Chapter 41

Rose

M y muscles were deliciously sore when Milo and Will coaxed me out of bed for a somewhat late lunch. They'd had to peel me out from under Milo's pelt with the promise of burgers, french fries, Ava's magical chocolate milk, and leftover apple cobbler, but as much as I groaned, the rumbling of my stomach outweighed my desire to become one with the bed. Thankfully, they didn't even tease me about it.

Our little interlude seemed to really help my mates, I observed, as we prepared our plates for lunch. Where before they'd never been overly affectionate toward each other in my presence—I suspected they were wary about how I would react—they now kissed and touched with ease. When I'd proposed watching them, I'd only been thinking of forcing Will to make good on his promise, but it was evident now that it'd convinced them that I was more than happy to let them be as free with each other as they were with me. And it made my heart flutter in my chest.

Despite the difficulty of what was to come, I relished this time I had with my mates. Milo and Will were joking and laughing. The three of us traded small touches and kisses whenever we were close enough. It was peaceful and sweet, and if I was honest with myself… it was everything I'd never dared to dream of.

I tried not to let the dark cloud over my head color and taint the moment. But the creeping dread was ever present, reminding me that the more I had, the more I had to lose. And if Joseph ever got his hands on either of them…

I shoved that thought away as quickly as it came.

Once lunch was finished, though, reality seeped back in. Our light mood receded, though I could tell Will and Milo were not sad for themselves but for me. They didn't mention anything outright, but it was obvious from their expressions. I waved them off. I'd come to terms with our inevitable departure somewhat. And when I told them as much, I made sure to mention I was looking forward to visiting a tropical paradise. To say they were relieved was an understatement.

When we'd finished cleaning up our lunch things, Milo gave me and Will sweet kisses and went down to the basement to pack some more valuables into his vault, including the journals Will had pilfered from his father. "I don't want anything happening to our things while we're away," he'd explained.

This left Will and I upstairs… until Will gave me a sheepish look.

"I'm going to run out to your boat and grab some of the supplies you put in there from your last trip," said Will, then bent down to kiss me on the top of my head. "I'll be right back, gorgeous."

If it were possible for me to purr, I would have.

I turned my face up to his and caught his lips. "All right. But if you take her out for a joy ride, please at least bring her back in better shape than you left her in."

"Oh, no guarantees on that." His eyes darkened as they flicked down to my lips… and lower. "I like my girls ridden hard and put up wet."

"Will." His name came out as a whimper when he threaded his fingers into my hair and gripped it tight, tipping my head back for better access to my throat.

"I love how you say my name, pretty girl. I can't wait to climb back in bed with you tonight and make love to you until the sun rises," he murmured against my throat, his breath hot against my skin. "For now, you must be patient, you insatiable little thing."

He brought his lips back up to mine and stole a searing kiss before releasing me. I pouted for just a moment before noticing how he not-so-subtly adjusted himself in his shorts.

"Come back soon," I whispered, grinning, letting my gaze linger there for just long enough to let him know I saw what he'd done.

He groaned. "Oh, I will. I will."

Without saying anything else—after what seemed like much internal debate—he turned and headed out to do as he'd said. It was probably for the best. We had work to get done, and riding him into oblivion was not part of that plan. Well, they had work to do, and I was going to make some cookies to keep myself busy. I was fully packed with what little I had left, since we'd not gotten around to ordering me new clothes yet. All that was left to shove in my bag was my toiletries, cell phone, and charger.

I enjoyed the mindless work that was following a recipe and creating something from many smaller components. The recipe I'd chosen—peanut butter chocolate chip cookies—was one of Milo's aunt's, which I'd found written on a notecard tucked in to a random cookbook. He'd told me he and his best friend, Nero, had won the secret recipe from his aunt in a game of cards… He'd also told me he and his friend had cheated to get it off her because it was so damn good.

I wish I could've met Nero. It sounds like they had a lot of good times together, I thought as I pulled out the ingredients. I hope he has other friends he's just as close with. I should ask him about that. How stupid am I not to know about his friends? Like, he's my mate… I suppose I don't know anything about Will's friends, either.

Gods, I need to get myself together…

Muffled yells from outside echoed into the house, and instantly, my whole body stiffened. I stopped mid-reach into the refrigerator. I recognized those voices… and felt the instant terror spooling in my belly at one of them.

Joseph.

The need to protect my mate unfroze me from my spot, and after slamming the fridge shut, I pressed the pearl on my necklace to make me invisible. I ran outside, my bare feet slapping against the concrete, and in mere moments, I was at the edge of the beach. I forced myself to stop, to watch the situation unfold before I took action, but I only had so much restraint—and it took every bit of it to try to be smart about this.

Joseph stood in the surf about ten feet from where I stopped, pulling power from the ocean to bolster himself as he faced his son. Rage vibrated from him, but Will faced him without fear, without faltering. My merman's aura blazed around him, sparking and snapping, ready to pull from the world whatever energy he needed. His familial connection to his father, the parts still bound to the merman in front of him, was strained and pulled taut, ready to break at any moment.

