Fire and Fantasy: a Limited Edition Collection of Epic and Urban Fantasy

by CK Dawn

  Noah didn’t say anything as he unrolled his sleeping bag on the other side of the shack, and I couldn’t bring myself to check his expression. Did I detect a hint of betrayal on his face just then? I didn’t want to look, afraid that I’d find an answer to that question.

  Thirty-Four

  A blue hue engulfed me. I glanced around in search of clues for where I might be. The only thing in sight was an endless ocean blue. Patches of sunlight danced across particles in the water, and when I lifted my gaze, I could see the small ocean waves rippling across the surface of the water ten feet or so above me.

  A swishing noise to my right caught my attention, but when I jerked my head in the direction of the sound, I found nothing but deep waters. How had I drifted so far away from shore? I’d never been far enough from shore not to see it. I’d always been told that’d be dangerous.

  Just when I decided I’d swim to the surface to see if I could find my way back, a deep voice called my name from afar. I turned to the source.

  “Tristan?” I practically shouted back, hoping he could hear me from this distance.

  I had to squint to get a good look at him. His long blond hair billowed around him in the water, and though I’d seen him like this before, I was surprised to find that he was shirtless. His long green tail shimmered in the sunlight.

  “Bree,” he called again before shifting in the water and kicking his tail out behind him. He got to me faster than I would have thought possible and wrapped his arms around me before he could stop himself. We both went spinning when he crashed into me.

  I pulled away from him when we slowed. A smile cracked across my face, and I laughed. “You seem so happy to see me.”

  “I am,” he said seriously, looking me in the eyes. Then he pulled me back into a tight hug.

  I didn’t know what it was, but something about this didn’t feel right. At first I thought it might be the hug, or maybe his tail, but that couldn’t be it.

  “We did it,” Tristan said with a smile.

  I was about to ask him what he meant, but realization struck me silent. We were talking under water. I could hear him so clearly. That wasn’t right…

  Tristan’s brows knit together. “Aren’t you happy?”

  I shook off whatever expression had fallen over my face. “Happy?”

  He nodded, his smile returning. “Bree, it’s okay now.”

  “Tristan…” I wanted to ask him what he meant, but as his gaze traveled downward, so did mine. I drew in a sharp breath, inhaling the salt water. I couldn’t even find my voice to ask how this was possible. The only thing I could manage to do was run my hands over the blue scales that had grown where my legs should be. The tail was mesmerizing, starting out sky blue near my waist and deepening to a dark navy at the ends, where my tail split into two fins. It reminded me of a beautiful beta fish I’d seen at the pet store once.

  I stammered incoherently. Tristan only smiled when I looked to him for an answer. When I glanced back down at the tail, I couldn’t help but try moving it. The ends swayed slowly in the water, and each scale shifted color in a hypnotic display as the sunlight above us bounced off each one individually.

  “It’s okay,” Tristan said smoothly, slipping his hand into mine and forcing my eyes to his. “We can be together now.”

  And then he pressed his lips to mine. In that moment, nothing else seemed to matter.

  My eyes flittered open. Sunlight filled the shack, illuminating the particles of dust in the air. For several moments, I remained on my back and stared up at the wood ceiling, wanting nothing more than to return to the dream and feel again what it’d be like to be a real mermaid.

  I forced myself to a seated position and let a long yawn escape my jaw. My gaze swept across the room, and I noticed I was alone. Noah’s sleeping bag had been rolled up and tucked away in the corner, and Tristan’s bedding was in disarray.

  I stood and peeked my head out of the shack. I spotted a figure seated at the base of a tree. Tristan. I slipped on my shoes and hurried outside to join him.

  “Where’s Noah?” I asked in a groggy voice.

  Tristan looked up at me. “I don’t know. He was gone when I woke up.”

  “He must have gone on another walk,” I figured.

