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Let the song of my soul and yours be a harmony

That will be echoed in every swell from this day

Until the waters of the world have been taken into the sky.

And even then, let our spirits flow on, past the stars.”

Tears poured from my eyes and mingled with the saltwater that dripped from his face to mine. There was no way to hear his voice and not be moved to tears. Lusca was the first siren, and his voice was magical. It reverberated in my soul and plucked the invisible strings that made up my body and my mind.

I was exposed entirely, his to command.

But all he wanted was to love me. Every sound, every syllable, was steeped in joy at finding me, and a kind of hope and resolve that made me wonder how this life was mine.

I was a street rat who’d eaten garbage to survive. A liar, cheat, and thief, who’d hurt the males who loved me as often as I’d helped them. I was most likely going to get them all killed, and soon.

But Lusca’s acceptance of every part of me was as deep as any trench in the sea. He’d been waiting for his whole life, for half the life of the world itself, for me.

I almost wanted to protest, but I was a thief to my core. If this powerful being was so foolish as to throw the treasure of his love at me, I would snatch it up gladly. I mouthed a word: mine.

A wave of amusement rolled through him, laughter underscoring the words as he repeated the song, and finally, fell silent.

I felt a sense of expectation. “Sing with me, beloved,” he urged, though there was no magic in his words, only a bare, vulnerable hope.

I swallowed. I had a decent voice, but it was no match for him.

“You are a match for me in every way. A treasure I will spend the lifetime of the world counting and guarding. Please, sing with me. Sing our bond into wholeness.”

“My beloved is the sea,” I began, the words hard to shape with my human mouth, but easier when he joined me, his low bass buoying my trembling melody up, like a raft on an endless ocean. “My beloved is the waves…” The song grew louder. No one could hear us, but it felt as if the seas themselves were listening, a rapt audience of every creature in them as they witnessed our vows.

There was cold saltwater on my throat, and as we sang, another cool rush lifted around us, an impossible tide moving around our bodies until we were covered. A tentacle appeared and encircled me, holding me to him as the water swirled.

Was he drowning me? Perhaps. I was singing, though, our voices even louder underwater. Water filled my lungs, and I kept on singing. I didn’t need to breathe?

We are bound, he replied, his thoughts moving in my mind like massive tentacles, embracing me. You are the Empress of this domain. The seas will learn to obey you as they do me. You will never drown.

He moved me through the water, and down until my back brushed the sandy floor and small fish darted in and out of my hair. We were moving deeper, and I had a feeling he’d taken us through the gap in the fence to let me feel the power of his realm around us. Maybe he was gathering strength.

I wrapped myself around him, kissing him as if his lips were all that kept my body from moving, like the waves I could feel stretching from this sad beach to the great cliffs on the Straits of the Svellvollr, to the sandy shoals of the farthest south.

Will I…? I lost my train of thought as a pod of blue whales surfaced a few miles out, leaping and twisting in joy to welcome me as their Empress.

“Will you what?” Lusca asked as the water around us receded. We were surfacing, and the water in my body receded as well, flowing out of my mouth and lungs and rejoining the wavelets bowing at my feet. It felt odd but not uncomfortable. Normal, somehow.

What wasn’t was the knowing.

How did I know the waves were bowing? I could feel their delight and reverence, though they were almost impossible to see in the fog. “They’re like puppies,” I breathed, bending down to pat them, Lusca’s tentacles keeping me from falling on my face.

He chuckled. “Will you what, my mate?”

Oh yeah. I reached behind me without looking and grabbed one of his tentacles, giving it a solid squeeze. ‘Will I grow tentacles like this, too?” I needed to know, not because I thought they were disgusting, but I didn’t want one to take me by surprise, slipping out of my armpit or something.

The fog shook all around us as he bellowed with laughter. “I hope not, Rada. That’s not a tentacle.”

I twisted around and placed my other hand on the part of him I’d grabbed. I went still, feeling the end of it with my fingertips. “No, it’s not. It’s not an eel, either.” Letting my hand move closer to his body, I felt his length. He had an incredibly solid handful, maybe not quite as thick as Goran… Even before the thought was finished, the handful expanded until it was larger than my husband’s.

“Lusca,” I gasped. “Did you just change your shape?”

“You know this is not my true form, Empress,” he said. I wasn’t sure if it was embarrassment I heard in his tone, or annoyance. “I can change any part of me. Or all of me.”