Catch of a Lifetime

by Judi Fennell

  It warmed Angel's heart but also added more guilt to her shoulders.

  From a purely scientific standpoint, however, it was interesting how she was thinking more about her family at this moment than about herself. But then, she had an almost disembodied detachment from the trial. As if she were outside her body, but… not. For some reason, she could muster no horror at these proceedings, no worry, no anxiety. It was as if she'd already consigned herself to death.

  But then, hadn't she when she'd gone on her field study in the first place?

  No matter how the trial played out, she couldn't regret saving Michael. And Logan—mustn't forget Logan.

  As if she could.

  But The Council, Rod… they'd regret it. This. Whatever sentence they handed out, they'd regret because Rod was right. Human and Mer futures were destined to be linked, and the Coalition was that bridge. How did Rod hope to get the program up and swimming if Humans weren't aware of them? Mers were going to have to clue Humans in at some point…

  Rhetoric was what they'd call that argument, but it was the only one she had. She wasn't going to die a martyr.

  Hades, she didn't deserve to die. She'd been trying to help their world. Besides, Rod had broken a rule, too: the one about the High Councilman not marrying someone who wasn't a full-blooded Mer. His wife was a Hybrid, yet he hadn't cared. He'd decided to marry her and had done so, rules be dammed. How was what she'd done any different?

  Well, other than the fact that her transgression threat ened the entire Mer world.

  True.

  But then, so would the Coalition if it wasn't handled correctly. And if Rod didn't appoint her director, it wouldn't be handled correctly.

  The current proposal, and The Council's working model, was to approach Humans on diplomatic terms. Deal with their governments. Set up a United Races governing body. But it wouldn't work. They had to start with the children. Make the changes from the ground up. Go to the Humans who were most likely to accept them—never mind believe in them—instead of those who would want to eradicate or study them.

  The current model was doomed to fail if The Council wouldn't listen.

  And with Humans then knowing of their existence, what would happen to Merkind?

  Chapter 47

  SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT!

  Logan kicked his feet, trying to free the one that'd been caught, all the while paddling his arms towards the surface.

  The creature, whatever it was, let go and Logan swam for all he was worth, managing to grab his knife. Now if only he had his mask on so he could see the thing coming.

  He wasn't waiting for it to attack again; the boat wasn't that far away.

  He cleared the surface and headed toward it, only to almost crash head-on into a—

  Mermaid.

  Right in front of him. Long, flowing red hair and a sparkling emerald green tail. Almost as beautiful as Angel.

  No one was as beautiful as Angel.

  "I'm Mariana Tritone. Angel's sister." The woman's voice was almost as lyrical as Angel's, but it didn't af fect him at all. "Do you really want to help her?"

  It spoke to how far his reality had shifted when he entered into the conversation as if it were completely normal. "Yes. She saved my life and my son's. I owe her." Not to mention, loved her, but he wasn't sure how they'd take his defense of her, let alone a declaration of love.

  Hell, he wasn't sure how Angel would take it. After what he'd said to her, he wouldn't blame her if she never wanted to see him again.

  The mermaid stared at him, then nodded. "What I'm about to do goes against every law we have. I want you to understand that. I can't promise the outcome. If you come with me and The Council rules against you, you could very possibly be giving up your life for my sister. Still want to come?"

  Logan had made his peace with that when he'd made his peace with his family. Michael would be cared for, but he could never live with himself if he didn't do this for her.

  "I'm in. They can't prosecute her for this. There were mitigating circumstances."

  Angel's sister shook her head. "You don't know The Council. But I want to save my sister, so I'll take you." She reached for his hand and drew him closer. "Since Angel already turned you once, I just have to give you a quick kiss so you can come with me. Ready?"

  He'd had a lot of practice pulling miracles out of a hat when he'd been on his own, and look how far he'd come. He wasn't going to give up now.

  "Hell yes, I'm ready. Let's go."

  Chapter 48

  "THE COUNCIL WILL COME TO ORDER."

  Angel straightened her shoulders as Rod banged the whalebone gavel on the slate he'd recently had installed on the table. Some morbid part of her would say that he'd wanted it so his proclamations would toll like a death knell, but she was ignoring that part.

  "If the Accused will approach The Council."

  Feeling like a condemned prisoner—which was what she was, actually—Angel swam forward. Protocol dictated that she approach in an upright fashion, but when one was fighting for one's life, protocol could be damned.

  "Angel Tritone?" Her brother looked incredibly im posing behind that table. And also incredibly sad.

  Another black mark on her conscience.

  "Yes." Proud of herself for betraying no emotion in her voice, Angel fluttered her flukes to be at eye level with him. With them. All of The Council. Rod, Valerie, Santos, Henri, and Thorsson. She hoped her two family members wouldn't condemn her, but the other three… They'd been opposed to Rod's plan from the beginning. She couldn't see them helping her out.

