Mermaid Fins, Winds & Rolling Pins

by Erin Johnson

  "Is that what killed her?" I baked because I loved the enjoyment my little treats brought to people. I certainly didn't want them killing anyone—even if she had been bossy and rude, and possibly slept with the queen's fiancé. I raised my brows and glanced behind me at the brooding Captain Chuck and the fuming Queen Winnie. That would certainly make for a good motive to kill someone.

  Bon leaned over the body and turned her head right and left. "See there." He pointed his wand at some purplish black stripes on her neck. "Those look like bruises—finger-shaped bruises."

  I pressed a hand to my mouth.

  Bon picked at his teeth with his tongue. He let out a heavy sigh. "Could be someone strangled her, which suggests a crime of passion—not premeditated or planned. Maybe the brandy ball was forced down her throat to lead us to believe she choked. Or maybe she was eating it at the time she was strangled." He peered closer and pointed at a red indent in her neck. "Puncture there. Might've been made by a ring, while she was choked."

  I glanced behind me. Bubbles sported a giant emerald engagement ring that I'd first mistaken for a ring pop. Valonzy wore a small band set with a pearl, and even Chuck had a metal band set with a ruby.

  Bon held up the baggie containing the brandy ball and turned it this way and that. He muttered to himself as he waved his wand, casting spell after spell on the dessert. After about the tenth try, a cloud of noxious green smoke curled around the ball and Bon leapt to his feet. "This has been laced with an illegal substance." He glared and strode straight at me. I let go of Hank and backed up a few paces. Bon shook the baggie in my face. "Care to explain that, Miss Banks?"

  My mouth grew dry. "It's—laced? With what?"

  Bon's mouth drew into a thin line. "Why don't you tell me?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about."

  Hank strode over in two long steps and pushed between us. He glared at Bon. "Of course she doesn't."

  "Thank you." I smiled at Hank. "He is kinda just doing his job, though." In a really dickish way. I turned to Bon. "Bubbles, the victim, came to the shipwreck kitchen last night and told Maple and me to bake something with a bottle of brandy she gave us. She told us to bring it to the Cove." I swallowed and glanced back at the queen, who darted furious glances at her unfaithful pirate fiancé. "She, uh, she said it was an order from Queen Winnie."

  Winnie perked up at the mention of her name. "What'd you say? Who's talking about me?" She fluffed her pink locks.

  Bon held up the brandy ball. "Did you order Bubbles to have the bakers make brandy balls, your highness?"

  She scoffed. "Ew. No. Waste of brandy." She scrunched her bronzed face into a scowl. "Is that what killed that hooker? Serves her right, sharing her clam with everyone."

  Valonzy pushed away from Winnie. Her eyes blazed. "Don't you dare say that about her!" She dissolved into sobs again, mascara streaming down her face in black streaks.

  Captain Chuck moved toward his betrothed, palms up. "Baby, baby, you know I wouldn't cheat on you." He threw an arm out toward Bubbles's body. "I wasn't getting with that fish."

  Winnie crossed her arms, pushing her breasts together. She looked away. "Don't even talk to me. We're finished."

  Bon stepped in. "Well, Miss Banks here says that Bubbles brought her brandy on your orders, and—"

  Winnie scowled at me. "Oh, I invite you to my kingdom and take you tanning and this is what I get for it, uh? You tell the police lies about me? Oh! We're throwin' down." She turned to the pirates fanning her and watering her tail. "Pull me up, under the arms. Drag me to that two-legged two face. I'ma show her how us mermaids lay it down."

  Bon raised his hands overhead. "Quiet!"

  The teal-and-gold ship returned at that moment with Bon's officers. He scowled at everyone. "I am conducting a murder investigation here and I will have order. No one is to leave this ship or these seas until you have my personal permission, understood?" The first of his officers pulled himself over the railing of the ship and reached down a hand to help the next man up. "My officers and I will be questioning every one of you." He fixed his gaze hard on me. "And you are all under suspicion."

  13

  A Private Island

  After a couple long hours of police questioning, Hank talked Bon into releasing me. He commandeered a rowboat and paddled us out to a tiny island.

