In a series of increasingly bold events that were both so like her—in the way that they weren’t entirely thought out—and unlike her—in the way that she kept invading Azul’s space—Yuu let her curiosity pull her forward toward Azul. He didn’t cringe away, neither did her stop her when she lifted herself toward his face. Instead, he stayed perfectly still, and let her come to him. Yuu had thought that…well, she didn’t know what she’d thought. Only that in the moment, that pulling feeling toward him had simply felt comfortable, warm, right.

  Head buzzing, and thoughtless of the moments that would come after, she kissed him, pulling herself back almost immediately.

  Azul didn’t ask for this, she told herself. He’s been nothing but helpful. He doesn’t—

  But she was wrong.

  Azul’s hands, already around the fabric at her waist to steady her in the water, caught her again, and he bent his head down to kiss her again, more fully. Her hands curled tighter over his shoulders, and where his cheeks brushed hers, the dust between them fairly ignited in sensation, thrilling at the closeness as much as she did.

  Something hot and needy in her heart had come to life, hammering in her chest as though desperate to get out. It was a feeling that ached in the cold moments before she slept at night, and a feeling that pulled at the edges of her memory when the fleeting flimpses of the world she’d used to call home paraded across her thoughts. However, this was not the feeling of missing someone. Azul was right here, under her fingertips, and the sounds in his throat echoed the ones aching in her.

  He pressed his mouth gently, all over her face, jaw, fingertips, and mouth relentless. There was nothing pushing about his advances. Instead, they felt pleading.

  Yuu had never felt so badly needed.

  She sighed into his mouth, letting the feeling take her .Azul was touching a hole in her heart that she’d hardly known was there. He was soothing a pain she’d ignored for so long, she didn’t know how badly it hurt until he brushed it away. This was peace. This was bliss.

  Yuu couldn’t say how long it lasted, or how many minutes he held her, carefully holding back, but she did know the moment she’d had enough of ‘gentle.’

  Yuu reached up his dramatic collar, letting her fingers rake through his pretty hair, and he let her touch it. She’d been curious for so long how it felt, and now she knew—soft even when wet—made of something different, and more functional in the water than her own. She pulled him a little closer, hoping only for something more connected, but when she ran her fingers down his scalp, he snarled at her, a rumbling foreign sound that got her more than what she’d hoped for.

  The kiss deepened, and, against her better judgment, her response to it was mortifyingly frantic.Once more, however, he didn’t let her fall. His lower limbs curled around her legs, through her toes, up her thighs. She almost didn’t notice, when Azul anchored them to the far poolside wall, this new rhythm and depth of feeling not something she was ready for. SHe made a keening sound that she’d never heard before from her own throat, and Azul, whether he sensed her growing heat, or not, chose that moment to pull away from her, tucking himself into the sensitive place at the side of her neck when he asked her a question that she was almost too dizzy to answer.

  "What do you want from me? Jewels? Potions? Information? Ask me,” he demanded against her skin.

  Yuu could feel it through his fingers, in his pulse. He didn't just want her to ask. He needed it.

  “I don’t want to take from you,” she breathed into the softness of his hair. Because it was true. This wasn’t something she’d done hoping for gain. She hadn’t even expected the response there had been.

  He made a dissatisfied sound near her ear, and she made a small noise when his teeth brushed lower down her neck.

  “But I do want you,” she admitted quietly, surprising herself.

  She hadn’t known it, and she certainly hadn’t meant to say it out loud.

  “Done,” he growled, and his teeth sank into the base of her neck.

  She screamed.

  The pain snapped Yuu out of the dusty haze she’d been in, and she pulled herself out of his reach along the wall. He didn’t fight her, or even try to stop her, instead, watching her with a hazy, confused look, that quickly turned to hurt.

  “What—” Yuu started to say, just before a deluge of magically summoned ice-water fell onto their heads, pelting them both with ice crystals that had formed in the summoning. His reach far longer than hers with his tentacles still around her, Azul shoved Yuu under himself to take the brunt of the blast, but there was enough that it still sent Yuu gasping.

  Releasing her just as quickly, Azul rounded on the source of the water, looking ready to attack the thing that had interrupted them. He’d arced himself halfway out of the water, until, mid-growl, he’d put himself back face to face with his mother.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The shock was enough to stop him attacking, at least.

  “Mother?” he asked, the confusion returning to his face.

  “You,” Madame Ashengrotto said, standing above them where they swam, “You, Azul, have deliberately disobeyed instructions.”

  Azul looked as though he’d been slapped.

  “I beg your par—”

  “Oh, you should beg,” Madame Ashengrotto snarled. “Because the mess you’ve created here tonight will be nearly impossible to undo! Do you know what you’ve done to this family? Do you know how many important families were still close enough to see this…this scandal?”

  Azul’s teeth clenched, evidently at a loss for words.

  “And you,” the madame rounded on Yuu, whose blood was beginning to drip into the water. The madame’s nostrils flared when she saw the wound. “You unfortunate little fool. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What you’ve gotten yourself into? My instructions are benevolent, as you know. Do you know, little human, that the only way out of the predicament you’ve swum into has heretofore been death?”