  Silence settled over the forest when I sat. I ran my fingers through the dirt below me. Anything to not meet his gaze. I’d only turn crimson looking at him, and I had a feeling he’d be able to read my mind and instantly know what I’d just been dreaming about.

  I forced my heartrate to slow. Hadn’t this same thing just happened to me with Noah? How could I feel so connected to Noah one day and to Tristan the next? It wasn’t like I really knew either of them. My subconscious was just toying with me.

  Tristan didn’t seem to like the silence either because he quickly broke it. “How’d you sleep?”

  “Fine,” I answered too quickly. Surely he noticed my cheeks flame. “You?”

  He raised a brow, and I made the mistake of looking him straight in the eyes. “It’s not the same as sleeping at home.”

  I tilted my head, an onslaught of fresh questions suddenly hitting me. “How do you sleep? Do you just float there or something?”

  Tristan glanced around like it was a dumb question and he didn’t know how to answer it. “Um…yeah.”

  “Oh,” I said simply, running my fingers through my hair. They caught in the knots. I did not want to know what I looked like right now. I hadn’t even brushed my hair recently, and I was completely makeup free. I must have looked like a monster.

  For a long time, neither of us said anything. I listened to the sound of Tristan’s deep breathing and mimicked him. With every deep breath I let out, I allowed a small amount of tension in my shoulders to release with it. I inhaled deeply again and caught a hint of ocean scent. Even this far away from the beach, I could still sense the ocean nearby. Silence settled over us for so long that I closed my eyes and leaned my head back to rest on the tree trunk. Eventually, the quietness ended.

  “Bree?” Tristan spoke my name so softly that I wasn’t sure he’d even said it. It could have just been the sound of the wind passing by my ears.

  “Yeah?” I answered back in the same tone.

  “How do you want all this to end?”

  The question reminded me of one I’d asked Noah recently, leaving me to contemplate the idea more seriously. I drew in a deep breath to stall. I remained quiet for so long that he surely must have thought I was ignoring his question.

  “I’m not sure,” I finally answered. “Sea Haven is my home, but I can’t stay here. They—” My breath caught, but I forced myself to say the words that had already crossed my mind. “They don’t want me here.” I opened my eyes and shifted to face him, and he turned to me, too. “I can’t leave anymore, though. Not now that I have my magic back. I was dumb to take it back in the first place.” I dropped my eyes to my hands. “I just shouldn’t have come back.”

  I immediately wanted to shove the words back into my mouth. There was no point in wishing for things to be different. As long as I was wishing, I could wish that I could leave Sea Haven with my magic or wish that I’d never found Tristan on the beach at all. Then my life wouldn’t have taken such a drastic turn. While I was wishing, I should wish for the tail I’d dreamt of the previous night.

  “Don’t say that,” Tristan insisted, pulling me from my thoughts.

  “Don’t say what?”

  “That you shouldn’t have come back. Without you, I’d still be locked in that room.”

  He made a good point. Though I didn’t know him well, I didn’t regret meeting him, or saving him.

  When I didn’t say anything, he spoke again. “Would you leave? If you had the chance?”

  “I would.” I didn’t like how fast my answer came out. How could I so quickly toss away everything I ever knew? My parents, my friends, my home? Then that thought that made all the difference resurfaced. They don’t want me here. Not the council. Not my fath
er. I choked down the tears rising to my eyes, but that didn’t keep my voice from cracking. “But I can’t.”

  Tristan reached for my face, gently placing two fingers on my jaw to guide my eyes back to his. I shouldn’t have let myself look into his eyes; it was so easy to get lost in them.

  “You can,” he whispered.

  My heart flipped inside my chest. What did he mean by that? Did he know someone who would agree to removing my magic? Was there a loophole to the spell?

  “H—how?” I asked.

  “Come with me.”

  “Come with you where?”

  “Out there.” He gestured to his left, toward town.

