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  Lorai felt the tension inside building to a critical point, and a small circle of his hips snapped the coil of sensation into a wave that sent shards of energy streaming from her skin to skate and crackle along his limbs.

  Adam shuddered as her power spiked at him, and he paused until the spasms of her channel eased.

  His smile was slow when he began to move inside her once again. His abdomen pressed against hers, and their skin rubbed in delightful friction as he sought his own release.

  Lorai felt the prickles of electricity as he approached his climax. She lightly clawed up and down his back, cupping his buttocks with her nails digging into him.

  He pounded into her with a flurry of hard thrusts before he threw his head back and shook. Every muscle was tensed and each vein distended as his hips jerked in reflex rhythm.

  Bright silver magic corkscrewed around him, and the moment that he came, she felt the magic seeded inside her.

  Lorai held him close as he lowered himself to lie on her. She wrapped her limbs around him and stroked her hands through his hair as their heartbeats slowed into a normal range.

  The smell of the sea was still on them both, mingling with the scents of sex, and it was the perfect end to a very intriguing night.

  Adam was behind her with his hand on her belly. “How old are you anyway? There is a lot of power in you and that takes time.”

  She chuckled. “You don’t want to know the answer to that.”

  “Rough estimate?”

  “I pre-date maps. Humans passed me in fishing vessels made of skins, wood and reeds. I guided explorers and confounded pirates. Under the waves, I have had a very active life, but with the modern era of fey acceptance, I was only too happy to return to the land.”

  “Return?”

  “I spent some time on land learning the nature of my magic. I am water and stone, land and sea. It is a contrast that doesn’t always get along, but eventually, water wins.”

  He chuckled and ran his fingers across her navel. “So, my beast is in love with your other form; I am enthralled with this one. Will you be my mate?”

  She threaded her fingers through his. “I wasn’t counting on this, so I am going to have to say something I never thought I would.”

  He was silent.

  “I have to ask my mother.”

  Adam was quiet at her back. “Your mother?”

  “Yes.”

  “The giantess?”

  “Correct.”

  “I am sorry. With your description of your age, I assumed your parents had passed on.”

  “My father has. My mother is still around. Sort of.”

  He sighed. “I am sorry, and you can invite her to the wedding.”

  “She isn’t really mobile. I will have to go to her to ask her.”

  He nibbled her ear. “I will wait for you here.”

  She turned to face him. “I would not advise it. She may take months to respond. I am not really sure what to do in this situation.”

  He kissed her softly. “Now that I know who my mate is, I am willing to wait for formalities.”

  She smiled. “I am positive she will give her authorization, but she is my only direct relative, and I could not bear to wed without her approval.”

  “I understand. I will go back to my boat and look for treasure. A few months with nothing but my buddies will make you into more of a goddess than you already are.” He kissed her with a smile.

  She laughed. “I will have to talk to the guardians to find out how to manage my shop. Perhaps one of the beavers can take it over.”

  “So, that is a yes?”

  She grinned. “Provisional yes.”

  He shouted in delight and hugged her tight, rolling with her until they were not thinking about anything but being together.

  Lorai looked at Melwiss and smiled. “Can you do it?”

  “A handfasting? Sure. What do you want built in?” Melwiss was gnawing on a toffee apple and focused on it with an intense look.

  Adam was looking at the mage with amusement. “I think that a light emotional exchange would be good. I would like to know if she was in danger.”

  Melwiss finished the apple and tossed the stick and core to one side. “Simple enough. When will you come back for the full balancing?”

  Lorai shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. My mother is difficult to reach, and talking to stone takes time.”

  Melwiss nodded and brushed her hands on her velvet and embroidered patchwork jacket. Her multi-layered skirt foamed around her ankles, and her brightly coloured running shoes peeped out from under the waves of gauzy cotton.

  Melwiss reached into her jacket and dug out a crimson ribbon and a small vial. She smiled at Lorai and Adam. “I need each of you to pluck out one hair at the root.”

  Lorai reached up and yanked out one of her long hairs. She handed it over to Melwiss, and the mage juggled what she was holding to fish out a tiny set of scissors.

  The hair went into the vial with the excess being trimmed by the tiny scissors. One of Adam’s followed suit.

  Melwiss pricked her finger and put a drop of blood in with the hairs before she corked it. She handed it to Lorai. “When you are ready, mix it with salt water and the balance will take place. It is going to have a lot of power, so I would make sure that you are in a safe area.”

  Lorai tucked it into her cleavage and asked, “Do we have to be together?”

  “It would be a good idea. You are going to be seized with an overwhelming urge to consummate your balancing, so if you are any distance apart, it will be difficult if not torture.” Melwiss tucked her scissors away and straightened the ribbon.

  Lorai looked at Adam and smiled. “If you are sure?”

  “I am sure.”

  Melwiss smiled. “Okay, right hand to left hand.”

  Lorai gave Adam her left hand, and he held it securely in his. Melwiss tied the ribbon around the hands and held her hands over and under the clasped grip.