  As Hank rowed under the bright sun, sweat glistened on his brow and neck. He unfastened a couple of buttons, exposing his muscular chest, and rolled up his sleeves. His rhythmic rocking, forward to dip the oars into the water and then back, leaning his whole body into the pull, lulled me into some kind of a lustful stupor.

  He lifted a brow. "You okay? It's been a tough day."

  I shook myself. "Oh yeah, of course." Murder? What murder? I was staring at your pecs.

  We docked at the small island and Hank climbed out first, then helped me up. I grinned as I twirled in a circle. The whole thing was oval-shaped and spanned about thirty feet across at its widest point.

  Soft, thick grass covered the whole of it with a few scraggly bushes dotting the ground here and there. The crumbling walls of a stone house with a peaked roof and a crooked chimney rose out of the rippling grasses. I let out a happy sigh and sat heavily in the soft grass. The sea breeze, the quiet, and the peace were just what I needed.

  "You like it?" Hank grinned, and sat beside me.

  "It's perfect."

  He plucked a blade of moss-green grass and twirled it between his fingers. "I used to come out here as a kid, when I had to get away from it all. Francis first showed it to me."

  I grinned at the image of a child needing to "get away from it all."

  He cocked his head to the side and stared at his knees. "I was coming down to the mermaid kingdom to find you, before all this police business started. I was going to see if you wanted to do a magic lesson." He looked up at me. "But I'm guessing you don't feel like doing that now. Do you want to talk?"

  I stared at his lips. Winnie and Valonzy’s words floated into my mind. Would I be okay being with Hank, even if I knew he'd soon marry Shaday?

  "Imogen?"

  I shook my head. "No, let's do magic." I pushed myself to my feet and brushed my hands off. "It'll be good to do something."

  "You're sure you don't want to talk?"

  I nodded. "Come on, teach, lay it on me." I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. Okay, maybe not the best choice of words. Though I wouldn't mind if he laid on me—oh geez, I needed to get my mind off Hank and onto something else.

  "All right." Hank stood and rubbed his wrist. "First thing, remember to concentrate on…."

  I took a deep breath and let it out. My heart raced in my chest and I felt agitated, like I needed to move. I began to pace up and down the short island. "Sorry to interrupt."

  Hank gave me a nod to continue.

  "I was just thinking. Earlier, when we'd been tanning, Valonzy seemed angry at Bubbles—like Bubbles going off with that bald pirate hurt her in some way. And then, when Bubbles was found dead, Valonzy was inconsolable." I shook my head as I paced. "Something was definitely going on between those two, but what?" My brows drew together and I turned to Hank. "Do you think Valonzy knew about the drugged brandy?"

  He opened his mouth to speak, but I paced again, my mind whirring faster than I could keep track of. "But Good Time Chuck, the pirate king, didn't deny Bubbles was in his quarters last night, so he's clearly a suspect. Bon said it might have been a crime of passion—maybe Bubbles threatened to tell Winnie about their affair and Chuck killed her to keep her quiet." I shook my head as I wore a path through the soft grass.

  "Then again, Winnie was clearly enraged. Enraged enough by the affair to kill Bubbles over it? That would certainly be a crime of passion." I buried my face in my hands. "Ugh. And I helped bake those brandy balls so now Bon thinks I could've done it. I just want to clear myself and Maple, and figure out who killed Bubbles. It's so frustrating to not have any answers."

  When I looked up, Hank had a
soft smile on his face.

  I bit my lip. "What?"

  He pressed his lips together, holding in his smile. "You didn't want to talk."

  I chuckled. "Yeah, well… I guess I needed to." My chest warmed as I looked at him. He'd stood by me the whole time on the ship, one arm around my shoulders, defending me from Bon. And he'd raced to my side the second he thought I might be in danger. "Thanks for being there for me today."

  He gave me a lopsided grin. "There's nowhere else I'd rather have been... dead body and all."

  The butterflies started up in my stomach and I imagined cracking a lion tamer's whip at them. Down butterflies, down!

  Hank came a few steps closer to me. "Speaking of not having answers, I did some more research on Horace's riddle. I asked one of my father's oldest advisors about Monsters Rise and he acted—strangely. He closed up and said he didn't know anything."