  I shook my head slowly, my eyes involuntarily widening. “Tristan, we can’t go back into town. They’ll find us and lock us in their rooms and strip us of our magic again!”

  Tristan laughed lightly. “Not to town, Bree.”

  My heart flipped again at the way he said my name.

  “I mean to the ocean.” Tristan shifted onto his knees and reached for my hands. My skin warmed against his, and my breath caught when our eyes met. “Escape with me to the ocean, Bree.”

  Thirty-Five

  I pulled my fingers out of his hands. “Tristan, I can’t. You know I can’t leave without my magic. And I didn’t come all this way just to get rid of it.”

  Tristan drew back and leaned against the tree again. “How do you think your people get in touch with mine? There’s a pathway to my people written into the spell. You can come back home with me.”

  The thought took me back to my dream. Oh, what I would give to be a real mermaid. Even with Tristan’s kind of magic, though, I didn’t think that was possible.

  “I can’t survive out there, Tristan,” I told him even though my initial reaction was to jump at the offer. I couldn’t bear to look at him.

  “Bree.” He reached out, placing a soft hand to my face and guiding my eyes back to his. “We’ll figure it out.”

  My jaw hung slack. How could I escape with him? I couldn’t live in the ocean. I didn’t belong there. I belonged… Where did I belong? My whole life I toed the line between land and sea. In a way, I belonged to both. Somehow, I didn’t feel like I belonged to either. But the longer I looked into Tristan’s blue-green eyes, the more I started to believe that I could belong to the ocean if I wanted to.

  The sound of a car door slamming in the distance pulled me from my thoughts. I took the opportunity to tear my gaze from Tristan’s face to glance in the direction of the sound.

  “That must be Liana,” I said shyly, tucking a strand of brown hair behind my ear. My throat felt like it was closing up around my words, so they came out high and squeaky. “Hopefully she came back with more food.” I stood quickly—anything to avoid the weight of Tristan’s gaze. It didn’t help my uneasiness. “If—if she didn’t, I should get her some money for it. I should pay her back either way.”

  I couldn’t stand the sound of my own stuttering. I hurried off toward the shack, knowing Tristan’s eyes were still on me. In the shack, I dropped down to my backpack, my heart hammering. Did that just happen? Did Tristan just ask me to run away with him? Was that some sort of proposal? I hardly know him!

  My fingers quivered against the zipper of my bag. To steady my hands, I brought them to my face. The urge to cry overcame me as soon as I buried my face in my hands. I dropped them almost immediately to keep the tears at bay.

  Calm down, Bree, I told myself.

  That snarky voice in my head instantly retaliated. How can I stay calm after everything that’s happened? My whole life has changed, and now my only option may be to run away with a merman, a guy who isn’t even supposed to exist. How can I say no to that?

  Because it’s not possible, the rational part of me reminded. You’re not a mermaid.

  The thought made me want to hurl. It was so unfair. I wasn’t human. I wasn’t mermaid. What was I?

  The sound of approaching footsteps snapped me back to reality. I zipped my bag open, snatched my envelope of money out of it, and hurried out the door.

  “Liana, I have some—” I started to say before I hardly had the front door open. The words quickly fell from my mouth when I stepped out of the shack and my jaw dropped. Tristan had scrambled to his feet, his hands balled into fists at his sides. Noah had returned with a smug expression on his face, followed by none other than my own father.

  Thirty-Six

  “Dad!” I nearly choked on the word. “What are you doing here?”

  “I can explain.” He spoke quickly and took a step toward me.

  I retreated until my back touched the frame of the shack’s door. My gaze flickered between my father, Noah, and Tristan. Eventually, it fell on Noah. I shot daggers his way.

  “Why?” I asked, the feeling of betrayal evident in my tone. I couldn’t get the words out past the sinking sensation in my chest. It felt as if my lungs were collapsing. My face heated, and I bit the inside of my lower lip to keep the tears from my eyes.

