Read Online Breakwater by Shannon Mayer - Free Book Online Page B

my six feet, but not by much. “Your ambassador will be fine, and now we must insist you go. She will be safe here.”
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.” I stared her down and waited while she struggled to pull herself together. My eyes, one gold, one green, disturbed people. They marked me as “other,” and “other” was not respected in our world.
    “Ayu.”
    “Well, Ayu, until my ambassador releases me to leave, I’m not moving from this spot.” I smiled at her, but I knew I was swimming in dangerous waters. Ayu’s eyes narrowed and two spots of bright purple bloomed high on her cheeks.
    “I am the First Healer. Do you dare doubt my word?”
    I continued to smile, though my words were anything but pleasant. “We were just attacked by someone’s familiars after being welcomed to the Deep. Forgive me if I don’t trust you.”
    Her body jerked as if I’d slapped her. “Someone welcomed you?”
    I shoved the crumpled note at her. She took it, smoothed it out, and I watched her carefully. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped as she read. Good sign? I didn’t think so.
    “Where is he? I’d like to speak with him about his welcome .”
    “He . . .” Her eyes lifted and then looked past me, widening farther. I spun, spear swirling in front of me, stopping at the throat of a beefy looking Undine. Unlike the whip-thin Dolph, the man behind me rippled with muscles and had a mouth full of teeth that grinned at me. His eyes, though, were jet black, not unlike those of the sharks we’d faced a short time past. He slid into the room, avoiding my blade.
    “Ah, cousin, please. You can put your weapon away.”
    I didn’t lower the spear, despite his invocation of the familiar ‘cousin.’ All elementals thought of each other as distant branches of the same family. And just like most families, we didn’t always get along. I stepped sideways, blocking him from getting to Bella. “I think I’ll keep it out until you tell me who you are and why you set your familiars on us.”
    The room went quiet except for the soft moan of my sister on the table.
    He spread his hands. “My familiars have minds of their own, as they all do. You would know that if you had one yourself.”
    I glared at him. The insult was subtle. I wasn’t strong enough to have been given a familiar. The more familiars an elemental had, the stronger they were. We’d had three sharks trying to take us down.
    Which meant this one was going to be a problem.
    “I don’t care if you have a dozen sharks, you should be able to control your familiars.”
    His grin widened and the resemblance between him and his familiars deepened. Yeah, this guy was not cool. “My name is Requiem. And I am about to be crowned the King of the Deep. A bastard, I’ll admit, but that doesn’t make me any less of an heir to the throne, does it . . . Larkspur?”
    While I didn’t lower the tip of my spear, my mind reeled from the information, and the fact he knew me and my status. “You welcome us here, then try to kill us?”
    “Your ambassador put on quite a power show causing the tsunami. How do I know she isn’t here to wipe us all out? I have to protect my people. The best way to do that is for you to put yourself into danger. Which you did quite nicely, by the way.”
    He thought Belladonna had caused the earthquake. That was probably for the best; if they thought she was powerful, they would be more careful with her. We slowly shifted around the room, mirroring each other’s steps as he tried to get an open shot past me. “You aren’t getting any closer to her and you didn’t answer my question. Why welcome then try to kill us?”
    “A woman with that kind of power should not be allowed to roam without someone holding her reins.” He slid his hand down and grabbed his crotch.
    “Sea slime,” Ayu whispered behind me.
    I had to agree.
    Requiem paced closer to me, and I could feel the rest of the room shift back. They were afraid of him, the