Blood of a Mermaid (26 page)

She was afraid of the answer, but had to ask. “Will he heal?”

Despite his eyes being closed in concentration, Zan nodded. “I think so. He lost a lot of blood, but you reached him in time to help.”

“
We
reached him in time,” she reminded him. He opened his eyes and looked at her. His dark eyes looked so sad, so wistful.

“I wish I’d met you earlier,” he said, his voice so low she could barely hear him. “My life might have turned out so differently, if only someone like you had believed in me from the start.”

What could she say? She did believe in him, and she cared for him…but seeing Shea again had only served to confirm her deepest feelings, and what she’d known in her heart all along. She truly loved Shea, not Zan. She reached across and put a gentle hand on Zan’s cheek. “I will always be your friend.”

A small smile tugged at his lips and she felt a warm pulse flow through her hand. More magick? She frowned and let her hand drop back to its place on her father’s stomach before she realized what had truly happened. “Zan, your face! The cuts are gone!”

“You must have healed them,” he told her, his voice matter-of-fact as he looked down at Lybio’s back. “There. The exit wound has sealed. I think he will make a full recovery.” Gently he rolled Lybio onto his back and put his hand over the merman’s heart. “Beating normally.”

Kae wasn’t to be deterred by his change of focus. “I’m not a Healer, Zan. How could I have fixed your cuts?”

“The same way you helped to heal your father,” he said. Putting his hands around her wrists, he pulled her hands away from where they still pressed against her father’s skin. Underneath, the wound had miraculously healed into a thin vertical scar in the middle of his belly.

“You did that,” she argued, as she looked into his dark eyes. “I felt your magick pulsing through his body.”

“Kae.” Zan stared back at her. “The magick is in you, too. Because of you, he will open his eyes again soon, and make a full recovery.”

“How? How is that even possible?” Her mind whirled. She’d never had any inklings of magick before. Sure, she had an untrained syren voice, and liked to coax the seedlings in the king’s garden, but magick? Never in a million years.

He couldn’t look her in the eye all of a sudden. “I let you give the drylander too much of your blood. You got very weak and…I panicked.” She kept staring at him until he finally met her eyes. “I gave you some of my magick to help you heal.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. At least this explanation made sense. “You healed me with magick, and I just transferred some of it directly to my father.”

Zan shook his head. “No, Kae. I
gave
you some of my magick. It’s a part of you now.”

“You…what?” She didn’t see how that could be possible, but Zan seemed to be convinced of what he was telling her. “You had no right,” she said with a frown.

“No right? No right to save you, you mean?” He looked confused by her anger.

“No right to
change
me,” she snapped. “Zan, we’re friends. I will always love you. But I’m
in love
with Shea. You can’t bind me to you with magick to change my mind.”

“That wasn’t my intent.”

“No? Then what was your plan?”

He lowered his head. “I didn’t want to lose you. I couldn’t let you slip away, not when I could help you.”

That gave her pause, her anger evaporating as she considered his words. “Maybe I’m overreacting. I mean, how long can a little borrowed magick last, right?”

He held up a hand. “I’m afraid there’s more.” She raised one eyebrow. “When you gave your blood to the drylander? Something happened to her as well. You gave a part of yourself to Hailey.”

“I…we…Hailey?” Kae looked over to where Hailey was sitting up, chatting with Shea and his grandmother. Even from where she was sitting, Kae could hear the musical lilt in Hailey’s voice, a sound that hadn’t ever been there before. “Could the changes in her be from hitting her head in the crash?”

Slowly, he shook his head, still speaking softly. “It’s your blood. Her body absorbed so much of it, it’s changing her.” He patted Kae on the arm. “You should go talk to your friend and see for yourself. I’ll stay here and keep watch over your father.”

As she walked up the beach, Shea hurried toward her. “Your father?”

Kae smiled. “He’ll be fine. Zan’s magick sealed the wound completely.” She left out the part about Zan’s magick being inside her, as well.

“That’s great news!” He threw his arms around her, enveloping her with his warmth. She leaned into his body, her own arms snaking around his waist. He felt so familiar. Like she was home.