  “It was our only option,” Noah said, but I swore I sensed a hint of regret in his tone.

  How could he do this? He knew I didn’t trust my father. Suddenly, I felt like I couldn’t trust him anymore, either.

  My father took another step forward and reached out as if he intended to pull me into a hug. I dodged his arms and hurried past Noah until I slammed into Tristan’s chest. He pulled his arms around me in a comforting embrace. I relaxed into him, feeling safe—if only for a moment—in his arms.

  “Stay away from him!” my father shouted.

  “Him?” I spat, turning back toward my dad.

  Tristan loosened his embrace on me, and my anger immediately returned. I balled my hands into fists. How had my dad and I gone from being best friends last week to being near enemies this week? If he never told Carson I was a part of this, none of this would have ever happened. Instead, he threw me under the bus.

  “I’ve been trying to stay away from you!” I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at him.

  He paused for a moment and then took a step back as if he was forcing himself to remain calm.

  Tristan’s warm hand slid into mine, pulling me back toward him. I let his touch once again ease some of the anger flaring through my veins.

  My father shifted his weight between his feet and crossed his arms over his chest. “What are you going to do, Bree?” he asked. His tone reminded me of the time when Liana, Christina, and I talked about taking a road trip last summer. He’d said the same thing as if to prove that I didn’t actually know what I was doing. That time, his challenge worked. We didn’t know anything about traveling, so we never made the trip. Now I knew why he’d been so against us going.

  I glared back at him challengingly. My gaze was so intense that my eyebrow twitched. Noah shifted out of the corner of my eye, and I made the mistake of glancing his way. When I did, it was only a reminder of the knife in my back. I turned back to my father.

  “What does it matter?” I asked. “I’ll do anything but stay here. I got what you stole from me. Besides, it’s not like you want me here anyway—”

  “Of course I want you here.” My father’s expression dropped. “Bree, you can’t leave. You know that.”

  I glanced to Noah again. He must have told my father everything we knew when he snuck out this morning to bring him back here.

  “I’ll figure something out.” I stood up straighter with a little more confidence, thinking again about Tristan’s suggestion.

  “Just give it up, Bree.” The sound of Noah’s voice startled me.

  A beat passed before I responded. “I thought we were in this together.” What changed? I wondered to myself. I played through my memories of the previous day. Noah had mentioned turning to my dad, but I didn’t think he’d do it without me agreeing to it.

  “You need to stop fighting this so hard,” Noah insisted. “None of this is what you think. If you just let your dad explain—”

  “My dad’s the reason I’m in t
his whole mess in the first place.” I caught a glimpse of my father’s expression, and I knew I’d hurt him. Good, I thought. He deserves it for sending me away.

  “If you just come back to City Hall, we can get this all sorted out,” my dad said. “And Tristan, we can finally get you home.”

  “Come back with you? You—”

  “Bree.” The melodic sound of Tristan’s voice in my ear stalled me. He squeezed my hand in a comforting gesture. “Maybe we should just go with them.”

  I whirled around in shock, my gaze shifting between his eyes. Something in them read hopelessness, like he’d given up.

  “But Tristan… They locked you up in City Hall. You can’t really think trusting them is our best option.”

  Even though I was speaking to Tristan, my father was the one to respond. “What other option do you have, Bree?”

  Silence settled over the forest, but my father’s question hung in the air. All three men’s eyes stared at me, daring me to answer the question. The truth was, we never had any other options. At this point, I would have been better off never coming back to Sea Haven in the first place.

  Noah finally broke the silence. “You want answers, don’t you, Bree?”

  “Of course I do,” I answered automatically.

  “This is how we get them.” Noah gestured to my father. “By trusting your dad.”

  My immediate reaction was to protest again. How could I trust my father? Before I could open my mouth to say anything, Tristan spoke.

  “He’s right,” Tristan said.

  I couldn’t believe even he was taking their side after everything they’d done to him. To us.