"How could I do this to our family? How could I ?" Will bellowed, incredulous, his body shaking with the intensity of his roiling emotions. "You're the one who destroyed our family, asshole! You just couldn't be content with having a family who loved you and wanted you to be happy. Your paranoia and stupid plans ruined everything ."

"I was the only one keeping our family safe, boy!" Joseph screamed back.

"Safe? Your idea of safety is tyranny! Not only for the ones you profess to love but also for everyone around you!" Will's claws lengthened. "The last twenty-three years, you've put us in more danger than any hunter has. You kept us stupid and ignorant so you could control us. You manufactured situations to show that your way of life was the only way we could survive, but if you really valued our safety, you'd have done what you could to keep us in Malutaga. But no. You took control—"

"They didn't have your best interests in mind—" Joseph started, but Will cut him off.

"I am speaking!" Now his eyes had changed to the all-black of his merman form. "You violated our minds again and again. You forced us to do your bidding, took away our autonomy, even for the smallest things. I mean, come the fuck on. You made me wear that pungent cologne to hide my scent so I wouldn't find my mate. You kept the girls out of school and forced them and Noemie to stay home so they wouldn't be educated in what they needed to know to survive in the world."

Will's features twisted into something a little softer but no less fierce. "I, too, wish mom had never died. I, too, wish the hunters had never found our shimmer and killed everyone while we were out at sea. But you went too far. You ruin everything you touch, and I loathe you for it. I can never forgive you for what you've done to me and those I love, or for what you made me do."

Joseph stared at his son as if he'd never seen him before, and perhaps he hadn't. The Will Joseph knew, the Will he'd forced him to be, was a far cry from the person he was now.

"You'd abandon me for pussy?" the older merman seethed, a warning lacing his words.

"No. I abandon you for my mates, and for my sisters and mother. More than that, I abandon you for myself. Who you are and what you want is against everything I stand for, and I refuse to call you my father anymore. You are dead to me."

The connections between Will's aura and his father's, the small, threadbare tendrils binding them together, snapped. One by one, they separated, leaving no trace of what once had been there. Immediately, Will stood taller, free of the weight on his shoulders, and pride swelled through me. He'd taken his power back.

His father's expression shifted rapidly from confusion to disbelief, before finally settling on rage. Joseph's eyes bled to all black, and his aura surged with borrowed power. There was nothing other than feral contempt, and I finally fully understood how similar he and my mother were: losing control was not something they could live with. And I knew, I knew , he was going to retaliate.

They always did.

"You do not get to decide to give up on family, boy," Joseph shouted, spit flying from his mouth. "I will not allow it!"

"I don't need your permission. I'm a grown man, and there was never, in any universe, going to be a time when I wouldn't strike out on my own. I'm done with being controlled and having my mind and choices taken from me." Will pointed out at the ocean. "So leave. You're not wanted here."

Oh, Joseph did not like that. He did not like that at all. Without missing a beat, he reached for Will, his fingers curled as if to grab him by the neck. Visions of what he'd already done to Will once before flashed in my mind. My restraint ruptured.

With a feral snarl, I launched myself at him, my claws extending, uncaring for the people he was connected to and how they would hurt when I ripped his throat out, not when my mate was at risk.

Will jerked out of his father's reach just as I landed a strike across Joseph's infuriating face. But Joseph was quicker to recover than I expected, his head snapping toward me despite my invisibility. Before I could wind up a second hit, readying to end him once and for all, he grabbed me by the neck and squeezed tight enough that my vision started to blur.

Joseph's other hand came down onto my chest, and before I knew what he was doing, his fingers curled around my necklace and yanked. The chain breaking against my neck sent bursts of pain through me, but it paled in comparison to the burn of the magic breaking. The links and pearls scattered across the sand, and the flash crystal was flung at Will with the force of Joseph's pull. I cried out as the skin around my neck was scorched.

Agony whited out my vision as my consciousness was shoved to the back of my mind. He used my pain and surprise to overtake me, wresting control from me in mere moments. His voice slithered through my consciousness, and when he spoke, he pushed his magic into the command. He gave me no room to deny him.

The talisman. Tell me where it is.

NOW.

Joseph's voice boomed in my head, a scream that vibrated my very bones. His face twisted into a feral snarl, puckering the claw mark scars I'd given him. He had me caught in his web, his power filling the headspace he'd forced me to vacate.

I will rip your consciousness from your body while your mate watches, he threatened as I fought him. I pushed back, but grasping my power proved to be near impossible with him boxing me into a corner of my own mind. It lay waiting just out of reach. Without it, I was helpless to defend against him. I may as well have been human.

The hand around my neck squeezed, cutting off what little airflow I had. Pain ravaged what little effort I could put up against him. I choked.

It took him mere moments to begin rifling through my mind, pillaging anything and everything he wanted from me. Joseph repeated the word talisman over and over, trying to coax the information out of me, but I resisted. My power swelled, pushing back against him, but with black spots beginning to eat at my vision from lack of oxygen, it was difficult.

