“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?”
Angel heard the words the minute she felt some-thing—no, make that someone—yank her beneath the waves.
And, fish! She didn’t even have the full tail yet. Angel twisted around, doubling back on herself,
watching as amethyst shimmered along her lower half from her toes up, and she took her first aqua-breath just as her sea-vision returned.
Mariana was the tail-yanker. It figured.
“Let go, sis.” As the last of her scales returned just below her navel, Angel flicked her tail to emphasize her point. Mariana still thought that because she was older, Angel had to listen to her. Angel had been trying to get out from under the big-sister thumb for selinos. When she was in charge of the Coalition, everyone would see her as an independent adult and take her seriously—at least, that was the hope.
Of course she had to become the head of the Coalition. Which she wasn’t going to be able to do if Mariana got in her way.
A parade of skates flapped their wingtips as they swam by, their eyes bugging more out of their heads when they saw Mariana holding onto her. A baby skate fluttered over his mother to whisper in her spiracle while the mother shook her head—actually since she didn’t
have a neck, she shook her entire body—at Mariana. Angel could almost hear Mama “tsk-tsking.”
Angel was right there with her.
Mariana let go, only to glare at the mother skate until the fish hustled her child away. Then Mariana crossed her arms over her shell-fillers—or rather, her breasts. Angel had decided that to pass as a Human, she needed to think like one.
And to have the time to get back to being one, this conversation had to be quick.
She kicked her tail and headed into deeper water where no Humans out for a late-night stroll in the moonlight could catch a glimpse of them. “What are you doing here, Mariana? And alone? The ocean isn’t safe at night.”
Mariana zipped up in front of her, and Angel had to stop swimming or bang into her. “I notice you’re not too worried, Ang. Luckily we don’t need to be. Amelia was flying by when you pulled your little climb-aboard escapade and she had Ernie threaten Harry about report-ing him for going after you. Unlike Ernie, I would have just gone ahead and reported it, but, luckily, Harry got smart and hightailed it to bluer waters. Good thing I in-tercepted Amelia before anyone else did.”
Mariana shoved her hands to her emerald-scaled hips. “I wish I could say the same for you. Going on an ex-pedition? With a Human? Really, Angel? After specific orders from Rod to stay put? And without a harpoon. Honestly, what were you thinking?”
Angel mimicked Mariana’s stance. Mariana was not going to intimidate her. “What I was thinking is that I’d start with a child and get him thinking about taking
care of the planet. How does Rod expect his Coalition to get off the sea floor if we don’t engage Humans in the conservation effort? Most adults are too ingrained in their ways to be open-minded about anything else.”
Not to mention, they were always up for catching and studying a new species—a fact she wasn’t going to men-tion since it’d only add magma to the well.
Mariana shook her head, her red hair swishing out around her shoulders. “You and your Human fixation. When are you going to let it go, Ang?”
“Let it go? Let it go?” Angel flapped her tail so quickly she churned the water into a small whirlpool and sent a school of silversides twirling off toward the Caymans. “Are you going to let your art go? Stop sculpting?”
“That’s not the same thing, and you know it. This
is dangerous.”
Angel snorted. “Oh, right. And working with flowing lava is a swim in the reef. How many times have you been burned?”
“Is that what you want? To get burned?” Mariana shoved her hair back over her shoulder, but with the way the water was churning round them, it didn’t stay. “Fine. Go beach yourself on a deserted island and lie out in the sun for too long, but for gods’ sakes, don’t do this, Ang. You know the penalty for letting Humans find out about us.”
“Logan isn’t going to find out.”
It was Mariana’s turn to snort. “Oh, right. Like the kid isn’t going to say something. Not that it even mat-ters. You tell one of them, you might as well scream it from their rooftops.”
“Michael won’t.”
“Right.”
Angel wasn’t giving in on this. Attraction notwith-standing, she knew what she was doing here was the right thing to do. It was important to her. To the planet. Mariana wasn’t going to win, not now. No matter how many times in the past her sister had managed to come out smelling like a hibiscus, this time, Angel had Right on her side.
“Look, Mariana. I know what I’m doing. I’ve studied them for selinos.”
“Studying them and living among them are two dif-ferent kettles of fish, Ang.”
“You think I don’t know that? Do you think I’m clue-less as to what Logan would do if he were to find out I’m a Mer? I might not be Pearl, but give me credit for some brains, sis. Michael can keep a secret.” Unlike the nosy pelican who’d sicced Mariana on her.
“So what do you hope to gain by this? Michael’s a child. One child. He’s not going to set the Human conservation movement on its ear or take the world by storm. How is that going to help you?”
If Angel had had any doubts—and she hadn’t, not really, but if she had—Mariana’s questions put them to rest.
She dove over her sister’s head, angling toward the sea floor. “Mariana, where would the beach be with¬out every grain of sand?” She grabbed a handful and let the grains sift through her fingers. “Sure, one little grain doesn’t make a difference, but a beach has to start somewhere. Piece by piece, generation by generation, the grains pile up until there’s a beach where none had existed before.”
“So Michael is a grain of sand?” “Exactly.”
Mariana grabbed a handful and held it out toward Angel. “It takes a lot of grains to make a beach.”
“Hey, I’m Immortal. I’ve got time.” “You’re not Immortal yet.”
Which took her thoughts right back to Logan’s kisses in the kitchen…
Angel chose to focus on Mariana instead. “That’s true, but I will be, and I have to start somewhere, Mare.”
“Perhaps you ought to start with becoming Immortal before you worry about your metaphorical beaches, Ang. Have you made any progress on that front?”
Angel swam to the reef, skimming above delicate sea fans and avoiding the fire coral.
Progress? It depended on what Mariana wanted to call progress.
And with whom.
She wended around the sea plumes, startling a school of blue chromis who were searching for dinner, then caused a few dozen anemones to close up shop. She wished she could clam up, too. She didn’t want to have this conversation.
“Or are you hoping this Human is your ticket to Immortality?” Mariana asked in her I-know-everything voice, catching up to her. “That’s a really bad idea, you know. There are only three of us left to keep the blood-line a hundred percent Mer. I’m happy for our brothers, but we can’t go around courting Humans. The magic would die out of our race in a few generations.”
After seeing the dazed look on Logan’s face when she’d sung, Angel wasn’t so sure that would be a
bad thing. She wouldn’t expect Humans to want to do business with a race that could enthrall them with their voices.
And she wouldn’t expect herself to want to be involved with a Human who’d been enthralled with her voice.
And yet, she was actually considering it…