“Home? This isn’t home.”
“Oh, yes, Calder, welcome home.” She paused, scrutinizing him. “Welcome to Cathair Uisce. Welcome to the home of your mother.” She made a graceful turn, her chin held high. When she faced him again, her faint smile did not reach her eyes.
She held his gaze for long moments, as though listening to his thoughts.
Can you read them? he thought. Bring me Gaire.
Her mouth twitched once, and she swept out without answering.
When the door latched behind her, Calder fell backward onto the bed. Her words echoed in his mind.
Welcome to Ka-hair Ish-ka. Welcome to your mother’s home.
The thought disagreed with everything he thought he knew about the woman who’d relinquished her rights to mother him. His mother ran out on him when he was a kid. His mother had legs to run out on him. She’d given him up. Voluntarily. He never heard from her again.
Calder threw the blade he held at the farthest wall, lodging it in the off plaster. Then he rolled to his side and pulled his knees toward his chest. He examined the newness coating his skin but yanked his hand back once more. The shock of it all scalded his thoughts. The place didn’t feel like home. He sighed, hungry again for Gaire. Maybe she could help him make sense of the nightmare.
To top it all, despite Adrial’s words, he didn’t think she meant to make him feel welcome. It had felt more like a predator sizing up its prey.
Chapter 12
Calder flipped his fin and swam backwards in a shadowy void. He bumped into a cuttlefish. The creature lifted its tentacles, baring teeth sharpened to fine points, and hissed a warning.
But Calder didn’t have fins. Gaire did.
He scowled, studying his scales. He must be dreaming again. The errant notion came drifting through. A purple octopus wrapped her blue arm around Calder’s middle and shook him.
“Calder,” a familiar voice said.
He jumped up and caught the hand near his waist. When he opened his eyes, he stared into her green ones. He crushed her to him, pulling her from her feet and onto the bed. “Gaire.”
She wore almost nothing, and her ginger hair fell in wild waves around her face. A walking tempest, a host of wild things contained in a woman.
“Come here,” Calder growled. He covered her face in kisses.
She gasped in giggles, shoving at his shoulders. “Calder. Stop. I have to talk to you.”
But Calder kept on until her arms weakened, and she threw her head back in laughter. Her slight mewling triggered a driving need in Calder to hear her call his name. He brought her even closer, drawing his lips over her exposed neck. Her bare middle pressed against Calder, fanning his desire. The intensity of his embrace grew passionate. Her laughter died, and she met his mouth with her own.
“They’ll be here any minute,” she whispered.
Calder’s hands fell to Gaire’s waist, his thumbs nearly meeting at her navel. Their union had happened in all but the physical. He lifted Gaire up and then pulled her down against his lap. He rolled to the side. She laid beneath him, and nothing existed except her. He ignored the sound of a throat being cleared.
A cough. Then another, followed by an annoyed, “Gaire.”
Gaire’s skin turned a blueish shade. She grabbed Calder’s hands to stop his movement. “Stop, my love.”
He frowned. “What is it?”
Her red lips mouthed, “I’m sorry.” She slid to the floor.
“Wait. Come back here, Gaire.”
She gestured toward the door. “They want to meet you.”
He finally noticed three women and one man waiting by the door. Their scales boasted various shades and colors, and none of them seemed pleased.
“Hello,” Calder said. Maybe if he got whatever business they wanted out of the way, he could get back to Gaire.
“We’ve come to meet you,” the man said.
Calder shrugged. “An Adrial lady came by earlier, Mother Mistress something or other.” He didn’t miss the way Gaire stiffened when he said the name, and he snagged her arm and back onto the bed.
“Calder,” she spoke softly.
He tucked her against him. “Don’t move.” He whispered, “I’m glad you came back. I just wish you were alone.”
She twisted around, and he winked at her. “It’ll be okay. Whatever it is, we’ll do it together.”
The tension drained from her face. She whispered, “I wish we were alone, too.”
