Chapter Thirty-One

There was no subtlety when it came to the Sea King. Wherever he went, he was recognized. He was hard not to notice with all that shimmering hair, shifting through the colors of an opal. Darkness? Please. His hair was black, but that's all the darkness to him. King Vaxarion was a glorious, shimmering creature. His smiles set men and women to swooning and he took great delight in teasing people into smiling in return. He was as lighthearted as he'd said, which I hadn't believed until I witnessed it. Now that he had me, he could return to his old self. Just without the multitude of lovers. And I'd never have to worry about that changing. A mated Dragon didn't stray. I assumed it was the same for mated Sea Dragons.

"And this is the theater I designed." Vax waved his hand out the carriage window.

Yes, we had left the palace. Vax was eager to show me everything. All his accomplishments. The things he'd built and inspired to be built. It felt as if he were wooing me, trying to impress me, but I was already his. He didn't have to go through all of this. And that made it even sweeter. Most of the ride I spent staring at him instead of the things he pointed out.

"Zix, are you listening?" Vax asked.

"Yes, you designed the theater," I said and finally looked at it. "It's stunning, Vax."

"Thank you." He beamed, drawing my attention back to him. "I'll take you there tomorrow night. Tonight we have our mating feast."

"Yes." I grinned. "I remember."

Vax took my hand. "I should have asked earlier, but do your people have a mating ceremony?"

"We don't call it mating, but I think there's a ceremony for committing your life to another's."

"You think?"

I cleared my throat and looked away. "I was ten when I was taken, and Teng didn't talk about that kind of stuff. It's not really what pirates do. We commit ourselves to the ship."

"I'm sorry." He slid his arm around me and pulled me in against his side. "I would hunt those Gashi down if they lived. As it is, I will have to appease myself with the Hulfrin."

"Vax, don't," I said. "Leave it be. Leave them be."

"You think they're hunting your friends. Killing them would eliminate their threat. Your family would be safe."

That sank in. "I hadn't thought of that."

"Then it's decided," Vax said gleefully. "I will hunt down those Hulfrin bastards and punish them for daring to hurt my mate."

"It feels wrong," I whispered. "We were in the wrong. I would have done the same as Captain Aras."

"That's the dead man's name? Aras?"

"Vax, I'm serious. He was in his rights."

"To take you? Maybe. But not to hurt you."

"Vax, you need to understand how pirates see the world. We're thieves and we know it. We don't hold grudges against people who try to defend themselves or retrieve what we've taken. We see it as part of the adventure. We know the risks. I know the risks, and I don't blame Aras for doing everything he could to get his property back. What we took is very valuable, so I—"

"You never did tell me what it was that you stole from them."

"Didn't I?" I frowned, trying to remember.

"No, you started to, but never finished."

"Oh." A shiver ran through me as I remembered the old man's face. The stark terror in it. "Uh, have you ever heard of Ensarena's Eye?"

Vax went still. Not in a frightened way. More like a predator who had scented his next meal. "Yes, I am familiar with the gem. Why do you ask?"

"That's what we took. Teng still has it. He's going to try to sell it."

Vax leaned out the window and shouted, "Stop the carriage!"

We came to a halt.

As I gaped at him, Vaxarion jumped out of the carriage, then reached in to help me out. I climbed out as he said to the driver, "Go back to the palace and tell Yavess that I'm leaving the city for a while. And send the rest of my King's Guard after me. Tell them to track us. I can't waste another moment."

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The two Sea Dragon knights who had come with us, climbed off the back of the carriage as it turned around. They came to stand before the King without a word, just waiting for his command.

"Vax, what are you doing?" I sputtered as he started to strip.

"Hold my clothes for me, Mate." He shoved his royal garments into my arms.

He glanced at his guards and nodded. They began to strip too. Right there, on the sidewalk.

"What's happening?" I demanded.

"We need to find the Lu-Ken," Vax said. "Immediately."

"Why?"

He just kept shoving clothes at me.

"Vax, you're scaring the fuck out of me!"

"Be calm, Mate," Vax said. "I will get us to your family with all haste. And then they will be safe."

"And then? And then they will be safe? That means they're currently in danger."

"Of course, they're in danger. You knew that when you left."

Before I could respond, he shifted. Horses shrieked, not because he became a sea dragon but because he took up the entire road, halting a carriage on its way toward us. People exclaimed and pointed as water gathered around my lover and he swam upward, into the stream, his talon closing around me as he did. In seconds, we were bursting through the ward, the King's manifested river dissipating into the sea. Behind us, two other sea dragons swam.

"Which direction did they go?" Vax asked in my mind.

"Northeast," I said. "They'll go through Bosrae, along the eastern channel, so they can come down closest to Racul. Teng has friends there, one of whom is the Duke."

"Good. But I hope to reach him before he gets that far."

A shiver went down my spine, and I was filled with regret for not telling Vax about the Eye sooner. I didn't know what he thought would happen to my family, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that it wouldn't be good.