  But she only had to convince one to flip to have a majority. Just one.

  And if she couldn't… well, she wanted each one to look her in the eye before condemning her to death.

  "You are charged with two counts of revealing your self to Humans, one count of turning a Human, one count of disobeying Council orders, and one count of creating a natural disaster. How do you plead?"

  This formality was a joke. They thought she'd fall in line.

  Ha.

  "I'm not pleading, Rod."

  "What?" Santos smacked his tail against one of the table supports. "What do you mean, you're not plead ing? This is a trial. You must make a plea."

  "Well I'm not. There were special circumstances, number one being that I didn't get a fair shot at the Coalition director job due to prejudice and discrimina tion on my brother's part. If I'd been treated fairly, I wouldn't be in this position."

  "That's no guarantee you would have gotten the job, Angel." Rod wiped a weary hand across his face. "Nor does that absolve you from what you did."

  Angel planted her hands on the table, a move so egregious that only a condemned Mer would try it. "True, but I shouldn't have had the need to prove myself just for an interview, Rod. You can't use your fear of losing the rest of us against me. If we fall in love with Humans, then we do. It's a risk you're going to have to take, no matter who you send on land with your Coalition. You can't control people's feelings."

  She backed off the table and crossed her arms. Still eye level with The Council, though. "So, no. I'm not pleading anything. If you want to hook me, you're going to have to do it yourselves, but someone has to help Humans see what they're doing to the planet, and your way isn't going to work."

  "I say we hook her."

  Well, she could kiss Santos's help goodbye.

  Henri nodded, and Thorsson was about to speak when Rod held up his hand. "Fine, Angel. Tell us your vision for the Coalition. Get it off your chest, then we'll get back to the charges."

  That was a concession she hadn't seen coming.

  She brushed some hair off her forehead, then locked her hands behind her back.

  "To start with, we need an Advisory Board—one that includes Humans."

  The collective gasp wasn't unexpected. "You've made a start on the garbage cleanup, Rod, but there should be a Sewage Reclamation and Recycling Team." She shared her idea about discarded tires as the foun dation for
small islands and reiterated the sad statistics everyone knew regarding sea creatures' deaths by the ingested plastic particles that never broke down—so aptly named Mermaid's tears by Humans themselves— as well as those infernal six-pack plastic rings that were equal-opportunity strangulation devices. Mammal, fish, fowl—those rings were deadly.

  "I want to appoint an Alternate Energy Commission to examine other types of power. Eel and wave, for start ers. Maybe something with migratory fish like salmon. Humans are doing things with solar and wind. We need to share our knowledge.

  "We also need to start with the children, Rod. Not the adults as you've proposed. Adults don't handle change well." Current company included, but she figured it wouldn't be a good idea to antagonize them. "But we can begin now. That's the beauty of this. Start with the children. Teach them. We've got how many representa tives in those swim experiences and aquariums around the world? Let them take the initiative.

  "Little by little, as those children grow to adulthood, their society's consciousness will change. We'll infil trate instead of instigate. Subvert versus confront. Let them think they came up with the ideas. Then, when the thought of Mers is pervasive enough, accepted enough by those who've had actual encounters with us, then we implement your face-to-fin dialogue."

  Santos pressed his palms on the table and raised himself to full height. "This is exactly what we tried to tell you, High Councilman, when we first learned of your sister's whereabouts. Mixing with Humans in their environment is not a good idea in any capacity—neither the occasional rogue Mer nor an organized Coalition. Humans aren't ready for us, and freethinkers like the Accused will only stir up trouble. I say we put an end to this Coalition idea and focus on keeping the Humans out of the waters."

  "We aren't letting sharks have representation, Santos," Valerie said, the half-Human side of her obvi ously taking offense.

  "I agree with Santos." Thorsson's deep voice vibrated through the water. "This is why the Coalition is a danger to us, High Councilman. Dissention, disagreement… We have laws for a reason. They've governed us for the past two millennia and put to rights a system that had previously swum amok. The gods were not happy with Mer behavior and let us know in no uncertain terms. I say we hook Angel as a violator of the laws and as a lesson to those who think differently."

  The debate carried over to the spectators. Angel tried to hear if the tide was running in her favor, but there were too many opinions and too many voices.

  Until one rose above all the others.

  "Or," said that voice, "Angel could marry me."

  Chapter 49

  MARRY?

  Every head, eye spot, and antenna swung toward the doorway.

  Angel couldn't have heard correctly.

  And then she saw who it was.

  Logan?

  As gorgeous as the last time she'd seen him, Logan swam into the Coliseum, Mariana right behind him.

  Oh gods. What had Mariana done? The Council would crucify him—and she did mean literally. No Humans except her sisters-in-law had ever witnessed a convened Council, but they were married to members of the royal family.

