Pearl looks at me oddly. “Your handmaiden had a daughter who lived in the castle with you?”
“Yes, Muriel got pregnant by a merman before she was married. She would never admit who it was, but he wasn’t willing to take responsibility for her and the merling. Grandfather took pity on her and hired her and let her and her daughter live in the castle.”
She stares at me for a moment, thinking deeply about something, but she doesn’t share her thoughts with me. Is she surprised that Grandfather could be so caring?
“I know you saw a different side of him, but Grandfather was kind and loving to me. He gave me everything I wanted… except for my freedom. I know he thought he was doing what was best for everyone. I was just too selfish to fulfill my duty.” I drop my head and look at my tail, flicking nervously beneath me.
Pearl puts a hand on my arm and stares at me till I look up at her. “No, Coral, don’t think like that. Forcing someone into a life they don’t want is wrong, and you shouldn’t feel guilty for refusing to cave to his demands. You deserved the chance to choose your own future. Your grandfather might have some good in him, but in the end, he always does what’s best for him, not anyone else.”
After learning that the curse was a lie and hearing her side of the story, I’m starting to believe that, but it’s still hard to accept that about the person I loved and trusted to care for me.
“Tell me about these humans of yours,” she says, trying to distract me from my guilt.
It works; just the thought of them lights up my face brighter than the flashlight illuminating the water around us. We settle into the sea sponges as I tell her about them. “They’re so different, but I love them all. Gio is the captain of the ship. He’s big and strong, covered in tattoos, and he has a quick temper.”
Pearl’s eyes widen in fear at my description. “But he’d do anything to protect me.” I shake my head, smiling.
“Avery is the opposite in many ways. He has golden hair and skin, and he’s gentle and considerate. He cuts hair and loves clothes and makeup, and did I mention he’s gorgeous?” I giggle, and Pearl laughs with me.
It brings back memories of fun nights spent gossiping with Meribel, but it also reminds me of all the mother-daughter moments I missed out on. All of a sudden, my heart twists in a tangled knot of joy and sorrow. I take a moment to let the wave of emotions settle before continuing. Pearl notices but doesn’t comment. I think she senses my heartache.
“Liam is the smart one; he’s studying marine biology. But he’s handsome, too, with black hair and pale skin and emerald eyes. He’s fascinated by me, and he wants to learn everything about me, but he’s also a great teacher.”
Pearl wrinkles her brow. “Are you sure you can trust him not to tell anyone about us?”
I nod slowly. It’s true that Liam put me at risk of exposure once, but he learned his lesson. “He understands how important it is to keep our kind a secret.”
Pearl’s face softens, and my own relaxes in response. “What about the fourth one?”
My face splits wide at the thought of him. “Jude makes me laugh. He’s silly, and light-hearted, and always smiling. He has floppy, brown curls and chocolate eyes, and he’s a little heavier than the others, but only because he’s amazing in the kitchen.”
A small smile settles on my mother’s face as she takes in the happiness radiating off of me. “It sounds like a great group of guys you have, Coral. Do they all get along? It’s hard to imagine them being willing to share.”
I let out a chuckle. “They argue all the time, but I know they care about each other, and in the end they just want me to be happy. I can’t choose between them, so I chose them all.”
I tell her everything about my time with them on the island and on land, about their dreams for the future and my own worries that their pursuits will eventually lead to our separation. She listens intently like every detail is important to her, asking questions and smiling and laughing with me at all the fun stories.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Coral, I’m so glad I got to meet you. But I don’t understand why you’re here or how you found me.”
My moods shifts immediately, my face darkening. “The guys and I were out looking for treasure. I was supposed to lead them to a shipwreck I knew about, but we got separated, and I was captured by another group of divers. I only got away because Llyr heard my song and came to rescue me. I never knew there were other shoals, other merfolk I’d never met before. When Llyr told me how they live here, I had to see it. I never expected to find you here.”
Pearl gasps and puts a hand over her mouth. “I’m so sorry that happened to you, Coral, but I’m so grateful it led you to me.”
“Me, too. I miss my mates terribly, but I’ve spent my whole life missing you. It was my destiny to come here, to find you, and to learn the truth so I can free our merfolk. I’m desperate to return to my mates, but this is more important.”
“So they don’t know what happened to you?” Her face mimics the pain in my heart.
“No, they have no idea. I hate doing this to them, but I’m safe, even if they don’t know it. And they’ll be waiting for me when I get back, I’m sure of it.”
She nods solemnly, hopefully. I think she’s beginning to understand how important this is to me and see how the gods are working to help me on my mission.
“Speaking of mates, will you tell me about how you met my father?” I ask.
I’ve given a lot of thought to him over the years, wondering what must have been so special about him that my mother was willing to give me up to be with him. Now I know that wasn’t her intention, but the look on her face tells me her love story was just as dramatic as mine. Her eyes drift off in memories as she speaks.
“His name was William, and he was a fisherman. The sea was almost as much like home to him as it was to me. When I surfaced, I was still a ways out from the land, but I saw an outcropping of rocks nearby and decided to rest a bit before finishing my journey. I never expected anyone to see me, but your father was fishing in a boat nearby and watched me climb out of the ocean. I was so exhausted, I didn’t even realize he was there until his loud thoughts startled me.”
