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Ariel cups my face, her blue eyes flashing fire as they bore into mine. “Of course you wanted his approval. You’re supposed to. He’s your father. But he’s the idiot for not seeing what an amazing man you became, not because of him, but despite him.”

I take her hands and press them between mine. “I’d rather start again than hand his methods to someone else.”

Her breath hitches, and hope flickers across her face like lightning. Then she swallows, and something like fear flashes in her eyes.

“I have to tell you who I am,” she whispers. “Who I was.”

“I’m listening,” I say. “I’m with you.”

She nods. “I-I wasn’t born up here.” Her shaky smile looks like an apology. “I wasn’t born w-with legs at all.”

I frown. “You were legless?”

She lets out a startled laugh that hiccups through her nerves. “Not legless like injured. Legless like… I had a tail. Scales. Fins.” Her hands flutter vaguely around her hips as if demonstrating. “I was a mermaid.”

I chuckle. “Right. Of course you were.”

Her eyes remain fixed on mine. “I’m serious.”

“I can see that.” I rake a hand through my hair, half laughing, half wondering if the mushrooms I ate last night were the “special” kind. “Okay, so let’s say you were… a mermaid. What happened? Did you get tired of all the singing and shell jewelry?”

Her smile is sad. “I saved you.”

My humor drains as I hear the soft, terrified truth in her voice.

“When you fell from the boat, you were drowning. We’re not supposed to interfere with humans. It’s one of our oldest laws. But I heard you calling in the water. I felt you, and I couldn’t let you die. So I pulled you up and breathed for you.”

I suck in a breath as a hazy recollection from that day teases my memory. A flash of red hair sliding over the gunwale, a swirl of water, and a ripple that could be a tail if tails on humans were a thing and I wasn’t concussed.

“Shit,” I breathe as realization hits me. It all makes sense now—her wonder at all the gadgets and devices that make our world human. How she didn’t know her own body when we made love. Damn. I’m in love with a mermaid. Ex-mermaid. Whatever. I don’t care if she’s a former seahorse, she’ll always be my little water nymph. Mine. And I’m hers. That’s all that matters.

“The Council found out,” Ariel continues. “My father… he’s the king of Starfall Lake. He had to enforce the law. If he hadn’t, they’d have accused him of favoritism, of putting blood before duty. He loves me, Everett. I know he does. But he had to banish me to prove no one is above the rules.”

I stare at her, the absurdity and heartbreak tangling in my chest until the only thing that comes out is, “So you got grounded for saving me?”

She laughs, a watery sound. “More like permanently grounded. The tail-to-legs upgrade was not optional.”

I shake my head in equal parts awe and fury. “So let me get this straight. You risked everything to save my life, and your dad punished you for it. Looks like we both have daddy issues.”

Her snort punches a hole in the tension between us.

“And the degree thing?”

Color floods her cheeks. “That part was… not entirely untrue. We don’t call it a degree, but I was being trained. Water health, current mapping, toxin recognition, invasive blooms, migration patterns. I was supposed to inherit responsibility for watching the lake. Making sure it stayed alive. Making sure humans didn’t”—her mouth twists—“ruin it.”

I blink. “So you were, what, environmental royalty?”

Her nose wrinkles. “That sounds pretentious.”

“It sounds accurate.”

Her shoulders lift and fall in a tiny shrug. “Fine. I was being prepared to protect the lake. And I was good at it.” Her voice goes quiet, proud and hurting all at once. “I know her moods. I know where she’s shallow and where she drops off into cold black that humans can’t reach. I can taste when runoff is wrong. I could tell if a bloom was natural or poisoned by how it moved in the current.” She swallows. “That was supposed to be my whole life.”

“And then you saved a man in a storm.”

Her lips curve. “Yes. And then that.”

I drag a hand down my face, exhaling hard. “Ariel. You should’ve told me.”