It was honestly no more than six steps for me to take to get him out of the pool, but he said all that in the few seconds it took. I would have placed a magical gag on anyone else—I think I might have been able to manage one for my mate, though maybe not. But his voice was like music to my ears. I could listen to him chitter-chatter all day…no, for the rest of eternity. That had to be true love.
“No one is going to hurt you, Kailar. Not ever. I’d kill them if they tried. You were helping me in the pool, remember? Then you suddenly passed out.”
Keion handed me a fluffy, warmed towel as I got out of the pool, and I wrapped it around Kailar. His body didn’t look nearly as fragile as it had when I’d first seen him. And his hair…gods, it was…beautiful. All the colors of the rainbow were in his hair. I wanted to sift my fingers through every silky strand.
“Kailar, calm down please. No one is killing you.”
“You’re not?”
“No. I-I like you too much.”
“You do?”
“Yes.”
He shrugged warily and then gave a jaw cracking yawn. “I’m sleepy. I’m always sleepy these days—part of this mysterious illness, I guess. But I think I can walk now.” His eyes locked with mine. “I’m sure you weren’t aware that I was so weak and so near death when you hired me. Sorry about that.”
Ignoring his words and keeping him safely cradled in my arms, I started walking toward the staircase. Keion was following me. Kailar clearly needed to rest, but he was still groggy, and he hadn’t yet figured out he was naked. I wanted him in our bed and under the covers when he did.
“Don’t be silly, Kailar. You aren’t dying. I won’t allow it. We’ll figure out together what’s wrong with you.” I toed the bedroom door open. “When’s the last time you were in the ocean?” I asked as I gently deposited him on our bed and covered his chilled naked body with a heavy comforter.
He eyed me suspiciously. “You know everything happening here is a bit weird, right? This is like the master bedroom isn’t it? You put me in your bed like we’re lovers. And you look at me with big, lovey-dovey eyes. We’re strangers—employer and employee, at best. Not that I would be, uh…averse to such a relationship…you know, eventually. Though, have youseenme?”
“I certainly have. The question is, haveyouseen you?”
I took his shoulders and turned him to face the full-length mirrors facing the bed on the closet doors.
“What the…?” He touched his face and when the person in the mirror did too, he jumped like he’d been shot. “Am I dreaming right now?”
“No, Kailar. I’ll explain things as we go along but right now, I need you to understand that the water you’ve been depriving yourself of was what was killing you. Well, the lack of it, that is. Can you tell me when you were last in the ocean? From the looks of you when you arrived, you haven’t been nourishing yourself very often at all. That’s dangerous for you, Kailar.”
“What? Why? And why me in particular?”
I couldn’t keep lying to him. I had to tell him the truth, no matter what Keion thought about it. I hesitated and then touched his arm, muttering a few words to help him remember. He had remembered when he was in the pool—all I had to do was jog that memory a little.
“Do you remember what happened in the pool, Kailar? Do you remember me?”
“What? No, I…” Keion stepped up beside me and muttered his spell along with mine.
Suddenly Kailar’s eyes widened again, and his mouth fell open.
“It’s you,” he said, almost in a whisper. “Oh gods, it’s really you—Lord Alyxsander of Atlantis!”
Chapter Six
Kailar
Childhood memories started sparking in my mind and flooding through it—memories as colorful as my new hair and the pinkness in my cheeks. It was all coming back to me.
I’d had a happy childhood…until I didn’t.
My real mother, Queen Beathag—had never really loved me, our father said. But I didn’t believe that and neither did Adan. She just wanted us to be strong warriors like our father, but when what little affection she’d once shown us had suddenly disappeared, just like she did one fine day, taking my sister Maeve with her, we didn’t know what to think.
We cried ourselves to sleep every night for a while, holding onto each other for comfort in the dark, until our father, King Tearloch, had taken us away. Then all I had left was my brother.
Fuck, I had a twin brother.
All of this new information suddenly popping in my head was making me fear for my own sanity. Our father had taken us to Atlantis, requesting protection for us from their king, who then palmed us off to two of his military commanders—Lords Keion and Alyxsander. The same Alyxsander standing beside me right now, like everything was just fine. Well, it fucking wasn’t fine.