“Kae! It’s so good to see you again!” Hailey’s voice practically shimmered with excitement. She was sitting with her legs crisscrossed and seemed as alert and full of life as ever before, despite having been unconscious for the last few days.

Kae looked over at the other girl. “I’d better go say hello,” she told Shea, disentangling herself from his embrace.

He nodded. “Did you see which way Gramma went? She disappeared all of a sudden. Was she helping you with your dad?” She indicated no, and he frowned. “Maybe she’s headed back to the campsite? I guess I should find her before the Atlanteans leave. You know that you and I need to go with them, right? To give testimony back in Atlantis?”

She tried to smile but ice was forming in the pit of her belly. Testify? Against Demyan, gladly. But against Zan? How could she help convict her friend?

Hailey threw her arms wide and called again to Kae. “Come give me a hug!” Shea gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and took off along the beach.

As she bent over to hug her, Kae saw the glint of silver on Hailey’s wrist. She froze. “Is that my bracelet?”

Hailey’s laughter sounded like tinkling wind chimes. “I was holding it for you. I told Shea it looked better on me than on him.” She slipped it off her wrist and slid the bracelet right onto Kae’s wrist. “But it looks even better on you.” She clasped Kae’s hand with both of hers. “You are such a wonderful person. I can totally see why Shea loves you.” Her smile looked so happy and so genuine that Kae couldn’t help but smile back at her.

“Thanks, Hailey. I’m so glad you’re feeling better,” she said as she finally embraced her. She was smiling as she released her friend from the hug, and looked into her eyes.

And saw the newly modified color of her irises.

“Hailey, your eyes…”

She grinned up at her. “Shea told me they’d changed color. Weird, huh? I must’ve hit my head even harder than I thought.” The emerald patches twinkled in the moonlight. “I’ll tell you what, though, I feel like I can see better in the dark than I used to.”

“Really? How strange,” Kae said, not sure whether to tell Hailey the truth or not.

“So tell me,” Hailey said, lowering her voice. “Who are all these strangers, and where did Gramma MacNamara go? I think Shea went off to look for her. I’m so glad they captured that Demyan guy who tried to kill your dad, though. I saw you and that other guy healing him, I hope he’s better. Did you see the buff guys with the blue skin? What’s up with them? And is it just me or is everyone looking at me in a funny way? I mean, really, I’m not the one with the blue skin!”

Kae’s smile widened.
Same old Hailey. Thank the gods.

“Gramma, wait up!” Shea ran to catch up with Martha. For a woman who was well over a hundred, she moved quickly. He finally reached her and fell in step beside her. “Where are you going?”

“Dawn will be breaking soon, Sheachnadh,” Martha said. “I need to return to the campsite and make sure Hailey’s mother and brother don’t panic when they see she’s missing.”

Which made perfectly good sense to Shea. But he’d also seen the way she’d covered her face and avoided the Lord Magistrate’s eyes. For some reason, she didn’t want to talk with the other merfolk. “Gramma, you don’t need to run off. They’ve captured Demyan now and he’s going to Atlantis for trial. You can come with me to testify.”

She shook her head. “No, dear, I can’t. I made my choices long ago.”

“What are you talking about?”

Martha looked back in the direction they’d come. “That magistrate has no love of drylanders.”

“I figured that one out for myself,” Shea said, grimacing. “In the end, I convinced him to bring help only because I told him the sorcerer would be here at the island. Actually, I’d no idea we’d find Zan here – or Demyan for that matter! I just wanted to help Hailey.”

“And that’s the problem right there. She’s your friend first, a drylander second.
He
doesn’t make those distinctions.” She sighed and continued walking to the campsite. “I didn’t fully think through the consequences of accompanying you on this trip. There was no way I could ever swim into Atlantis. Not with that merman in the Lord Magistrate’s chair. Not after the choices I’ve made with my life.”

Shea was stunned. “So…you really
know
the Lord Magistrate?”

Martha nodded but didn’t elaborate, leaving Shea to wonder what had happened between them to make her hide from him all these years later. “You know I still have to go back with them,” he reminded her.

