by Godiva Glenn
As he played, his eyes were closed but his face was expressive and transparent. His furrowed brows conveyed concentration, but also seemed to channel the delicate pain in the music itself. She took the phone in her hands to listen and watch while spellbound by his performance.
Minutes passed, though she wasn’t sure how many in total. By the time his hands stopped moving, her heart felt settled. Her spirit calmed. She looked up at him. The sky was dark, and she could only see him as shadows and soft shapes, but he was perfect.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Music always soothes me. I wasn’t sure if it would do the same for you, but I guessed.” He cupped her face. “I had to do something. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
“Kiss me again.” She held the phone to her chest. Another song had begun, this one lighter and brighter. “I won’t cry this time.”
Six
Pavel
Pavel ran his fingers through his hair, obsessing over every strand while scrutinizing himself in the mirror. Today would be his second date with Annika, and he wanted it to be better than the last.
He found himself drawn to the mystery of her, though that was far from being her only appeal. It was simply what got to him first. She wouldn’t say what she was. Gerri didn’t want them talking on the phone. And even though Annika had revealed she was between jobs and completely free, she’d made him wait a week before they would see each other again.
Were it any other woman, he’d assume a game was being played. Annika didn’t strike him as the type to draw things out for the sake of forcing desire. He didn’t suspect anything but was prepared for the explanation to be quite the story.
He had half a mind to contact Alethea and her former-dryad husband, Blair, to see if he could figure out what was going on, but that would be unfair. Whatever Annika’s secret, he assumed she would want to be the one to spill it.
He plucked at his ivory polo shirt and stood back from the mirror, giving himself a final once over. As for the hair, he needed to stop touching it. The wind would dishevel it anyhow. Today’s date would be on a boat. Private, romantic, and, he suspected, appropriate.
The little information he’d gathered from Annika made it clear that she was some sort of water-type fae. She loved seafood, spoke fondly of her home on the coast, and kissing her on the beach made her cry.
What was strange about her, however, was that she lived in the city nearby rather than right on the beach. And when they’d parted ways, she looked at the water with such bare longing it pained him. Why the distance? Finances?
Come to think of it, she’d mentioned bartending and something about rolling ice cream, which sounded bizarre. Beach living was pricey. Maybe that was it. Well, if all went well, she’d have the best beach home he could find. His house back home was in the city, albeit in a secluded, gated area, but he could pull strings and find something right on the sand. Annika could swim any time she wanted, and the seafood of Lutheyis was always fresh and delicious. It would be a paradise compared to her current accommodations.
His phone buzzed. A text had come through showing that she was on her way. They’d meet at the marina where he’d rented a boat. Nothing too fancy or large, just something he could maneuver out.
After he replied that he couldn’t wait to see her, he scrolled through his past messages and debated contacting his parents. He hadn’t told them he was going out of town. If he let them know he’d flown across the world to meet a strange woman with no job, they’d probably have matching heart attacks.
He passed on that, for now at least. They were set in their ways but if he handled the situation properly, they would adore Annika. And if not, well, they could disown him and not miss a beat by lavishing even more attention on his brother, Cole.
* * * *
Annika had been quite as they’d navigated further out onto the water. It was perfect weather, at least, calm and not at all choppy. He’d packed a lunch, but first, he thought they could talk if she was up to it.
She stood at the bow, hands lightly gripping the low rail. Her eyes were distant, capturing the horizon or lost deep in thought, he wasn’t entirely sure. He almost didn’t want to interrupt her trance. He could wait forever. She was a beautiful sight. Her warm brown skin and dark hair shined in the sun, and the loosely draped, pastel pink dress she wore reminded him of a traditional peplos. She was his own personal Greek goddess, gazing over the front of the ship and contemplating the waves.
His stare must have lingered a moment too long because she turned her face to him and arched a black brow in amusement. “Did you want to say something?”
He cleared his throat. “You seemed preoccupied.”
“I’ve never been on a boat this large.”
“Is that all?”
She smiled and gazed back out at the water. “Being this far out brings me comfort. Comfort I thought I’d lost.”
He joined her at her side. “Am I supposed to guess what that means?”
“No. It wasn’t meant to be ambiguous.”
“Does that mean we’re going to have… the talk?”
Her eyes flickered over him. “Could you kiss me first? I believe I owe you one, one without tears.”
As if he could deny her such a request. “Do you worry I won’t want to kiss you once I know what you are?”
“Maybe?”
He drew her near with one hand on her slender back. “You could probably reveal yourself to be the spawn of Cthulhu and I’d still kiss you. Right up till the moment you turned into a mass of tentacles and ate me alive.”
Her mouth fell open, and a precious confusion wrinkled her brows. “What?”
“I’ll explain after.”
She took hold of his shirt and yanked him down for a kiss. Her soft lips cleared away his every thought, humor, anxiousness, absolutely everything. He caressed her arm and pulled away, though the dark lust in her eyes begged him to stay close.
“That wasn’t enough.”
