Theo felt as if he were being rewarded with a sight for the ages. It was small, barely a smirk, but he hadn’t seen her do anything other than glare. Her intense beauty softened ever-so-slightly, and that alone nearly brought Theo to his knees again.
“Of course.” Theo stuck his hands in his pockets and started walking down the narrow path along the river. “Are we heading west? What’s the best way for me to navigate if you’re in the water?” He tried to ask politely, wanting to make sure they didn’t get separated.
Lyra turned around and stepped deeper into the water. As it crossed her knees, she pointed her hands and dove in elegantly. Theo was convinced that anyone else who attempted to dive in that shallow water would hurt themselves, but Lyra obviously navigated it with grace. He waited for a brief moment, and Lyra’s head popped up and broke the surface of the water, her tail flickering behind her.
“Do you think I’m too far from you now?”
Theo blushed with the realization that she was only a couple of feet from him and able to swim in the shallows quite gracefully without issue.
“Ah,” Theo chuckled lamely, “I thought, you know. You’d have to be…”
“Deeper?” Lyra raised an eyebrow, her expression still tightly controlled but looking almost playful for the first time since Theo met her.
“Um, you know.” Theo was bright red. “I figured you’d need to be deeper. Wet. N—no. Oh god.” Theo started looking around,wondering if it was too late to run back and convince Emmett and Pippa to take him to the Minch.
Lyra started giggling in the water, and Theo’s attention snapped back to her. The sound was almost as intoxicating as her siren song.
“I can navigate the shallows just fine and keep you in my sight.” Lyra smirked, putting Theo out of his misery. “Don’t you remember when you go to the beach, they always tell you that a predator could still get you in knee-deep water?” Lyra started swimming west, and Theo began walking down the shore next to her.
“Um, no, not really,” Theo admitted. “I’ve never spent much time at the beach. We’ve driven past them, but honestly, this is some of the most time I’ve spent next to water in my entire life.”
“Really?” Lyra sounded horrified. “This is the most time you’ve spent near water?”
Theo and Lyra fell into a friendly conversation, and some of the tension in Theo’s chest eased slightly. He navigated the small dirt path near the water, while Lyra kept to the shallows and seamlessly swam alongside him.
“Without a doubt,” Theo admitted. “It’s always been too dangerous for me to be near water.” Lyra looked horrified.
“Oh, goodness, of course.” Her lips pulled into a taunt line. “I hadn’t thought about that. Obviously, it would’ve been too dangerous for you near the water. I couldn’t imagine it myself, so I wasn’t thinking correctly.”
Theo shrugged. “It’s okay. It’s been a unique upbringing, that’s for sure.”
“I can’t imagine not being near the water.” Lyra sighed, sounding pained as if the mere idea of being away from the rivers and lakes was unimaginable for her.
“I’m sure,” Theo chuckled, “seeing as you are a mermaid.”
“A maighdeann-mhara,” Lyra corrected him. She was annoyed as her tail slapped the surface of the water in frustration.
“Is there a difference?” Theo asked, careful not to ruin the easy conversation they’d found themselves in. “I’m asking genuinely. I do not mean to offend.”
“Most people don’t,” Lyra admitted, “but it’s still frustrating. Everyone thinks we’re all basically ‘Ariel’ these days and calls us mermaids. The maighdeann-mhara have been in these waters for generations. We crawled out of the shallows while human men were still discovering how to rub two sticks together to get fire.” Lyra grew louder, and Theo could smell her magic in the air as she heated up.
“We’re sirens. I could drive your civilization to madness and hold all of your precious shipping boats and cruise ships in the palm of my hand. We’re monsters.” Lyra started smiling, showing off a little bit of fang as she spoke with pride. “We’re not the fairytale creatures people want to think of when they think of mermaids.” Lyra stopped swimming and turned towards Theo. “Do you understand that? Do you know who your friends turned you over to?”
Her serpentine tail was flicking in the water like a cat ready to pounce. The air between them got thicker, and Theo was beginning to get dizzy from the sensation of Lyra’s power emanating from the water.
“I know my friends made a fae bargain with you.” Theo swallowed thickly. There was a shimmer of light in the water as Lyra’s tail shifted back into legs, and she gracefully stood.
Theo was struck dumb at the sight of her naked body, water falling off her in rivulets. Her fingers had elongated into claws again, and her hair stuck to her skin. Theo had never seen a creature, magical or not, who was ever as beautiful as Lyra. Noteven some of the elves could hold a candle to her unearthly beauty.
Lyra looked at the undoubtedly dumbstruck expression on Theo’s face and started laughing quietly, walking towards him step by agonizing step. She held up her hand, and Theo leaned forward, his entire body shivering when she placed a hand on his cheek.
It didn’t matter that she wasn’t singing and was probably preparing to eat him alive. Theo was harder than he’d ever been in his entire life.
“Do you know you’re traveling with a monster, Theo?” Lyra smiled, gliding her tongue over her pronounced canines. She traced a claw down his jawline, and Theo nodded dumbly.
“Yes.” He nodded his head eagerly, trying to clear some of the lust from his mind, but completely unable to do so.
“Are you aware of the fact that all I have to do is start singing, and you’d do whatever I’d ask?” Lyra giggled, sounding practically gleeful, and Theo kept nodding. On some level, he knew how stupid he looked, but didn’t care.