  At that, Azul placed himself between the Madame and herself once more, but, quick as a whip, one of Madame’s tentacles shot from beneath her skirt, batting him away like a dazed bird.

  “Out of this, boy! Did you even stop to consider what you were doing? This little trout is lucky she did so many favors for the family this evening, or I’d be forced to visit the consequence on her myself.”

  “She is only human,” Azul said coldly, at last. “Mother, she did not know. Yuu. Go back to the mirror. I’ll be traveling back alone.”

  Know what? the curious part of Yuu wanted to ask, but for once, the self-preserving part of her won out. She pulled herself out of the pool, snatched up her bag, and made for the mirror.

  Fortunately, the Madame answered that question before she was out of earshot.

  “You did not think it important that the poison in your bite will eat her alive if she doesn’t get ink? If she doesn’t consummate whatever this contract was with you, boy? Tell me, is that fair dealing? Is that how I raised you?”

  Yuu heard the sound of a hard slap behind her, and didn’t look back, cold dread pooling in her stomach. However, she did not have time to think about what those words really meant. The mood had just changed so quickly, she could hardly understand it. One moment, she’d felt whole and complete. The next, cold and icy reality. She couldn’t even entirely fault Azul’s mother for her anger. At the same time, she found that she couldn’t entirely fault Azul. Yuu had felt for herself what the dust did to things like ‘consequential thinking,’ and Azul had been avoiding the stuff.

  Yuu, herself, was partially to blame, here, and as soon as Mallory was done with her little three-day honeymoon, she and her were going to have words.

  Yuu had no desire to hear the rest of Madame Ashengrotto’s scoldings for her son, making her way straight toward the pearl arch, and the mirror platform.

  The once-lively lagoon had sunk into a hushed, eerie quiet. The water shimmered under the moon, rippling with the last echoes of laughter from guests disappearing into the mirrors, invitations still in hand, and taking them back to where they’d transported in from. Yuu gripped her own invitation tightly. She had no desire at all to get transported somewhere underwater.

  Winding her way past the coral pillars and the marble and ice statues, deeper into the shadows where the lagoon met the open sea. There on the pearly platform, nestled between two jagged rock formations, the tallest magic mirror waited—a massive pane of swirling silver.

  Yuu clung to the shadows until it was her turn, in no mood to address any late-going guests, or worse, answer any questions.

  She took a breath, then reached out.

  The mirror swallowed her whole in a single, soundless ripple, leaving nothing behind but the soft stir of water and the silent, watching night.

  When she stepped through, Azul and Jade were still in the lounge, lying on the divans that faced the open aquarium, and away from her.

  “You two are back late!” Floyd remarked, glancing up. “What, were the deals that—holy KELP, shrimpy, what happened to YOU?”

  That got Jade’s attention.

  Yuu didn’t really blame them. She must have been a sight, dripping wet, skirt torn, and by now, the water had mingled with the blood on her shoulder, making it look far worse than it was.

  “Can I help you with anything, Yuu?” Jade was up first, crossing the room, and already looking for something to offer her.

  “No, Jade, thanks,” Yuu smiled half-heartedly. “It looks a lot worse than it is. I just… really have to get home. Don’t worry. Azul was right behind me.”

  Floyd’s eyes narrowed, and he shared a ‘look’ with Jade.

  “Is there any particular reason that he didn’t accompany you in person?” Jade asked smoothly.

  “Is there any reason that bastard let his DATE come back alone and bleeding,” Floyd corrected, outraged on her behalf.

  Yuu was oddly touched at their concern, but the fatigue seeping through her limbs prevented her from lingering.

  “He’s going to need a human potion when he gets back,” Yuu offered by way of explanation, adjusting her purse on her shoulder. “And probably some tea… he was also talking to his mother when I left.”

  Jade and Floyd shared another ‘look.’

  “Think it’s time we finally eat that squid?” Floyd grumbled, only half in jest.

  “Best not to jump to any conclusions, yet…” Jade surmised, though he looked far from pleased. “Can we help you home, Yuu?”

  “No!” she yelped, “Ah, no, no thank you,” she said more gracefully. “I really am fine. Just tired. And I should probably go shower off the—ah—salt.”

  “Right,” Floyd rolled his eyes. “The salt. You know, shrimpy, we’re not all like this. Some of us wouldn’t even send you back alone. SOME of us wouldn’t let you come back hurt, either.”

  Yuu did laugh at that, if a little tiredly.

  “It wasn’t exactly his fault. I’ll let Azul explain.”

  “Of course he will,” Jade agreed simply. “It is the least he can do. Well, Miss Yuu, we won’t keep you any longer. You are sure you don’t want help home?”

  “I appreciate you, Jade, but believe me…Azul’s probably gonna be in worse shape…” said Yuu, and at last ducked out the doors of Octavinelle.

  As soon as she was out of sight, she ran for home.