by S. K Munt
‘Of course someone would have.’ Tristan tore his bagel in two and reached for the cream cheese. ‘Ardhi must trust you a lot, to bring you in. I wouldn’t.’
‘He wasn’t going to at first. But’s he’s got the blackmail factor now that he’s forced me to help with the crash-’ Her icy eyes flashed. ‘Or so he thinks. I’ll go down for it, once my parents are off his radar. Not just for them, but for Link. I owe him that much.’
Tristan appraised her silently. Coming clean about Ardhi at her own expense would have been an incredibly brave move. One he wouldn’t have anticipated coming from such a shallow girl. That’s if she was telling the truth. What did he know about what was going on inside her privileged head?
‘I’d like to commend you for that,’ he admitted. ‘Except it would have been too late to help me.’
‘I did what I could to help you Tristan, but I wasn’t putting myself or my family in jeopardy for a guy I couldn’t stand.’ She shrugged. ‘Sorry, but it’s true. If I’d spoken up, it would have been to save the human passengers, not you. I could have died for that-even sacrificed my family. But Ardhi assured me that the body-count would be minimal, and he was right-so I’ve been trying to come to peace with it as best as I could.’
‘What did you mean by, did your best to help me then?’
Adele sighed. ‘It wasn’t much. Ardhi kept us on a tight leash so I couldn’t make a move. But the house we stayed in, in New Zealand had a full length mirror behind the closet door. Just before we left, I used the lipstick of the woman who lived there, snuck in and wrote: ‘If anything happens to Lincoln or Tristan, Ardhi caused it-but if you can help, don’t let Ardhi know you know, until the gun is at his temple.’ She sighed. ‘It was little more than a shot in the dark-but I knew it belonged to one of his mermaid friends. Ardhi didn’t think she’d be there anytime soon, but I made an effort anyway on the off chance that they’d be able to interfere.’ She paused. ‘I also left a few personal things out in plain sight-more Sherri’s than mine-to tip them off when they’d returned.’
‘Summer house? In New Zealand?’ Tristan frowned. ‘That’s gotta be Lux’s place.’
‘And who is Lux?’
‘Ardhi’s godmother.’
Adele’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Oh are you serious? Oh man...that won’t do me much good when she finds it then, will it? She’ll probably tell him what I’ve done!’
‘I don’t know….’ Tristan thought it over, assessing Lux’s personality-was she more loyal to Ardhi than to the fold? That was the question. The fact that she’d shown interest in Lincoln wasn’t a great sign though. It could make her more inclined to help Ardhi, rather than hinder him. Either way-he decided not to share that with Adele. It would only make her worry more about her family. ‘At the end of the day, mermaids will do the right thing by their own kind.’ Tristan said. ‘Lux is a smart woman, and has always been kind. I need to believe that she’d tell Vana. But she wouldn’t have seen your message yet-she was in Queensland the day I left. So every day I sit here, trying to recover some strength, Lincoln’s life is in serious jeopardy.’
‘So call them,’ Adele said, pulling her fruit salad back again and spearing a grape with her fork. ‘Warn her. Like I could give a shit anymore if you blow our plan. I’m already screwed.’ She paused. ‘Mind you, I’ve been through too much to get my parents killed now, so if you can find some way to relocate them somewhere Ardhi won’t find them first-I’ll happily bear witness.’
‘I can’t just call them-what if they freak out make it worse by tipping him off?’ Tristan shook his head. ‘The note you left was right-we can’t come clean about Ardhi until we know for sure that there’s a loaded gun pointed at his head.’
‘So what are you going to do?’
Tristan smiled. ‘I’m going to kill him first then explain later. And you’re going to help me.’
Adele frowned. ‘Meaning….?’
‘You’ll get your swim,’ he said, mouth watering at the sight of his bagel now that his butter had melted into the crust. ‘But brace yourself because it’s going to be a long one.’
Adele popped the grape into her mouth and grimaced.
⁓
Knock knock knock knock knock!
The urgent thumping came from the front door, the sound loud and echoing through the sparsely furnished house. Ivyanne bolted upright.
‘What the-?’ Lincoln demanded, face creasing.
