Kadir’s heart cracked in half.

Elyssa’s brows folded into agony. She looked as frightened and sad as the brides of his memory. Frightened by the old covenant. Refusing their destiny. Crying.

This ceremony was supposed to fill Elyssa with power. It was supposed to strengthen their love and prove her rightness as ruler. She was supposed to shine so brightly that no warrior would doubt her need to remain as queen.

But that was not what had happened.

Adviser Creo was correct. Kadir had selfishly focused on acquiring a queen. Any queen. Elyssa told him over and over ruling wasn’t her wish. He pushed her into the blade of a trident and then chided her for writhing and screaming.

That was his love for her. It was as sharp as a blade.

“Fine,” she cried shakily. “Don’t call me queen. I know what it looks like and I don’t blame you.”

Even now she was suffering. Redness and shinier moisture rimmed her eyes. Kadir started to try to calm her. Before he could, something strange happened.

Her chest glowed brighter.

She swam forward and stabbed her finger at Adviser Creo. “But don’t try to pin my problems on Kadir. Or Lucy! Lucy is the smartest, nicest, most capable person you will ever find. And if Aya were here, we’d all be fine. My problems,” she pressed her hand flat against her chest, “are my problems. So don’t call me queen if you don’t feel like it. But, honest to god, I’m one hundred percent trying.”

Her fiery commitment, yelling at the shocked adviser and the rest of his stunned warriors, eased the sharpness in Kadir’s soul. This golden light was what had intrigued him.

But Adviser Creo was still correct. She tried because Kadir forced his will upon her. In the beginning, he hadn’t cared. He had caused her suffering because he had not cared beyond his own selfish vision.

“Elyssa’s wishes will be obeyed,” he ordered. “You will not call her queen.”

“Unless you feel like it.” She abruptly sat next to the slender trunk of the Life Tree.

The mer shifted uneasily. Gailen glared at his feet.

Kadir selected him from the crowd. “You protest my order.”

Gailen’s head snapped up. His enthusiasm burned hot as the bright orange tattoos scrolled across his broad chest. “Yes, I protest. Queen Elyssa is a queen. She is here, and she is here to stay.”

The words, which Kadir wanted to be true, nailed into his selfish heart. He struggled to formulate his response.

Elyssa answered instead. “Yes, but, you don’t have to call me queen until I’ve done something to deserve it.”

“Deserving it is not the issue.” Gailen glanced at Nilun, who stood out because he was the only warrior who’d remained in a military precision stance despite all of the wedding day’s shocks. “Some warriors even address Soren as first lieutenant, even though he—”

“Enough!” Soren snarled.

Gailen stopped.

Kadir found his response. “Titles have never been compulsory in Atlantis. When you call me king, it means you acknowledge my right to rule. Every time you call me king, it holds this meaning. And the day you stop calling me king, that will also have a meaning.”

He held their attention. They stilled, full of honor, chests risen.

“Elyssa comes before you not as a title. She comes before you as herself. She is my queen. When she has your honor, then you call her queen also.”

Gailen lifted his chin. He and others, like strict Nilun, would call Elyssa a queen right away. Roles and honors must be clearly established.

Brides came and went. Queens stayed and ruled.

This solution seemed to please Elyssa. She stroked the Life Tree’s trunk. Her chest glowed with firm resolution.

Only Adviser Creo worried. “You are making a mistake. Your bride is a treasure that must be protected. Do not force her into an unnatural role so roughly.”

“It’s not rough,” Elyssa protested.

He stared at her pityingly. “He asks you to do hard things. You struggle.”

“Well, I know I should do better.”

“You should not have to try. The role he forces you into is unnatural.”

“There were queens in ancient times,” Kadir growled.

“Yes. Ancient times. Not modern.” Adviser Creo softened as he regarded Elyssa. “That is why you suffer.”

“Really? But…I am trying…” Elyssa rested her head on the trunk. Her soul light darkened.

It stabbed Kadir in the chest.

The adviser’s words hurt her. Kadir jerked his chin at Soren to take control of the warriors. “Leave us.”

Soren swam to the tunnel. “The first group, to patrols. Second group, assist. The third group, join me in the old city.” The warriors swam out of the sanctuary, emptying it.

Adviser Creo lingered.

Kadir ignored him. He had no words for the All-Council representative. Especially because Kadir knew, deep down, he was right.

Soren swept the sanctuary. His eyes were sharp. “Adviser. Leave.”

The adviser puffed up. “King Kadir must hear—”

“Now!”

Adviser Creo huffed.

Soren bared his teeth.

The adviser fled from the large, angry mer. Soren swam after him. They were alone. The sanctuary fell silent.

Elyssa’s soft, brown hair floated into the Life Tree branches like a sea dragon curling among leaves. She stroked the tree, her light fluctuating unsteadily.

“Elyssa, your light is flickering,” he said softly.

“I’m afraid.”

