Page 17 of Storm and Sea

“I know what all you Sireni are like. You’re all the same, right down to the scales on your back.”

No room for outsiders like me.

“You speak like you aren’t one,” Nyel said, not bothering to hide the suspicion in his tone.

Atreus glared. “Out. Tomorrow. I’m leaving early in the morning, and I don’t want you hanging out here while I’m gone.”

Nyel couldn’t believe his ears. This was the most presumptuous person he’d ever met. What made him the authority on Nyel’s business?

When he limped up the tower’s steps, he never imagined he’d find another Mer at the top. At first, Nyel thought he’d stumbled upon a human and was seconds away from having a sharpened piece of metal shoved through him. But Atreus immediately understood what he was and looked just as relieved as Nyel. Neither of them were expecting company this evening.

Though Corallina was a large settlement of hundreds of families spread over thousands of nautical miles, Nyel was pretty confident he would have remembered a name like ‘Atreus.’

He’d never met this sireno before, and Nyel wasn’t sure calling him a ‘sireno’ was accurate either. Atreus was dodgy, and Nyel didn’t miss the way he talked about the villagers with disdain.

Now, Nyel was getting kicked out.

And I just got warm.

But he wouldn’t let the cozy warmth of the fire tempt him into begging. He had more dignity than that.

Nyel stood abruptly, dropping the blanket as he returned Atreus’s glare.

“Why tomorrow? Since I’m such a nuisance, I’ll see myself out now.” As he turned to stalk away, he slipped on the material wrapped around his foot and fell.

“Sharks!” Nyel cursed, head spinning. He wasn’t used to the sensation of falling and found that he didn’t like it at all.

A gentle hand lifted his foot a second later, inspecting the wrapping. Nyel hadn’t even noticed when Atreus dashed across the room to help him.

“You’re hurt.”

It wasn’t a question.

“It’s not your problem.” Nyel tried to stand, but Atreus’s gentle grip raised his foot, preventing him from moving. “Hold still,” he commanded, resting Nyel’s foot on his lap and removing the wrap. The wound immediately started to bleed again.

“There was human glass downstairs.”

“Yeah, I know,” Atreus said, a guilty look coming over his face. “Wait here.”

He carefully lay Nyel’s bleeding foot on the floor, returning a moment later with a stool, a bucket of what smelled like fresh water, and a dry rag.

“There’s sand in your cut. Wash it out here, and I’ll wrap it,” he said, turning his back and preparing pieces of white cloth.

Nyel wanted to protest, but the deep incision in his foot pulsed in rhythm with his heart.

“Fine,” he huffed, sitting on the stool and easing his foot into the water. It didn’t sting as much as he expected, and he gingerly stuck both hands in, cleaning the wound with his fingers and flushing out the embedded sand. Though the water was likely made of rain, Marvassa changed him where the water touched. In less than a second, he was removing sand from a webbed foot with elongated talons.

“After you dry off, I’ll wrap it and⁠—”

Atreus stopped mid-sentence, his eyes wide at the sight of Nyel’s transformed skin. He stared, mouth slightly open. Feeling self-conscious, Nyel finished cleaning the wound and pulled it from the water.

“What?” he finally bit out when Atreus continued to stare as he dried himself with the rag, and his skin returned to its human state.

“You’re… it’s you.”

“Me?”

“Your scales. They’re... green.”