  I nodded.

  "But he also told me to never speak those words to anyone again, especially not to my father. Strange, right?"

  I cocked my head to the side. "Very strange."

  Hank sighed. "And Francis has only ever heard the term in connection with the Badlands Army. He thought it was a rallying call for them."

  I shrugged. "We'd guessed something like that."

  With Hank so close and his shirt already halfway unbuttoned, I longed to reach forward and finish the job for him. We had the whole island to ourselves and three-quarters of a house, and we could—

  I clapped my hands and ripped myself away from my daydream. "Sorry I've been so distracted. Maybe we could try that magic now?" I wiped some sweat from my forehead. "Man, it's hot." Where were those Sansea winds when you needed them?

  Hank smiled, his dark blue eyes sparkling like the surface of the sea. "Sure." He came and stood behind me. "Close your eyes."

  That was not going to help quell my fantasizing, but I did as he said.

  "Listen to the sea; feel the wind and the grass under your feet. Sense all the power you could draw from."

  Oh, I was aware of a massive amount of warm, muscular power right behind me. Tingles danced up my skin at the sound of his deep voice.

  "Pull from that power—draw it right into your core."

  I tried to feel for the power of the sea, or the wind or anything, but Hank—he drowned them all out.

  "I want you to use that power to make it rain."

  I peeled an eye open. "Like—literally? Or like—" I mimed licking my finger, then brushing off a stack of bills to make it rain money.

  He peeked around my shoulder. "Not like super-awkwardly petting a hamster. I meant it literally."

  Grinning, I closed my eyes again.

  "Pull from that power, fill yourself up with it, and draw in storm clouds. Imagine how it would feel right now to have cool rain fall on your face. Imagine it like it's what you want, more than anything in the world. The way I want one of your hand pies, right now."

  I twisted to bump into him, then tried to quash the big grin on my face. I took a deep breath through my nostrils. And I tried, I really did. But my whole body glowed with wanting Hank. Every ounce of me was aware of him behind me. He was all I could feel, and I couldn't picture wanting rain like that, when what I truly wanted more than anything in the world stood right behind me. Predictably, nothing happened. Frustration riled my insides.

  Hank put his hands on my shoulders and electricity shot through me. "You're holding yourself back."

  So much.

  "I can sense you buzzing with magic, but you need to release it. You're shutting down—I think because you learned to do that in the human realm, where you couldn't truly be yourself. You've got to just—let it out."

  I released a shaky breath, my chest heaving and my eyes still closed. "What if I let it out and I go for what I want and it—backfires?" My body trembled.

  Hank squeezed my shoulders. "It won't. I'm here."

  Something snapped. I didn’t know if I chose to release myself or if I just wasn’t strong enough to hold back anymore, but it felt like a dam had burst inside me. A rush of power and want and love flooded my body. I opened my eyes and whirled on Hank.

  A shadow formed above us instantly, and it was as if the world moved in slow motion. His eyes darted up as the first raindrops fell from the dark storm cloud I'd formed above our heads. He looked back down at me, his face alight with wonder as the first thunderclap broke and cool rain showered down on us. Rivulets ran down his face, and his dark hair hung in strands around it.

  "Imogen, you're—"

  I cut him off as I rose up on tiptoe and smothered his mouth in a kiss. I threaded my fingers through his hair and pulled gently, pressing my whole body against his as the rain continued to fall. I kissed him deep and hard and passionately, putting every ounce of feeling I'd been holding back into it. I wanted to cry and to laugh and to kiss his face forever.

  He froze for a moment and then wrapped his thick arms around me, pulling me tight against him. Thunder boomed, and the cool rain sent goose bumps prickling up my skin. He kissed me back, and my world reeled. It was heady and wild and I couldn't get enough. Hank slipped his hands down my thighs, and I jumped into his arms, wrapping my legs around him. I'd never felt anything like it. The kiss alone would have made my head spin, but the magic—I was doing powerful, wind-whipping magic.

  I pulled from the sea, from the air, and fueled the storm and fueled our kisses. I dug my fingers into his back. I wanted more. I could feel the glow of power forming between us as the wind whipped my hair out of its bun and snapped it against my cheek. Hank kissed down my jaw, then my neck, and I threw my head back in pure bliss. I could feel his power—not just tangibly, but in the magical sense. I was aware of his blazing-hot glow of magic. I wanted all of him.

