by Starla Night
“Now….” He didn’t wish to tell her. Not in this state.
“Tell me.”
He sighed. “First, the empty dais will turn black and fall to the ocean floor. The castles will wither and follow. It will happen quickly, before we reach your boat.”
“And then you’ll die?” she whispered.
“We will disperse to other cities. Dragon Mar is closest. If their Life Tree accepts us, it will put forth blossoms. If their Life Tree is as sickly as ours, then it may not be able to put forth blossoms, and then yes, we will die.”
Why hadn’t he collapsed already?
The failure of the Sireno Life Tree ought to suck away his strength, turning his muscles to muck and his bones to glass. Had his connection to Lucy given him this unnatural, almost normal level of strength?
She froze with horror and melted into sadness. “I should never have come.”
“Only you could come.” If only he could slow and comfort her, soothe her raw pain and recrimination. “Another would have failed.”
“I wish….” She closed off, but he heard the rest of the words. She wished she would have failed.
“Lucy, the Life Tree was old. It was also wise. It resonated with your soul and gave the last of its power to protect us. To protect our house. The Life Tree said you are a worthy mer, even more worthy than its own.”
“Will the rest of your city see it that way?”
“I will not go back to Sireno.”
“Right. Because I destroyed it. God!”
“No!” He twirled with her, breaking her from her spiral. “Because now I know the truth. I showed them a bride who breathes underwater and chooses us and is willing to stay. I showed them a bride who befriends a house guardian and defends a castle and eagerly joins with a mer. I show them a bride who shines like a star and commands the resonance of the Life Tree! And what do they do?”
She swallowed.
“They criticize your fins!” He bit his words, seething with the memory. “Ask me how many times we must practice when we first go to land. Ask me!” He shook his head, changing their direction, and dove again to recapture the swift current. “Our kind are too covenant-bound and stupid to be saved.”
“Perhaps if I became pregnant….”
“Not even then.”
He must someday find another city. Another Life Tree. One to heal her, one where she could join him.
Her fingers stilled. “Hey, Torun?”
“Yes, my Lucy?”
“If I hadn’t been able to stop the, uh, procedure, and I was miraculously already healed and pregnant, what would have happened?”
“I would have been exiled,” he said. “Weaponless and injured, beyond the towers of the reef, I would have quickly succumbed to predators and died. You would have been cared for by another, probably the king, until you had your son.”
She shuddered. “He was awful.”
Oh, he kept forgetting that the king was not Jolan. “Yes. He was once my favorite elder. He always said running into battle is rash. Instead, he freezes us all in place to death.”
“So I would have raised our baby with him?”
“You would have borne our young fry. Then, you would have been returned to the surface, and he would have raised our son. It is the custom.”
She clenched him tighter. “He would have killed you and stolen our baby.”
This made her light shine brighter. The deep, protective love that she had apologized for and wished away she now reaffirmed. He stroked her. “He is king and a father. He once raised a worthy son.”
“By shafting the mom.” She huffed. “Which ‘worthy son’ did this great guy raise?”
“My father. And, after my father passed on, me.”
Lucy’s shock reverberated through the water. “You said he was your favorite elder.”
“He was.”
“Your own grandfather just tried to cut off your genes.”
“We have long stopped hunting from the same schools.” He shrugged, changing their shape and direction in the fast, rising currents. “He accepted a Council position to leave our castle to me. The harder he advised the king away from Kadir’s ideas, the more I fought his guidance. Perhaps he does now hate me. I no longer feel bound by him.”
“I would have gone into exile with you.”
“They would never have allowed that.”
“Then I would have waited until I could make my escape, and then I would have found you.”
“Lucy.” He squeezed her. “It is too dangerous. In the open ocean, alone, there are many predators. We are only safe on known currents, which are guarded and protected.”
“We could make it together.”
“Everyone must sleep sometime. The mer city would imprison you to protect you. You chose us.”
“Oh, no. I didn’t choose your stupid city. I chose you.”
A strange tingling moved through his body. He had tried to convince her to join the mer, and his city, to gain the powers and riches of his undersea world. She had seen injustice and supported his idea to make their world better. Joining with any mer could prove the young lord of Atlantis right, and accomplish his goal.
But she chose him. Not any mer. Him.
“Lucy.” How to put his emotion into words? He struggled. “You would have stayed with me even if I had been sterilized?”
“Of course.”
“Now the Life Tree has been destroyed, it cannot heal you.”
“I know.”
“It also cannot make you a mer permanently. Soon, you will try to make the change, and you will remain human.”
“I got it.” She shook off the heaviness of the conversation. “I’m sorry I’m going to lose these awesome powers. But I’ve been telling you from the beginning our relationship is doomed. You’ll have to find another woman.”
Why did she continue to push him to take another mate? Did she not feel their connection as deeply as he did? He would never consent for her to join with another warrior. The thought made his muscles clench for his trident.
“Don’t look so frowny,” she said.