‘I have no idea! Damn!’ Ivyanne rolled off Lincoln, picked up her kimono and threw it over her lingerie, belting in tight. ‘It has to be an emergency, at this hour though,’ she said, ‘fix yourself up so I can open the door.’ She hurried to the front door, hearing him curse behind her, her pulse racing. What could possibly have gone wrong in the half day since the last disaster?
Ivyanne opened the front door, eyes bulging out of her sockets when she discovered Sherri there, weeping on her doormat. The other girl looked small and scared, so violently was she shivering.
‘Sherri?’ Ivyanne squeaked.
‘Sherri?’ Lincoln’s voice boomed. She heart the slap of his shoes against the tiles as he came up behind her. ‘What’s going on?’
Sherri’s face was tear-stained. ‘I hope I didn’t wake you guys up,’ she sniffled. ‘I just needed to talk to someone, and Lincoln said that I could find him here if I needed him…’
‘Oh he did, did he?’ Ivyanne pivoted to glare at Lincoln, pissed off beyond belief. ‘How nice of him.’
Lincoln flashed her an apologetic look before stepping forward to fold Sherri in his arms. ‘Why are you crying?’ he asked her. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I had the worst dream!’ she wailed. ‘So I went down to the beach, to have a swim and shake it off, but when I got there, the water was so dark and so cold...just like last night. I guess I just flipped out!’ she lifted her face to Lincoln’s looking every inch the wounded puppy. ‘Will you come in with me for awhile?’ she asked softly. ‘I really need to but I’m just not ready to swim alone yet.’
Ivyanne almost laughed. She was a veteran mermaid-she knew how to spot crocodile tears when she saw ‘em. ‘Well Sherri, I’m sorry you’ve had a rough night-’
‘Of course I’ll go with you,’ Lincoln interrupted Ivyanne, holding Sherri more tightly against him. ‘We understand.’
‘Really?’ Sherri sniffled. ‘That’s so nice of you!’
Ivyanne almost fell over. She gaped at Lincoln, steaming mad, contemplating giving him a good kick up the backside. She was still quaking from being deprived of his body heat while he was happily making plans to go for a swim with another woman? What was wrong with him? Or, what was wrong with her that he could?
Water withdrawals were bad yes, and they could cause nightmares-yes. But it was almost physically impossible for a mermaid to baulk at the water’s edge. Sherri was full of crap. She wasn’t scared of anything but leaving Lincoln alone with the woman she was clearly set on stealing him from.
Lincoln glanced up at her over Sherri’s head. ‘I’ll be back soon sweetie,’ he said quickly, shrugging helplessly. ‘Unless you want to come?’
‘Oh, I want to come,’ Ivyanne said, finding her voice, ‘but I think I’ll pass on the group skinny dip, if that’s okay.’
‘That’s fine,’ Sherri lifted her face to Ivyanne and smiled sweetly. ‘You don’t need to tag along. I’ll return him when I’m done.’
With only a bit of brain and balls missing… Ivyanne thought snidely. She was annoyed at Sherri but she was furious with Lincoln for being such a sap. What was it about the pixie like girl that melted his brain anyway? Ivyanne was losing her patience with it all-fast. She’d order him to stay away from Sherri, but that would make her look threatened. And Ivyanne wasn’t threatened-she was mad.
Sometimes it seemed like Lincoln knew her so well, and at other times, he seemed more clueless when it came to women than Ardhi was. She was starting to work out why Adele had acted like such a bitch-maybe Link had driven her crazy.
> ‘Back soon,’ Lincoln leaned down and kissed her quickly on the cheek, and seconds later, he and Sherri were off, bolting towards the ocean.
Ivyanne waited until she heard the splash before turning around and slamming the door. She stared at the back of it for a few seconds, and then decisively reached out and slid the dead-bolt across, before going to every other door in the house and doing the same. Then, she switched off the lights and stomped up the stairs hard, enjoying the rattling noise they made, her face hot with anger and rejection.
Maybe Lincoln was too dumb to realize yet how he’d just offended her, but Ivyanne was certain that the locked doors would send the message home loud and clear.
22.
