Chapter 10
Adrian looked like I had stabbed him.
I had never hit him before.
Not once.
Even when he drenched my room. Even when he scratched me. Even when he cried over lard and made me carry seawater until my arms shook.
So yes, he looked shocked.
But I was past soft.
“You come and go whenever you want,” I said. “You act like every touch from me is a crime, but then you climb through my window at night to kiss me. You hide that you can shift. You make me do everything for you. Why? What do you want from me?”
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Looked away.
I felt my temper spike higher.
“Oh my God. You still won’t talk.”
I turned for the door.
He caught my wrist immediately.
This time his fingers were shaking.
Then, in a voice so low I almost missed it, he said, “My first shift failed.”
I stopped.
“What?”
His face burned red with humiliation.
“I told you I could shift because I thought I would. But the first time I tried, it… went wrong.”
I turned back slowly.
He looked like he wanted the floor to swallow him whole.
“I didn’t grow legs properly,” he said in a rush. “I got feet. Just feet. And the rest…” He gestured downward miserably. “I still had scales. My lower half looked ridiculous. Like some ugly half-finished thing. I was disgusting.”
For a second, I could only blink.
Then the comments started howling.
I know I shouldn’t laugh but I am picturing it.
Two human feet and the rest fish is killing me.
Poor dramatic prince.
Adrian’s eyes flooded again.
“I hated it,” he whispered. “I hated looking at myself. I thought if you saw me, you’d be disgusted. So I stayed in the tub. I kept trying to shift again in secret. I wanted to wait until I could do it right. I wanted to come out and surprise you and make money for you and… and…”
He swallowed hard.
“And what?”
“And then you started touching me all the time,” he blurted, horrified. “Walking around. Talking to me. Smelling good. Distracting me. I couldn’t focus.”
For one full second I just stared at him.
Then I laughed.
I really could not help it.
He looked wounded all over again.
“This isn’t funny.”
“A little bit, it is,” I admitted.
His face crumpled. “I thought if I just held out a little longer, I could shift properly and come to you looking perfect. I thought you’d keep spoiling me forever until then. I didn’t think anyone else would show up. I didn’t think you’d bring home a fox.”
The sheer honesty of that stunned me more than anything else he had said.
So much misery.
So much pride.
So little communication.
I rubbed my forehead. “You know all of this could have been solved if you had just told me.”
“I know that now,” he muttered.
The comments drifted by with merciless accuracy.
Pride is dead. Good.
Nobody told the ocean prince tsundere is out of fashion.
Adrian looked at me cautiously, then took one hesitant step closer.
“I shifted properly this time,” he said. “I have money. I can support you now. My legs are long. I can—”
An idea sparked in my head.
I cut him off.
“But I liked your tail.”
He blinked.
“What?”
“If you want me to consider taking you back,” I said very seriously, “turn back into your siren form. I like that better.”
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then, without argument, scales rippled across his skin.
His legs vanished.
His powerful tail reappeared.
I did not hesitate.
I reached right out and touched it.
The effect was immediate.
The tail went rigid. Adrian gasped. His whole body arched toward me.
My eyes narrowed on the reverse scale.
Slowly, carefully, I moved my fingers closer.
The second I brushed it, he sucked in a sharp breath and tried to pull away.
“Ellie, no—”
But this time I saw it.
Something shifted beneath the scales.
Something very real.
The comments exploded.
Ohhh so it is controllable.
Only appears when he’s actually overstimulated.
Top-tier design.
My face went up in flames.
Adrian’s went even redder.
The moment I pulled my hand back, he seemed to want to sink into the floor.
I coughed and stood up.
“Well,” I said faintly. “I’m going home.”
His hand shot out and caught my sleeve.
“I didn’t say you couldn’t touch me,” he said quickly, eyes wide. “Don’t go. I just… I just wasn’t prepared.”
I looked at him.
Really looked.
At the tears still hanging from his lashes.
At the panic.
At the stubbornness finally cracking open into something soft and bare.
And because I was still me, and because maybe I had suffered enough to earn a little revenge, I smiled sweetly.
“Tomorrow,” I said. “Go wash the fish smell off first. My fox has a very sharp nose.”
Adrian’s hand froze in midair.
His expression crumbled so tragically that even I nearly felt bad.
Nearly.
Then I went home.