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Prologue
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Nerida
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(Sea in Latin: Mare)
“I SUPPOSE MY FIRST QUESTION HAS TO be the one that everyone is dying to know.” The reporter cast a shy look my way, cheeks flushed, eyes bright, hope clinging to every word for the story of her career.
I sighed, knowing this question would come but hoping it could have waited until after. After I spoke so eloquently of my life’s work. After I gave every piece of my legacy. Instead, my broken heart would have to bleed all over the rest of her questions because I wouldn’t be able to staunch the flow once she asked.
“Perhaps we should ask about Lunamare first?” Dylan said, shooting a reproachful stare at his colleague, all while adjusting the microphone in front of me.
“Oh, yes, of course.” Margot sat back on my comfy wicker furniture, the soft ocean breeze playing in her strawberry-blonde hair. She winced. “I’m sorry. I just...ever since I heard about you two, I can’t stop imagining your love story.”
I smiled softly.
Was I once like her? Diamond-eyed and untouched by time? So full of magic and wonder?
Yes.
The answer was yes.
Yes, I’d once been like her.
And I’d lived a life worth living.
A life worth telling.
Even now, with time carving relentless lines across my face and stamping its unforgettable memories into my weathered skin. Even now, with that very same clock tick-ticking in the back of my mind of what I faced once this interview was over...I still glowed with gratitude.
So, so much gratitude.
“You can ask,” I said softly. “I don’t mind.”
Dylan stiffened a little, a dark beard framing his mouth with harsh expectation. His article on my unparalleled creation seemed to be overshadowed by true love.
And wasn’t that always the way?
You could fashion the tallest building.
Build the fastest car.
But in the end...the greatest achievement of your life would always be what you loved the most, and what loved you the most in return.
“Is it true...” Margot scooted closer, her notepad and pen forgotten on her lap, her burnt-yellow sundress swaying around her knees. “That you pulled a lion from the ocean and fell in love with him?”
Tears pricked.
Heart swelled.
The sea called to me with its soft hish-hish-hish upon the crystalline sands.
“It’s true.” I smiled.
“And is it also true that you descend from a line of sirens? That your very name means nymph, and that your lion loved you back because you sang to him like all sirens do and captured his soul forever?”