By Monday morning, Tristan was convinced that Adele wasn’t going to run away. He took her for a quick dip in the bay then allowed her to have another shower (Listening at the door the whole time-he wasn’t foolish) before fixing them another meal. When she came out, Tristan was pleased that she didn’t so much as glance towards the front door.
‘Looks good,’ she said, taking a seat at the small timber table. ‘I like this eternal breakfast thing less carbs. Where are you getting the fruit from though?’
‘They have a bit of an orchard in the backyard. And we don’t have much left after this.’ Tristan sat across from her, laying a linen napkin in his lap. He went to spear a piece of rock melon, but stopped when he saw her staring at him. ‘What?’
‘This is quite the spread,’ she said, indicating to the table. ‘You even use a napkin. After spending the last two months in a Queensland pub, it’s strange to encounter a young man with such good table manners.’
He smirked. ‘I’m not a young man. I was raised in a chalet in Macanau in the seventies. If I didn’t use table manners, I copped a flogging.’
She blinked. ‘How old are you?’
‘Forty-one.’
‘Wow!’ Adele shook her head, mystified. ‘I hope I look that good at your age.’
‘You will, if you take care of yourself.’ Tristan put down his fork and looked at her. ‘Hold on, what date is it?’
‘February twelfth.’
Tristan laughed. ‘Well, what do you know? I turned forty two almost two weeks ago.’
Adele’s mouth fell open. ‘You missed your own birthday?’
He regarded her coolly. ‘It’s easy to do, when you’re shipwrecked.’ His birthday had been Monday, January 30th. He’d actually forgotten completely, between the job offer and Ivyanne and then, the crash.
Adele dropped her gaze. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘I’m over it,’ he said, finally eating the piece of rock melon and chewing it carefully. He swallowed. ‘Probably won’t catch me on a plane anytime soon though.’
Adele picked up a piece of mandarine, and chewed it quickly, appraising him. ‘You don’t look French. You’re so dark.’
‘My father Emilia, was a romany-gypsy,’ he said. ‘My mother, Simone was French with nordic ancestry. Made me very blonde and very dark. The first mermaid Anna changed was my Great grandmother Helene. She was the daughter of a Viking ship that Anna saved after a wreck. That’s where we come from.’
‘That explains your looks,’ Adele said, blushing and looking back down at her plate. ‘Your accent too. I could never quite place it…’
‘I’m a citizen of the world.’
‘My parents are both Sydney born and bred,’ she said. ‘It always sucked, having such a bland family tree.’
‘Now, you get to start one,’ he said. ‘Adele, there’s nothing stopping you from moving to Italy and marrying the richest, most gorgeous man you can find….’
‘Nothing?’ Adele looked down at her plate. ‘Not even an attempted homicide? Come on-what kind of future am I going to be able to have when all of this comes out? The best I’m hoping for is you rubbing out Ardhi before he kills me.’
‘Who said it had to come out?’ Tristan asked softly.
She looked up, surprised. ‘You wouldn’t tell anyone that I tried to kill you? Why would you do that?’
‘If you follow step and help me save Lincoln’s life, I’ll be happy to view it as redemption.’ He frowned. ‘You didn’t see this coming?’
‘No.’ Adele said frankly. ‘I don’t think I can ever make it up to you. And even if you forgive me, how can I forgive myself? If I hadn’t slept with you then none of this would have happened. I can blame Ardhi until I’m blue in the face but deep down inside...I feel weak, and worthless.’
‘That’s the human inside you recovering from a walk on the dark side.’ Tristan said matter-of-factly. ‘You’ll go through those phases. But being a mermaid...it’s different, you’ll see. Four hundred years is a long time in which to redeem and forgive yourself-and considering you only went along with the homicide part because your parents lives were in danger….well, that’s understandable I guess. If you hadn’t told me that, you’d probably be dead by now.’
Adele snorted. ‘Good to know.’
‘You feel like hell now, but you will bounce back-I swear that to you. Our biggest strength is the one on the inside-that’s why I’m not dead. Life is going to get wonderful for you, if you let it. I hope mine will be too.’
‘You think your inner strength is the reason you survived a plane crash?’ she asked, raising an eyebrow.
‘It has to be,’ he said simply.
She frowned. ‘Why? I mean, Ardhi told me he stabbed you-in the ribs. But you survived that, didn’t you?’