She smiles and chuckles, remembering how shocked he was as the sight of a mermaid. “He couldn’t believe his eyes, so he motored over to get a better look at me. As soon as I realized he saw me, I knew I should dive back in and swim as far away from him as possible. But I was fascinated by him as well, my first glimpse of a human, and I was frozen in place, just staring at him. He was tall and handsome with light hair and the most beautiful blue eyes.” She winks at me, and I realize that’s where mine must come from.
“He called out to me and told me his name, promised he wouldn’t hurt me, then he climbed out of his boat and onto the rocks next to me. I could tell he didn’t mean me any harm, and I was there to find a mate, after all.” She grins, amused by her reckless actions.
“The sun was bright and hot that day, and my tail was drying quickly. My scales disappeared while he watched. He was enchanted by me, and I by him. When he came close enough to stroke my tail, I kissed him. He was so surprised, he almost fell into the water.”
I gasp out a laugh at that, imagining my father’s reaction. Pearl’s face splits open with a wide, happy smile, making her look years younger.
“I managed to communicate my desire to go with him to the land. He helped me into his boat, covered me with his shirt, and took me back to his home, a little cottage not far from the water. He had lived alone for several years, waiting for a princess in iridescent armor to sweep him off his feet, he said. We mated that same evening.” Her eyes sparkle, and she puts a hand to her cheek.
“I stayed there for a few months, until I knew I was carrying a merling. Then I went back to the shoal to tell my father.” That one word turns her happy expression somber.
“I told William I would be back in a few days, but Father locked me up till I gave birth to you. I should’ve agreed to stay in the
shoal, but I was in love, and I refused him. I never imagined what Father would do when you were born, but I guess I should have. Anyone crazed enough to imprison their own daughter can’t be trusted.” Her expression darkens with regret, anger, and sadness, and her eyes flash at me in warning.
“I was devastated at the loss of you, of course, and I mourned my banishment, as well. I loved the sea; it was home to me and always will be. I thought I had lost everything, but when I returned to the land, your father was waiting for me.” Her eyes flicker to life again.
“He did everything he could to make me happy. I went out on the boat with him and swam in the sea when no one was around to see me. We ate fish for dinner every night. And he entertained me with every amusement the human world had to offer. I was as happy as I could possibly be, considering. But our days were numbered, and it wasn’t long before he got sick and his illness claimed him.”
My heart breaks at her tragic love story, and any remaining resentment towards her evaporates. How lost she must have felt then — rejected by her family, her child taken from her, her mate dead! I lay my hand on hers in consolation. “What did you do? How did you find this place?”
“Well, I had William’s house to live in, and I stayed there for a while, but he didn’t leave much money, and I had no way to make any but to catch fish. I would take his boat out where no one could see me and dive in, catching exotic fish that I could sell to specialty shops. Eventually, I discovered this shoal. They lived the way I had always imagined our kind living, splitting their time between the land and the sea. The merfolk here welcomed me, and I was thrilled to belong to a shoal again. But without your father, I had little reason to spend much time on land. Eventually I stopped going there.”
We sit in silence for a long moment, mourning her losses together. I can’t help but compare her story to mine. Will mine have a similarly tragic ending? The smart thing to do would be to return to the land, return to the men I love, and forget about Persephone’s Cradle. But no matter how much I want to, I can’t do that. Leaving the shoal was hard enough, but my decision only hurt a few people. But how could I live with myself if I let the entire shoal suffer because of my selfishness?
Chapter 6
Coral
My heart seizes up in my chest when I see Llyr swimming towards me, and my determination gives way to anxiety. Am I brave enough to do this?
I’ve only just met my mother after a lifetime of dreaming about her. Am I willing to say goodbye to her? I could stay here for a little while, getting to know her, living the simple merfolk life she’s adopted. My connection to her tugs at me, but four other strings are pulling my heart in another direction, and they are attached to the future I long for. Perhaps I can come back here sometime and visit, but this is not where I belong.
But before I can return home, I have a mission I have to accomplish. Otherwise, I won’t be able to pursue my own happiness. The guilt of forsaking my shoal will haunt me forever.
Llyr’s sailfish-fast strokes slow as he nears my mother’s dwelling. He swishes up to us with a broad smile on his face, eager for adventure. “Good morning, Ms. Pearl. Coral, are you ready?”
I’ve already said goodbye, but I reach to hug my mother one more time before I go, squeezing her tight to prove to myself that she’s real and I finally found her.
“I’m going to go with you,” she blurts out as soon as I pull away from her. I gape at her.
“Not all the way. I know the curse won’t let me, but as close as I can, anyway. I don’t want Llyr to have to swim back all by himself, after all.”
Llyr scrunches his face in indignation, and I’m sure he’s about to remind her that he goes exploring all the time without a babysitter. But then he realizes that it’s just an excuse, so he lets it go without comment.
“You don’t mind, do you?” Pearl glances at me, suddenly unsure.
I smile at her, my face glowing with the warmth of her love. “I’d love that.”
