“Welcome aboard,” Brayden said.
Murtagh nodded and took a seat.
Conall followed suit.
He nodded his head at the crew members. “Any of you know which one of these guys is Arvid?”
“No, mate.” Levi glanced over. “I’ll admit I haven’t paid much attention to them. They all seem to be doing their jobs.”
Conall said, “Did anyone see who shot the harpoon gun when I was on the boat last?”
“No,” Brayden said, “but I would have sworn you got hit with it. That was the weirdest thing ever.”
Levi nodded. “I guess we were just seeing things.” He looked over at Murtagh, a little too long.
The big man shifted in his seat, frowning again. But, since that was his normal facial expression, it was difficult for Conall to know if there was anything more to it.
“Anyone seen Hector?”
“Sure,” Levi pointed to the upper deck. “He went up a while ago.”
“I’ll be right back. Murtagh, you want to go upside?”
“No. I’m finding it interesting right here.” He glanced over at Levi.
What was going on here?
Reluctantly, Conall left Murtagh and Levi staring at each other appraisingly, and climbed the ladder steps to the top. Hector was staring out over the water with binoculars. “Looking for anything in particular?”
Hector startled and bobbled the binoculars, finally getting them under control. “You scared me, man.”
Conall grinned. “Didn’t mean to.”
Hector said, “I heard there were supposed to be more fish runs today, so I was just watching for signs.”
“Hey, what do you know about your newest crew member?”
Hector studied him with a frown. “Arvid?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Just curious. Someone was telling me that everyone else has been working together for a while, and that he’s a newbie. I have a guy who’s thinking about renting another boat. Would you recommend him?”
“Well, sure.” Hector shrugged. “He knows his way around the boat and he’s a hard worker.”
“Good. I’ll let my friend know.”
He saw movement on the beach nearby — and saw Nixie being dragged along the beach toward them. She was fighting the large man, but he had his hand over her mouth and was carrying her.
“Hey,” Conall said.
Hector turned and swore. “Oh, man, he wasn’t supposed to do that.”
“Wasn’t supposed to do what?” Conall said.
“Nothing, man. Nothing.”
Conall grabbed Hector’s arm. “There’s no nothing. What was he not supposed to do?”
Hector lowered his voice. “Bring that girl here to the boat.” Conall released Hector and raced down the stairs. “Come on, Murtagh,” he yelled as he passed the big man.
He ran down the length of the boat and reached the back end just as the large man carried Nixie on board. He quickly opened a cargo door and dropped her down in, and slammed it shut.
Murtagh raced past Conall and plowed into the man with full force. They went flying and slammed into the bench, the breath exploding out of the man.
Conall opened the cargo door — and was tackled from behind. He hit the railing. That was going to hurt tomorrow. He rolled, grabbing the other man’s arms. The man rolled him and started choking him. Conall punched up and broke the hold.
By then, Conall’s colleagues had joined them.
“What’s going on here?” Levi demanded.
“He saw the girl,” Hector called down. “He knows what’s going on.”
“Oh, bloody hell,” Levi said, and swung at Conall.
He ducked and, as he came up, Brayden swore and flew past him, tackling Levi to the ground.
They rolled over and Levi, being a larger man, ended up on top. He lifted a fist to punch Brayden, but Conall leaped in and pulled him off. Between the two of them, they soon subdued Levi.
The brawl lasted less than two minutes.
When the dust settled, Marinus had climbed aboard, as well as Quayly. They helped tie up the men.
“How did they get the princess away from you?” Conall asked.
“They hit us with something — a spell, I think,” Quayly said, sounding angry. “It incapacitated us for long enough for them to grab her. We couldn’t move to do anything.”
Levi started to struggle again, and Brayden sat on him. The beach-boy scientist said, “Now what have you been up to, Levi, that you shouldn’t have?”
“Get off me!” the Australian demanded.
“I don’t think so.” Brayden pulled out a cell phone. “I’m calling the sheriff’s department. We’ll let them figure out what badness you’ve been up to.”
Conall was finally able to pull up the cargo door again.
Nixie lay in the bottom, ten feet below. There was just enough water in there to have taken her legs away and given her back her tail. This was going to get interesting.
He climbed down and lifted her up to a sitting position. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’ll need help getting out of here, though.”
“Can you get your legs back while you’re still in the water? You got them while you were still walking out of the water before.”
“I’m new at this whole getting-my-legs thing I can’t seem to do it while I’m in the water this time.”
Above them, Brayden said, “What the—?”
Conall looked up to see his colleague staring, flabbergasted.
“What’s wrong?” Conall called up. “You’ve never seen a mermaid before?”
“Why, no. No, I haven’t,” Braden said, watching in fascination.
Conall lifted her up and, as soon as her tail left the puddled water, her legs returned. He set her feet on the ladder. “Up you go, beautiful.”
With his help at the bottom, and Brayden’s at the top, they had her on the deck in just moments.
