The Kraken's Sacrifice (A Deal With a Demon #2)(29)
Thane watches me as if I’m divulging the world’s secrets. His dark eyes are intent, and he’s still in a way that should probably feel predatory but makes butterflies erupt in my stomach.
I lick my lips. “Um. Anyways. I’m convinced swimming will end with me as fish shit, so I would like to pass.”
“Catalina.” The firmness in his voice makes me shiver. “You will be here for seven years. My territory is over ninety percent water. Learning to swim is not optional.”
He’s probably right, but I’m stuck on something else. Obviously I knew the demon deal was for seven years; I read the contract before I signed it. But I hadn’t really thought about what seven years in this tower would do to me. “I can’t stay here,” I burst out.
He flinches. “Unfortunately—”
“I don’t mean with you.” I don’t pause to see if that’s what he really intended with his statement. “I mean in this tower. Alone. Going out of my mind. It’s torture, Thane.” I was doing a good job of pretending I am totally fine with this setup and maybe that it’s even kind of cute that he wants to protect me from chefs wielding knives, but a couple weeks have me climbing the walls. I don’t like to think of what state I might be in after one year, let alone seven.
The teasing on his face disappears as if it were never there in the first place. “I intend to keep you safe.”
“Keep my body safe, maybe. If you really meant to keep me mentally and emotionally safe, you wouldn’t lock me up.”
“You are not locked up.” He pushes back from the table. “You are not a prisoner.”
“Cool, so I can leave whenever I want.” I shove back too and rise. “Guess I’ll go now.”
Thane rises too. “By all means, Catalina.” He motions with one long-fingered hand. “Shall we?”
I’m riding high on frustration, which has never been a good emotion for me. I don’t know how to deal with it, so I don’t deal with it at all. Instead, I do whatever it takes to stop feeling that way. Right now, that means action.
I stalk ahead of Thane out of the room and down a damp hall. Another time, I’d lag behind so I could marvel at how smoothly he moves on his tentacles. There’s a hypnotic element to the rise and fall of his body as he shadows me to the stairs. Not right now. I’m too keyed up.
It’s only when I reach the bottom that I realize my mistake. Of course, I can’t leave. I can’t swim. Which the bastard knew when he threw that gauntlet at my feet.
I spin and give a mocking slow clap. “Congratulations. You’ve made a fool of me. Well done, asshole.”
He’s obviously clenching his jaw, which I would find satisfying if I wasn’t so embarrassed by marching down here. And now I have all the damned stairs to climb again.
I’m going to have an ass of steel after all this. Too bad I can’t even enjoy the thought of bouncing a quarter off it right now. “I’m done,” I say.
A tentacle lashes the ground in front of me, stopping me in my tracks, but when I look up to meet Thane’s gaze, he’s just as reserved as he always is. The only indication that he’s anything less than calm is the way his tentacles shift around him.
I prop my hands on my hips and glare. “Is this the part where you shove me into the water and forcibly teach me to swim?”
Thane blanches. “That is torture.”
Is it? My mother just called it learning the hard way. I learned a lot of things the hard way. I shrug. “It would get your point across.”
“My point, Catalina, is not to torment you.” He points at the water. “I will take you wherever you want to go.”
“What’s the catch?”
“There is no catch,” he grits out.
I don’t believe him. Not for a second. In the past few weeks, I’ve considering coming down to this pool more than a few times. All I’d have to do is jump in. As he said, I can’t drown. There’s no guard standing here, forcing me to stay in the tower. Only my own fear acts as my jailer.
Except that’s not the truth. There is danger in this world, and he’s as much as admitted it.
“If I tried to swim out of here without you, would I make it?”
He goes still, his tentacles freezing in place. That’s answer enough, but I want to hear him say it. I hold his gaze until he shakes his head shortly. “It’s possible but unlikely. There are predators in the bay that don’t bother my people, but you are not one of my people.”
“So. I am trapped.” I don’t know why he’s so determined to argue with me. “A princess in a tower, except I’m no virginal innocent waiting for my Prince Charming. I guess that makes you the monster, huh?” Calling Thane a monster isn’t kind, and it sure as fuck isn’t smart. There’s nothing stopping him from leaving me in a huff and not coming back for a few weeks.
Or a few years.
What am I going to do? I don’t think the demon deal considers mental and emotional harm. How could it? It’s such a nebulous thing to articulate, especially when my indicators of what really constitutes harm aren’t exactly reliable. More than that, Thane isn’t trying to hurt me. He’s just being ham-handed about things.
“I want to show you something,” he says abruptly.