Saxon was the first to pull back, his breath catching in the back of his throat. We watched each other for a few beats. “Do you ever go down to the dock?”
“In the summertime, when we swim.” Shuddering, I looked down the slope toward the dark water. Swimming this summer was going to be
very
different.
“Does your chair go down that path?”
I glared down at the dock. The boardwalk that led down the hill was bumpy and had a few slats of wood missing. It wasn’t impossible to navigate my way down to the dock, but it took so much effort that it was easier just to wait for someone to help me. Yet another one of my father’s projects he’d not yet finished. But I wasn’t stupid. I knew that the boardwalk was the one project that my mother didn’t nag him about because it deterred me from going down to the water by myself. Just another way my parents’ overprotective tendencies made me want to scream.
He didn’t wait for an answer. He must have read the expression on my face because he took hold of the handles on my chair and proceeded to push me down the hill. I braced my hands on the armrests as we bounced past the rough spots and skidded to a stop at the end of the wet dock.
He knelt before me and ran his knuckles down the side of my face. “I know you hate having help. But if you want to go somewhere, I don’t understand why you should be limited.”
Locking my wheels, I grinned despite myself. “It’s like you read my mind.” I froze. “Wait, can you do that?”
He pulled his lips back, and I could see a sliver of his white teeth. “No. Will you be able to get yourself back up the hill after I leave?”
Nodding, I tossed my hair over my shoulder, enjoying the air blowing off the choppy waves. “Yeah. It’s difficult, but not impossible.”
“You aren’t lying to me, are you?” He narrowed his eyes. “I don’t want to leave you stranded.”
“I’m not stranded, I promise.” I tousled his hair playfully, and my stomach flip-flopped when he turned his face into the palm of my hand. “I sneak down here all the time. My parents just don’t know. Otherwise they’d freak.”
He leaned in and pressed a long kiss against my temple. “I’ll see you soon.”
I drew in his scent and begged my mind to memorize it. I wanted to be able to recall that aroma as I lay in bed at night or sat in class at school. My throat tightened, and I cleared it vigorously. “Would it be cheesy for me to say that I’ll miss you? Because I will.”
His crooked smile made my heart speed up. “I’ll miss you too.”
And with that he stood up and took the bag into the boathouse. I listened to the soft ruffle of clothing and then the noisy crackle of the plastic, and all of the hair on the back of my neck stood up. Closing my eyes, I turned my face up toward the hazy sky. The sun was trying to filter through the clouds, but spring just wasn’t ready to take over yet. I imagined the bitterly cold water. How did Saxon manage to tolerate being chilled with such ease?
A splash sounded on the other side of the boathouse, and I popped my eyes open. There, just below the surface, was the longest fin I’d ever laid eyes on. I couldn’t see his upper body. He was moving too fast and heading straight down. His tail was ridged with muscle and made of thousands of metallic green, gray, and blue scales reflecting light in every direction. It moved up and down with such force that the water at the surface slapped against the dock, making it rock up and down. With just two flicks of the massive tail fins, Saxon was swallowed by the black water, and the only hint he’d even been there was the colors I still saw like tracers.
“Luna!” The scream was bloodcurdling, and my shoulders jerked in response.
Cringing, I slapped my hand on my forehead and turned in my seat. I was busted. Big time busted. There stood my mother, still in her Deep Lake apron, gaping at me from the back porch.
“Uh…hi, Mom.”
Chapter Nine
The hand wrapped itself around my wrist and pulled me down, down, down. No matter how hard I pulled back, the grip didn’t loosen. When I opened my mouth to scream, bubbles danced up to the surface and frigid lake water filled my mouth and nose. The light at the surface flickered dimly as I sank lower, and the fingers around my arm were relentless when my bones snapped and my muscles tore under its grip. The sound of my arm breaking was muted. Reduced by the weight of the water to a quiet tap.
The lights below came into focus, and I saw who pulled me down. Swaying waves of blonde hair danced around a face covered in greenish skin…
Thrashing, I woke with a start. My sweat-soaked sheets tangled around the useless ends of my legs, and all my pillows were strewn across the floor beside my bed. Craning my neck to look at my clock, the bright red numbers stung my eyes as I strained to read the time.
Tap, tap, tap.
I gasped and sat bolt upright, scrambling to release my hands from the damp grasp of the sheet. Once freed, I felt both of my wrists to make sure that they were still intact. They were, thank God.
A shadow passed by the glass behind my curtains. My skin grew cold, and fear filled my stomach like a bucket of ice. In the hours since Saxon dove into the lake and disappeared, I’d wondered several times if that freaky Isolde would ever consider following me to my house. Sure, Saxon had said it was against the rules, but if he broke them to walk around, maybe she did too. If she hated me as much as she’d appeared to the other day, what would keep her from trying to bust her way into my bedroom at night?
I heard the shuffling again and pulled my covers up around my shoulders. We’d had wild animals around our house before. It was one of the end results of living in the woods. My mother had spotted a bear the previous summer while she was jogging, and my father had trapped many a raccoon around our garbage cans. But that shadow was way too big for a masked rodent. It was either a bear who’d woken up from hibernation early or…a really pissed off mermaid with greenish skin. A shiver of fear glided its way across my body, so I scooted back on the mattress until my back was flush against the wall.
