and I jerked away. "You will change your mind," he said. "When hunger gnaws at your belly. When thirst cracks your throat. When you realize that no one is coming to save you."
He stood, adjusting his clothing, if the scraps of leather and feathers he wore could be called clothing. "I will return," he said. "When you are ready to be reasonable. When you are ready to accept that you are mine."
He shifted, faster than I could follow, and dove from the cave mouth. I ran to the edge, watching him spiral down, down, down, until he was a speck of copper against the green forest below.
Then he was gone.
I was alone.
I sank to the stone floor, my legs giving out beneath me. The cave was cold, barren, nothing but rock and wind and the distant scream of other hawks circling below. I pulled my knees to my chest, wrapped my arms around myself, and I cried.
I cried for Ravin’s roar of fury as I was taken. I cried for Leon’s pale face, for Soryn’s desperate lunge. I cried for Caelion, who had finally found acceptance only to watch me ripped away. I cried for my babies, my sweet cubs who would wake up wondering where Mama had gone, who would cry and not understand why I didn’t come.
Hours passed. The sun moved across the sky, visible through the cave mouth, painting the clouds in shades of blood and gold. My throat ached with thirst. My stomach cramped with hunger. The cold seeped into my bones, relentless and patient.
Then I heard wings.
Aeric landed in the cave, shifting smoothly, his hair tousled by wind. He carried a skin of water and a parcel of dried meat, and he set them just out of my reach with a smile that made my skin crawl.
"Have you reconsidered?" he asked, his voice gentle as a lover’s.
I looked at him, at his perfect face, his perfect body, his perfect confidence. And I thought of Ravin’s warmth, Leon’s loyalty, Soryn’s gentleness, Caelion’s tenderness. I thought of men who had earned my heart, not stolen it.
"You are ugly," I said, my voice rasping but clear. "And your personality is even uglier. I would rather die in this cave than let you touch me. I would rather starve than be yours. I would rather be eaten by crows than accept your ’freedom.’"
Aeric’s face twisted. The mask of charm shattered, revealing the petulance beneath. "You are a fool," he snarled. "I am offering you immortality. Power. The sky itself! And you would throw it away for those... those earthbound beasts?"
"They are my mates," I said. "You are nothing. A kidnapper. A thief. A bird with delusions of grandeur."
He grabbed my chin, his fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. "I want you," he hissed. "You are the prettiest female I have ever seen. The way you move, the way you fight, the way you refuse to break." His grip tightened. "If you agree," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper, "if you say yes, I will bring you back to them. I will let you see them one last time. I will let you say goodbye properly. Is that not mercy? Is that not kindness?"
I stared at him, at the lie in his golden eyes. He would never let me go. He would try to hurt my mates, or keep me prisoner, or break my mind until I forgot who I had been. And even if he spoke true, even if he would truly let me return, I could not do it.
"No," I said.
Aeric released me, stepping back, his expression hardening into something cruel and final. "Then starve," he said. "Rot in this cave. And when you are too weak to fight, when you are begging for water and crawling on your knees, I will return. And you will take my hand, or you will die. The choice is yours, little female. But it is the only choice you will ever have again."
He shifted, wings bursting from his back, and dove from the cave.
I was alone again.
The sun set. The stars emerged, cold and distant and indifferent. I huddled against the stone, shivering, my throat burning, my stomach a hollow pit of pain.
I looked up at the sky, at the infinite darkness between the stars, and I prayed.
Not to the First Mother. Not to the gods of this world who had never answered me before.
I prayed to whoever would listen. To the universe. To fate. To the bond that connected me to my mates, the invisible thread that stretched between our hearts.
"Please," I whispered, my voice breaking. "Please let them find me. Please don’t let me die here. Please."
The wind howled through the cave mouth, carrying no answer.
I closed my eyes, and I waited.