Shivers griped her deep in her heart. Tears rushed from her eyes as he lay dying in her arms. Her husband, lover and best friend reached to brush her tears away. He tried to speak, words failed him. With his shuddered breaths, he implored her to look him deep in the eye and not flinch. Volumes of love and sorrow passed between the couple before he slipped away.

Castella tossed back her head and screamed. Pain wracked her body as if her very soul sought to escape. Roars of grief rippled through the watery depths never reaching the surface where humans and the sun flocked on the surface. In the sands next to her, lay her child’s torn and mutilated body. Her husband had tried to save the child with a soul bond. Too much too late, death had taken both of them. Damn the minions who sought to usurp the power and rule by terror and threat. Damn any who let jealousy and greedy rule them.

Castella wanted to lay down beside her child and husband, and join them in the great water world of eternal souls. Yet deep in her soul, she knew her time had not come. Another needed her. Pregnant and alone in a hostile world would not be easy. Yet Manron had exacted her love promise to live and raise their unborn child. He released her from their eternity bond and demanded she love and commit again.

Amongst the humans, go there her mind echoed. She had nothing in common with them. Except a cousin who had fled with his twins to an obscure place called Talbot’s Peak. Far from the waters of their home, he hid with his children. Their weak psychic link allowed her to call out and plan her escape. One day she’d return and exact her revenge. Shere Kahn’s alliances would not reach into Oceana’s depths any deeper.

* * * * *
“Look mate, I stayed away.” Nitchell hovered over Cason as he knelt by the nude female laying face down on the beach.

“Nitchell, shut your yap. It’s bad enough I go around looking like a blooming idiot talking constantly to himself. Least you could do is stop berating me and causing more trouble.” Cason glanced over his shoulder hoping no one heard him. Only yards of empty beach flowed out behind him. Good, no one was running towards them or paparazzi with their flashing cameras race to them.

“Well I never…” Nitchell began, his arms folded tightly across his chest. His wings flapped more with each breeze blowing in off the water.

“Yes you never and that is why you got banished. So learn to shut up and keep an eye on things.” Cason stood, pulling his shirt over his head. He could make out her pale blue lips. He hoped she lived. Whoever she was, he knew despite what his mind screamed wasn’t so that she was here for a reason.

Folding his shirt in thirds, Cason inched forward. CPR on a fish? Lord had his brain really gone that far south on him? Yet, the curve of her jaw and fullness of her breast line indicated otherwise.

Much more and he’d be in it deep. The music filling his ears burst into his mind with pictures and jagged pieces of information. A loud drumbeat began somewhere behind his eyes and grew with each beat of his heart. He couldn’t take his gaze off her. It was as though a deep psychic bond was forming. Why?

“Nitchell!” Cason cried out, clutching his head as his vision blurred to black.

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