She Heard The Splash
Nixie was certain that no one but Brayden had seen her tail. “You can’t tell anyone about me,” she told him.
Brayden crossed his heart. “I will keep your secret.”
His words had the ring of truth and she smiled. “I believe you.”
When Sheriff Winston and Deputy Knight arrived, Nixie was amused by Conall’s shock that the sheriff was a believer. Not only a believer, but a werewolf. She’d wait to tell Conall, though. He had enough to get used to already.
The sheriff had taken Levi and Hector into custody, and the other crew members in for questioning.
That left four merfolk and two scientists on board the dive boat that Conall and Brayden had rented for the month.
So the men took the dive boat out to where the harpoon had been shot before.
Brayden hadn’t known about the paranormal world until he’d looked down and seen Nixie’s tail, but now he was ready to believe it all.
While Conall drove the boat, Brayden peppered her and the mermen with many questions. The joy on his face was evident. He loved knowledge as much as her Conall did.
Her Conall. He was. She’d claimed him under the Merma Carta.
So her Conall. And yet he didn’t really belong to her, not really.
She looked over to where Conall stood, watching her. He smiled at her and everything tingled.
She wanted him in her life, in her homes, wherever they were. He was already in her heart.
But he had a life, too. One that hadn’t included her and that he had been happy with. A career that brought him fulfillment.As the boat came to a stop, she sighed. She had to set him free from her claim.
She made her way to where he stood. “Conall McKenna, I need to free you from the claim I made.”
“Why?” he asked, narrowing his eyes. “Don’t you still like me?”
“Of course I do. But I need to let you come to me of your own free will, and not because you have been captured or claimed.” She leaned up and kissed h
is lips. “You have done all my father asked of you. I love you, Conall McKenna, and I set you free.”
She leaned over the side and dropped into the water.
Flicking her tail, she raced away, tears in her eyes, her heart breaking.
She heard the splash as the mermen joined her. Two splashes. One of them was still on the boat.
By Tomorrow I Will Be
Conall grabbed for Nixie, but she slipped overboard too quickly for him. As he stared, dismayed, at where she’d gone into the water, Marinus and Quayly dove in to follow her.
Before Marinus could follow suit, and Conall never find her again, he turned to the remaining merman. “Please take me to her. I can’t live without her. I love her.”
Marinus said, “There are several options for such as you.”
Brayden said, “What are the options?”
“You can live on land with her, and she will need to return to water at least once a month.”
Conall nodded. “And?”
“You can live in the water with her, and you will need to return to land often.”
“In the air bubble?” That might be a little inconvenient, but it would be worth it.”
“Or you can choose to be turned.”
“Turned to what?” Brayden asked.
Conall and Marinus turned to the other marine biologist.
“Turned into what is more like it.” Marinus shook his head. “There is a magical procedure that will turn Conall into a merman so he can have a tail in the water and legs on land.”
“Is it painful?” Brayden asked, sounding as intrigued as Conall felt.
Conall smiled. “Are you considering it, my friend?”
Brayden said, “I love the water. I always have.” He laughed. “Does the princess have any sisters?”
“Only twenty-three of them.”
Brayden sucked in a breath.
“But they’re all married.” Marinus motioned to the lake. “But there are lots more fish in this little sea, though. There are several eligible young mermaids who might consider a match with you.”
Brayden laughed. “I can’t believe I’m considering this.”
“I can’t either.” Conall turned to Marinus. “How long does the procedure take?”
“If I take you back with me now, it will be done by tomorrow. But we will see if King Starfish gives you permission to wed his daughter before you go through with it.”
“Just please take me to her so I can ask her to marry me.”
“And please let me go along to see it,” Brayden said.
“All right,” Marinus said. “Climb into the water and I’ll create the air bubbles for you. You can hold onto my arms and I’ll pull you along.”
Nixie sat in her mother’s room, curled on the bed. Her mother sat beside her, patting her arm. “You love him this much, then?”
Nixie nodded. “I do, Mother.”
“Then true love will find a way. Go to him.”
“I cannot. I captured him against his will, and then I claimed him without his permission. The next move must be his.”
“But how will he find us? He can’t reach our kingdom without help.”
“I don’t know.”
“Daughter,” her father said, and Nixie rolled up., sitting.
“Yes, Father?”
“There is a matter of great import that you must attend to in the court.”
“She can’t.” Her mother put a hand on her arm. “Can’t you see how distraught she is?”
“She must,” the king said gently. “Arise.”
With a sigh, Nixie did as he commanded. She put her hand on his arm, and they moved gracefully from the chambers to the court. “Wait,” she said. “I need to get control of myself before others see me.”
He paused and let her straighten herself, wipe her eyes, push back her hair. She sighed. “All right. I’m ready now.”
“That’s my girl.” He smiled down at her fondly.
They entered. There were two humans with air bubbles.
“Conall?” she cried out. “And Brayden?”
They turned toward her and Conall held out his arms.
