“I’m not nervous,” I lie. The sand is boiling hot under my
calloused feet. Sweat seeps through my T-shirt against my backpack.
I’ve never seen the beach so deserted on such a perfect day to cool
off.
“Don’t worry,” she says, and in that moment, I’m lulled into a
calm I haven’t felt in days. Somewhere I know this is the effect of
her voice, but the dulcet melody reminds me of the guy I used to be.
That Tristan didn’t get sweaty palms. That Tristan didn’t think twice
before leading a girl under the pier. Somehow, it’s easier to be him…
Sarabell pulls her dress over her head and throws it on the wet
beach. Her long brown hair tumbles to her hips in waves. She smells
like the sea, not Coney Island water but like salt and rain and the
turquoise, warm waters of Vanishing Cove.
“You’re not afraid of being seen,” I say.
“Didn’t Gwenivere tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
She twists her hands in the air like a belly dancer. “I’m an
expert at glamours.”
When the water reaches her shoulders, she turns around and blows
me a kiss playfully. She pinches her nose and sinks under. A second
later, her hand shoots up and waves me in. Her feet kick and she swims
away.
I stuff my clothes in my backpack and dive in before I change my
mind. At first I can’t find her. The water is muddy and cloudy, and I
have to swim for a mile before it clears up. My heart is pumping in my
chest, nervous, excited, and full of dread all at once. Then I see
her. Her hair darkens and smooths out with the pull of the water. Her
gold scales blossom and the iridescent glimmers of her tailfins flick
my chin.
My entire body sighs when I shift. It’s like a great release, like
breathing new air. We swim for what feels like miles. I marvel at the
way the water bends to her. Even underwater, the sweet hum of her
voice is entrancing. She gets up close to me, teasing with her lips
inches away from mine. She nudges me with her nose. I think I’ve seen
dolphins do this at the aquarium. I place one hand on her lower back
where her skin becomes soft golden scales. Without meaning to, a part
of me rises…
Then she smiles and I flatline. I swim out of her hold with the
flick of my tail. Her canines, too sharp, remind me of Nieve-her pale
face, her frail silver body-and Archer, the merrows, Layla dying in my
arms. My thoughts are a train wreck I can’t stop.
Sarabell can’t understand why I’ve pushed her away. I swim up to
the surface. We’re far from Coney, all the way to maybe Long Island,
maybe Queens. My sense of direction is discombobulated. There’s a
nasty taste in my mouth. I want to puke up my breakfast.
She surfaces beside me, smoothing out the water around us. “Did I
offend you, my lord?”
Sure, she’s all formal and stiff now. A second ago she practically
had her hands all over my-
“I’m sorry if I’m too forward. It’s just…you’re so terribly
lovely. Everyone says so. And I’ve never been with a half human-half
merman.”
I head for a mound of boulders and grit my teeth against the rip
of the shift back to legs that stops mid-thigh. The half shift. I
can’t help but feel like I’m wearing glittery boxer briefs.
“I’ve got a cramp,” I lie.
“Then we can just sit.”
“Hey, Sara,” I say, “why are you here with me? The day you
arrived, you guys wouldn’t even look my way. Why aren’t you at Adaro’s
court?”
She’s flustered. She stands in her half shift, wet hair getting
carried by the wind. There aren’t people on this shore. The beach is
stony and uncomfortable, and the water is full of seaweed and broken
shells.
I catch her hesitation. “You are so much more interesting.”
I hold her hand so she doesn’t slip on the mossy boulder, and she
sits next to me. I lick the salty water running over my lips. “You
don’t have to pretend. I’m not good at this court stuff.” Then I
swallow hard. My heart jolts, anticipating my deceit. “Wherever Adaro
is, it has to be better than here.”
She scoots over so our thighs touch. “Don’t you see? You’re so
very new. All of court says you have the king’s face as he was in his
youth. The blue eyes of Triton-” Her hand hovers over my face. I inch
back instinctively, but she follows.
“Adaro is my cousin. While I wish I could see our bloodline return
to the throne, I also wish I could be queen. I’ve already been
presented to the other champions, before the championship started.
Elias chose Gwenivere, for all the good it did him. Brendan would make
a terrible husband. Dylan would not take a queen but a Sethos, a minor
king that is. Then the ones beneath my station are afraid of my
magic.”
“So everyone knows about you…?”
She nods sadly. “It’s required.”
Looking at her now, I can see something broken inside her, beneath
the wicked smile, like the biggest parts of herself are hiding.
“Do you have much contact with Adaro now?”
As soon as I say it, I wish I hadn’t. Her guard is up, but her
eyes sparkle in the sun. She leans over and rests her head on my
shoulder. “He says if he were king, he would welcome magic into the
court once again. Would you do the same?”
I tense against her fingers tracing my chest. “I-”
Then she sits back up and takes my hands in hers. “If I tell you
everything I know of Adaro, everything he knows, would you take me as
yours?”
“Mine?”
She smiles. Not the wicked way she does on the boardwalk or among
her entourage. It’s her real smile. Insecure. Nervous. “As your queen.
We could do many great things together.”
“I wasn’t exactly expecting a marriage proposal,” I say, slipping
off the rock. I have two options, say no to her and return to square
one. Or I could pretend. I could tell her that I love her, that I want
her to be my queen of the sea. I could look into her eyes and make her
feel she’s the only one in the world to me. Take what I want from her.
Ask her to betray her family. Then I could take it all back, like I’ve
done many times before.
I want to shower.
Suddenly a guy walks down the beach hand in hand with a girl.
Oblivious to us, they start making out. He pulls on the strings of her
bikini top and she runs her hands all over his chest, his hair, his
face. I feel a pull in my stomach. A pull to be somewhere else with my
own girl. I realize the feeling is coming from Sarabell. The wordless
melody of her voice fills my head. It floats in the air like smoke,
wrapping around me, the couple on the beach. The girl stops kissing
the boy and turns to us. Her eyes are glazed over and dazed.
“We should go back,” I say.
She bares her pearly teeth encouragingly. “Don’t you see? This is
a perfect chance to experience life together. Then, we could continue
as one-”
The couple is hypnotized by her voice. She calls the couple
forward with her fingertips, leading them back into the water.
“Sarabell, no. What are you doing?”
Sarabell bares her teeth and walks backward into surf. The couple
follows.
“What are you doing?” I whisper. But the warmth of Sarabell’s
voice is like light filling my chest.
“It’s a present to you. A show of good faith to join our lines.”
I roll out the tension in my shoulders, the pressure of her voice
weighing me down. I think of everything that’s happened in the past
couple of days. Everything I’ve lost and everything I can lose. I
silently curse Brendan and Kurt and Gwen. All of them. I’ve got a
mermaid who wants to be queen so badly she’ll give me everything I
want to know about Adaro on a silver platter. The couple is knee-deep