When you get to the end of this chapter, remember to click next ;)

- Sian



Rowan watched Kaerius lie face down in the water. He listened to his angry mutterings about the human race and how they were making his life ten times harder. "Kaerius, this is cool and all, but isn't this another step closer to strengthening the bond completely?" Rowan asked, but Kaerius didn't turn around. "I don't know why you're annoyed anyway. You've not got an angry voice talking over your own thoughts."

Kaerius then faced the sky and glared at the human who watched him from the rocks. "My thoughts," he growled. "My private thoughts."

"I do feel like I'm intruding," Rowan admitted, "but there's nothing we can do until-" Rowan couldn't say it, not after they shared a kiss that felt so special.

"Until we end the bond?" Kaerius thought. "Wishful thinking."

Rowan shuffled further over the edge of the rocks. "You said that Jaiker lied to you. What did he lie about?"

Kaerius tried to stop thinking immediately. If he told Rowan that the quest might have been some test, and he failed because he went ahead with it despite thinking that the removal of a bond would kill the human... Kaerius saw Rowan's body stiffen. By trying to not think about it, he thought about it.

"I explain," the Thalassic Mortal said quickly, but Rowan had already started to stare with a hardness to his green eyes that made them look like glass marbles.

"Did I hear that correctly?" he asked. Rowan's mind was a jumble of his own thoughts and feelings and Kaerius's thoughts and feelings. It wasn't easy to operate the chaos, but he could tell which voice belonged to who.

Kaerius sank in the ocean until only his eyes and upwards were exposed, like a hippo staring at its prey. "Let me explain," he thought, still a little sceptical of Rowan responding to a voice that only he should be able to hear. When Rowan crossed his arms and arched a brow, Kaerius knew he was listening to every word. "Laiken said that maybe Jaiker sent me on a quest to fall in love with you. He believes that there is no way to remove a bond and that Jaiker was testing me. I went out of my way to do something that would hurt someone else. I failed the test."

Rowan's features turned hard and sharp. His mouth thinned into a line of disappointment, and his jaw clenched. Kaerius could see him holding his breath. "The bond will kill me if we get rid of it, and you knew?" he asked in a tone that was as flat as a piece of paper.

Kaerius swam to the rocks and decided to speak out loud. "I ashamed. Kaerius desperate. Not desperate now."

"You would have killed me." Rowan shuffled away from the edge, and away from the sea creature.

"You would have done the same."

"No!" Rowan snapped loud enough to make Kaerius clamp his mouth shut. "I would have started planning a life with you in it. I would never have done that to you. What happened on that boat was different. We were defending ourselves. I can't believe you would have killed me just because you wanted someone else to love."

Kaerius's heart started to hurt when he watched the tears form in Rowan's eyes. "I sorry!" he said desperately when Rowan got to his feet and backed away. "Rowan, I sorry. Stay!"

Rowan shook his head and kept moving back. "Would you have still gone through with it after we kissed?" he asked.

"I..." Kaerius stalled, which was a costly mistake. "No."

"I don't believe you." Rowan turned his back on the sea creature and travelled over the rocks. He stormed up the sand, and when he reached the dune, he had managed to suck his tears inside. He was getting used to feeling empty.

When Rowan reached his house, he was so focused on trying to block Kaerius's thoughts that he didn't notice his mother sitting on the porch.

"Oi!" Mandy yelled before her son disappeared through the door.

Rowan jumped from the sound of her voice. His mother was the last person he wanted to run into. "What?"

"Where have you been?" Mandy asked, not bothering to stand up from the bench.

"On the beach," Rowan muttered.

"No," Mandy said, stopping him again. "I mean, where have you been for the past few days? I know you've not been to your dad's."

Rowan shrugged and said, "Just out." If his mother knew he had just kissed a Thalassic Mortal, Rowan would bet anything that she would walk out of his life for good.

"With your new friends?" Mandy asked. Her disgusted tone was only ever used when she talked about the supernatural.

Rowan sighed heavily and stomped into the house. He heard the creak of the bench and moved faster down the corridor. When he reached the stairs, his mother grabbed his arm.

"Hold on," Mandy said. "We should talk about what's wrong with you."

"Nothing's wrong with me."

Mandy scoffed. "You practically had a fit when I made you go on a hunt with me because you wanted a normal life. Now you're running around with Thalassic Mortals. You're obviously doing this to get back at me. So congrats, you've got my attention, and I'm sorry. You can stop putting your life in danger now."

"Mum," Rowan said, scrunching his eyes shut and feeling the sting from the lack of sleep. "I'm not doing this to get your attention." Rowan wanted to tell her, but he was too tired to deal with her meltdown if he did. "Can you just leave me alone."

Mandy watched him pull away and walk up the stairs. "Why haven't you been going to university?" she asked and frowned when Rowan looked like he had forgotten about his education.

"Why do you care?" Rowan mumbled. "You never have before."