He nodded to the others, “What can I do for you?”
Gaire patted his arm. “They know who you are, but you weren’t supposed to remember.”
“Well, I do. Why are my legs different now?”
Gaire squeezed Calder’s hand. “That’s why they want to talk to you.”
A voice spoke up from the doorway. “We want to explain what’s happened to you and why.”
Gaire shifted. As she climbed from the bed, she dragged her fingers down his thigh. “I’ll be back tonight.”
He took the time to enjoy the view of Gaire strolling from the room. Then he turned to the strangers, “So, tell me what happened and be quick about it.”
Later, after the elders left, Calder stared out his window. Gaire hadn’t asked him if he was okay leaving Mike to deal with the aftermath of his parents deaths and the threat of Venora. He wasn’t sure he’d ended the she-witch. What if he hadn’t?
Gaire decided to change him into a merman and strand him in the mer-city for the rest of his life. Without a word. Without permission. Without anything.
He frowned at the bubble encapsulating the mermaid city. According to the elders, he was part of a fated pairing. He’d been chosen for Gaire. That’s why she found him early on.
Calder’s heart wanted only Gaire, but he struggled to reconcile leaving Mike behind… forever.
Only 1 in 4 is a male, and they’re all transplants from topside…
Born from mothers sent to impregnate themselves by human men…
All for Gaire. All my life decided for me. Without my input.
It was a lot to take in, but, more than that, how much of it was true? His soul echoed Gaire’s. That rang true. The rest of it? He smoothed his hands over the scales. The rest of it remained to be seen. Though, he thought he was taking the whole ordeal pretty well. He needed time to process what Gaire’s part in it had been.
As if summoned by his thoughts of her, Gaire appeared in the doorway.
She stopped, speaking softly. “How are you?”
Calder pulled at his beard. “It’s a lot to swallow. My mother was a mermaid, and I died.” He studied Gaire. “But, now, I’m not a dead man, I’m a merman.” His voice sliced with an angry edge. “How should I be? How do men normally react when they’re in this position?”
Gaire frowned. “Normally, they don’t remember. It makes the adjustment easier.”
“But it’s my good fortune to recall everything that came before you morphed me into a fish?”
She winced. “Maybe I should go.”
Calder’s scowl deepened. “Do they agree to being changed into mermen? Or do you change them without permission?”
Gaire sighed. “I’ll go.”
Calder turned back to the window. Maybe he wasn’t dealing with it as well as he originally believed.
Calder brooded for hours, pacing on unsteady legs. No, they aren’t legs, they’re mer-legs. Gaire had not returned to his room, and he was beginning to feel remorse for the manner he had sent her away. She’d done the best she’d known to do.
A slight tapping on the door brought a thrill. Propped against pillows and leaning on the headboard, he craned his head. Please be Gaire. “Yes? Come in.”
The appearing face dashed his expectation. A woman stopped on the threshold. “Mister Brumen, I am Mariella, Daughter of Morvoren, Daughter of Arglwyddes, Chief Madam Gardener.”
He did not immediately answer. Curious about the colors on her mer-legs, he let his gaze drop. Her legs glinted gray and green
scales, between the slits of her flowing dress. “Is everyone here a different color?”
She smiled. “Yes, thousands of variations have been recorded.”
Calder imagined Gaire’s legs in some of his favorite, but hazy, memories. He hoped he hadn’t hurt her feelings badly. He adjusted his pillow. “One more question, how do you keep all the coral alive? I’ve seen it from the window.”
Mariella’s eyes twinkled and she winked. “Mermaid secret.”
Calder decided he liked Mariella. He extended his hand. “I’m Calder Brumen.”
Mariella’s eyebrows rose. “I haven’t seen that custom in a long time. I’d forgotten Land Walkers do that.” She shook his hand. “It’s good to meet you, Calder Brumen. Gaire risked a great deal for you.” Her look dared him to disagree. “She used her giftings to rescue you. She breaks our laws out of love for you, exposes her future...” Mariella pressed her lips together. “I’ve already told you too much.”