  And just as quickly as it'd started, it ended. Hank's kisses stopped and suddenly we were falling. We hit the ground hard, Hank landing first, me on top of him. His head lolled, his eyelids fluttering. All of my feelings of joy vanished and cold dread clenched my insides.

  I pressed my hands to his cheeks. "Hank? Hank!" Gone was his blazing heat. Instead his skin felt ice-cold to the touch.

  I looked to the black, cloudy sky and reached an arm up to send up the police signal, but Hank's hand on mine stilled me. I looked down and gasped to see his eyes fully open again.

  "Hank! Are you all right?" I knelt beside him, my stomach turning with worry.

  His throat bobbed as he gulped. "Yeah. Just… give me a moment." He gave me a weak grin.

  "What's going on? What happened?"

  Hank pressed his eyes closed, then pushed himself up onto his elbows. He opened his eyes again and brushed back a wet tendril of hair from my face. "You're so beautiful."

  My heart warmed, but still, I eyed him with worry. "Are you all right? Did you hit your head?"

  He pushed himself up to sitting and I crouched beside him as my rainstorm faded to a trickle. He let out a shaky sigh. "Wow. That was incredible."

  I bit my lip—hard. "Hank, tell me what's going on."

  He looked deep into my eyes, a fond smile on his lips. "I don't want to worry you."

  Fear made me grow very still. "Just tell me."

  "All right, but I want you to know that it doesn't change the fact that that was the most amazing moment of my life, and—" He reached a hand up to my cheek, but I pushed it back down.

  "You're scaring me."

  He pressed his lips together. "I think, because we're both swallows, that we—pull power from each other. It's exhilarating and beautiful but—" He grinned. "I think you may have pulled just a little more from me and—"

  "And you passed out." I covered my mouth with both hands and leaned back.

  He cocked his head to the side. "No, it took my breath away, but I was never unconscious. It didn't hurt, and I'm fine. This is new territory for both—"

  I stood and backed away. I felt like I might be sick. "I didn't even know what I was doing. If I'd pulled more, I would've killed you." T
he thought made me double over.

  Hank rose. "Imogen, no."

  I waved him off. "Yes. I wanted all of you." I shook my head and backed away as he reached for me. "I-I'm so sorry."

  It was too much for me. All of it. I'd had no sleep, found a dead body, been interrogated for hours, kissed the man I'd been pining for, and then nearly offed him. As if it'd unlocked something inside me, I created a bubble almost effortlessly, swallowed it, and then dove into the sea as my mermaid tail sprouted. The last thing I saw before disappearing under the waves was Hank's devastated face.

  14

  Pirate Talk

  I spent the rest of the day in bed, sleeping off my hangover and trying to make sense of what happened with Hank. It'd been such a rush in so many ways. And those kisses…. Even the memory of them flooded me with prickles of happiness. But what'd come after still chilled me. I could have seriously hurt him… or worse. The special dinner we were supposed to cater was canceled due to Bubbles's death. I felt grateful for the reprieve—which made me feel guilty.

  The next morning, I fed Iggy driftwood while Maple rolled cinnamon rolls into pretty spirals at the work station beside me.

  "Hmph. No linden branches, again?"

  I gave my little flame a look. "You'll just have to survive, somehow."

  He scrunched up his face. "It's so salty."

  "Just like you." I grinned, and Iggy scowled in return. I turned to Maple, who kept casting glances at Wiley. She alternately had wistful puppy eyes and tiny angry eyes. "So… still upset with Wiley? Who you're totally not into?" I whispered. He kept his head down, violently kneading bread at record speed beside Yann.

  Yann raised his eyebrows as Wiley set aside another bowl of dough to prove. "So goot wit' your hands today, Wiley."

  "Oh!" Wiley threw down the ball of dough and puffed up his chest. "You just setting me up, huh?"

  Yann frowned, confused.

  "That's what she said. You happy, now? Goofy, immature Wiley made the joke!" He returned to pounding the dough.