“You speak as if separating were easy for you.”
“I’m just telling you that I understand. You have to do what you have to do.”
“I will not leave you.”
“But when you do, I get it. Your species is dying.”
He growled. “You are the one I want.”
“God, don’t you get it?” She smacked his chest. “I’m being noble over here. If you stay with me, you might as well have been castrated by your Council. Okay? I can’t have kids.”
That stopped his growl in his throat.
She had tried to make him face this many times. He had been so certain the Life Tree would heal her. Now, as an exile without a Life Tree, staying with Lucy would accomplish the Council’s same wish to sterilize him.
Her expression said it all.
Only she had believed in him. Believed in his vision and been willing to try. Now, her face clenched with agony. She was unable to give him the one thing he needed for his race to survive. It was killing her inside.
He never wanted to see that level of pain again. Never. He held her close, burying her face in his shoulder, trying to physically transfer the burden of her agony to himself. “I will solve this.”
“I already told you the easy solution.”
“No other woman will replace you.”
“You say that now.” She turned away. “Give it five years.”
Curse the human male who had damaged her. Torun would not want a new woman in five years. Lucy was his heart, his life, his soul. Without her, there was no him. They were one until death. Or, beyond it.
“Lucy—”
“Hey.” She stared up at the surface, shimmering finally, after all this time. “That’s not our trawler.”
He stopped his promise and examined the growing shape. Yes, it was larger and more elongated, had an unblemished underside, and the anchor chain was a different shape.
<
br /> “How long exactly was I gone?” she asked.
“In human time? Almost two weeks.”
She swore. “No way Gracie and Cash stayed. This must be someone else’s yacht. Maybe one chartered by Elyssa.” Her light dimmed. “You know, Elyssa can have kids. And, she already believes you’re a merman.”
“I am not able to join with Elyssa. We are not resonant.”
Her light brightened.
“I am glad that pleases you.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“Mm.”
The broke the surface. Lucy smiled in the sunlight.
And started to choke.
He assisted her with the transition, emptying her lungs and relearning how to draw in air. This was, in many ways, the real test. She had adapted well to living underwater, but now she returned to air again. Would she remember her natural preference and refuse to descend with him again?
She gasped, mouth open, like a beached fish.
“Are you okay?” His voice sounded weird in the air. Higher pitched and tinny.
She nodded, red-faced and choking. “It’s a…heck of a…kick.”
“It will become easier.” He helped her to the low rungs of the sleek, white ladder bobbing on the surface. “Like clearing your snorkel.”
She nodded, trusting him, and gripped the ladder. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Lucy.” He stopped her. “You were willing to give up everything to be with me.” He held her hand. “Thank you.”
“I’m not that selfless.” She tried to tug her hand free.
He was going to say something else, but her comment side-tracked him. “You promised to leave the air world behind and join me in the undersea kingdom.”
“Yeah, but you were on the outs with your Council. I thought there was pretty good chance you might want to take a few long vacations Stateside, and I could introduce you to my parents and stock up on whatever foods I craved, or make it official on our side.”
He couldn’t follow her. The implications left him stunned. “You wished to marry me? According to the rites of your people?”
“You helped me recover my passion and reclaim my true self. Our marriage would have been way better than my last one.”
She spoke in the past, as though she were already grateful to be in the air again, and no longer wished to marry him now that he was an exile.
The fact that she had ever wished it made his chest tighten. He cleared his throat of pesky seawater, fighting the emotion. “I will never forget this.”
“Yeah. Sure.” She hacked and spat. “Well, let’s find the owner and get out of here before your city guards catch up.”
They climbed the ladder. On the deck, she called out. “Hello?”
Menace whistled through the slow, non-conductive air. “There is something wrong on this vessel.”
She picked up her expedition T-shirt. “You mean like this?”
“That is from your ship.”
“Yes, exactly. And this yacht is not Elyssa’s nor Mel’s.”
She started for the wheelhouse. A cup of coffee steamed beside the wheel but the door was locked.
Someone was here.
More than that, mer were here.
Torun shouted. “Lucy! Run.”
The waters frothed with warriors from his city. They surged onto the boat. He swung his bare fists at a powerful male, but someone behind him knocked him to the deck.
Warlord Ailan, leader of Sireno’s second unit, put the sharp trident blades to his throat. “Exile Torun. You have broken the covenant. Face your end with honor.”
Two warriors started for Lucy.
Torun roared. “Do not touch my queen!”
They hesitated.
Ailan shoved the flat side into his throat, choking off his rage. “She is not your queen.”
Torun struggled, choking.
He had trained Ailan like many others. The male had always impressed him with his care to be correct. Ailan’s methods were slow, careful, and exact as a judge. He held the rulebook of the Council in his heart and recited it with perfect correctness.
And now, he was judging Torun.
“What are you doing?” Lucy stormed up to Ailan. “Let him up. Now.”