Worry chilled his stomach. “What laws did she break? Is she in danger? What will happen to her?”
“Gaire is in danger. She is…” Mariella sighed. “Unique, and her fate is now in the hands of The Mother Mistress.” Coming nearer, she laid a pale hand on Calder’s ruddy forearm. “Keep her safe. Our way of life, our future depends upon her.”
Leaving a confused Calder in her wake, she turned to leave, closing the door gently behind her.
The next day, standing in the room he’d been confined to, Calder studied the design on his side. It hadn’t hurt since Gaire healed it. He wore shorts from someone shorter and smaller. Every arriving attendant seemed surprised when he asked for actual clothes, with the last one finally bringing ill-fitting shorts from some closet on the other side of the city.
He considered the perfect likeness of Gaire gracing his right side, her face smiling on the lower portion of his ribs, her tail curled around his right hip.
Hearing her light step behind him, he asked. “Do you remember this?”
Gaire stepped into view, clothed in a long-sleeved, flowing dress. “Yes, I do.”
“As do I. I remember fins and dreams, but mostly I remember how badly I wanted you. I need you.” She bit her bottom lip. He pointed and grinned. “You did that in the bar.”
“Just before you passed out,” she said.
Calder basked in the warmth of her voice. “I’m sorry about yesterday. It’s a lot to take in.”
Gaire did not answer.
He crossed to the window. “I wonder where my mother is now. Where did she go?” He grimaced. “I’ve been thinking in circles all day.”
“She isn’t here, you know. I think she and I would have been friends if she had come back. But she never did....” Gaire’s eyes reflected her sorrow. “I made it harder. They have rules. I broke them. It made your adjustment period more abrupt.”
Calder pulled Gaire onto his lap. Her knee-length dress showed bits of metallic thread between the swirl of blues, greens, and browns. “You mean I wouldn’t be able to hold you yet?”
Gaire kissed his cheek. “No, and I shouldn’t have visited you all those times.”
“I’m glad you did.” Calder mumbled in the nape of her neck. “Why did you?”
Gaire jumped up without meeting his gaze. “Come on. You should see your new home.”
Calder stood, looking down. Gaire’s gaze followed. Excited by the prospect of having Gaire to himself for a few hours, he had let his feelings lead his thoughts. Exasperation at Gaire’s change in pace colored his voice with pain. “You’re always doing this to me.”
She smiled. “Soon, I promise.” She tugged him toward the door. “Come see Cathair Uisce.”
“What does that mean anyway?”
“City of Water.”
He still held to the edge of the bed, gathering his balance. “Oh, reminds me, one more. Venora kept calling me Cold Water. Why?”
“In our world, Calder means Cold or Harsh Water. And your last name, Brumen, is a variation of the mer word for bridegroom.”
Calder tipped into her, and she giggled. He reached around Gaire’s waist a low growl.
She arched against him, grasping his arm to help him balance once more on his feet. “You’re impossible,” she said.
“Maybe,” he murmured, turning her to face him.
She tugged on his beard. “You’ve been mine since the beginning.”
“Since the beginning.” He whispered as he lowered his lips over her mouth.
She melted into his arms. “Calder.” She said his name like a sigh.
He grasped her hips and pulled her against him. He should be mad at her. Getting out of the city should be his top goal. He should be fighting to get to Mike, but all he wanted was to lose himself in Gaire, but every minute slipping away could mean Mike’s death.
The farther they walked, the steadier Calder grew on his feet, regaining strength after his drowning. He followed Gaire through the underwater town, stuck beneath the bowl, walking beside her. She pointed out important people and landmarks.
All around them, mer smiled and nodded at them. Others paused long enough to stare. Had they all heard about him?
Calder kept Gaire within touching distance, his hand never leaving her.
“I can reach you,” he muttered for the dozenth time, drawing his hand over her skin. “It blows my mind.”
