by Rinelle Grey
This time she welcomed her tail parting. She swished it in the waves as it turned into her human legs, relief flooding through her as it worked. “I’m part mermaid and part human,” she said happily.
Relief flooded through her. She didn’t have to choose one or the other. She could have Rowan and be a mermaid too.
For the first time since she’d flopped onto land and lost her tail, Cari felt like things might just work out.
She twisted in Rowan’s lap and threw her arms around his neck, tears pricking at her eyes. “It worked. It really worked.”
“I’m so glad,” Rowan said, squeezing her back. “I knew it would.”
And he had too. He hadn’t wavered once. He’d been strong when Cari had felt hopeless. He’d been the one to lift her up.
Cari was very lucky to have him. Even luckier that he was her mate.
She was just a little disappointed she couldn’t dive under the waves with him.
But Rowan had a transformation of his own to make. Cari pulled back, slipped off his lap, and stood in the water beside him. “Now it’s your turn,” she said firmly.
Chapter 24
Rowan’s whole body trembled. There was no avoiding it anymore.
Cari had successfully shifted into a mermaid and back. She was who she was meant to be.
Now it was his turn to find out who he was.
And he was terrified.
When he’d just been an ordinary human, he hadn’t had anything to live up to. He’d accepted who he was. Or at least he’d thought he had.
Now there was a chance he could be a dragon. He was filled with so much hope and expectation it was almost painful.
He wanted this so much. He hadn’t even been aware of it until now because there’d been no choice. But now that the idea was in his head, he knew he’d be bitterly disappointed if he couldn’t shift. He’d be devastated to be an ordinary human again.
But as he looked at Cari, he realised he’d never be an ordinary human again. Even if he wasn’t a dragon, he’d still be a mermaid’s mate.
He could live with that.
What he couldn’t live with was being too afraid to know the truth. So he took a deep breath and focused on shifting. He imagined what it would be like to sprout wings and fly over the waves, and then to dive underneath them.
Rowan imagined sprouting scales and wings, imagined his body changing and shifting.
It wasn’t the first time he’d imagined this. He’d watched his family shift and tried to imagine what it would be like.
But this was different. This time he felt his body changing. It was painful, yes, his bones shifting and growing, his skin becoming tough and leathery, scales sprouting from his skin. And because he hadn’t quite believed it would happen, he hadn’t removed his clothes before shifting, meaning they tore as he grew. But even that felt surprisingly satisfying. It was a good pain. A productive pain.
Even his view of the world shifted. As he became a dragon, everything looked suddenly different. He could sense the water as though it was an extension of himself. Experimentally he tried pushing it with his mind, and water sprayed out from him in all directions. Exhilaration filled him.
Even Cari, when he looked down at her, looked different. It was almost as if he could see more of her. He could see her connection to the water too, and his connection to her.
It was the strangest and most wonderful thing he’d ever felt.
And Rowan knew Cari was right. This was who he was meant to be. Who he’d always thought he was deep in his heart.
And he’d achieved all it because of her.
She hadn’t just given him a wonderful mate, she’d given him the life he’d always wanted.
Rowan reached out his head towards her, wrapping his neck around her and pulling her close against him. “I love you, Cari,” he said into her mind.
“I love you too, Rowan,” she said back, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him.
“See, I told you.” Hayrian’s voice interrupted their cuddle, and for a second Rowan was tempted to growl and tell his siblings to go away. He wanted to share this moment with Cari, not them.
But as he lifted his head and saw his dragon siblings and realised he now truly was one of them, a different kind of joy filled Rowan’s heart. He nuzzled Cari one last time, then waded through the water to his family.
Everyone crowded around him, his brothers bumping up against his dragon shoulders, his sister nuzzling his neck.
“I always knew you were really one of us,” Mora said with a dragon smile.
“Now we can have some real races,” Damrian teased.
“I’m still going to win though. You being a dragon doesn’t change that,” Hayrian boasted. “Don’t get any ideas about flying circles around me,” he grumped.
“Seriously?” Audrey, Hayrian’s mate said, slapping his brother on the shoulder.
“That’s what they’re like,” Zara put her arms around Damrian’s neck. “Rowan too.” She grinned over at him. “Being a dragon isn’t going to change that.”
“Just what I need, more dragons,” Finn, Mora’s mate, grumbled. But he was grinning. “The world is going to have a field day with this piece of information. Who knew humans could become dragons? Or mate with mermaids.”
His words were casual, but as their meaning sunk in, Rowan realised the idea was anything but. He stared at his brothers and sister as the same realisation hit them.
This changed everything.
And opened up a million questions. Were all dragons descended from humans? Had they all been created from mating with mermaids? Was everything really connected in this big tangle?
Rowan had no idea of the answers, but he was excited to find out. Maybe this would even help his clan, truly his clan now, find their place in the human world?
Right now though, all that was somewhere in the fuzzy future. Right now, the only future he cared about was his and Cari’s.
He turned back to his mate, watching a little uncertainly from the water, and dipped his head to her.
