Chapter 40

Anton and I both eagerly wait for Laila to begin the story about her date, but when she just continues to sit and blush Anton moans and collapses on to the couch next to me, making both of us turn to him in shock.

“It’s no fair,” he groans, putting his hands over his face. “I’m so jealous. No one takes me on fancy dates that leave me speechless and blushing.”

Laila and I burst out laughing, as we’re meant to. As I watch I realize that Anton did that all very deliberately to give Laila the time and space she needs to collect herself – that he saw she was embarrassed and stepped in.

Kind little ghost, I think to myself, quite pleased with him. My wolf yips her agreement.

“Oh, poor Anton!” Laila coos, still laughing. “We’ll get you a nice little ghost girl to go on a date with –“

My wolf’s hackles raise at the idea.

“No, he’s just jealous of you,” I murmur, patting Anton on the knee with mock comfort as I glance at Laila. “You should see Orion and him together – it’s all jokes and fast banter – honestly, their bromance is spicier than anything I’ve seen yet.”

“Bromance?” Laila gasps, pressing her hands together beneath her chin, clearly delighted with this new term. “Really, you and Orion are…hitting it off?”

“Yes,” Anton sighs, covering his eyes dramatically with one his hand. “We’re best friends. We bond over finding Juniper exhausting, which means we are very close.”

I shrug and calmly sip from my coffee, knowing that it’s not really a lie.

Laila laughs, shaking her head. “Well then my date can only pale in comparison.” She takes a deep breath, then, and begins to tell us about her evening with Orion. As she speaks I sneak a glance at Anton, who is characteristically listening closely to Laila, and I find that I am quite proud of him for cleverly making her feel more at ease. Happy, I sip my coffee and scoot closer to him.

Even though Laila blushes through her story, the date sounds – at least to me – quite tame. He took her to dinner in a beautiful room at the top of the palace, and asked about her life, and then danced with her a little bit on a balcony beneath the open sky. Romantic but…I don’t know. Missing some of the spice that I’d be looking for on a date.

I remember, briefly, the evening when I met Blythe – bumping into him in the busy night club on the night of my sister’s mate’s boxing match. How there had instantly been a flare of chemistry between us when he’d found me a little lost on the wrong floor of the club, trying to find my way back to my family. How he’d teased me, quite cleverly, about not needing anyone to protect me with a glare as sharp as mine. But then, quite gallant, he’d offered to lead me back to the VIP floor, where my family had gathered.

He'd taken me the long way there, stopping by the bar to grab me a drink, and I’d spent the entire time just…staring at his beautiful face, completely dumbstruck by it. And then, at the VIP door, how he’d kissed my hand and begged me for any opportunity to talk to me again, completely ignoring the room full of royals just beyond, including my beautiful sister.

Because he’d had eyes just for me.

So I’d stumbled out a yes and the rest was…very fast.

I clear my throat, glancing down at my coffee, forcing myself back to the moment as Laila finishes telling us about how Orion vanished her home himself and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

And I smile at my friend, glad for her, truly able to tell that she really, really enjoyed the date. But even as I try to be happy for my friend, deep down my wolf turns anxiously, wondering now about that night when I met Blythe. About why, precisely, he’d ignored my whole family when…

…when I now realize that he knew half of the people in the room when he left me at the door. That he knew my brother Rafe, and my cousin Jesse, and Ariel’s mates – and Ariel herself, even if he probably thought she was a boy at that time. He’d told me that he didn’t know them, but with the way that Anton talks about him?

Is that really true? That he could have…never met them, if everyone apparently purports to know him so well?

And if Blythe did know my family…why wouldn’t he have come in to say hello?

“Well, I think that’s it for all of the rest of the Competitors,” Anton says with a happy sigh, leaning back against the couch. “Clearly, Orion’s gone on you, Laila. June, you’re screwed.”

I scowl playfully at Anton and shake my head, forcing myself to rejoin the conversation, to be cheerful for Laila’s sake. Honestly, I’m being rude – she deserves a better friend right now.

“Obviously, he’s very taken by our beautiful mermaid,” Anton says, casting a hand out towards Laila. “You’ve got absolutely no hopes left –“

“She can take him!” I say, laughing, lifting my cup towards Laila in toast, even if my wolf grumbles within me, knowing it’s a lie, that I am truthfully a little jealous of their lovely date when my date with him just ended in a fight, as usual.

Not that that’s not my fault too.

“Oh, and she will,” Anton says, grinning at me, quite clever. “In fact, I’m changing my allegiances, I only want to work with a winner. I’m her handmaid now –“

“Wait,” Laila says, leaning forward towards us and placing her drink on the table. “Do you…do you guys think that I’m a mermaid?”

Anton and I both go very quiet for a second, staring at her. Then Anton leans forward, curious. “Are you telling us that you’re…not a mermaid?”

A smile bursts out on Laila’s face as her eyes dart between us for a second and then she starts to laugh. As we just stare back at her, both of us smiling and confused, she laughs harder and harder until her head tilts back on her shoulders and her cheerful noise fills the room.

“Wait, I – I don’t get it,” Anton murmurs, glancing at me to see if I do.

But I just smile and shrug because honestly, I’m lost.

“Oh my god,” Laila says, lifting her head back up and pressing a hand to her chest as she continues to laugh and look between us. “If you – if you guys knew what an insult that was in my culture –“

I gasp, horrified at the idea. Anton’s mouth falls open as he stares at her.

“No, no!” Laila says, holding out a hand towards us. “I think that we just completely misunderstand each other! Um!” She laughs again, a little hysterical now. “Can you like, show me? What you mean, when you think of a mermaid?”

I glance at Anton and then put my coffee on the table and move closer to Laila, conjuring a children’s story book in my hands as I do. It’s one of my favorites from when I was a little girl – a story about a mermaid who falls in love with a Prince who lives on land. She gives up her ocean life to go and live at his side.

“This is what I think of,” I say quietly, flipping to the right page and pointing at the illustrated mermaid there. It’s a beautiful image – one that gave me much scope for dreaming as a little girl. The mermaid sits with her long iridescent fish tail wrapped around a rock. She turns her naked back to the reader, looking off at a palace shining gold in the sunset, the place where her lover lives.

“I think it’s the hair,” Anton murmurs and I jump a little because I didn’t realize that he’d moved to sit close and peer over my shoulder. He reaches out a long blue finger and taps the mermaids long gorgeous hair, which falls in long green and blue locks like Laila’s does. “You have mermaid hair.”

“Oh,” Laila says, pressing a hand to her heart and beaming as she looks at the image with a great deal of love in her eyes. Then she looks up at both of us, clearly pleased. “Well, this is certainly a compliment and a very nice one. So thank you for thinking that I am a mermaid, if this is what you mean.”

“I’m totally lost, Lais,” Anton says, grinning at her and shaking his head. “If this isn’t a mermaid, then what is?”