  “Lorai, do you handfast to Adam with the intention to wed him? Do you promise to cleave to him for the next year when you are together? Do you give up carnal involvement with any other beings aside from your mate during the handfast?”

  Lorai smiled. “I do.”

  “Adam, do you handfast to Lorai with all the conditions I mentioned to her?”

  Adam chuckled. “I do.”

  Heat surged through their grip, and the ribbon melded and sank into their skin.

  “Great. Now, Lorai, do you give up all that you are and all that will be to your mate if your mother approves?”

  “I do.”

  “Adam, the same thing if her mother approves?”

  “I do.”

  Power crackled around them, and the vial in her cleavage glowed bright.

  Melwiss swayed. “I am happy to pronounce you handfasted with a pending balance. The balance vial will only work for you for the next two years. Take care of it.”

  Lorai released Adam’s hand and caught the mage as she collapsed. “Melwiss!”

  Juno and Derix came running from their witnessing position near the dock. Derix lifted Melwiss and nodded. “We will take care of her.”

  Melwiss waved her hand. “Jus’ tired. Need sleeth an food. Congratulashun. You are blananced.” She fell asleep on Derix’s shoulder. The snoring gave it away.

  Juno checked Melwiss’s vitals. “She’s fine. Well, as fine as she can be. She pushes herself too hard. We are going to have to find her some kind of keeper. The Mage Guild is looking into something, but few—if any—will work with her. She is too eccentric for their tastes.”

  Derix carried the mage away.

  Juno hugged her. “Don’t worry about her. She will be here when you get back.”

  Lorai squeezed her. “I don’t know when that is going to be.”

  “Take your time. We will be here when you return.” Juno leaned back and rubbed her hands on Lorai’s arms. “Be happy, and your place here will always be waiting for you. Congratul
ations on your handfasting, but I want you to have the actual wedding here.”

  Lorai looked at the woman who was younger than her dress. She smiled. “We will come here for the wedding and the honeymoon.”

  “I will take it as a promise. Have a good trip.” Juno smiled.

  Adam came over and took Lorai’s hand. “She will; when we have finished the spell, we will come back, no matter when that is.”

  Juno grinned, and Lorai saw her following Derix to Melwiss’s cottage while she and Adam headed for the portal. It was time to get back to the human world. She had to visit her mom.

  Chapter Five

  The slip of the stones under her feet was familiar. Lorai had been coming to this cove for the last six hundred years. The day her father died, her mother gave up her contact with the mortal and magical world to stare at the home that had delivered her one true love. The grey-blue waves dashed and crashed against the shoreline in an endless symphony.

  Lorai wore a lined gown and a heavy cloak. Two kilometres of icy coastline led to her mother’s final resting place, so to speak. With the crunch of stone under her boots, she made it to the niche in the stone face that housed her mother.

  She stood for a minute, taking in the proud features that stared out to sea—half her body wrapped in the stone that surrounded her, and her torso was slowly being overtaken by her resting place. Giants never died, they simply became part of the rock that had birthed them.

  “Lorwella of the rock, your daughter requests audience.”

  Lorai stood still, getting her strength from the stone around her, just as her mother used to. The sun set and she waited. Days passed and she still waited.

  Lorai didn’t know if it had been days or weeks when her mother’s eyes slowly opened. A slight smile creased her translucent lips. “Lorai. You have come for a visit?”

  Lorai moved stiffly, her body the same temperature as the rock around her. She walked to her mother and pressed her hand to her parent’s cheek. “I have come to gain your blessing.”

  “Why? You have been an adult for eons. You need nothing from me.” Lorwella’s wise eyes were sombre.

  “I am handfasted to a shifter.”

  If her mother’s stone could have cracked in surprise, it would have.

  “A shifter? Oh, my dear, your heart will break when he passes.”

  “That is not what will happen. The mages, shifters and fey have made an arrangement. The feys’ birth rates have dropped so drastically that they were in favour of finding a way to bind them to the growing population of shifters. A magical balance is struck, and it binds fey and shifter for however long they live.”

  Her mother closed her eyes. “I must think on this.”

  “Yes, Mother.”

  This was the time-consuming part. Lorai stepped up to her mother and leaned against her while Lorwella thought it over.

  The season grew colder before Lorwella’s eyes opened again. “If you can be with him until an end claims you, do it. I would have wanted to go with Orai, but I could not. I did what was natural for me, though it broke my soul. Be with him and bring him to me. I want to see the man that you would give up eternity for.”

  “I will. We will be here within the year. If you hold off becoming one with the cliff a little longer, you may yet see grandchildren playing at your feet.”

  “I look forward to it. I will endeavour to be up to speed by then. Time does get away from me.” She smiled slightly. “Now, give your mother a kiss and go find your man. It has been months for you, judging by the waves and tides. You should be with him. I give you my blessing. Go and swim with your mate, Lorai.”

  “I love you, Mother.”

  “I love you, daughter.” Lorwella’s eyes closed, and the faintest line of alabaster began at her hairline.

