Three Rings (The Fairytail Saga)

  Three Rings

  Book 2 In The Fairytail Saga

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  S.K Munt

  Cover by Natalie Rose Spasic

  © 2013 S.K Munt

  All Rights Reserved

  To my dearest darling mermaids-for sharing mummy with the words

  Love you always

  Annabelle Rose, Lila Grace and Quinn Brielle

  And also to the wonderful people of Mackay for their support

  Part One

  1

  Adele’s eyes were glazed, her pupils unfocused. Her usually pursed lips hung apart, making her look slack-jawed, blurring the sharp beauty of her features. There was no animation in that face, no spark in her eyes, and her complexion was a sickening green.

  Was this a mistake? Ardhi wondered, stepping closer to the window and opening the gap between two flimsy blinds with his fingertip, which was instantly coated with dust. What if she wasn’t ready for it? What if this wrecks everything instead of helping?

  Adele blinked then, and frowned deeply, leaning closer to the screen of the chunky old computer he’d dug out of the office, furrowing her brow. For a moment, she looked human again, free of the zombie plague that was the world wide web. But then she darted a look towards the window, where she knew he was standing, monitoring her, and her fingernails rose up to her teeth before she looked away once more.

  What? Ardhi thought, feeling his insides tense like a coiled snake awakening from slumber. What had Adele learned? The list of things that could go wrong back in Seaview while he strategized five thousand kilometers away was long.

  Ardhi moved to go to her, but at that moment, Adele shut the computer and rubbed her forehead, a weary gesture.

  It’s probably nothing. Ardhi told himself, recognizing Adele’s ‘woe is me’ posture, which usually only concerned her own well-being. Her favorite reality star probably just got divorced.

  As lovely looking as Adele was-the girl was a pain; It was too cold, too wet, the distance they had swum too grand, she was sick of funding their excursion, she missed her parents, she missed her friends….aside from her skin tone and the new shine in her white-gold hair, Adele seemed to resent everything about being a mermaid. She didn’t see the bigger picture- just the little one Ardhi had rubbed out by taking her out of a world she believed she’d dominated before.

  Because getting dumped for another woman you were waitressing with is apparently just a minor hiccup in an otherwise charmed life. Ardhi thought wryly. Adele could claim she wasn’t usually the girl those things happened to until she was mottled red in the face, but Ardhi had his doubts. You were either a winner, or a loser. And for the time being, they were both losers.

  But Ardhi was going to change that. And Adele was going to help, even if he had to drag her by her pretty mint-green fluke all the way back to Seaview.

  ‘What do you think?’ A melodic voice, free of any trace of worry or paranoia filled the dingy living room.

  Ardhi twisted to see his most faithful recruit standing in front of the open bathroom door. Steam swirled out from behind her and clung to her bare skin. She’d toweled dried her hair but not enough, for rivulets still ran down her shoulders. It was an arresting sight.

  ‘Well, you’re blonde. Adele did good, I think,’ he said, tilting his head to the side and eyeing her critically. Was it enough? What else could be done? She had an incredibly feminine body, an exquisite face and a certain way of moving that suggested self-possession-but Ivyanne was the most glorious creature on land or sea-if Ardhi wanted to turn Lincoln’s head away from the princess, he needed a goddess to use as bait.

  ‘Why thank you…’ she purred, putting a hand on the curve of her hip and posing while fluttering her eyelashes. She tousled her hair. ‘I miss the red, but I think this could be fun.’

  ‘I still think it could be lighter.’ Ardhi hedged, uncertain. He really didn’t know if she was up for the task, but he hoped Adele’s insight into the mind of the man she hadn’t been able to hang on to herself would be of use in this shiny new wrapper.

  The front door opened and Adele hurried inside, clasping the laptop to her chest and clenching her teeth against the cool air that rushed in behind her until she locked it out. She shivered then turned, freezing when her eyes fell on the other woman.

  ‘You’re naked!’Adele gasped, looking mortified.

  The other woman smiled. ‘You’re astute.’

  Adele frowned. ‘Can’t you cover up, just a little?’

  ‘We’re mermaids, Ice Queen. Lighten up.’

