“Is that dwelling-place derelict?” He pointed at the only other house in sight, a larger stone cottage set some distance away. The windows had been boarded over, and parts of the roof were skeletal.
“Yes.” A shadow flickered across her royal face, as if she had been stabbed by an old pain. “That was my parents’ old house. My childhood home. It burned down. That was how my dad, how he, he…the firefighters did all they could, but it was too late.”
Shame washed over him at this failure of his profession, although four years ago he hadn’t even left the sea, let alone become a firefighter himself. “All the sea grieves with you, Your Majesty. Did the investigation identify a cause for the tragedy?”
“They said the whole house had been soaked in gasoline, so thoroughly that they thought he must have done it himself.” Her lips tightened. “My mom had passed away a few months back, and everyone knew how devoted he’d been to her. The police recorded it as a suicide.”
He frowned. “Sometimes shifters do indeed lose the will to live after the death of their mates, but…your father had you. I cannot believe he would choose to end his own life, leaving the Heir to the Pearl Throne unguarded and unaware of her own heritage.”
“I didn’t think it was suicide either. There was this man, you see. He was at my dad’s house, the day before the fire. I only saw him briefly, and my dad said he was just an old friend who’d unexpectedly dropped by…but he gave me the creeps for some reason.” She hugged herself, shivering a little. “But since the police already thought they knew what had happened, they weren’t much interested in trying to track down some random guy just because I had a bad feeling about him.”
“You have all the knights of the sea at your personal command now, Your Majesty. We will find him, should you command us to do so, even if we must scour the entire earth.”
She sniffed, hastily swiping the back of one hand across her eyes. “That doesn’t sound very practical.”
&nbs
p; “Practicality is not one of our vows, Your Majesty.”
That won him a small smile, though her lower lip still trembled a little. “I kind of got that impression, yes. Why were you asking about the house, anyway?”
“I wished to be certain that it was uninhabited, Your Majesty. Since this location seems secure, we may proceed.” John began stripping out of his confining human clothes.
He was pulling off his shirt when he realized that she was simply staring at him, making no move to follow suit. “Do you require assistance, Your Majesty?”
“You want me to take off all my clothes and jump into the lake? Right now?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Are you insane?”
“No, Your Majesty.”
She rubbed her forehead. “You really weren’t kidding about the lack of practicality thing. John, this is Scotland, not the Bahamas! Even in summer, I’ll freeze solid in there. Not to mention the fact that I can’t even swim!”
“You will neither sink nor freeze, Your Majesty. You are a sea dragon. You are made for colder waters than-“
“I’m not, I keep telling you, I’m not!” She sat down heavily on a rock, burying her face in her hands. “Why did you have to turn up? Why did I have to find out any of this? Why can’t you just leave me alone, like you said you would?”
The Empress was weeping.
Without thinking, he reached out—and then snatched his hand back as his knightly training overruled instinct. One did not presume to touch the Imperial presence. He knelt instead, stone cold and sharp under his knees. “Your-“
“If the next word out of your mouth is Majesty, I shall hit you,” she snarled through her tears.
Etiquette, his inner human said, can go fuck itself.
“Neridia.” She looked up at the sound of her name, her face wet and vulnerable. He brushed her hair back from her damp cheek, his fingertips barely grazing her skin. “I am your mate. I know your soul, even the depths that you yourself do not. Trust me.”
Her eyes brimmed with tears. “You’re really certain about this?”
“As certain as I am about my own true self.” He touched her chest above her heart, then his own. “I was born a sea dragon, and was taught human form as a small child. But you were born in human shape, like a dry-land shifter. And is not unheard of for a dry-land shifter to come late to their other form.”
She took a deep breath, swiping her tears away with the back of her hand. “Really? You aren’t just saying that?”
“Candor is one of my knightly vows. I cannot lie. I promise you, your situation is not unique. Ask Griff, when you next see him. He too only learned to shift as an adult.”
She looked out at the lake. “My parents never let me swim,” she murmured as if to herself. “I’ve never been in the water. Not properly.”