Fear spiked in his heart. She had taken the vow. He had tried to calm her by not forcing the other mer to address her by her proper title. Now she feared their new life?

“What is your need?” Although he meant to be soft and entreating, his tone seemed harsh. A reflection of his disturbed heart.

“My attitude. It’s always the same. ‘I can’t do this.’ It’s the problem.”

His heart beat in his ears as loud as a predator attack. She couldn’t be his bride? She couldn’t be a mer? She couldn’t give up the air world and join with him?

His chest panged.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

As soon as he brought a bride to the Life Tree and they performed the ceremony, she was supposed to reassure the warriors. She was supposed to join with him. She was supposed to carry his young fry son, win over the All-Council adviser, and establish Atlantis as the chosen city of a new era.

Instead, the ceremony went wrong, his warriors were confused and worried, Adviser Creo had stopped an outright rebellion during the wedding feast, and his bride was afraid.

He barely heard what he said next. “You cannot?”

“It’s like how I messed you up during the goblin shark attack. I stiffened and almost got Soren killed. I keep saying I’m trying. But you can see this glowing light in my chest that shows how I really feel.” She smoothed her hair and played with the branches. “I finally get it. Words aren’t enough.”

What was she saying?

“Words are vows,” he growled.

“Vows only matter if they’re backed up by action.”

Was she saying her words were empty? They would have no action?

“I’m trying to be a mermaid, I’m trying to be a good bride, I’m trying to be an impressive queen. All my words are saying, ‘I’m trying,’ but all my actions are saying, ‘Stop, quit, I’m leaving.’ That’s the problem. Don’t you think?”

She wanted to stop. She wanted to quit. She wanted to leave.

Now.

Although he was standing upright on two human feet, the Life Tree dais seemed to tilt backward. He staggered.

“So obviously what I need to do now is stop talking,” she rose and turned to him, nervous but determined, “and start acting.”

Elyssa smoothed her hair and stroked her hands down her body, curving over the swell of her small breasts and dipping to her waist, flaring over her feminine hips and down her thighs.

She was so beautiful and all he could see was that she was going away from him.

It was like on the swim where he had determined to reveal himself to his mother and discovered he was already too late. Even though it was impossible, it felt like his intention had caused her death. On the long, solo swim back to Dragao Azul, every gasp of seawater had choked him.

It felt the same now.

He had no tools for this. No weapons to fight this shock. No plan to evade her pain.

Elyssa licked her index finger, teasing the digit between her teeth, and glanced over her shoulder, up at him coyly, from the corner of her eyes. What she saw in his face shocked her. Her half-lidded pose abruptly straightened and she bounced to his side. “Hey, are you okay? You’re looking white.”

He couldn’t make words.

She took his hands. “You’re trembling.” Her frown cleared. She sought his gaze. “What’s wrong? Are you going to be sick?”

He shook his head.

“Kadir?” She stroked his cheek. Only moments ago, those smooth fingers had been stroking the Life Tree. As if she carried healing balm in her fingers, each stroke calmed his thudding heart. “You’re frightening me.”

He gripped her wrist. Arresting her. “You wish to leave.”

She tried to pull free. “No, I’m—”

“You cannot do this. You wish to quit. I frighten you.”

“No!” Her eyes flashed. “Just a minute.”

“You refuse to be my queen.”

“You’re not listening to—”

“But it is too late. For all those things, I want you.” He forced her to his chest and captured her mouth with his kiss.

His.

She struggled.

He kissed her harder.

She put her palms on his chest. Bang! A force shoved him back. He stumbled and fell, landing flat on his back on the soft, white ground.

It felt like he’d been slammed with the flat base of two tridents. His lungs collapsed. His eyes burned with tears. He struggled to draw in water.

She had pushed him away. Used the force of the Life Tree to incapacitate him.

Elyssa rejected him completely.

“Stop! Will you listen?” Her face scrunched, and she balled her hands into fists. “I’m trying to say I want you too!”

No. He misunderstood. She wanted to flee to the surface, not sink down to the muck with him.

“I do so want the muck.” Somehow, she knew his words, even though his chest was constricted from the force and he was unable to form sounds. She pounced on top of him. Her legs straddled his abdomen. His back pressed deeper into the soft, white loam of the Life Tree, flattening his gills and cutting off his non-existent breath. Her eyes shone brightly. “The muck has you.”

No. She did not feel like he did.

“Don’t tell me how I feel. It’s hard enough when you consider how you’re a literal king and I’m somewhat below ordinary.”

She splayed her hands across his pectorals and dipped her mouth to one nipple. Her mouth was hot and her teeth hotter. His cock flooded with arousal.

“What…are you doing?” he managed, regaining control of his chest vibrations.

“I told you I’m done with words.” She swirled the other nipple with her tongue and moved lower, leaving a heat trail. “I was trying to seduce you.”

That was why she had stroked her body and looked at him coyly over her shoulder?