“And I’ll be waiting for you on Santorini with the Thompsons,” she answered, reaching over to pat his cheek. “Now that Zan lifted the magick surrounding the island, rescue teams should be here within hours.” Martha suddenly stopped in her tracks and Shea almost knocked her over. “And one more thing, dear. You need to keep a close eye on Kae, and I’ll keep an eye on Hailey.”

“Gramma, what are you talking about? I just talked to Kae. She’s fine, now that her dad is recovering.” Shea remembered the change in Hailey’s eyes, and the way her smile made his stomach clench. Even her laughter sounded a little different, making his pulse race almost as much as Kae’s voice did. Maybe his grandmother was right. Something was different about her now that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. “It’s Hailey who needs watching. She’s the one who seems changed by this whole experience.”

“It’s not the experience. It’s the magick.”

Shea narrowed his eyes. “The what?”

“Zan’s magick,” she explained. “Sometimes magick can do strange things, especially when it’s that powerful. It’s almost like it has a mind of its own.” Her words sounded ominous, and Shea felt a shiver run down his back. “Just be careful, Sheachnadh, and keep an eye on Kae.”

He swallowed, feeling his stomach clench into a knot, and tried to brush away the fear. “So, what about Hailey?”

“Go back and see if she’s able to walk. You can accompany her back to the campsite, and take your leave of the Thompson family. I will come up with an explanation that satisfies.” Martha didn’t slow her pace, marching steadily onward, down the beach. Shea’s own feet slowed to a halt as he watched her go, his mind spinning about her reaction to the Lord Magistrate and her warnings about magick. What did his grandmother know about magick?

* * *

The sky had brightened considerably by the time Shea returned to where the merfolk were. The Lord Magistrate was still taking statements from the Nerine soldiers, but Demyan and about half of the guards from Atlantis were no longer on the beach. Shea hailed a familiar-looking merman as he approached.

“Erastus, what did they do with Prince Demyan?”

The Atlantean guard turned toward his voice, a deep frown creasing his face. He blanched when he saw who was asking the question. “Forgive me, my Prince,” he said, bowing low before answering. “The Lord Magistrate sent Prince Demyan back to the City already. He thought it best to keep the rogue prince separated from his sorcerer.”

Shea thanked the merman for the information and then made a show of wincing as he rubbed around his swollen eye. He grinned as Erastus bowed and moved away as quickly as possible, still apparently fearing repercussions from his earlier bullying treatment.
Good,
thought Shea.
Maybe he’ll think twice next time before he uses his fists on a prisoner.

Hailey had joined Kae near her father, but was deep in conversation with Zan. Shea knelt in the sand next to Kae. “Has Lybio woken up yet?”

She turned and locked her emerald gaze on him. A familiar surge of electricity ran through his body, and it took some effort to resist the strong need to wrap his arms around her, hold her tight and kiss her until he couldn’t breathe. And then maybe kiss her some more, never letting her go.

With a sudden shock, he realized how very close he’d actually come to losing her forever. Her life had been in mortal danger, all because of her relationship with him. Demyan would never have bothered with her if she were just another servant girl. Were his feelings for Kae so entirely selfish that he’d let her suffer because of him? Would she be better off without him? A moot point indeed, because there was no way he could ever live without her in his life. But would her feelings for him survive such an ordeal?

His hand found hers and squeezed it, trying to convey in that one simple gesture all the complex emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. She leaned her head closer until their foreheads were touching. “Don’t worry. Zan says he’ll wake up any minute now. His magick is pretty amazing.”

“You’re the one who’s amazing,” Shea said, gazing into her eyes. “Escaping from Demyan and swimming all the way here to foil his plans. I’m so sorry you got tangled up in this whole mess. Dating the heir to the throne isn’t as easy as you thought.”

She put a finger against his lips. “Don’t. Don’t apologize for who you are. Remember, I understood who you were before you did.”

“But did you? Did you
understand
that things like this might happen?” He pulled away from her, sitting back on his heels, taking a good look. Now that he was really looking, she seemed different, too. Stronger, more self-assured. Which made a whole lot of sense, given what she’d been through in the last few weeks.

Her simple laughter was music to his ears. “Well, maybe I didn’t expect to be held prisoner in the Arctic Ocean, but yeah. I knew it wouldn’t be an easy swim through the oyster fields. Or a pie walk, as you would say.”