Page 105 of Tracking Snow

They eat crumbs of most anything but they like fruit⁠—"

Before I finish, she’s buried in the fridge making a racket, clattering items that make it sound like she’s tearing down the shelves.

Emerging, she has a stack of various fruits: oranges, apples, and clamshells of strawberries. She gets to work slicing off tiny pieces to drop in the jar where the tiny pigs waste zero time chowing down on the treats.

Snow giggles and claps her hands.

Yep. Totally in love.

Her gaze catches on mine, and her smile falters, but something earnest and fierce takes its place.

She feels the same. I still can’t believe she loves me. Us.

I’m hit again by a hot rush that is so strong it could blow me off my feet.

"How about that shower?" she suggests even as she curls a hand around the jar. "But we’ll need them to come too because I’m not ready to let them out of my sight just yet."

I chuckle, my nerves still rattled after worrying how she’d react. "Are you sure you want to scar them with what they are about to witness?"

She chews on her bottom lip thoughtfully then releases the jar. "Good point. The babies might never be the same after they see me blow you so hard you pass out."

I almost pass out right then from her just saying it. Instead, I groan and grip the back of the barstool that’s tucked under the kitchen counter. "Fair point."

Snow grabs my hand and drags me over to the closed bathroom door before practically kicking it open. To a very naked, bathing Ariel in the tub.

My stomach ratchets up into my throat before dropping clear out of my body.

"Snow! What did I say about the lock yesterday!" Ariel practically screeches.

Snow instantly rears back, knocking into me in her rush to slam the bathroom door again with a loud bang.

But over Snow’s shoulder, I distinctly made out Ariel in the clawfoot tub.

It wasn't her naked state that shocked me. The volume of white foamy bubbles and her instinct to cover herself left nothing for me to see.

Except for her long, glistening fish tail hanging out of the tub. I didn't quite catch its color, only that a rainbow reflection glistened off it as it flexed upward in a motion to retreat from our presence.

Ariel is a fae creature.

A mermaid.

Bile coats my throat.

A mermaid here. Of all places. And she’s Snow’s best friend.

"Oh fae fucking hell," Snow covers her mouth as she looks up at me with wide eyes, watching for my reaction. "Sorry, Ariel," she lifts her hand long enough to yell before clapping it over her mouth.

My entire body has chilled.

"She’s..."

"You can’t tell anyone," Snow interrupts, grabbing my arms, pulling me over to the living room.

One is paying more attention than the rest. Seven. I feel his scrutiny, his intention. It presses on the base of my skull and down on my chest with the weight of an anvil.

"But she’s a..."

"Mermaid, yeah, I know. But she’s not out of the closet as it were. Or tub?" She looks up in thought. "Out of the ocean? No, that gets too confusing. Listen, the point is she doesn’t want other people knowing about her deal, and it’s like a super sacred secret. I fucked up really bad just now, and if you tell anyone she will never speak to me again. That would basically be the worst thing to ever happen to me in my entire life. Do you understand?"