He slowly regained the use of his hands, although the grip that arrested her hands barely held her. “Stop, Elyssa. Not here.”

She yanked her hands free and nearly growled. “Don’t underestimate my determination.”

Her gaze arrested him. The Life Tree chimed once, gently. Did she then truly want him? Yes. He released her.

She dropped her mouth to his flexing abdomen and licked. A warrior matching him for raw sexuality.

His cock pulsed with arousal.

Her soft breasts slid over his hot skin. She was so beautiful. Her tongue traced the silver lines down his legs, sliding over the prison injuries and scars. He had endured the beatings because of this day. Because he would not give up his vision. Today, his queen joined with him.

A powerful sense of rightness anchored his body.

She wrapped velvet hands around the thick mushroom head of his cock.

He surged into her hands. Ready.

She smiled at his eagerness — smiled, like sunshine — and lowered her mouth. He thought that she would kiss him and tensed in readiness. But instead, she swirled her tongue over his head and took him into her mouth.

He had never imagined such a thing.

Her tight, slick mouth heat encompassed him. Her tongue moved, slippery and curious. She tasted him, appreciated him, savored him.

His balls clenched.

He gripped her hair and dragged her face to his.

Her eyes were half-lidded and a smile curved her gorgeous lips. “Tastes—”

He stole her thoughts with his kiss.

Her willing mouth opened and her tongue joined his, tangling and wrestling, stroking. Delicious moans fed the arousal pulsing in his blood. He needed her now. Craved to join with her. He shoved his shoulder into hers to roll her over.

She resisted, clamping her thighs around his waist and forcing his shoulders to the ground.

He stared up at her.

There was no doubt that she wanted him.

With powerful knowledge of how she commanded his body, she twisted to capture his iron-hard cock in her small hand.

Her pink nipples floated tantalizingly close to his face.

He curled tight and caught one sweet nipple in his mouth.

She cried softly. Delicious arousal. Her fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer.

He cupped the other breast and pearled its nipple between his thumb and index finger.

She moaned and arched, opening herself to him completely. This was trust. This was love. This was his bride’s true desire. He chased her pleasure, sensing it the way he sensed her rising heartbeat. His cock slipped closer to her channel. He needed her in every way. In his soul, in his body, in his heart.

But what about her? She closed her eyes.

“You want me,” he declared.

She licked her lips and moaned.

He marked her with kisses. Her beautiful, soft belly and her gently mounded breasts and her pink nipples, her curved shoulders. Her long neck and her playful smile and the hunger in her pleasure-closed eyes.

She wrapped her legs around his thighs. Her slick cleft teased the head of his cock. Still with her eyes closed, she moved her hips, urging him to enter.

He arrested her. Forced her face to his. “Tell me.”

She blinked and struggled to focus. “I need you.”

He eased in the tip.

Her eyes rolled back in her head. Bliss illuminated her. She moaned and tilted to take him deeper.

He grabbed her waist, slowing her. She felt sweet, hot, and slick like her mouth, but deeper and more yielding and tightly feminine. His cock throbbed. She would not run away.

From this moment forward, everything was different. From this single life-giving union, their bodies and their souls became one.

Her sunlit smile wavered. Her lips trembled. “Kadir?”

He held her tight. This moment would never be repeated. What came after? Did anything come after? No. Only Elyssa. In his arms. Forever.

Could he reach the shore?

“Please.” She nipped his lips again, teasing him with her sweet entreaty. “Kadir. Please.”

He released her waist.

She speared herself deep on his hard cock. Pleasure shuddered through both of them. It was done. They were connected now, fully and completely.

She slipped away from him. He surged to meet her. Rocking, like the eternal surface tides slapping the wet shore.

Their rhythms matched. His long male cock massaged her tight female channel in a dance as old as life. She writhed desperately. Her light pulsed brilliantly, bathing him in awareness of her uncontrollable pleasure.

A gathering sensation clenched in his spine.

She dug both hands into his hair and screamed.

He pounded into her, giving her what she begged for, what she needed.

She cried his name and threw back her head, bucking and grinding with abandon. White light flashed, intense and brilliant. She collapsed. Passion whipped through her, trembling her to completion.

His balls pulsed and the clench released. He poured his seed deep into her with one final long, hard thrust.

It was done. They were united.

She lay against him and rested her head on his shoulder. A satisfied smile curved her small lips. She kissed his jaw and twined their fingers.

The Life Tree branches glowed down on them as though questioning. What were they doing here, joining in this holy sanctuary? Yet another taboo he had broken.

With his still-hard cock embraced by his Elyssa, a deep sense of peace flooded his heavy limbs.

His warriors would overlook this. No, he would make a new tradition, one where the bridal night was always spent with the Life Tree.

The warriors would accept Elyssa as their queen. She would accept herself. Adviser Creo would approve their city.

Kadir willed it. He willed everything else to come true. He would make new traditions, and all would accept it as he had done so.