“I know.” He brushed his fingers through her hair. “But now you’re smiling, and I wanted to see it.”
He kissed her again, and this time she released a soft moan against him. The sound worked at the restraint he held over himself. He wanted nothing more than to hold her tighter, and never let go. His hand traced the delicate curve of her shoulder and it was hard not to pull her down to one of the cushioned benches and do something entirely not like him.
A gentleman wouldn’t manhandle a woman on the second date. Wouldn’t muss her hair as they made out. But the longer they kissed, the more difficult it grew to keep it chaste. He wanted more, and he wanted to show her how wild she drove him.
Her arms circled him, and he drew back again, needing to see her dark eyes. As he smiled down at her, something moved at the corner of his sight. He turned and squinted past the blue surface at something moving below. He held Annika at arm’s length. “There’s someone in the water.”
“Where?” She peered over the side.
He tossed the life ring overboard but the person in the water was submerged. They didn’t appear to be moving, however. He jumped in as Annika screamed for him to stop.
He went under and came up with his arms around a man his size. The stranger’s eyes opened, and he glared at Pavel.
“Thanks,” the man snarled, then dove back into the water.
Pavel waded, confused, and glanced up at Annika just as he was grabbed around the ankle and yanked down. Caught off-guard, water rushed into his nose and mouth. He tried to kick his legs to free himself of the man holding him, but his grip was too tight.
Another hand took his wrist but tugged upward. He could barely see but assumed it had to be Annika. He couldn’t tell her to leave him, but his mouth opened in vain. She wasn’t safe. She had to go. But he didn’t have the energy to pry her fingers loose.
His vision grew dark and the water became unbearably cold. He couldn’t tell if anyone still held him, but he sank down.
Seven
<
br /> Annika
Nothing made sense when Pavel had leaped over the boat’s railing. It happened too fast for Annika to stop him, though she’d immediately known that something was off about the situation. The middle of nowhere and they come across a man in the water?
Only after she’d dived in beside him did things make sense. She saw Teall dragging Pavel down, but she couldn’t stop him. And worse, without her skin, she wouldn’t be able to retrieve Pavel. Her human form had limitations. She could hold her breath and was still a strong swimmer, but Teall had his skin, and he could bring Pavel to the very ocean floor.
In her mind, she screamed at him to stop, but of course, he didn’t listen. She clung to Pavel’s hand though he tried to break free of her, but then it didn’t matter. His eyes remained open and he simply stopped. Stopped moving. Stopped blinking. He stopped.
Her mouth opened and she released her agony to the water. She begged and prayed. There was nothing else she could do. And as she stared at Pavel’s lifeless body, she didn’t care that she was drowning too. It was all her fault.
Teall, in his seal form, came to her and tried to push her to the surface, but she scratched at him with her nails and swam past him to hold Pavel. The water grew icy and dark around them and she pulled him close. This was the end.
Except it wasn’t.
One moment she was struggling against the water in her lungs and the next she was on the sand. A tide crashed over her and she vomited and coughed, somehow alive. Pavel washed up beside her, followed by Teall, who’d lost his seal form.
Annika rushed to Pavel’s side, but he wasn’t breathing.
“No,” she cried. “No, you have to come back, Pavel. I promised I wouldn’t cry for you.” She beat his chest, but she didn’t know how to save his life. She knew there was a way. Something humans did, but she wasn’t human.
“Stand aside.” A voice called from behind Annika.
Iona, one of the last remaining undine, rose from the dark waves. Her form was pure water, and as she moved forward, the tide came with her. She stopped at Pavel and crouched down beside him opposite Annika. With a wave of her hand, Pavel’s mouth opened, and a stream of water came flowing up. She continued until only a few drops floated in the air above him, then with a flick of her wrist, the water dispersed back into the tide.
He coughed, and his lungs rose and fell, but his eyes remained closed.
Annika kissed his forehead and cradled him. “Thank you! Iona… thank you…”
“He was nearly gone,” Iona said. “He’ll live now but… he couldn’t accept my essence before we came through.”
For the first time, Annika noticed her surroundings. They were back on Prism, right on the water outside her home. But that meant… “He didn’t use the right portal!”
“No. Not by any stretch of the imagination. No portal and no water of reflection to adjust his body. Only the magical rift and what little of myself I could force into his stomach beside the water that was killing him.” Iona stood. “He’ll survive, but I would imagine that the next few days he’ll be in and out of consciousness. The magic will have a time of it, but eventually, he’ll adapt to Prism.”
“It’s my fault,” Annika sobbed.
“Yes,” Iona agreed. “It is. You knew better than to use the rift. I expected more of you.” She turned to Teall, who was sprawled on the sand feet away and appeared disoriented. “And you! You told me you wished to save Annika. Bring her home. Yet you use your chance to attempt murder. In my water.”
“I wasn’t thinking,” he said, looking away from her.
“I feel everything that happens when I am connected to the waters, even on another planet. I felt him die,” she grit out. “You used me and meant to kill with me.”
