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He double-takes at the water before reaching a hand through the surface to feel my tail. “You’re a… You’re a mermaid?”
“It was just as much a surprise to me, too. Though I’m glad, because I can’t swim, and even with this thing I’m terrible at it, but if it wasn’t there, I’d have drowned along with you.”
His eyes widen as if he’s remembering everything. He twists far too quickly, making me lose my balance in the water as he looks at the horizon. My head slips below the water and he practically plucks me out of it. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know. I told the beast to take us to the closest land and ran out of magic. It’s the best I could do.”
He sucks in a breath, wading by himself in the water. Without a word, he starts to swim.
For once, I just want to be wrong… I want to assume the worst and have things turn out better for a change. He knows, and if he doesn’t, he’s going to. I won’t keep that from him again.
Doing my best, I try to swim, but the tides keep pushing me out the moment I gain ground.
Sebastian makes it to land. Water drips off him as he turns to sit on the shore.
“You have to use your arms, love!” he yells, watching me struggle. This was surprisingly much easier in the open. “Like this!” He imitates what he did before and I try to copy it, but it’s to no avail. “Gods dammit, woman.” He’s still mumbling curses as he stands and heads back into the water to come get me. “What kind of mermaid can’t swim?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I yell, trying to stroke harder. “How about the kind who didn’t know she was a bloody mermaid!”
37
Scarlet
Watercascadesoffmyhair in thick streams, splattering onto the small white stones. They bite into my palms as I try to pull myself out of the lapping tide, but my tail weighs me down, making it hard to move more than an inch or two at a time.
Everything I’ve read says mermaids are supposed to be graceful, yet I might as well be grunting trying to flop to get out of the water. This isn’t anything like I’d pictured it... Not that I expected this.
From a distance, I thought the coast was made of sand, but its smooth marbled pebbles. Some or larger than others, or more flattened. They’re slick and easy to move as I try to use my fingers as claws.
This has to be some god’s sick joke. They’re likely watching me now, laughing about how they made the clumsy one a mermaid just to watch her struggle a bit. My shirt clings to my body like a second skin, and as more of my body exits the water, the familiar prickling takes over, like a thousand needles dance over my flesh.
Thank the gods... If I had to be stuck like that, I’d cry.
I’m not sure where the tail goes, but my legs reform, and I’m able to crawl the rest of the way out of the water.
I cast a glance to my left, seeing Sebastian flop onto the shore, his chest heaving as he works to catch his breath. I’m painfully aware of the tension hanging in the air, only amplified by the fact he had to come get me.
It’s not my fault I can’t swim. I didn’t even know I had a tail or could breathe underwater. Until today, I could confidently say nothing sprang free while I was in the bathtub, which was the biggest body of water I ever stepped foot in.
Sebastian turns his head toward me. Furious emerald eyes blaze from beneath his dark hair. The thick strands hang over his face as water beads and runs off his bare skin. At least he has pants. Some of us present can’t say the same. Though it looks like he chose to lose his boots, too.
“How am I alive?” he breathes as he stares up at the hell flame. My heart races, waiting for him to blow up. He’s furious. I can feel it in my gut. His fists are clenched so tightly, I can make out every indention in his knuckles.
I don’t answer, but the muscle in his jaw starts to feather as I debate whether I should move away from him. I’m not sure how he’ll take any of this…
“I vividly remember passing out beneath the water. It felt like my lungs were going to implode. Yet here I am. All my pieces are in order. I’m going to ask one more time. What did you do?”
My breaths come out uneven as I try to formulate the words to say to him, all while knowing he won’t like any of it. He meets my gaze, and I hardly resist the urge to jump back. It’s so cold… so expressionless.
Sebastian growls out my name between gritted teeth, “Use your fucking words, woman.”
“Magic!.” I push up off the ground, trying to get to my feet, scrambling to put space between us. “I used magic.”
His jaw locks as he rolls himself up from the ground, the same tick still hammering at the hinge. Those enchanting jade eyes I love darken until the color is nearly nonexistent as he prowls toward me, and I stumble back, caught between whether I should run or stay. I don’t think he’ll hurt me… but he hasn’t fully pieced together what I did.
This wasn’t like before—with the coral—something has changed inside of me. I think I used too much… I’m still me, so my soul can’t be all gone, but it just doesn’t feel right. It’s hollow somewhere deep down. Either way, I used my own blood as a sacrifice. If a part of my soul is gone, then I’ve become the very thing he hates. I’ve earned the mark on my back… He was willing to look the other way before, justifying it because he truly believed I was wrongfully marked. That’s no longer the case.
His gaze trails down my body, pausing at my feet. My lungs seize and my heart plummets inside my chest. Something tells me it’s not because I ditched my pants or my shoes–that it’s not because I grew a tail and fins.