"Rowan-"

He slammed his bedroom door before his mother could grace him with another unwanted opinion. Rowan marched to his bed and hid under his turquoise blanket. When he closed his eyes, Kaerius's voice in his head got louder.

"Stupid Jaiker. Stupid Jaiker. Stupid Jaiker."

Rowan hoped there was a way to block the thoughts, though, hearing the Thalassic Mortal's deep voice was soothing in a way that could put him to sleep feeling safe.

"Stay still. Catch the fish."

Thoughts were never straight forward, and Kaerius's thoughts were like listening to a fictional character. He lived in the ocean. His life couldn't be more different from Rowan's.

"Catch a shark, make it go after Jaiker. He'll be sorry."

Rowan curled up into a ball and buried his head into his arms. He listened some more to Kaerius's ranting.

"Dammit, Kaerius. Why do you ruin everything? I should have told him. He's a decent human... Dammit, he can hear me."

Rowan tried not to feel better. He did hurt and felt betrayed, and his trust in Kaerius was shattered and left to sink to the bottom of the ocean. Still, Rowan understood that he and Kaerius were not the same. He should have expected it. Kaerius had hated him from the beginning, but Rowan didn't think his hatred was strong enough to kill him.

"Sorry, Rowan." The words from Kaerius seemed to echo louder in Rowan's head. He huffed and grumpily turned onto his other side. Rowan was very good at feeling guilty, even when it wasn't his fault. He felt guilty that Kaerius was upset that Rowan was angry at him even though Kaerius was in the wrong.

"Shut up!" Rowan growled and covered his head with a cushion. Kaerius's mutterings were in his head. Nothing could silence him.

* * * * *

The next morning, Rowan woke to a loud thud. He was still curled up in his blanket and had slept for a full sixteen hours. Rowan peeked into his bright room and shielded his eyes from the morning sun. Five minutes passed until he rolled to the edge of the bed and sat up.

A plant had been knocked from his windowsill, and it wasn't from the wind. A big seagull perched where his plant had sat, staring at something behind him.

Rowan froze and said lowly, "Don't you dare." The seagull looked around the room with a twinkle of mischief. Rowan glanced to the plant; the soil had spilt all over his wooden floor. "Shoo!" he said and waved his hand in the seagull's face. The bird's wings opened, and it tried to peck him. "Get out!" Rowan yelled and shoved it back through the window, knowing that if it got in, it was even harder to get it out.

In Rowan's panicked attempt, he leaned a little too far out of his window. He would have only fallen onto the porch roof and rolled onto the grass below, but someone reached out and grabbed his elbow. Rowan's arm tingled. It felt as though he had submerged his arm in warm water.

He turned, knowing precisely who was behind him. Kaerius.

Kaerius pulled him back into the room, and he gripped Rowan's arms tightly.

"Rowan," he said before the human could register that Kaerius was in his bedroom and had been for most of the night. "Please. Listen."

Kaerius was standing close enough for their chests to touch. Rowan didn't like how quickly his body craved to be closer. "What have I got to listen to? You've said sorry, I haven't forgiven you."

Kaerius searched his eyes. "Please forgive me. I can't go back into the ocean until you have. It's too painful."

Rowan pulled his arms away. "You were going to get rid of the bond, and you didn't even care that it would kill me. How can I forgive you for that?"

"You're right. I didn't care. I was angry that I was bonded to a human, but now after what your dad has said about royalty, and what Laiken thinks Jaiker has done, and... what we did on the rocks. I wouldn't have been able to go through with it."

It was strange for Rowan to hear Kaerius speak so much. It was even more unusual to listen to his voice without him opening his mouth.

"How reassuring." Rowan looked down to the soil. It was then that he noticed Kaerius was naked. "Put some clothes on," he said, pushing him out of the way so he could clean up.

Kaerius had seen Rowan find the clothes in the drawers on the left wall, so he rummaged through them until he found shorts.

"I sorry," Kaerius said for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Yeah, you keep saying that, but I don't trust it. I don't trust you anymore Kaerius," Rowan grumbled and swept the soil into a bag so he could put it back in the plant pot.

"You trust too easily."

"Maybe I do. Shame on you for taking advantage of that."

Kaerius didn't know how to respond, so he sat on Rowan's desk chair.

"What are you doing? You need to get out."

"But-"

"I have a class to go to, you know, in the life that I could've lost because of how selfish you are?" Rowan pointed to the door. "Get out."

Kaerius now realised how important trust was to the human. Kaerius felt him hurting. "I made a terrible mistake. I don't know how to make it up to you. I guess this bond really is a curse," Kaerius thought and slowly walked to the door. He looked back, but Rowan had already turned to stare out of the window.

Kaerius clenched his fists. He was going to find Jaiker and yell to make him feel bad. If Kaerius were lucky, Jaiker would knock some sense into him and tell him how to fix a mess that would need more than an apology to mend.