“I’ll be back in a bit,” he said to his siblings, not taking his eyes off Cari. “I need to go swim with my mate.”
He didn’t even need to look down at his scales to know they were the same vibrant blue as his brothers’. Of course he was a water dragon. How could he be anything but? The perfect mate for a mermaid.
Now he just needed to show her that. “Let’s go swim,” he told her privately. “Are you ready?”
Cari bit her lip and nodded. She closed her eyes and Rowan watched as her shimmering pink scales reappeared. She sunk under the water, and then bobbed back up, smiling at him. “Let’s go.”
Rowan dove under the waves beside her, marvelling at how easy it was. His sleek water dragon body sliced through the waves like he’d been born to do this. And for the first time, Rowan believed he had. With his mermaid mate dancing beside him, her fins and hands flicking across his scales as she darted around him in circles, her laughter filling his heart, Rowan knew he was exactly who he was supposed to be.
Maybe those dreams hadn’t been so impossible after all.
Epilogue
Cari tried not to let her nerves bubble to the surface as she followed Rowan down, over the edge of the shelf, and into deeper water. It grew darker the deeper they swam, but Cari wasn’t afraid. This was all familiar to her. She was going home with her dragon mate beside her.
Her father might have objected to her mating a human, but he couldn’t possibly object to a dragon could he?
Silly question. There was every chance her father would object. Rowan might be a dragon, but he wasn’t a merman, even if it had been the mating magic that had helped him find his true form.
But Cari didn’t care what her father thought. She’d made her choice, and she was happy with it. That was all that mattered.
She looked over at Rowan as he dove through the water, and her happiness welled up again.
She’d taken a chance on l
ove, and the outcome had exceeded her wildest expectations.
Not only was it perfect for her and for Rowan, but she hoped it meant some solutions for her sisters and all the other mermaids too. It clearly was possible for a mermaid to shift and then shift back, meaning a whole new world of possible mates for her people.
She just had to convince them of that.
First though, she needed to convince her father.
As they neared Laquaria, Cari realised their arrival hadn’t gone unnoticed. A mermaid peeked around a rock, one of her sisters. A few more appeared. Then the first one took a chance and began to swim towards them. Then another and another.
Soon she and Rowan were surrounded by mermaids all chattering excitedly.
“You came back, Princess Cari.”
“And you brought a dragon.”
“Does he bite?”
“Can I pet him?”
Her father’s voice boomed over them all. “What is the meaning of this? Why did you bring a dragon to our kingdom? Do you realise the danger you’ve brought upon us?”
He sailed towards Cari and Rowan, the crowd parting, the mermaids’ excited chatter growing silent at his approach.
For a moment, nerves assailed Cari. Her father was never going to approve. It wasn’t going to matter that she had her tail back. He’d banish her from Laquaria if she didn’t agree to leave Rowan.
She glanced over at her dragon mate, and her fears eased. If that was what her father decreed, so be it. But she wasn’t going to keep silent. She was going to offer this choice to her fellow mermaids. No matter how hard her father tried to hide the truth, it would get out.
“I am no threat to your people,” Rowan said, projecting his voice into everyone’s minds. His dragon voice seemed to overcome the language barrier that they’d first encountered, as Cari could see mermaids nodding as if they understood. “In fact, I want to help. Cari and I have some important information to share with you.”
Cari’s heart warmed. She and Rowan had discussed what this discovery meant for her people, and he’d agreed they deserved to know. In fact, he felt it could be beneficial to his clan as well. He hoped the information that a human could become a dragon would make humans more accepting of the dragons taking a place among them.
How could her father not see that Rowan was the perfect mate for her? Cari would make him see one way or another. But first she had other priorities.
“Rowan is my mate,” she said loudly.
The mermaids around her all ohh’d and ahh’d. They looked at Rowan with renewed interest.
“That is unacceptable,” her father thundered.
Cari caught a flash of movement beside her and turned just in time to catch Rowan transforming back into his human form. For a moment, she panicked, worried he’d drown, but he just grinned at her. “I can breathe underwater in my human form now as well,” he assured her privately.
That reassured Cari of one worry, but it didn’t help with the fact that all the mermaids were now staring at his naked human body with even more interest. Cari wished he had clothes on when he’d shifted, not that anyone else seemed to care.
The mermaids crowded around Rowan, ignoring her father’s demands to be listened to.
“Can we have a dragon too?” one asked, running a finger up Rowan’s arm. “They seem very interesting.”
“Can dragons give us mermaid children?” another asked, eyeing Rowan with interest.
“Who cares about children? Are they good at mating?” another demanded.
Rowan was beginning to look distinctly uncomfortable. He backed away from the mermaids in front of him only to run into another group crowding him from behind.
Cari rushed to rescue him.
She pushed aside the mermaids to hover in front of Rowan. “Give him some space,” she said firmly. “We’ll explain all of it, and I’m sure if you also want a mate, that can be arranged, but this one is mine.”
The mermaids backed away, even if they were still uttering murmurs of protest.
