It hurt so bad to swim across the lake that my eyes legitimately burned, but I ignored them.

When I reached the bottom of the waterfall, I stared up at it for a solid five minutes while I tried to use my magic to make it carry me upward.

It didn’t even pause, no matter how much magic I shoved at the thing.

I must’ve been doing it wrong.

With a long sigh, I shifted my tail back to legs and climbed out of the water. My knees knocked together as I dug my fingers into the rocky wall of the cliff beside the waterfall. It was slippery, and there was moss all over the rocks, but I could do it.

I’d figure it out.

My arms shook as I pulled myself up a couple inches off the ground. My foot glanced off a sharp rock, and I winced at a gash of pain before I planted my foot on another rock.

Yeah, I was probably bleeding.

I remembered cutting my arm the day before, and twisted awkwardly as I tried to check out the wound. There was a large, white bandage where the cut had been.

I blinked down at the thing, not remembering cleaning the wound. Or covering it.

Triton must’ve done it while I was sleeping.

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that, honestly.

Grateful? Yes.

But everything else was an uncertainty.

How much of what he was doing was just so I’d be willing to let him breed me?

How much of it would end if I let him knock me up?

How would he treat me if he wasn’t actively trying to convince me to accept him as my mate?

I managed to climb another foot off the ground before the moss on one of the rocks I clung to slid off.

I fell so fast and hard that I couldn’t do anything to catch myself. Luckily, I hadn’t been far off the ground, because I was now flat on my back. My ass hurt something fierce, too.

Groaning, I stared up at the waterfall and the water tube above me.

They may as well have been taunting me.

If I was just as strong as Triton…

“I am as strong as Triton,” I grumbled at the water. “Or I will be, according to him.”

It didn’t reply, obviously.

I forced myself back to my feet, ignoring the throbbing in my ass that had officially joined the pain in nearly every muscle I possessed. Letting out a harsh breath, I closed my eyes and focused on the electricity in my chest.

If Triton could do it, I could too.

In theory.

Theory was just going to have to be good enough, because the alternative was sitting in the grotto like a princess trapped in a tower. And I wasn’t freaking Rapunzel.