Just as I opened my mouth to yell for my father, I heard a muffled voice. “Luna? Are you awake?”
My open mouth changed directions and pulled into a smile. I would have known that deep, melodic voice anywhere.
Saxon.
Scooting to the end of my bed, I pulled back my curtains and suppressed an ecstatic giggle. While I tried to smooth down my bedhead and swiped underneath my eyes for any leftover mascara, he gestured for me to unlock the window.
As soon as the lock clicked, he shoved open the window and leaned in to press a kiss on my lips. When we pulled apart, I realized he wasn’t wearing a shirt, and that hundreds of droplets of water all over his chest and arms reflected the light from the full moon overhead.
I laughed and wiped off my face. “You’re soaked.”
“Sorry.” His skin looked almost blue in the moonlight. “I missed you.”
My chest tingled. As much as I didn’t want to behave like a lovesick teen, that was exactly what I was turning into. “Me too.” My eyes flicked down to the edge of the windowsill. “Are you, um, wearing anything?”
He nodded, spattering icy water on my arms. “Yes, silly girl. I’m wearing the jeans from the boathouse.”
He took my hand and folded his fingers between mine. It was so cold, it bit into my blanket-warmed skin, and I sucked in a sharp breath. When I started to tremble, he brought my hands to his mouth and blew on them. His breath was startlingly warm, despite the fact his body was covered in water and he stood outside, half-naked, in the middle of an early April night.
My fingers warmed. “Thank you.” I watched the shadows from the pine trees paint dark pictures across his chest.
He drew his mouth upward in the corners. “Do you want to go swimming with me?”
I pressed my lips together. First off, if I went into the lake, I would wind up hypothermic within minutes. Second, I’d just gotten done having a nightmare about being drowned by a psychopathic mermaid. Talk about a mood killer.
“I don’t know…”
He knit his eyebrows together, casting a shadow down his face. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I squeezed his fingers, trying to reassure him. I hated being afraid. I didn’t want to let
anything
keep me from my lake.
Understanding softened his features. “Isolde?”
Nodding, I glanced down at the discarded pillows all over my floor. “I’m not letting that cow chase me away. But, you know, there’s also scientific fact. If I go into the lake now, I’ll freeze to death.”
He crouched down in front of the window so that we were eye to eye. “If you don’t want to swim with me, I understand. But if you do want to, I will not let you freeze to death. I can keep you warm and safe. I promise.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “How?”
“It’s too difficult to explain. You’ll just have to trust me.” When he smiled, the moonlight caught in his eye, and my stomach leapt into my throat.
I wouldn’t have been able to explain it to someone if they’d asked, but the feeling I got when Saxon comforted me was complete and utter safety. There was something so reassuring about his presence. Like a lifejacket, kneepads, airbags, and insurance all rolled into one. Besides, I’d survived a near-fatal car accident. Why start fearing everything now?
“OK.” I pulled my hands out of his grip and slid myself as close to the edge of the bed as I could get without falling. I’d put a pair of black leggings and an old concert tee shirt on after my shower earlier. Not exactly the cutest outfit I’d ever worn on a date, but considering the fact that Saxon was wearing my father’s hand-me-downs, I didn’t think he’d mind.
He enveloped my body with his arms. The moment he brought me through the open window and secured me against his chest, warmth radiated through me. It started in my core, then rolled from the inside out like smoke filling every corner of a box. Except this wasn’t smoke. It was a cloud of glowing, ardent heat that toasted me.
I looked up at his face, my mouth ajar with shock, and he offered me a humble shrug. When he spoke, his voice rebounded inside of my head.
I told you it was difficult to explain.
I pressed my face against his neck and laughed softly. The whiskers that trailed around the edge of his chin tickled my forehead, and the heat inside of my chest doubled. “Does it hurt to talk out loud?”
No. It doesn’t hurt.
He stepped carefully onto the boardwalk.
But it’s taxing. It uses up my energy quicker. I have to think each word out and figure out how to articulate it. When I talk to you this way, it just comes naturally.
I tightened my grip around his neck as we started our descent toward the lake. It was a good thing my parents’ bedroom faced the driveway and not the water.
“Are you taught how to shift?” I asked. “Or is it instinctual?”
We’re told from the time we are born that someday we will shift. We see our parents do it and the elders of the clan. So we are prepared for what will happen to our bodies. But nothing could have prepared me for the first time.”
I touched the damp hair at the back of his head. “What happened?”
I was near the place in the lake that your people call Bottle Bay.
I pictured the marina where my parents used to rent jet skis every Labor Day, then shuddered at the thought of what a jet ski probably sounded like—and left behind—from a Mer’s perspective.
His smile dropped away.
My family was nearby, but out of sight. My father had gone to investigate an area where the water was black and cloudy. It was an oil leak in a massive vessel, and it’d made dozens of our people sick.
My stomach squeezed. “I’m sorry.”