  "Who are you, Human?" Thorsson's last word rasped across the silence as tightly as his clipped beard swung against his chin.

  All the beings in the arena followed Logan as he walked—yes, walked, on two legs, every bit as tall and strong and proud of his heritage as he had a right to be—toward The Council.

  He didn't utter another word. Not until he reached her.

  "Hey," was that word.

  Then he hugged her. Chest-to-chest, thigh-to-tail, arms-wrapped-around-her hug and, omygods, it felt so good. She'd never thought she'd see him again—

  And then he kissed her.

  Right there, in front of everyone.

  Everyone, who'd suddenly gone quiet.

  Tough. Let them eat kelp. She hadn't lied to Logan. In Mer form or with Human legs, she was in love with him and The Council could stick that in their collective crawl and stew on it. She was going to enjoy this moment.

  It might very well be her last.

  She slid her arms around his neck, then gave a good kick of her tail so she was fully in his arms, as involved in the kiss as he was, showing him—there, in front of everyone—just what he meant to her. Let them talk. She didn't care. If she was going down, she was going down with a smile on her face and love in her heart and the man would finally understand that what she felt for him transcended their differences.

  "Ahem."

  Those two syllables reverberated loudly enough to catch her attention.

  Logan's, too.

  He pulled back, his eyes never leaving hers. "So. Will you marry me, Angel?"

  Gasps now filled The Coliseum, but Angel didn't care. She didn't care when the gasps escalated to mut terings, nor even when they went to full-out bitching and complaining.

  All that mattered was that Logan had asked.

  "You bet I will."

  And then Logan was back to kissing her and Angel didn't give one flying fish who was outraged.

  Until Zeus poofed onto the scene.

  Chapter 50

  ONE SECOND LOGAN HAD THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN the world in his arms, and the next, he found himself face to fin with the biggest merman he'd ever seen.

  Not that he'd seen all that many. His eyes hadn't focused on anyone but Angel from the moment he saw her.

  This newest, bigger, badder version of merkind clasped him on the shoulder and conjured a chair out of thin air—water.

  "Have a seat, son," he said, steering Logan into the chair. "You, too, Angel." Another chair appeared next to his, and Angel floated into it.

  Logan grabbed her hand. He wasn't about to let go. Her sister had said marriage was the only way out, and Logan was all for it. And not just to save her life.

  "Zeus, Sir." Rod, one of the two brothers Mariana had pointed out before he'd set foot in The Coliseum, nodded at the newcomer—Zeus, of all people—from behind the table. "To what do we owe the honor?"

  Zeus approached the bench, shaking a finger at Rod. "You're smart, Rod, but I bet even you didn't see this one coming."

  The merman glanced at Mariana, who was trying hard to keep a smile off her face. Looked like she'd known what she was talking about.

  Zeus turned to face him. "By the way, Logan, it's mer. Capital M and no man or maid after it. Just Mer. Your kind added the suffixes."

  Wow. Logan thought he'd been prepared for any thing, but Zeus? An honest-to-God Greek god? Here?

  Then he looked around. Mermen—no, Mers—all around him, fish and eels and barracuda sitting next to each other, not a snarling maw in the crowd. Nothing should surprise him.

  "Actually, it's 'honest-to-gods.'"

  Logan looked at Zeus. "Sorry?"

  "Gods." Zeus walked toward him. "You thought, 'God.' I prefer you use the plural, otherwise, when I return to Olympus, I'm going to hear it from Hera. And Aphrodite and Poseidon and Eros—especially Eros. They've accused me of getting too big for my toga on occasion, and singling myself out from the rest of them tends to get their Irish up. Or rather, their Greek." He patted Logan's shoulder. "Okay? From now on, it's 'gods.' Lower case, plural. Keeps everyone happy."

  The guy… Zeus… swam back to the head table while Logan just stared at him.

  "So," Zeus thrummed his fingers on the table. "I'm sure you're all wondering why I'm here. After all, we gods bowed out of your adjudications selinos ago. Close to two thousand, I believe." Rod nodded. "Right. Well, you see, we've obviously been following this case closely, due to your predecessors. Pontus and his heirs didn't manage their Human interaction well, as we all know."

  "What's he talking about?" Logan asked Angel. Mariana hadn't told him this part of their history.

  "The previous dynasty treated their reign as one long party and got too involved with Humans. The gods got fed up with the destruction that caused and cleaned house. That's when my family took control," she whis pered back.

&nb
sp; "We gods decided that an impending marriage neces sitated some intervention on our part." Zeus looked back at Logan. "So, son, do you care to tell us why you've suddenly decided that life with a Mer is preferable to the normal one you so craved on land? Is this some con trived plot to tug on the heartstrings of the assembly? A hope for a celestial pardon?"