Of Poseidon

close.”
    I gasp. “How do you know that? I can’t feel them.” My heart turns traitor, beating like I just ran five miles uphill. It has nothing to do with sensing and everything to do with the mention of Galen’s name.
    “I’m a Tracker, Emma. I can sense them from almost across the world. Especially Rayna. And from the feel of things, Galen is flittering that cute little fin of his like crazy to get back to you. Rayna must be riding on his back.”
    “You can tell what she’s doing?”
    “I can tell how fast she’s moving. No one can swim as fast as Galen, Rayna included. He must be pretty impatient to see you.”
    “Yeah. Impatient for me to change so he can have another royal subject to order around.”
    Toraf’s laughter startles me, not because it’s loud, but because his mood seems to swing around on an axis. “Is that what you think?” he says.
    Suddenly, Galen’s pulse hits my legs like a physical blow. Toraf drags me out of the water and hauls us toward the house. “He’s had plenty of chances to show me something different,” I say, my words bouncing with each hurried step chunking into the sand. Behind us, I hear Galen and Rayna laughing about something. The way they slosh makes me think they’re splashing each other.
    Toraf stops us at the little picket fence, an apathetic boundary separating Galen’s beach sand from the county’s beach sand. “Well, I’m about to teach those spoiled Royals a lesson. Do you trust me, Emma?”
    I nod, but something tells me I shouldn’t have. My instinct is confirmed when Toraf pulls me against his chest and lowers his mouth to mine. When I try to pull away, he grabs a handful of my hair and uses it to hold my face in place. The sudden silence behind us is louder than the laughter ever could have been.
    I can tell Toraf is a good kisser. He moves his mouth just the right way, gentle and firm at the same time. And for all the seafood he eats, he doesn’t taste like it one bit.
    But everything about this kiss is wrong, wrong, wrong. If I had a brother, this is what kissing him would feel like. And then I feel something else. Hair-raising prickles all over. Like I’m about to be struck by lightning.
    Then Galen—not a lightning bolt—slams into Toraf, wrenching our lips apart. To his good credit, Toraf releases me immediately instead of taking me down with him. They crash into the sand, Galen launching punches like bullets from a machine gun. But I’m too stunned to move.

16
    BETWEEN PUNCHES, Galen bellows his rage. “I trusted you! I said to keep an eye on her, not your filthy lips!”
    Toraf’s laugh makes him hit harder. Galen is aware of Emma screaming for him to stop. Now that she’s snapped out of the trance Toraf kissed her into.
    Fire sears into his biceps where Emma struggles to restrain the next blow with both hands. “Stop it, Galen! Right now!”
    His head whips toward her, her concern for Toraf almost driving him beyond sense. “Why? Why should I stop?”
    “Because he’s your friend. Because he’s your sister’s mate,” she shouts.
    “But those are the same reasons I should kill him, Emma. You’re not making any sense.”
    “Rayna, help me!” Emma throws herself at Galen, ramming her shoulder into his chest.
    With his arms full of Emma, it’s difficult to keep hammering Toraf. Emma is soft and sweet-smelling, which would distract him even if she wasn’t wrapping herself around him like an octopus. He can’t tell whose limbs are whose when they tumble off of Toraf and spill into the sand beside him.
    Landing on top, Galen uses his hand to cushion the back of Emma’s head from hitting a piece of driftwood. Worrying about her last head injury already shortened his life span. “Triton’s trident, Emma, you can’t just throw yourself in the middle of a fight. You could get hurt,” he says, out of breath.
    She pushes against him, fists balled. “A fight is two-sided, Highness. You didn’t notice Toraf wouldn’t hit back?”
    Actually, no. And he didn’t care. He eases off her. She refuses the hand he offers to help her up. He shrugs, irritated at her small rejection. “His loss. Now go to the house. Toraf and I aren’t finished.”
    By now Toraf is standing up, slapping the sand off his body. It takes a few moments for Galen to realize that Rayna didn’t help disentangle him from her mate. In fact, she hasn’t said a word.
    She’s still standing on the beach where he left her, her face contorted into a