But not her father. He swam right up in front of her, leaned his head right in close to her face, and demanded, “How dare you bring this creature here and try to lure away my mermaids, your own sisters, with such an outrageous proposition. Mermaids mate with mermen. That’s the end of the story.”
“No. It’s not.” Cari’s voice was just as loud, maybe even a little bit louder than his.
She looked around at the mermaids, the lack of mermen in the crowd only demonstrating the problems they were facing.
“If we don’t do something, mermaids will fade out of existence,” she said loudly. “Without more men, our species can’t continue. We can all see that.”
“Mating with dragons is not the answer,” her father thundered.
“But Rowan isn’t a dragon,” Cari protested. “Or at least he wasn’t. The mermaid mating magic changed him. This is who he was meant to be, and it’s who he is because of me. Doesn’t the fact that the mating magic can change humans indicate we were meant to mate with them?”
“No,” her father said flatly. “Mating with humans only makes baby humans. Mermaids will cease to exist just the same.”
Cari stared at him in shock. Not because of his assertion, but because he said it with such certainty.
“You knew about it? You knew we could take human form and mate with humans?” she demanded. “Why did you never say anything? Why did you try to keep me away from humans all this time when it’s the answer to our problem?”
“Because it’s not the answer,” her father said. His voice didn’t sound so demanding now. He sounded a little regretful. “I’m sorry, Cari. I know you have feelings for this…” he looked at Rowan a little uncertainly. “This… man, but he is not going to solve our problem. We need to find a solution here, under the waves.”
What he was saying made no sense.
“Why isn’t it a solution?” Cari demanded. “What is wrong with humans and mermaids mating?”
“I told you, that won’t get us more mermaids. We need mermen for that.”
His words could well be true, except for one thing. “How could you possibly know that?” Cari demanded, “when no mermaids are allowed to go anywhere near the surface? When have mermaids ever mated with humans?”
She suspected she knew the answer, suspected there was some truth to the legends Rowan had read to her.
“That is enough of this talk,” her father said abruptly. He turned to all the mermaids crowding around and announced, “It is time to leave. I must speak to my daughter. In private.”
For a moment, nobody moved. Cari wondered briefly if there would be a rebellion right here and now. But old habits died hard, and after a few moments and more than a few grumbles the mermaids dispersed, leaving Cari and Rowan alone with her father.
“Come with me, both of you,” he said, his voice tired and resigned.
Cari was unsurprised when he led them to the throne room, but for the first time, she didn’t find it imposing at all. Her father, as he sat on the throne, wasn’t imposing either. He looked tired and defeated.
“What’s really going on?” Cari asked quietly. “Why are you so against mermaids mating with humans?”
“Because they leave,” her father said simply. “The surface and the adventures up there are far greater than anything we can offer here. And a mermaid baby who is born on land never develops the ability to shift. Mating humans will lead to the extinction of our species just as surely as not.”
Cari stared at him in disbelief.
“Then the legends do have some truth to them,” Rowan said softly. He looked at Cari, understanding in his eyes. “Perhaps this isn’t the solution after all?”
“No.” Cari refused to believe that. In fact, she was becoming more and more certain her suggestion was the only option. She turned back to her father. “Is it true there were once only female mermaids?”
“Where would you get an idea like that?” her father said a little too quickly.
“From the human stories. I was beginning to think they knew more about mermaids than we did, but now I realise you’ve just not been telling anyone the truth. Is it true mermaids were once all female?”
For a moment, she thought her father was going to deny it again, but instead he heaved a sigh. “Yes, it’s true,” he admitted. “The legends say mermaids used to lure humans into their arms and mate with them before returning to the sea. Over time mermen began to be born, and our people thought we didn’t need humans anymore. We retreated to the deep, far away from them for fear that they would return to try to claim their young. But as you can see, this hasn’t been as successful as we would have liked.”
“Because once we were no longer mating with humans, fewer and fewer mermen were born,” Cari finished for him. It made sense. The only bit that didn’t make sense was why her father was still fighting it. “You know this is the only way to save our people,” she said softly. “Why won’t you let us do it?”
“Humans are dangerous,” her father said flatly. He stared at her defiantly.
Cari stared back at him in confusion. Was that the best he had?
Her father heaved a defeated sigh. “I don’t want to lose all my children to the surface. I don’t want to never see you again, Cari. I don’t want your sisters to follow you. I want to be able to hold my grandchildren and watch them learn to swim.”
Was that really what this was about? Cari stared at her father in disbelief. She was about to tell him how stupid and selfish he was being when Rowan stepped in.
“That makes perfect sense, sir,” he said gently. “Family is important. To Cari too. Even when she was on the surface, when we were falling in love, she wanted to get back here to you and her sisters. She wanted to be able to help her people. She loves you as much as you love her, and she’d miss you greatly if you were estranged.”
Her father looked like he was going to argue, but Rowan didn’t give him the chance. “What if we could find a way for you to be closer to the surface? My parents own and run Dragon Island, just above your home here. I’m sure we could find somewhere safe near the island where you could live, and your daughters and their children could visit you often, but your people could also have the chance to meet and mate with humans and give your people a chance to flourish.”
