11. Holter

I'm sittingas close as I can to Belle. The northside tea house is owned by a Braesen pod, and most of Braesen comes through here while they're shopping. If we're going to get invited into the Braesen dome, we're going to have to have something they want to look at, and that something is nothing other than Chompers. Mickey would have been impressive, but he's also a lot, and while Eros thought it might be worth it, I know what would happen to Belle if someone thought Mickey was a danger and injured or killed the shark. That thing is a hundred percent her pet now. As much as you can have a pet shark. Which, up until now, I didn't think was a thing.

Annabelle places her fingerless-gloved hand on the window of the glass, and Chompers follows it.

"What is that shark doing?" asks a mermaid with a long brown braid who's hovering close to our table.

"Oh, Chompers? He's one of my trained sharks. They had a Braesen trainer to begin with, but I've taught them a lot of other things," Annabelle says with a demure smile.

"I'm Liora Torvid, and this is my sister, Elandra." A blonde mermaid with two cups of tea on a tray sits at the table next to ours. I'd heard of pods having more than one daughter, but I'd never met one.

"I'm—"

"Arabel," the younger of the two says.

"Annabelle," Liora corrects. "I was hoping I would meet you."

"I'm honored. Sisters, wow. This is my mate, Holter." Belle places her hand on my arm. Damn, I'm never going to get tired of hearing her say it. We still haven't registered with the government, not officially. We filled out the forms. But we have to go down in person. Having Belle say it out loud, with pride in her voice? Yeah, I've got to admit that I love it.

The younger of the two sisters clenches her jaw tighter than a clam. If Belle is going to get anything out of them, I'm going to have to step aside.

"I was just going to get another cup of tea. Can I get anyone anything?" I stand and gesture to the counter.

"We're good," Liora says, while Elandra looks between Belle and me. I can see the confusion on her face. What was a geminae doing mated to a young mermaid?

I lean in and kiss Belle on her pink cheek. "I'll be right back."

"Love you." Belle squeezes my arm.

I point at the seat. "Don't move."

"Ah, mates are so cute when they're possessive and think they can tell us what to do," Liora says.

"If my sister's mate told her that, she would pick up her cup and move to the other side of the shop," says Elandra.

The sisters laugh.

"You're not wrong." Liora reaches across and squeezes Belle's hand. "Not that I have a mate yet."

I'm standing at the counter, close enough to take action if anyone even looks sideways at Belle. The gist of their conversation floats to me in bits. What's her favorite restaurant? It shocks them that Belle has been to the Shipwreck Grill, but they all agree the Deep Blue is a delicious place to go. They didn't go to the same Vividaria Festival ball as Belle did, but they've heard about it. What they've heard, they don't say. The younger sister went to the Tinom ball. She says it was a trash swirl with lights. The older of the two went to the Vitrom ball and thought it equally not as good.

All the while, Belle keeps Chompers entertaining the mermaids by doing tricks around the window. What they can't see is Eros out of sight, ensuring the safety of the shark. We drew shells for it, and he got the black one. So he's the one who led Chompers here and is the one who's been making sure the shark doesn't go rogue. Nico's outside the shop, scowling at anyone who comes and goes. Tea shops aren't his, well, cup of tea.

"Can I help you?" the clerk asks.

"Yes, another cup and a box of take-away pastries." I don't take my eyes off Belle while I say it or pay or take my cup. I meander slowly back to the table and slide in next to Belle.

"Do you think I could swim with your sharks some time?" the blonde asks.

"I'm not sure. They're really protective."

"I can see." Elandra puts her hand on the glass too. But Chompers doesn't move from Belle. "Maybe you should come over for a visit?"

"Oh, I would love that." Belle jumps when she says it. Maybe a little too eager? But no, the Braesen mermaids don't notice. They smile back.

"Let me have your block. I'll put my information in it." Elandra holds out her hand, and Belle slides her block out of her bag and across the table. The Braesen's eyes widen. "Wow. you've got the best of the best. I guess nothing can be good enough for the second Poseidon's mate."

"Oh, it's— Yes. Nico is really generous." Belle smiles. Nico is generous, but he'd never think to buy a gift, even after the fiasco with Belle going missing. He still doesn't like her having a block. That it's a way to find her and track her is true. But it's also a way for her to keep herself safe. Her block was a gift from Castor. A gift from before Nico told him to stop.

"There. How about tomorrow? Oh, and please bring your mates. I know my mother would love to see the trident that he brought back."