  Adele glowered at the other woman, then exhaled heavily-wearied once more, a feeling Ardhi shared. The two women had been arguing like feral cats in the twenty four hours since they’d met, driving him crazy. Still, it was to be expected-his plan to get Ivyanne back was bound to make Adele feel out of sorts, especially given that she still had feelings for the guy he wanted their ally to seduce.

  ‘Actually, we’re screwed.’ Adele twisted to face Ardhi, anxiety pinching her delicate features. ‘Operation home wrecker probably isn’t going to cut it, mate. Lincoln’s not the only issue waiting for us back in Seaview.’ She smirked. ‘You could say :We’re going to need a bigger boat.’

  Ardhi’s lungs constricted on the tail edge of an exhale, and he ignored her ridiculous joke. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ His heartbeat had already begun to quicken and that familiar hot pressure pooled in his hands like lava. ‘They haven’t…?’

  ‘No.’ The levity faded from Adele’s eyes like a sunset leeched by darkness. ‘I don’t think so anyway. And they may not get the happily ever after you bestowed upon them.’ Adele swallowed. ‘Because Tristan Loveridge is still alive.’

  Of all the things Ardhi had expected her to say-that was not one of them, and he wasn’t even able to process the statement at first. He stared at her, wondering if this was just another dumb joke. But her returning gaze was sombre and steadfast-and the hands gripping the laptop to her chest were white-knuckled in fear. She knew Ardhi was going to lose it.

  ‘Wait.’ The third party spoke, a warm, moist hand landing on his bare shoulder. ‘Tristan survived being stabbed through the ribs? You said it was a twelve inch blade!’

  Ardhi closed his eyes, gnashing his teeth together, trying to recollect the moment he’d been reliving for days-he remembered the blade piercing, and sinking deep between the other man’s ribs. Yes it had met some resistance, but the blood that had streamed out- it had obscured Tristan’s lifeless body in the water. How could anyone had survived that, man, mer or beast? Was it possible that Ardhi had somehow missed every vital organ in his haste to get back to Lincoln?

  Ardhi expected to feel rage, but his body was too tense to let a single sensation take grip on him. He opened his eyes, stared blankly at Adele, who was shifting nervously from one foot to the other.

  ‘How do you know this?’ He asked, surprised by how even his voice came out.

  Adele hugged the laptop more tightly with one hand and raked the other through her hair. ‘I checked my Facebook. Don’t freak-I didn’t talk to anybody-but Ilsa had sent me like a million messages over the weekend, and one was saying that if I came back, I might still have a shot with Lincoln, because she’d seen Ivyanne get on Tristan’s boat with him on Thursday afternoon-alone-and drive off somewhere together.’ She paused. ‘Not that Ilsa knows that Tristan’s supposed to be dead, like you said, they would have covered that up-but she wouldn’t mistake him for someone else either.’

  Ardhi was astounded. Did their hanging out mean that she was actually still considering marrying the bottom feeder? Even after Ardhi had given his life to unite her with her su
pposed human soul mate? It was unthinkable! Bile rose in his throat as his fingertips began to pulse with the need to hurt something.

  But another thought calmed him; If Lincoln’s love didn’t carry enough weight to make Ivyanne send Tristan packing...well, it erased any lingering doubts Ardhi’d had about his rightful place in Ivyanne’s life. If neither man was enough for her, then he’d stop at nothing to convince her that he was the only option.

  ‘On the bright side…’ Adele started, ‘you’re not going to have to worry about the whole ‘murderer’ label thing hanging over your head when you go back now.’

  Ardhi hoisted an eyebrow. ‘Does attempted murder sit better with humans? Because it won’t make a difference to our kind, and if I’m going to have to right my wrongs, they’re going to expect me to apologize to the scumbag.’ His insides tightened, physically repelling the very idea. No, he wouldn’t be doing that, and he wouldn’t be fighting Tristan for Ivyanne’s attention again either. He was above that now.

  Adele shrugged. ‘Small price to pay for stabbing someone, don’t you think?’

  ‘Not to me it’s not. To me it’s more than I can afford-or intend-to pay.’ He turned away, staring back towards the window, feeling that calm settle more deeply over him now that he was thinking again, instead of reacting.

  Okay so this was a mess up-a major speed bump-but it wasn’t unmanageable. He cast his mind over the plan he’d already had, and realized there was no reason to derail from it-Tristan or no Tristan-Link was still an obstacle. Ardhi wouldn’t be able to kill one of his own creations, as it went against every fibre of his being to do so, but he could get him out of the way without bloodshed by preying on his human weaknesses.