“I’m sorry! But she—”
“If you ever try that again, I’ll disperse your cells through each and every body of water on every reachable planet!” Her voice echoed through the air, and as she’d spoken, a massive wave crested behind her. She looked at Annika again, then lifted her arm and slammed it down.
The wave tore into streams that slapped at them and brought two piles of fur onto the beach. Annika recognized them both.
“How… My skin.” She ran forward and hugged her seal skin to her chest. “But it was back on Earth.”
“And you kept it wet,” Iona said. “There’s a reason you’re taught to keep it wet, even though many of you silly selkies let them dry out. I can save them if they’re wet. A failsafe we taught your people back when the waters led to Earth. Back when men and women would steal your skins to keep you captive.”
“Annika!” Cam came running down from the house and fell onto the sand behind her, embracing her. “What’s going on? What happened?”
“Children,” Iona admonished. “Stop with your games. The next time you see me, I may not be so motherly. And in case you’re wondering, the rift is permanently gone. The last thing I need is the Naiads slipping through, somehow.” She muttered the last part and turned her back to them.
Annika shivered as the breeze kicked up and chilled her cold skin. The tide pulsed and when it receded, Iona was gone. Annika reached out and took hold of Teall’s seal skin.
“What are you doing?” Teall asked.
“I’m taking this,” she said with a growl. “You can have it back when you find your heart.”
He stood and approached. “Annika, don’t toy with me.”
She pressed both of the skins into Cam’s arms as she stood and stalked through the sand. Her body knew her goal before her mind did, and her arm flew up as she punched Teall’s nose. He swore and took a step back.
“You can’t!” he insisted.
“I did!” She rubbed her knuckles, which burned and stung. “And if you try to retrieve it before I’m ready to relinquish it, I’ll tell the elders!”
The anger on his face faded into stark fear. “But they’d kill me.”
“I’m aware,” she said coldly.
“I was saving you!”
She sputtered. “How? How is trying to kill my date saving me? You’re the danger, Teall.”
“He’s human. He’d trap you, that’s their way. It was only a matter of time.”
“No.” Her hands balled into fists at her sides and the urge to punch him again rose. “You don’t know him. You’ve never even met a human, but you think you can judge them all? That’s absurdly typical of you.”
“You weren’t safe there. Don’t you see that?”
“Go home. Think of what you’ve done.” She stared him down. It made her sick to look at him. They’d been through rough times before, but she never thought he could stoop to the level of murder. He no longer looked like the Teall she loved.
But he looked at her with eyes full of anguished love. A look she’d seen countless times before. And in those days, it was that handsome face and adoring eyes that would draw her back after every fight. Not anymore. She held his gaze and didn’t flinch.
“You’ll forgive me,” he insisted then turned and walked away.
Cam put a hand on her shoulder. “I can’t believe you’re back.”
As much as it lifted her spirits to see Cam again, her thoughts were occupied. She squeezed Cam’s hand then rushed back to Pavel. “We need to get him inside.”
“And who is this?”
“Pavel.” She stroked his face, which had regained some color. “My match.”
Eight
Cam
Two days had passed since Annika returned, and in that time, Pavel had spent ninety percent of it dead to the world.
Watching her sit at his side, clutching his hand for hours on end, stirred a subtle hint of jealousy within Cam that had never been present before. After all, he’d seen much more when she was with Teall. They’d lived together. Cam had seen just about everything.
The jealousy wasn’t the worst part, though. Annika was in denial and refused to discuss it, but Pavel was human. Everyone knew what happened when humans and sel
kies mixed. Even humans knew, and they tended to be clueless things.
The only thing that kept Cam sane while helping to nurse their patient back to health was the smile Annika would get when, for a few moments at a time, Pavel would open his eyes and try to speak to her.
Iona had promised he’d survive, Annika had insisted. The magic had to adjust his body to Prism. Cam hoped for a thorough recovery. Even if his heart twisted in a vice to think of Annika with Pavel, he wanted her happy, and Pavel had done nothing to earn his current suffering.
Cam loaded a tray with food and drink. Broth for Pavel if he woke long enough to drink it, chopped eel and a fresh kelp salad for Annika, and a pitcher of fresh water for them both. The last few days, he’d been caring for Annika as much as for Pavel. She blamed herself for his condition and wouldn’t even eat if Cam didn’t pester her.
He lifted the tray and brought it to the room they’d chosen for Pavel. Their home was small, but it had many rooms. Selkies didn’t stay indoors to do much more than sleep, after all.
After setting the tray down, he sat beside Annika.
“Any change?”
She didn’t look at him when responding. “His breathing seems easier, I suppose.”
“We could try finding a doctor.”
“I considered it. But what Prism doctor would know how to help a drowned human?”
“It would be better if we knew what was wrong. Iona cleared his lungs.”
“It’s just the magic. There’s a proper way to enter our world. He was dashed across the universe through a water rift. If Iona wasn’t so skilled, he’d likely be dead, or worse, scattered through the water in a million pieces.”