She flew through the water and into his arms, the only place she wanted to be.
After a long hug, he went down on one knee, holding her hand. “Princess Nixieanna Starfish—”
“How do you know my full name?”
“I’ve had quite a long chat with your father, asking for your fin in marriage.”
She gasped. Her father had shared that phrase with him.
He smiled. “Will you marry me?”
She spun around in the water, raising up, and then settling back down beside him.
“Is that a yes?” he asked with a laugh.
“Yes!” She hugged him again.
Her father said, “I have given permission for you to marry this merman, daughter.”
“What?” she asked, startled.
“By tomorrow I will be one,” Conall said.
Brayden said, “I may be next month, if any of the beautiful mermaids find me attractive.”
Two of her cousins flitted closer to Brayden.
She turned back to Conall — and pushed her face into his air bubble and kissed him until she could scarcely think.
Pulling back, she laughed. “You really are mine!”
Would You Like a Ride?
When Conall awoke, in the same room he’d awoken after he’d been harpooned, he felt up around his face.
There was no air bubble.
And yet he was breathing in the water.
He sat up and swung his legs — no, he didn’t have legs. He had a dark blue and green tail.
He flicked it, then again, and propelled himself off the bed and onto the floor.
Murtagh floated into the room with a smirk. “Does the new prince require assistance?”
Conall laughed. “Do I have any magic now?”
“Yes, but it will take you weeks to figure out how to use it, about as long as it will take you to get your fin under control.”
“I am to escort you to the princess and the king. They are waiting for you.”
Conall moved his tail again and, this time, moved through the water. Not as gracefully as the other merfolk, but not bad for his first try. Second try.
As he swam beside the older man, he began to tip over and soon was swimming upside down.
Murtagh snorted.
Conall flicked again and righted himself. “Give me a week and I’ll kick your butt around this pond, old man.”
Murtagh actually laughed. “It is going to be good having you around for comic relief.”
They came out into a garden, with greenery swaying in the water, even flowers, though he didn’t recognize them.
Nixie and her father were swimming among the foliage, so they joined them.
Ahead of them, a dark shadow appeared, becoming clearer as it grew larger and nearer, until he could see it was the famous Loch Ness monster.
“Nessie,” he whispered reverently.
Nixie came beside him. “You can’t tell anyone about her or share pictures of her. Do you so swear?”
“I so swear,” he said softly.
The large beast stopped and lowered her long neck until her face was within reach. “May I touch her?”
Nixie said, “Lady Struana, I would like to present my future husband to you, the newest merman in our miracle of merfolk, Conall McKenna.”
The beast lowered her head within inches and said, in a low, deep voice that moved water past his face and rumbled in his chest, “Please to meet you, Sir McKenna.”
“Conall, this is our illustrious visitor, the esteemed Lady Struana, known to the humans as Nessie.”
“The pleasure is all mine, Lady.”
“Would you like a ride?” the beast asked.
“That is such an honor,” Nixie whispered.
“I would,” he said.
“Then climb aboard and I will take you both for a ride.�
�
It was the most glorious thing he’d ever experienced, riding on Nessie, the beast he’d been searching for all his life.
And, in search of her, he’d found Nixie.
When Lady Struana took them back and they floated off and thanked her, she nodded and turned back. “I must return to Scotland now. I have been too long away from my beloved Loch Ness.”
Conall put an arm around Nixie’s shoulder and pulled her close to him. “That was amazing. Wait until I tell my father.”
“You can’t tell, remember?”
“Then I’ll just tell him he needs to move here to Moonchuckle Bay to be closer to me and my new bride.”
“Do you think he will want to find a mermaiden, as well?”
“No. My Da is a landlubber through and through.” He kissed her gently. “But he’s going to love you.”
“I hope so.”
“So we’ll need a home on land and one in the lake. Waverly was telling me about this beautiful new subdivision.”
“Of course she was.” Nixie laughed. “We’ll go looking for houses soon.”
He nodded. “As long as we’re together.”
“I love you, Conall.”
“I love you, my beautiful mermaid.”
~ The Happy Ending ~
BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS
How old were you when you first saw the old-time, blurry picture of the Loch Ness monster? Did you believe...?
After watching movies like Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Splash, would you rather be a sea creature who comes to live on land or a human who goes to live in the sea?
What do you think would be the scariest thing about scuba diving?
What do you think would be the most fantastic thing about scuba diving?
Have you ever scuba dived? What was your experience?
What did you think of Nixie claiming Conall as her own?
Did you enjoy Nixie’s joy in experiencing each new thing, even things that go unnoticed by us, like the breeze going past the car windows?
Which accent do you find most attractive in a guy — surfer guy California, Scottish, or Australian?
Conall’s father is mourning the loss of his mother by closing in on himself. People mourn in different ways. I hope to see Jamie come out of his shell when he arrives in Moonchuckle Bay. I wonder who his Lifemate might be? Any ideas?
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