  ‘Tristan lived.’ He said this simply, calmly, watching a light mist of rain turn the grass outside the window silvery and slick-a calm rain, courtesy of his focused, centered dismay. ‘Well, I’ll have to rectify that.’

  For a moment there was silence. Then, the two girls erupted at once.

  ‘So I still get a crack at this Lincoln guy?’ One crisp, lightly accented voice demanded.

  ‘Rectify life?!’ Adele’s voice was shrill. ‘You’re going to kill him again? How are you going to convince everyone that you’re a martyr and not a villain if you come after their golden boy a second time?!’

  Ardhi faced her and smiled. ‘Because no one will know it was me,’ he said, with a slight smile. ‘They’ll blame fate, and Ivyanne will blame herself. She’s cursed, remember?’

  Adele stared at him, the horror in her blue eyes told him she’d just gone from reluctant ally, to liability. He’d known it was a possibility all along, but the fact that Tristan’s fate had sealed her position made his blood boil.

  Stupid bitch, he thought, sensing her desire to flee. The charge in his hands crackled into his palms, and his fingers flexed, then curled-focusing it instead of resisting this time. He was going to need it to put her in her place.

  ‘I didn’t sign up to be a party to this.’Adele said, shaking her head, confirming his intuition. She glanced at the other woman. ‘We don’t need to do this-’

  ‘I want to do this.’ The other woman said, smiling, stretching. ‘Lincoln sounds like a tall drink of water darlin, and I’m thirsty.’

  ‘You didn’t sign up at all.’ Ardhi pointed out to Adele, smiling at his more faithful ally’s enthusiasm. The room flashed, and the lights flickered as a crack of lightning lit the atmosphere beyond the walls. He took a step towards her. ‘You were recruited because I needed you. You didn’t have an option then, and you don’t have one now.’

  Adele swallowed, backing up a pace. ‘And what will you do if I say no?’

  Ardhi grinned at her. ‘That’s the dumbest question I’ve ever heard. But if you want a demonst-’

  Adele moved to run, but she hadn’t managed to twist the handle on the door before Ardhi caught her hair and yanked her soft, fragile body up against his chest, feeling a different kind of power sluice through him as she cried out. He clamped his hand over her mouth, stifling her scream, and felt her body begin to shudder as his energy broke free of its barriers and penetrated hers in a wave that crackled instead of crashed. Two seconds was all it took, before she went limp in his arms. He released her hair and she fell to the dusty timber floor like a broken swan.

  ‘Dumb question.’ He repeated to her motionless figure.

  Outside, the rain stopped as the pressure within him abated.

  ⁓

  Two Weeks Later

  ‘You feel so amazing in my arms,’ Lincoln whispered to Ivyanne, rolling onto his side and running his hand down the softly sculpted lines of her bicep, nuzzling his nose against hers, inhaling her fragrance until the oxygen in his lungs carried traces of frangipanis, coconut and sun-warmed linen. Beneath them, her waterbed wobbled, and he gripped her more tightly, unable to bear a single gap between her body and his.

  He could never get close enough to Ivyanne, especially at moments like this when she was dry and her hair billowed between them, tangling around his arms, tickling his cheek.

  ‘How amazing?’ Ivyanne asked, and her arm slipped over his waist, pulling him to the curve of her body. Her hand on his bare lower back was so hot that he groaned, feeling himself harden as his firm limbs crashed into her soft ones. ‘Show me what I do to you.’

  Lincoln was caught off-guard by this demand. ‘But...the rules….?’

  Ivyanne smiled wickedly. ‘Sneaking around is what we do, Link,’ her fingers slipped beneath the waistband of his shorts, glancing off the top curve of his rump and making the firm flesh tingle in expectation. She leaned forward and rested her lips against the underside of his chin, staring up at him through gold-tipped lashes that made the green of her eyes more arresting by contrast. Her lips didn’t break contact with her skin as she mumbled: ‘And no one’s home….’