She nodded. “I never thought you’d remember me before. The scent spell supposed to hide your memories. Mermen aren’t supposed to know about their mermaids until they come home.”
“Did it malfunction?”
She shrugged. “That or I’m not good at conjuring such things yet. I didn’t know I could do things like that for the longest time.”
Calder rubbed the back of her hand. “Oh, but I remembered, and then you left sandy footprints in my bedroom. I couldn’t really wonder whether those were real or not.”
“My carelessness isn’t a virtue.”
He tugged on the long-sleeved dress. “Neither is this dress. Do you have anything more… comfortable?”
Before his eyes, the dress changed to a matching sheer miniskirt and tank top. The light from the dome caught something like sequins sewn into the fabric. “Better?”
“How did you do that?”
She winked. “Every mer-child learns to take from the surrounding molecules and fashion clothes of one kind or another.” She twirled. “Do you like it?”
“Much better than the other.”
“It’s a helpful tool to have when hiding on a beach or in a town. People notice when you travel on-land without clothes.” At his grin, she added. “It’s the only gifting everyone has. Well, besides, changing from scaled legs to our water fins.”
“What do you mean?”
“All mermaids have magic. How much magic changes from mer to mer.”
Calder spun in place and gestured to the dome. “How did you get out of here?”
She tipped her head, considering him. “Planning an escape?”
“Maybe. I might have unfinished business back in San Francisco.” He watched her from the corner of his eye. Would she be bothered or would she understand?
She chewed her bottom lip.
Calder crossed his arms and tugged on his beard. “Well, I like this dress much better.” He stroked her bare shoulder, relishing the softness of her. “Will I learn to change like that?”
Gaire nodded. “Eventually. It will probably take a little while.”
He frowned and let his hand fall. “Do you think Mike’s okay?”
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t know.”
He had to find out. “Was Venora’s body in the car wreck?”
Gaire shook her head. “You were the only one there.”
“What if she didn’t die?”
“Don’t worry. You’re safe. Venora can’t come here. Nymphs have never been able to breach our city.”
“It’s not that. What if she went back to Mike? She killed his parents. What does she have planned for him?
Maybe I’m safe, but is Mike?”
Gaire had no answer, and the worry wiggled behind Calder’s thoughts.
Hunched over a book in the Cathair Uisce library, Calder squinted at one of the few English books available in the mercity. The Blue Men of Minch was interesting, but not enough to keep his thoughts from drifting to Mike and Gaire.
The librarian, or the keeper, as the mer called her, waited at the front desk, but few mer used the libraries.
Calder couldn’t fully understand the science behind the day and night in Cathair Uisce. Light followed a normal cycle. The mer called each one a day, but a turn was the length of a week.
Somehow, the air moved with the ocean current, feeding the coral, and on through the other side of the giant bubble… He tried to remember high school science and chemistry. Magnetic containment, perhaps? It had something to do with magic.
He stood from the studying tables and strolled to the gap in the exterior library wall. Peering out, he followed a merman far below him.
The man slipped easily through the exterior bubble to stand on one of the twelve semi-circle outcroppings that surrounded the round city, each equidistant from the one before and the one after. The merman’s knees bent, followed by a powerful thrust upward to hover above the outcropping.
Pressing his legs together, a bright glow surrounded his legs. When the glow dissipated, a single yellow-green tail took the place of the tandem appendages. With a mighty flourish of fin, the merman sped away. He shook his head, disbelief still plagued him. When he could do that, would it feel like drowning all over again?
His breath caught as images trapped his thoughts.
Red convertible. Darkness.
For Mike’s parents, squeezing a slimy creature in the crook of his arm.
The sun. Lovely. Gaire.
The water closed in. His view narrowed and a wave of dizziness forced him to his knees. He sucked on the air, gasping with his mouth open. Feels like a straw. Unbreathable air was thick, devoid of oxygen. Drowning. He retched and gagged.
Flecks floated in his vision. His skin burned, but his palms were clammy.
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