Belle nods. "Tomorrow works."

"I'll make lunch. Well, I won't make lunch, but I'll order it." Elandra laughs. "I'm a horrible cook. But don't tell anyone. I don't want it to hurt my mating chances." She stands. "How about noon?"

"Sounds good." Belle smiles, and we watch them leave.

"That worked remarkably well." Almost too well. But I keep that thought to myself. My eyes are trained on the door. Three large Braesen males follow the sisters. They don't talk to the mermaids. I can't help but wonder if they are the females' intended mates or guards provided by their parents.

"Sisters?" Belle asks. "I haven't seen any pod here that has sisters."

"Braesen has been having multiple females in a pod for the last few generations. Sometimes even twins. It's made a lot of them very popular, and the other domes are very interested in having a Braesen mermaid mate into a large pod of their males."

"Do you think that's got something do with what Eros's friend back in Boston said?"

It takes me a second to get that she means the half-kraken. Definitely. And these two mermaids served up to us? My jaw tightens. "I wouldn't be surprised."

"What? You're keeping something from me. What is it?" Belle whispers into my ear.

I exhale. "It was too easy. It was almost like they were waiting for you. I don't think you should go tomorrow."

"But I have to. I need to get in there. Let's go home, and we can talk about it. I'm sure Eros is tired of giving Chompers treats."

"I'm sure Chompers is tired of not taking the treat out of Eros's leg instead of his hand."

"Ha, ha. Very funny."

I smile. Only I wasn't being funny. All the sharks hold a grudge against Eros. At least, that's how it seems. Eros did keep Belle from them while Nico was in the chasm.

I shake my head. "I have to agree with Nico and Eros. I think it's a trap."

"A trap? Those two? I know women, and there are those who are faking being dumb and those who are, well, not so smart. And they are in the realm of not being too smart. I don't like being rude, but I saw it all the time in undergrads, girls who came to university with no intention of ever graduating, just finding a husband."

"Or five." Eros laughs. "Seriously, I don't know the Braesen mermaids, and I only caught a quick glimpse of them as they left the tea shop—not that you can judge intelligence by how attractive one is. Look at me: I'm brilliant and clearly the most handsome merman in the room."

Nico fast-pitches a pillow at Eros's head. But Eros ducks and the pillow skids across the living room floor. "I don't want you going there, Little Krill. We have enough going on here. We need to focus and not spread ourselves out too thin." Richeal's papers are in careful stacks on the table.

"Yes, but if we can find the lab, we might be able to circumvent all of this." Belle waves her hands over the table. "Not that I'm afraid of a little work. I'm all for a deep dive into your mother's research. The answer to her death is somewhere in here. But I think it's also somewhere in this mystical lab in the caverns of Braesen." Her blue eyes widen. "I want to go. You've said it before: if anyone is out to get Glyden, it's Tinom or Vitrom. What if you're wrong? What if the real enemy is right in front of us, masquerading as a friend?"

Nico growls, and Eros and I aren't far behind him. "Tinom and Vitrom are the blubber fish of the ocean." Nico says it before I can get it out. He's reactive but correct.

"I agree with you. But they're not all bad." Belle's lips thin.

"Name one?" Eros holds his hand up. "Just one."

"Kappler Banard," Nico says. Kappler is Vitrom. One of his mother's mates is a Kraken. And while all males in a pod are treated as the father of a podlet and it's never acknowledged who the biological father is, in Kappler's case, it's obvious.

"Shit, you're right. He's not someone I would want to spend any time with, but he's not bad," I agree.

"Fuck, Kappler. He's still out of communication range on the Centauri." Eros leans forward.

"He is." Belle clasps her hands together. "I know he would help us with Marina if we could get in touch with him. Any word from Castor yet?" Belle turns first to Nico, who hasn't a clue, and then to me.

"I messaged Castor this morning. He's going into the governor's chambers today." I smile. But him spending an additional two days hanging out in the city when he's supposed to be back on his way to Athens isn't endearing him to his company or his family. At least, that's what his message said.

"I've already told Liora and Elandra we're coming. So go get your little friend, and let's get going." Belle smiles.

"My little friend?" Nico scowls at her.

"The trident of Poseidon."

Nico glares at her. "I'm not even sure where it is."

"You stink at lying, bucko. Now, let's get going." Belle carefully picks up all the papers around the table and places them in the lockbox. I tuck it under my arm and put it in the safe—a new safe, under the center of the pod bed, not the normal one in the wall.