"Who the hell do you think you are?"

"Your new king," Syryn answered with a cool smile.

Rowan's interest peaked when he heard his lover's reply. Syryn never failed to amaze him.

"And who the hell made you king? Do you know what the punishment is for the crime of desecrating the noble seat of our king?!"

Unbothered by the words of the merman, Syryn placed a foot over his knee and regarded the mer who was much bigger than the human.

"Kneel before me," he told the mer.

Rowan saw the lack of knees on the mer's tail and wondered how exactly his mage expected the creature to kneel. It was impossible.

"In the name of the King, I will execute you. And this time, you will stay dead," the mer said as he held out his hand to the guard behind him.

Syryn glanced at the blond who was spectating the drama without so much as a crease of worry between his brows. So much for being in love. Where was the protective attitude he was expecting from someone who claimed to love him?

"Rowan," he snapped at the blond whose blue eyes were fixed on the trident that was being passed to the mer by his guard.

"Yes, sweetheart?" Rowan replied.

"Make the fish kneel."

If that wasn't typical of Syryn, the anti mage thought. "He doesn't have knees."

"I don't care. Make.him.kneel."

Stubborn to the bone, Syryn pointedly stared at the blond. The mage believed that someone who was capable of reaching Silisia and breathing underwater was no ordinary human. Rowan had some abilities and he wanted to see what they were.

"As you wish," the blond replied. Rowan didn't have to move from his seat. Just as the mer lunged at Syryn with his trident, an explosion of blood below his waist stopped the mer mid lunge.

The disbelief on his face couldn't change the fact that his upper torso was now cleanly separated from halfway down his mer tail. The mer fell to the sand, bleeding out from both ends of his separated body. It had happened too quickly for the others to react. They stared dumbfounded at their fallen comrade who still wasn't dead. But just as Syryn had wanted, the mer was at his feet almost as if he was bowing to the human on the throne.

"He isn't kneeling," Syryn complained but the satisfaction on his face was unmistakable. He smiled, eyes curving into crescents.

"I'll kneel on his behalf," Rowan replied. "Will that satisfy you, your majesty?"

"Dispose of the rest of the rabble and then I'll give you the honour of kneeling before me," Syryn replied as he sent a Cheshire grin at the handsome man. He had hit the jackpot. Good looking and powerful, not to mention his doting ways, Rowan was perfect. Now he just had to find out how good the man was in bed.

The horrified mers were staring at the half-dead fishman at Syryn's feet. Severed into two and dying from severe bleeding, all he could do was curse at the dispassionate gazed human who had his chin propped up on an elbow.

"Wait!" The other mer noble interrupted. "I have no quarrel with you humans. We will leave peacefully."

"Too late," Syryn told him. He couldn't remember every single face that watched him die that day so he had decided to punish every single noble. There were no exceptions to his wrath.

Blood dispersed in the water. The second noble met the same ending as the first. Shaken by the show of power, the others began to swim for their lives. Syryn said nothing and Rowan made no move as the other less guilty mers made a break for life.

"How does that power of yours work?" Syryn asked the anti mage. All he had seen was a slight wave in the water that indicated the passage of energy of some kind. Rowan hadn't moved a single finger while making quick work of the mers.

Eyes like gemstones looked up at Syryn. "I'll tell you if you tell me how you're breathing underwater."

Syryn wasn't sure how much he should reveal to Rowan. Giving him the benefit of doubt, the mage decided to spill his secret. He couldn't resist the eyes. They compelled him to speak.

"I'm not just a half-demon anymore," he told the anti mage. "Can you guess what the other non-human part of me is?"

"Fish?" Rowan guessed. "But I didn't notice any gills on your neck or behind the ears where it should be."

"No gills" Syryn replied. "I checked. I'm not sure what I am either but I do know that I can breathe through my skin. I am a serpent... I guess."

"Oh..."

"Oh?" Syryn prompted. Was the beauty having a change of mind about their relationship? 

"Can you transform and show me then?"

Syryn didn't know how to. He had transformed after drowning to death. Syryn didn't think there was some hidden serpent blood in him that had awakened. It had to have been a consequence of the sage's inheritance.

"Maybe later? I would prefer to do this privately." The mage smiled coyly when he said that to Rowan.

The blond narrowed his eyes in suspicion. Syryn couldn't remember him but he was so free with his flirting. Did his little lover flirt this way with other men while Rowan was away?

"Ryn, you were hugging that merman called Drevin. The two of you seemed very friendly."

"It was just a hug!"

His fiancé was a jealous one, Syryn found. Rowan still hadn't held up his end of the bargain but they had both forgotten about it. 

"Merpeople only hug their lovers that way. The human equivalent of it is a deep and passionate kiss. Did you not know that?" Rowan canted his head just a fraction as he smiled at the confused Syryn.

"That can't be true..."

Drevin hadn't said anything to him about hugs being so personal.

"You can ask any mer about it and they'll confirm it for you, Ryn."

"We hugged many times and that too in front of other mers...!!"

"I should have known you'd be cheating on me," the blond playfully teased. Under the light teasing though was a river of vinegar that had just flooded Rowan's heart.

"Syryn, I guess we should just part ways now."