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“Wait!” I gasped, but Leander had already lunged forward, his fist bashing the shark in the very center of its vulnerable nose. The voice in my head turned into a garbled moan as the shark sank away from us—only this time, I knew it wouldn’t be retaliating any time soon.
“It’s hurt!” I called out, my voice raw with outrage. I pushed away from Leander’s chest to get a better look as it sank to the rocky seafloor.
“Yeah,” Leander said, shaking out his hand. A ridiculously satisfied grin widened his lips. “I punched it.”
“That’s not what I mean!” I said, shooing the hand away when it went back for my tail. I wasn’t a child anymore.I didn’t need to be carried.
Okay, well, maybe I did.
But he didn’t have to hold me withbotharms,effortlessly floating there with his workable tail like swimming was the simplest thing in the world. It was insulting. I could just as easily use my own strength to hang on to an arm or shoulder and drag through the water behind him.
“It was trying to tell us something! Didn’t you hear the screaming?”
Leander’s golden eyebrows rose like he was considering the question. “No? Sharks don’t talk. Whales and dolphins? Yeah, sure. And you can’t get seabirds to shut up, apparently. But a shark? They’re not smart enough.”
I shook my head, the act sending my hair flowing out around me. “Well, I guess this one is particularly savvy, ’cause I for sure heard a voice in my head. It kept repeating, ‘want out, want out.’ I could hardly even think, it was so freaking loud.” I pantomimed my head exploding, but Leander still looked skeptical.
Gnawing at my lip, I wondered what to do. He was right that most fish weren’t smart enough to communicate, but now and then, I would come across a fish that would give me some sort of signal, projecting some word or feeling directly into my head. Then I’d sneak it to the side of the boat and release it back into the ocean before anyone could notice.
I figured if a fish was intelligent enough to communicate, the least I could do was give it an extra shot at life. Maybe find a smart little fishy spouse I’d released earlier, and then when I was in my nineties, the ocean would be filled with big-brained, super mutant—
“You’re serious?” Leander’s eyes searched mine, the flecks of gold dotting his irises practically glowing underneath the waves. “Sharks don’t talk, Claira.”
Irritation hit me, and I suddenly couldn’t blame the shark for keeping Leander out of the loop. Shark-me wouldn’t have wanted to chat with someone so obviously closed-minded, either. “Well, feel free to not believe me. But if that bull shark really wanted to eat me, you know I’d be dead right now. I… I think it just wanted some help or something, and I’m going to try to help it.”
Leander’s chest vibrated as he threw his head back, not even bothering to conceal his amusement. “You’re going to help ashark?”
Using his annoying chuckle as kindling for my fury, I wove my arms around his neck and pulled until I was mere inches away from his face. His grin hardened to steel as my chin leveled with his.
“Take me back to the boat.”
Disappointment draped over his lips, his gaze trailing over my face. “But your swimming lesson.”
“Take me back to the—”
The entire ocean churned around us as Leander hooked an arm around my waist, shooting us to the surface with one powerful flick of his tail. I sputtered out a breath of half water, half air as wind crashed over me. Leander’s head popped up next to mine, but disarranged hair blanketed my face, and I could barely see through it. By the time I wiped the wet strands out of my eyes, he was grinning again.
“Thanks for the warning,” I grumbled. Taking hold of the side of the hull, I silently prayed I’d be able to reach inside without making a complete fool of myself. Even without a working tail, I wasn’tcompletelyuseless. Not when I still had my arms—a memo Leander clearly hadn’t received. Even though we’d made it back to the boat, his hands never left my waist.
Summoning the strength won from years of casting and lifting nets, I hoisted myself up, balancing my stomach on the rail. The support of Leander’s hands shifted, and his palms spread, covering the crest of my scaled rear. I couldn’t stop my eyes from rolling. “Gee, thanks Lee. Ireallythink that’s helping.”
“You’re welcome,” he chuckled, and gave my rear an encouraging little push forward. “Take all the time you need. I’m enjoying the water.”
“Yeah, I’m sure it’s thewater you’re enjoying,” I mumbled, stretching to reach for one of my boots. The tip of my finger snagged a lace, and I used it to pull the boot over, watching the knife as it fell out onto the deck. “Just what I needed.”
“What’s that?” Leander called, and I answered by turning around, waving the knife through the air for him to see.
“I told you I was going to help it,” I said, satisfied with my cleverness. By the looks of the scars I’d seen earlier, the shark had gotten tangled up in a net at some point. Maybe that’s what it was trying to tell me. Honestly, with all the strange lines moving around my vision, I hadn’t gotten the best look, but what else could it possibly “want out” of?
“Are you sure you’re not making sushi?”
“And what would you know about sushi?” I snorted. Sturdy arms caught me as I scooted back off the boat’s ledge. “I thought King Eamon had you guys living off a diet of nut cream.I saw your food supply. It’s pretty pathetic.”
I folded my arms, holding the knife close to my chest so it wouldn’t cut either of us. One firm nod, and Leander’s head sank, drawing us back under the surface.
“Yeah, turns out fish are better at catching us than we are at catching them these days. We’ve had to adjust a bit.” Mimicking the size of a betta fish with a pinch of two fingers, he shrugged. “But I guess the tides have turned yet again.” He tucked my head under his chin, and we suddenly dipped. Turning a tight spiral in the water, my eyes reeled as the ocean swirled around us. As we came out of a loop, a golden tailfin fanned in front of me, the ends of its webs playfully tickling my cheeks.
“I’m glad,” I said, and I really meant it. For a second there, Leander almost had me believing I might be the key to, well,something. That maybe I wasn’t completely useless as a mermaid after all. But deep down, I knew there was no way the ocean would choose me to break its curse. Not when I already had a curse of my own.