I lashed out, swiping my claws at him with one hand. But Joseph's arms were much longer than mine, and my sharpened nails could not find purchase,

Focusing on trying to kill the bastard made me lose what little headway I'd made in freeing my mind from his influence. He pushed forward again, chanting the word louder and louder until I was deaf to all else. Still I resisted. Still I shoved the memory of that night in the cave to the back, desperate to keep it from him at all costs.

My mind, though, betrayed me. Like every other time I tried not to think of something, the memory popped up anyway. It floated to the front time and time again, and the more I panicked, the less control I had of it. I couldn't fight to keep myself conscious and hold him back at the same time. It was impossible.

"I debated for a long time what to do with it. This abomination in the wrong hands could be devastating, so I knew it was too dangerous to discard without neutralizing it. But I don't have the skill to undo the magic that keeps them trapped in there. I've done everything in my power to undo the magic or even outright destroy it, yet whatever magic she weaved to make this is beyond me. And I think that's by design. Molly knew I'd never have accepted this, which is why I think she made it so I couldn't destroy it if I found out about it."

"And there's no one else you can ask without exposing yourself or causing dire consequences for you or the kids."

"Precisely. Which is why I think I need to take the kids and leave. It's not safe here for them or anyone else."

No!

No, no, no!

I shoved at Joseph again, trying so hard to push him out, but he snagged his hooks into the memory, unwilling to let it go. He knew he had me, and like a dog with a bone, he wasn't going to let up until he got what he wanted.

That's it, Rose. Give it to me. Tell me what you did with the talisman, Joseph said, his voice like oil in my mind. He pushed forward, forcing me to continue from that moment.

"The magic was meant to be absorbed by one of my kind, and the spell yearns to be fulfilled. The longer I've had it in my possession, the more tempted I've been to take the power for myself. That's also why I need to leave. If I give in—and I've been so close so many times to giving in to it—I don't know how it will affect me. I don't want you or Violet to be caught in the crossfire. Even now, it would be so easy to snatch it from your hand and take it into me."

"Stop!" I forced the word out, panic thrumming through me. It was no more than a hoarse whisper as tears streamed down my cheeks, but I had to try. "Stop!"

It was as if I hadn't spoken at all. Joseph pushed despite my flailing. The last time the memory slipped through my grasp, he grabbed it, and with greedy eyes he took in what had happened in the cave. I didn't know why Will wasn't coming to help me, but with Joseph watching what would ultimately damn me, I knew I needed to do something. I needed to save myself before he took my power for himself.

"The shell itself is just a vessel for the magic on the inside, but it's rigged in such a way that if opened or broken, it will find the nearest merperson to give its power to. I've tried sealing it shut and unweaving the magic that binds it together. I've done everything save attempting to blast it into a million pieces, but when I touch it or try to manipulate it magically, the screams start up again. I've exhausted what I can do on my own."

"Could you switch it to a vessel that can't be opened or broken?"

"I don't know of any such vessel, to be honest." He paused, and his eyes widened. "Unless I put it in a person and rig it so the magic dies when the person dies."

"I mean, there are merfolk out there who would probably jump at the chance to break a human, or kill one. How can you guarantee that won't trigger the magic?"

"I can't guarantee anything, but maybe I can tweak the spell so it wouldn't trigger in that case. Can I see the talisman to check? I think I can manipulate the magic enough that the person wouldn't release the magic if they died or were, as you say, broken. The only thing we need now is someone willing to house it."

I shoved at the ever-present force that was Joseph in my head, but he didn't budge. In fact, he pushed harder, batting away all other thoughts I tried to distract him with.

"Why don't you bind it to me?"

"Bind it to you? You can't be serious, Rose. We don't know what it would do to you, especially if I make a mistake."

"It's better me than some poor soul who has no idea what they're getting into. Even if things go wrong, well, I'm just one person. If I die or am changed, it won't be a total loss."

"That's not true at all, Rose. Your aunt and I, the kids—we love you. We'd miss you."

"I know that, but you'd have each other. Besides, this will ensure that after we leave the cave, we never have to worry about it again."

"That's all well and good, but—"

"What do you need me to do?"

"Get out of my head! Get out!" I screamed, desperate to distract him.

Joseph didn't even deign to reply. He forged on, pushing until he had everything he wanted… until I'd damned myself.

"I bind this talisman to you, Rose. I bind it to your life force to be protected against all those who seek to use it, and when your life comes to its natural end, the talisman shall also be no more."

I turned my eyes to our hands when I felt a strange warmth filling my palms and creeping up my arms. As the warmth spread, the glowing bright white of the talisman's magic began to blend into mine, slowly turning light blue. All seemed to be going well until Eli's hands suddenly tightened, spasming hard enough that the scallop shell broke in my palms, light exploding outwards as the pieces bit into my flesh…

The memory cut off there, before I had to witness Eli's death again. But the true horror was right before me, in the dawning realization in Joseph's eyes. A hundred emotions crossed his face as he processed this, but finally, after an agonizing, breathless moment, it settled on rage…

Rage and calculation.

" You're the talisman."