lord.
“You have no idea of the dangers out there.”
“I was fine until you came along.”
“Which only proves how little you know.”
Zachary tossed back his wet hair. His gaze speared Morgan‟s, his eyes accusing and curiously adult. “Whose fault is that?”
Morgan was silent. In truth, he could have spoken to the boy before this. He had an obligation to his prince and his people.
Zachary belonged on Sanctuary, where his power could be assessed and trained. Morgan should have made an opportunity and
forced the issue. He had not, because of Elizabeth.
Because he wanted to bed her.
A flare of remembered fire licked his belly.
His plan had been simple and ruthless: claim Zachary, fuck Elizabeth, and go. Now that he had achieved both goals, he had
no excuse to dally on World‟s End.
The fire sank down to chill and ash.
“ One night doesn’t change anything, ” Elizabeth had said.
But she was wrong.
They both were wrong.
“Put your clothes on,” Morgan said. “Your mother will be worried about you.”
“She doesn‟t know anything.”
“She knows when to expect you home.”
Sullenly, the boy rolled to his feet and reached for his clothes. He hitched up his pants, fumbled with the buckle. Without
looking at Morgan, he asked, “Are you going to tell her?”
He heard and understood the desperate anxiety in the boy‟s voice. The days when the children of the sea were
acknowledged, feared, and revered were gone. There was no guarantee Elizabeth would believe their son.
Or accept him.
“That is your responsibility,” he said as gently as he could.
“I can‟t.” Panic made his voice higher, like a child‟s. “She wouldn‟t believe me.”
Morgan stifled a flash of compassion. “Then you must show her.”
“Forget it. She already thinks I‟m a freak.”
“You are not a freak. You are finfolk.”
Zachary sneered. “What is that, like, a mermaid?” “Merfolk.”
“Whatever. It‟s not me. I turn into a shark.”
Morgan reached for patience, remembering what it had been like for him so many centuries ago. The boy had a lot to learn,
in more ways than one. “Not only a shark. You could take another form.”
“No, I can‟t. It‟s always a shark.”
Morgan sighed. Was this what Griff had gone through with the new changelings on Sanctuary? It had been almost a
century since the young roamed Caer Subai, free and feral as dogs. But Morgan was fast developing new respect for the gruff
castle warden who had taken them in charge.
“The finfolk are shape-shifters,” he explained patiently. “With enough skill, enough practice, we can control the Change
and determine what we become. But your fears control you. You turn into a shark because you fear the shark.”
The boy‟s chin jerked up. “I guess then you‟re afraid of them, too.”
Morgan bared his teeth in a smile. “No.”
Zachary‟s gaze dropped. He scooped his shirt from the sand. “Anyway, I‟m not telling her.”
“She is your mother. She cares for you. She has the right to know.”
The realization made him deeply uneasy.
“Then you tell her.”
Morgan opened his mouth. Closed it.
“Yeah, that‟s what I thought,” Zachary said with bitter satisfaction. “You never told her either.”
“The children of the sea keep apart from humankind,” Morgan said stiffly.