“Well, let’s go, then!” Llyr flicks his long tail and swishes away towards the open water, no patience for our emotional moment.
We chuckle and take off after him. With two companions by my side, I’m giddy with excitement, my nervousness tempered as we start the long journey.
Llyr swims fast, and even though he catches himself and slows down every time he notices us lagging, it still takes all our efforts to keep up with him. I thought maybe we’d talk on the way, but all my energy is devoted to swimming.
As the day wanes and we get closer, our group grows silent with anticipation. Llyr says the shoal has been off-limits to visitors for many cycles. Will there be guards patrolling the borders? How will they react when they see us? What if they won’t let me back in either?
“What happened when you tried to go back to the shoal?” I ask my mother, suddenly curious.
She shakes her head. “I didn’t. I knew the curse wouldn’t let me.”
“You mean you never even made an attempt? You just assumed you couldn’t?” The words sound harsher than I intended, and my mother flinches.
Llyr glances meaningfully at me, and we share a thought. This only reinforces my belief that the curse is mental, not physical. My mother wasn’t banned from the shoal, the curse just made her believe she was. It’s the same for all the mermaids who believe they’ll die if they spend more than five days on land. The curse is strong enough to deter them from challenging it. Even I believed I would die until the sun came up on the sixth day and nothing had happened.
How will I ever break the curse over them? I have no spells to weave, no magic. All I can do is show them proof and hope it’s enough for them to believe me. But I’m only one mermaid! Maybe they would be more likely to believe me if I had another witness. I’m worrying about this when we approach a rocky outcropping.
Llyr slows to a stop, diverting my attention, and Mother and I swim up to him. “Your shoal is just a little bit beyond this point, but after these rocks, the guards will be able to see us coming. I don’t want to risk going any farther. You need to go on your own from here, Coral.”
I nod solemnly, staring at my new friend and my long-lost mother. I turn to Llyr first and hold out a hand to him like humans do. I think he’ll appreciate that. “Thank you, Llyr, for everything. You saved my life, showed me a whole new world, helped me find my mother, and led me back here to fulfill my destiny. I owe you more than I could repay in a dozen lifetimes. What can I do in return?”
He ducks his head with a coy smile, the first time I’ve seen any bashfulness in him. “Serving you was pleasure enough, Princess Coral. It was my honor to help you.”
I can’t help the loving smile I give him. If I wasn’t already in love with four humans, he’s the kind of merman I would want to be with.
“I plan to return, Llyr, and when I do, I’ll make sure your queen knows what all you did for me. Maybe I can persuade her to give you a place of honor.”
He beams at that, and I know there’s nothing better I can give him.
I turn to my mother, emotions welling up inside me, making my chest tighten and my eyes blur with tears. Even my tail feels stiff and turgid.
“I want you to know that I forgive you. I understand what you did and why you did it. I probably would have made the same choices.” I’m not ready to say, “I love you,” yet, and I don’t think she’s ready to accept that, either, but my words are enough for her.
Her eyes pinch shut, and I’m sure hot tears are stinging them. I reach for her, and we hold each other tight for a long moment until I feel our hearts beating in unison.
“Thank you, Coral. I don’t deserve that, but I’m so grateful for it. I never thought I’d see you again, so meeting you, even for just a day, was more than I could hope for.”
“I’ll come back and see you as soon as I leave here so you’ll know I’m okay, I promise. And maybe… you could visit me sometime.” I bite my lip and peek up at her through my lashes. She hasn’t been on land in a long time, and I’m n
ot sure how she’ll feel about that. Surprisingly, her eyebrows rise and her mouth falls open in excitement.
“That would be wonderful, Coral. I’d love to meet those four hunky men of yours. I’ve been hiding away in this shoal long enough.”
I grin at the thought of her mothering them.
There’s nothing left to say, and I’m eager to finish what I’ve started, so I give them both one last hug goodbye then turn around and face my destiny, swimming off towards my home.
I’ve only gone a few tail-lengths before my earlier thought demands my attention.
“Wait!” I stop swimming and cry out, whipping around, my sudden spin whirling the water around me. Llyr and my mother haven’t gone far, so they turn and swim back to me, concerned looks on their faces. I know it’s a long shot, but I have to try.
“Mother, I don’t believe the curse has banished you. I think it has just deceived you. Will you go with me to confront my grandfather and reveal the truth to the merfolk? They might not believe me, but surely they can’t deny both of us.”
Her face twists in agony. She shakes her head slowly, but the small movement obviously takes everything she has. “I can’t, Coral. Even if the curse won’t hurt me, your grandfather already did and won’t hesitate to do it again. He doesn’t want me there, Coral, and he doesn’t want the truth revealed. I don’t have the right to keep you from going there, even though it’s killing me to let you go, but I can’t go with you. If you want to do this, you’ll have to do it alone.”
I nod, keeping my eyes on the sea floor so she won’t see the pain of her rejection swimming in them. I understand how she feels, but I can’t help but hope that, given a second chance, she might stand up for me.
I don’t make eye contact with her again, I just spin around and swim off, determined to complete my quest even if no one else stands by me.
The Mermaid's Return_A Reverse Harem Romance Page 5