He shrugged. ‘Mers are tough.’
‘So you were stabbed-then you got thrown from your seat with a head wound the size of…’ she glanced at the back of his head- ‘a softball, I’d guess. It’s healing nicely, by the way….’
His hand went to the rough skin on the back of his skull. ‘It’s that big?’ he hadn’t had a chance to look at it. He’d felt the skin healing over and the hair growing through the scab, so he’d forgotten about it.
‘It’s mortal,’ she confirmed. ‘Tristan you cheated death-twice-and then swum across the Pacific with your brains hanging out the back of your skull….doesn’t that strike you as more than simply : “Tough” ?’
He frowned at her. ‘What are you saying?’
Adele shrugged. ‘Maybe it’s like Ardhi. You have a power….but yours is like a cat-nine lives and all of that.’
Tristan thought about it. The first thought to enter his mind was one of Nigara, and how tank-like his older brother had been. People had joked about Nigara being indestructible, but Tristan had chalked that up to his size. But what if it was more than that?
Tristan recounted the night that Aubrielle had cleaned his wound out and sewn him up-she had mentioned that it was only an inch or two deep. That hadn’t struck him as odd before-but now when he recalled the attack, he remembered how violently Ardhi had stabbed him...the blade of his ultra-sharp dagger should have sunken in to his flesh, all the way to the hilt. But it hadn’t. Why?
Tristan felt the stirrings of excitement. He thought about his life, and how different he was from the other mermaids. He could fly without issue, and live on land for days at a time without being too bothered by the withdrawals. Sure, he’d always written that tolerance off to the fact that he often indulged in contact-but it had over a month since he’d had sex-but aside from a bit of mental fatigue-he was fine. Yes, he’d been tortured somewhat the week before as his injured body had swum from almost one continent to another-but could another mer have fared as well? He doubted it.
‘Maybe you’re onto something,’ he said softly. ‘There’s no way to test it, of course, but I might be a little tougher than most.’
‘That plane was a mess. My money is on a lot tougher than everyone else.’ Adele’s phone went off and she reached for it. Tristan allowed her to-he could see she’d responded out of reflex, not because she was trying to hide anything from him. She scanned the screen, a deep frown furrowing her brow. ‘Oh….shit.’
Tristan sat up. ‘What?’
Adele’
s eyes lifted to meet his gaze. ‘I hope you meant what you said about inner strength Tristan….because you’re going to need it.’
Tristan’s heart began to race. ‘Please tell me that nothing has happened to Link.’
‘Nothing bad...yet.’ Adele sighed and handed the phone over. ‘He and Ivyanne got engaged on the weekend, and apparently they sealed it with a lot more than a kiss.’
Tristan’s blood turned to ice. He scanned the phone, growing rapidly ill as he read the text: Ivyanne’s engagement party is this Saturday night, and I want you here for it. Sherri couldn’t keep him out of Ivyanne’s bed, so if either of you care about him in the slightest, you better pry him out of her hands before I send him into the next life.
The message grew blurry towards the end. Tristan rubbed the back of his hand across his face and felt the tears smear to his temple.
‘Tristan I’m sorry.’ Adele’s voice was church-quiet. ‘I know that doesn’t help but…’
Tristan held up a hand. He couldn’t get a word out-couldn’t even think straight. A lump was forming in his throat, one he didn’t anticipate going away until he locked himself in a room and sobbed it out in privacy. He stood up quickly, his chair toppling over.
‘Text him that you’re on your way. Then gather anything you need from here and we’ll post it to Sydney,’ he said hoarsely, blinking back tears. ‘We’re leaving-now.’
‘Tristan...my parents…’
‘Will be fine so long as you show up before that party.’ He said roughly. ‘We’ll have to swim to Australia, then north to Seaview. It’s going to take at least three days so we need to set a cracking pace.’
‘Can’t we fly?’ Adele asked. ‘It would save time. I have enough cash to get us tickets to Australia without leaving a paper trail.’
Tristan shook his head. ‘No way. I’m too recognizable-I googled the accident yesterday and saw my face on quite a few websites, along with that basketball player. If anyone’s going to notice me-it’ll be in an airport.’