In the air, her brilliance dispersed. Ailan faced her wrath like a steel rod facing a tidal wave. Unbent and unbowed. “He must face judgement for his blasphemy.”
“What the heck are you talking about?”
Ailan’s lieutenant reached out to pull her away.
She slapped at him. “Get your hands off me!”
The males retreated.
Ailan straightened. “Torun must face judgement before the Council for—”
“We already faced your stupid Council,” Lucy screamed, frightening the other males awfully. “And Torun’s still got his balls, so guess who came out ahead?”
Ailan lifted his chin even farther. “Torun broke the covenant.”
“Yadda yadda sacred brides, secret existence.” She waved him away. “What are you doing on this boat? Exposing yourselves to everyone?”
“Warlord Torun did it first.”
“Oh, please. Nobody believes one crazy guy. You’re a whole army of mermen.”
Ailan’s mouth pinched.
“It’s a little late for secrecy.” A new voice spoke from the wheelhouse doorway.
Lucy whitened. “Blake.”
A thin man emerged onto the deck. “Hi, honey.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Protecting my investments.” His cold gaze flicked over the mermen. “Which means we have to talk.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
When Blake emerged from the pristine, ginormous yacht - with a helicopter pad! - in his crisp, white suit, holding a sparkling glass of wine, Lucy was hit with the gut-punch of shame.
He was still fit and strong. Healthy as the day they had anchored here together, when she dove for what looked like a dropped flashlight and turned out to be a million-dollar Sea Opal. They had laughed and danced and screamed and planned. The future was amazingly bright, and they were a young couple who had just won it all.
His half had drained into leaky investments, while hers had paid off their student loans, credit card debt, and tanked businesses.
And yet, here they were, back in the same place a decade later. He looked exactly the same. Older, less hair on top, and longer sideburns to try to disguise it, but otherwise, he had been lifted by their break up.
She was the one dripping wet on his yacht, hungry and half-drowned, with her new husband under arrest.
Blake’s scorn said all that and more.
“That’s a new look for you,” he said, arching his brow.
She covered herself. In the ocean, her whole body changed and felt different. Even when she faced down the Council head fish stick, she was never exposed the way she felt now.
No way in hell did she want to reveal that she’d gained super powers.
“I was reliving the old days,” she said. “Back when clothes were optional.”
He wrinkled his nose. “That option expired.”
The insult stung.
Torun grunted and struggled beneath the blades of his captors. Oh, yeah. Her pain hurt him too. Lucy had to be strong for the both of them.
She blazed back at her ex. “At least I can put on clothes. Naked or not, you’re still a back-stabbing asshole.”
“Ooh, clever.” He sneered at her and motioned to the mer. “Ailan, take them below.”
The leader, Ailan, and other warriors lofted Torun and carted him, struggling and grunting, down to the hold after Blake. Two reached out as if they were going to grab her. She glared. They hesitated.
“Why are you taking orders from a human?” she demanded.
One warrior grimaced. “He is your husband.”
“God, for the last time! He’s not my husband. He’s my ex.”
“Torun touched you. Your husband threatened to expose us. He is owed
justice.”
“First of all, your twisted ‘mer logic’ doesn’t apply. In the air, the woman always chooses.” She jerked her thumb at her chest. Their brows rose in shock. “Always. And second of all, Blake’s the one who left me. Torun owes him nothing but a punch in the face.”
The two warriors frowned at each other.
“Furthermore, the man you’re helping right now is your worst enemy. The only thing he’s going to do is steal your Sea Opals.”
“No one can do that.” The one warrior shook his head confidently. “They are beyond air-breathing humans.”
“Except in the cave close to here? That has plenty.”
“It cannot be entered by a non-mer.”
“I entered it.”
They regarded her blankly.
“Before I drank the elixir, I entered the cave.”
“Lies.” The closest warrior lowered his trident at her. “Go to your husband.”
Crap.
“My husband is Torun,” she insisted. But they didn’t believe her. The look in their eyes was the same as the HR person calling her in for the conversation about her place in the company.
She paused to tug on clothes from the luggage Blake had stolen from her trawler and descended at trident-point to the hold.
The warriors had thrown Torun into a clear fiberglass cage reinforced with steel. Blake locked the door and pocketed the key. Beside it rested her equipment, Cash’s surveying logs, and diving gear.
Her heart started beating. What had happened to her crew? Where was the Sea Opal she had left with Gracie?
“I need days to deal with this home-wrecker,” Blake was telling Ailan. “Weeks, actually.”
“We return at sunrise,” Ailan said. “You will not reveal our existence to the human world.”
“I wouldn’t dream of telling anyone else about you,” Blake said, smarmy with the warriors.
Of course he wouldn’t. Announcing to the world mermen existed would get in the way of him stealing their Sea Opals.
“This man is not my husband!” she shouted at the warriors.
Ailan paused.
The warrior who had pulled the trident on her murmured in Ailan’s ear. “She claims this male left her.”
“He left me for a size one model. He divorced me because I couldn’t have children!”