  Tears filled Lorai’s eyes as she walked back to the nearest safe spot for transport. Her mom was coming back to her, so she was really hoping that she hadn’t lied. A grandchild had been promised, so she was going to try to deliver.

  Hopefully, Adam would be a willing collaborator.

  A controlled transport later and she was in Adam’s home. The change in temperature nearly made her pass out. The forty-degree shift was hard on the body.

  She changed clothing and looked around. He was still at sea.

  Sighing, she went to his computer and powered it up. He had shown her how to check on the locator on his vessel to get an idea of where he was.

  The display gave her a topographical map of the sea floor and the ship’s location.

  “That isn’t right.” She muttered it out loud and backed the display up for the previous two weeks.

  Her heart pounded in her chest, and she got to her feet with her hands shaking. She checked the vial tied into her hair and let herself out of the house, walking along the deck and down toward the beach. On the way, she shed her dress, her shoes, her underwear, anything that would weigh her down.

  Naked, she looked at the water and replayed the map in her mind. She could be there in three hours. As she shifted into her mermaid form, she really hoped that her analysis of the trajectory was wrong.

  She had seen that pattern of motion before, but the reason had always been the same. Pirates.

  * * * *

  Adam winced as Rick checked his wound.

  The pirates wanted them to find treasure and were yanking the boat around in an effort to find the Diadem.

  “I can’t believe they shot you.” Rick murmured quietly.

  Adam sighed as the pressure on his ribs supported the hole in his flesh. “I can really believe it.”

  The pirates were using their equipment and two of their divers.

  Adam could have healed himself if he shifted, but he was stuck below decks with Rick. His ship wasn’t his own.

  He lay back and thanked his lucky stars that Lorai wasn’t here. He didn’t want her anywhere near this mess, and if he did die of his injury, at least they weren’t mates yet.

  She would live a long and healthy life without him.

  * * * *

  Lorai spotted the salvage boat and the smaller vessel tied to it. She stuck to the edge of the reef and circled the men under the water.

  Two divers were fanning the silt to move it, and two others were watching from behind. It didn’t take much effort to figure out that the men with the spear guns were the pirates.

  She slipped into the deep water, hiding in the blue as the men worked. They could only manage less than an hour at a time, so she waited until they were out of the water and looked around for the wreck using her senses.

  Lorai found some strands of gold chain and wrapped them around her fist. The wreck had struck the edge, the ship was under the silt, but the cargo had fallen into deep water.

  With care, she placed the necklaces in the silt and fanned more of it over. She had seeded the site with enough gold to make them remain in place.

  After she had faked the find, she returned to the deep and watched from the shadows. It was early enough for another dive. She just had to wait.

  She had hardened her skin against the pressure of the deep and any stray spears, but she still acted silently, swimming around the treasure hunters and spy-hopping near the boat.

  Three more pirates were on the deck of the boat. The weapons gave them away. There was no sign of Adam, but their tenuous link was still in place. He was there and he was alive.

  With three men on deck, she went in search of reinforcements. A distraction was required, and even the most hardened soul stopped for dolphins.

  She cruised through the waves and found the pod she was looking for.

  The matriarch greeted her formally, and Lorai asked for help. The conversation took place with clicks and body language. Three babies came by to investigate her tail, and Lorai moved it to let them chase it like aquatic kittens.

  When they all had a chance to head to the surface and breathe deep, they turned with her toward the ship.

  She wanted them as a distracti
on, but she wanted them safe from the guns. She showed them where she wanted them to be, and they began to cavort as requested.

  Lorai poured on the speed and swam under the boat on the far side of the divers. A quick elevation above the surface to the hips and she confirmed that the men had gone to the port side to watch the dolphins. They were pointing and laughing. It almost made her sorry for what she had to do next.

  She had only done this manoeuver once in all her years, but it had worked on the Spanish ship, so she was sure it would work on this vessel.

  Lorai cruised back nearly a kilometre, turned and moved toward the ship at speed, uncaring if anyone saw her. Twenty feet from the ship, she came out of the water and flew through the air, across the deck, to slam into the pirates and haul them over the side and into the water.

  Once they were in, she turned and flashed toward the two guards on the divers, barrelling to them and divesting them of their regulators and their spear guns.

  The treasure seekers saw her and saw the men struggling for air. She pointed toward the boat, and they didn’t hesitate. They swam past the floundering pirates struggling to shake off their tanks and moved to take over their ship.

  Lorai was one step ahead of them. A flick of her tail and she was out of the water and soaring to the deck. She landed on her feet and went looking for her mate.

  The grunt was a sound she was familiar with, but she had never heard him in pain before. She followed the voice and heard two men speaking softly.

  The common space smelled of blood and infection. A man was sitting next to Adam and making him smile.

  The smile froze when Adam saw her. “Lorai.”

  “I leave you alone for a few months and this is what happens?” She tsked and knelt at his side.

  The other man was staring with his mouth open. “Adam, why is there a naked woman dripping all over you?”

  Lorai eased a hand under his back and another under his thighs. “It’s an illusion.”