  Lincoln wasn’t going to wait for a starter gun to back up the waving of the white flag. He ducked his head to scoop up her mouth with his own, his growing erection twitching as her mouth parted and welcomed him in with a lazy swirl of her sweet tongue. Ivyanne sighed, the sound traveling through him, and he rolled, needing to press himself into her, to take the edge of his ache. Her thighs opened, making room for him to sink into the depression she’d created and he gasped in her kiss, his hands lifting to catch hers and pin them above her head. He wanted to kiss her all over, her neck, her clavicle, the exposed tops of her breasts, and he wanted her stretched out beneath him so that every inch was open to his mouth.

  ‘I want you!’ He rasped into her mouth. ‘Now!’

  But he must have misjudged the stability of the bed because his body kept rolling and suddenly, he was falling towards her bedroom floor, landing with a violent impact that sent a jar through him, startling him back to his senses. The warmth of Ivyanne’s body was gone, but he was lying face-first in boiling hot sand instead.

  Sand? He thought, incredulous and disgusted, pushing up and spitting out a mouthful of grains. It didn’t help. It was on his tongue and lips and teeth-not to mention his entire front. Through his damp shorts, his erection was pressing into the soft, unbearably warm surface, burning him.

  ‘Ahh!’ He spat again and looked up to Ivyanne, wanting to know how her bed had ended up on the beach-but instead of looking into his lover’s eyes, he found himself squinting up at a hammock through the glare of midday sun. It was empty and swinging violently. And somewhere nearby, the sound of laughter was mingling with the gentle slap of low tide against the shore of Bracken Island.

  That laugh cleared a path through his disorientation as he sensed imminent embarrassment. After only four short weeks-Lincoln knew Tristan Grey’s throaty chuckle well, and it was almost always directed at Lincoln. He turned around, wiping sand from his mouth, to see Tristan holding a volleyball to his chest and grinning at him, while Saraya looked on from a few feet away, arms still poised to catch the ball, face alight with amusement and shock-also at Lincoln’s expense. They were almost exactly
as they’d been after they had returned from their morning swim. They’d opted for volleyball, but exhausted from work, Lincoln had gone for a nap.

  And they’d probably heard his every moan.

  ‘I’m going to go out on a limb here Link, and suggest that maybe the hammock just wants to be friends?’ Tristan asked, with a smirk.

  ‘You’re so funny!’ Lincoln shot back, mortified, dusting himself off.

  ‘And hung too.’ Tristan added, not missing a beat. ‘The hammock probably wouldn’t have bucked me off so quickly.’

  ‘Sex dreams…’ Saraya said softly. ‘I’ve been there.’ She looked at Tristan. ‘And you were there with me once or twice.’

  Tristan snorted. ‘Just twice?’

  ‘Okay maybe more.’

  Lincoln didn’t want to hear another word. Fuming, he stomped down to the waters edge to wash himself off-and cool himself down. Because embarrassed or not, his body was still throbbing in memory of a touch he’d yet to know.

  One more day, Lincoln reminded himself as he knelt in the small breaking waves. He’ll go back to Sydney, and Ivyanne will stay with me. And the countdown from fantasy to reality will begin.

  ⁓

  A few minutes after Saraya had excused herself to go shower off, Tristan decided to follow, curious to see what Ivyanne had been up to in his absence, wondering if he should tell her about Lincoln’s most recent humiliation, or if she’d see it as flattery and giggle adoringly, as though she’d forgotten that she was possibly carrying a child that Tristan had sired. Which was sort of how she came across every damn day.

  For two weeks they’d been living on Bracken together, Lincoln as a protégé merman, Tristan as a paranoid cling-on. And the only thing Tristan knew for sure after so many hours of studying the girl he‘d fallen for, was that Lincoln Grey had her favor. Her sentimentality towards the newly turned merman was sickeningly obvious. Her eyes followed his movements, her laugh punctuated his words. Where she edged away from Tristan and refused to hold his gaze for longer than a heartbeat, she constantly angled herself towards Link like a flower to the sun. In addition to that, she had this ridiculous compulsion to protect him. She was constantly chastising Tristan for any remark that could possibly hurt poor Link’s feelings, and refused to let him out of her sight for more than a few hours. She swam with Link, taking his training into her own hands, but had yet to put her toe in the water in Tristan’s presence, and followed Lincoln dutifully back to The Seaview for every shift, even though the jig was up when it came to her moonlighting as a human now.