I was about fifty feet from the surface when I felt the shift coming on. At first I thought I was getting sick because I was lurching and gagging. My stomach knotted. But then a searing pain cut through my body that was so fierce I couldn’t even cry for help. It was as if someone were taking a knife and dragging it down the center of my spine, from the back of my neck, clear down to the end of my tail.
My breath caught in my throat. That searing pain in the spine thing hit a little too close to home for me. Saxon stepped onto the dock, and it rocked underneath our weight. After lowering himself to his knees, he sat me down on the wood. Then he settled down next to me, and wrapped his arms around his knees.
I felt the end of my spine splitting and my bones fusing into two separate extremities. My skin and scales tore open, and flapped around my new legs in the water. The open flesh stung like a thousand bee stings, and blood darkened the water around me. And then my gills sealed up.
“Holy crap.” I drew in a deep breath of air and then let it out slowly.
He fingered the marks on one side of his neck before lifting his arm to show me another set just below his armpit. His gills looked like lines drawn by a marker in the dim light of the moon.
I thought I was going to die, so I started pedaling for the surface. My body wasn’t shaped like it had been. Learning to use two legs, instead of one tail with extremely strong fins, was terrible. I flailed around for what felt like forever, and it occurred to me that I might actually drown before I could reach air.
I wrapped my arms around myself and leaned against his side. He lifted his arm and pulled me tighter against his body.
Somehow I started moving and making progress. Slowly. Thirty feet. Twenty feet. Then ten. My lungs were burning, and it felt like my eyes were going to fall out of my head. The pain in my legs was excruciating, but I kept kicking. More and more, just trying to get to the top. When I finally broke the surface, I screamed and howled so loudly, that a group of people from the boat docks rushed to see who was hurt.
By that time, I’d figured out what had happened to my body, and I’d managed to hide in some weeds at the side of the lake. I was naked and terrified and alone, but I remembered enough from my father’s stories that I wouldn’t stay in human form for long.
He offered me a one-shouldered shrug.
So I just laid in the weeds until I shifted again and rolled back into the water.
“Was that as painful as shifting into a human?” I touched his leg. Through the leg of his jeans, it felt absolutely normal. Skin, muscle, hair, bones. It was hard to believe that his legs could be anything but just that.
He traced lines up and down my bare arm.
Yes. Imagine the process when someone breaks their bone, and the doctor puts a cast on it while the bone heals back together. Now imagine it happening over a matter of seconds. Then compound that sensation with gills splitting open on your skin and air suddenly suffocating you. The only thing that relieves the agony is to get into the water as quickly as possible. Both processes are arduous, but I’ve learned to shift quickly, so it’s more tolerable.
“That sounds horrible.” I pulled myself as close to him as I could and wrapped my arms around his middle. “I can’t even imagine what it must be like.”
He used a finger to swipe my bangs back from my face.
I can’t imagine what it must be like for you either.
“Well then, I guess we have a mutual admiration.” I looked up at him and bit my lip. “Can I ask you to do something for me?”
He leaned close to me so that our foreheads were touching. “Anything.”
“Will you shift for me?” I asked him, enjoying the way it felt when the tip of his nose brushed against mine. It made my pulse dance. “I want to see it.”
“I don’t know, Luna, I—”
I used my hands to anchor his face and made him look at me. “Sax, listen. This time you have to trust me.”
I guess I’ve already broken so many laws. I may as well add shifting in front of a human to my repertoire.
He smiled sheepishly and stood up.
Are you sure this won’t scare you?
“I’m sure.” When his hands moved to the buttons on his jeans, I focused my eyes on his face only, locking my gaze on those pools of blue. He gulped, making his Adam’s apple bob, as he pushed the pants down and stepped out of them. The air between us grew thick and heavy as Saxon’s shift became eminent, and my heart started to hammer.
He turned away from me, and I finally allowed my eyes to roam downward, only making it to the curve of his muscular back, before he threw himself off the end of the dock. Making a perfect arch above the still water, time seemed to slow down when the shift happened. The only sound in the air was the sound of my breath halting, and my lungs going perfectly still as I watched him change right before my eyes.
His legs instantly snapped together as though there were powerful magnets deep within the muscles, and his feet melded together at the heels. The surface of his skin bubbled like lava as it sealed the divide between one leg and the other, then split and peeled itself into thousands of brilliant scales. Just as his upper body broke the water, Saxon’s feet flattened and spread into two tail fins that were at least three and a half feet in width. They looked feathered and torn like thin iridescent fabric, but the fin itself was rippled with muscle and sinew as it slid into the water.
I watched, mouth ajar, as rings of water spread out from the spot where he dove, disbelief washing over me. The warmth I felt in his presence started to cool, and I saw my breath in front of my face as I sat there collecting myself. What I’d just witnessed didn’t exist in real life, and I was pretty sure it was stretching the boundaries found in even the wildest of fairy tales. Maybe I was dreaming and going to wake up back in my bed at any moment.
Are you scared?
Saxon’s voice filled my head, and the coals in my belly reignited. There he was, just an inch or two below the surface at the end of the dock. My heart stuttered at the sight of him. His skin glowed a bluish hue, his dark hair danced on the currents around his head, and the gills below his ears opened and shut rhythmically.