“I suppose,” she said, not sounding thrilled about it. “Although I wasn’t doing anything.”
“You look like you were thinking.”
“Well, yes, I was.”
“Is there something you’d like to talk about?” Fen hoped, for a split second, that it would be that easy.
But when River’s lush mouth bowed to give him that same cynical frown, he knew it wouldn’t be. That said, cynicism and all, River still charmed Fen in a way he hadn’t felt for a while. She was obviously bright, and strong. Plus, she was a challenge. River’s natural barriers were far stronger than a normal human being’s, posing a pleasant challenge. Of course, it also didn’t hurt that she was petite and succulent, startlingly curvaceous for a woman so small. Equally enticing was the long ebony hair that swirled in dark waves to her shoulders, and the velvety brown eyes that made him think of tobacco or aged wood.
“To be perfectly frank, I was thinking about all the things I need to get done today and tomorrow,” River said, pointedly.
Ouch. Fen thought, amused.
“Oh. Well, I see. Are you working tomorrow?”
River’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, why?”
“No reason. It was nice meeting you, River. I hope to repeat the pleasure, soon.”
And with that, Fen took himself down the beach towards that last path River had told him about.
River watched him go, feeling an unaccountable urge to call him back. She resisted, however, knowing such feelings were childish.
He’s just some tourist, she told herself. Nothing special. And with that, she shrugged Fen off with practiced ease to return home, back to her brother and her responsibilities.
Fen, meanwhile, stopped walking as soon as she stood from her little chair, making himself invisible to watch her silent ascent up the beach. He could feel that she’d dismissed him, that she thought she’d never see him again.
But Fen had other plans. The selkie would get to the bottom of her hurt and help her, for to do otherwise would be like leaving a wounded animal bleeding in the forest. She didn’t realize how close she was to a real emotional catastrophe. The control she exerted over herself was a dangerous lie—a desperate attempt to keep a bomb from exploding by duct taping over it as tightly as possible. One didn’t need to be an empath to imagine the results when that bomb exploded.
Fen wasn’t going to let that happen. He’d get through that self-destructive armor and see to the wounds underneath. He just needed to figure out how.
I need to think outside of the box, he thought, one of his favorite human expressions. The thought sparked another, and another.
Or maybe inside the skin?
For if River had proved so adroit at throwing off Fen, the man, he could always see what she made of Fen, the selkie.
Chapter Four
“These smell absolutely gorgeous,” Fen said, inhaling deeply the candle he held to his perfectly chiseled nose.
Startled, River jumped, dropping the tray of potted kitchen herbs she was carrying in from the back room.
Like some superhero in a movie, Fen was suddenly there, rescuing the pots from midair before they could crash to the ground.
But he was also suddenly there, crowding into River’s personal space, far too close for a strange man–or any man, besides Jason–ever again.
She backed away hastily, putting a healthy distance between her and the blond haired man before her. Fen could practically smell the acrid scent of the fear roiling in her emotions, and he cursed himself.
He also amped up the steady waves of goodwill that he was emitting, as well as his concern.
“Are you all right, River?”
“Of course I am,” she snapped, before visibly gathering herself. “I’m sorry, that was rude. Thank you for saving the plants.”
“Well, it was my fault you dropped them. I didn’t mean to surprise you.”
“Which was silly. This is a shop, and people come in. I just didn’t expect anyone this early.”
“I’m a bit of an early bird,” Fen admitted. River assessed him with quiet eyes, and when she spoke again, all of her emotional shields had snapped back into place.
“So what can I help you with?” she asked. He was now merely another customer, to be served and then booted out the door.
“Well,” Fen said, suddenly at a loss for how to move the conversation to the fact he was a magical seal shapeshifter, a Prince of the Sea and an empath drawn first by her pain and then by her, as a woman.
Of all that information, Fen was pretty sure she’d find that last bit the hardest to stomach. Luckily, like a messenger sent from the gods, in walked Jason.
“Hey, River! Hi, man!” Jason said, as soon as he’d shut the shop door behind him. Jason kept going, walking toward the back room to hang up his light spring coat, when Fen met his eye. Jason snapped to a halt, his eyes locked on Fen’s.
The two men regarded each other, as River looked between the two, even more startled than she had been by Fen’s sudden presence in her shop. Jason’s face was in full “concentration mode”, as if he were trying to figure out a great mystery. Fen’s expression was friendly and open, but also curious and somehow anticipatory, as if he was as interested in finding out what Jason was mulling over as River.
Finally Jason snapped his fingers exaggeratedly, another thing he’d learned from an ancient TV show.
“Fen!” the young man shouted, his expression now one of pure delight.
River’s attention snapped back to Fen, who laughed as if Jason had just given him the perfect gift. Fen opened his arms and Jason went and gave him a spine-cracking hug, picking the stranger up off his feet he was so excited.
River moved in to separate them, but not because she was worried about Fen’s back. She knew every single person Jason knew, and Fen wasn’t on the list. And they certainly shouldn’t be at the hugging stage.
Who is this stranger, and am I going to have to kill him? River thought, all of her protective instincts raging. Jason was, after all, a big handsome man with an open, trusting nature and the natural reserve of an eight-year-old. He was tempting prey for the kind of monster who was into that sort of thing, and River had spent a goodly portion of her life making sure such predators knew Jason was protected by something not necessarily bigger, but decidedly badder, than they were.
Jason obligingly set Fen down, patting the other man on the head affectionately. At least six foot, Fen couldn’t have been used to such treatment, but he only seemed pleased at Jason’s actions.
“You look so different!” Jason crowed. “But I see you in there!”
Fen laughed with delight, like he and Jason were sharing some wonderful secret joke.
“How do you know Fen, Jason?” River said, interrupting their little love fest with a voice cold enough to focus Jason’s attention back to her.
“He lives on our beach!”
River stared at her brother, then looked over at Fen.
“Not your beach, exactly,” Fen clarified. “But I do like to spend time in the waters around that area.”
“What?” River asked, her voice edged with anger. For what Fen said made no sense. Those waters were far too cold to swim in, at any time of year, without a lot of protective gear. And right now the waters were still icy from winter, as they took far longer to warm during spring than the earth.
“Oh, River, don’t be like that. I’ve already told you about Fen.”
“No, you haven’t, Jason. I’d have remembered if you did. Who are you?” she challenged Fen.
“He’s my friend,” Jason answered, before Fen had the chance. “He lives in the ocean, and he came out because he knew I was sad. But I told him you were sadder, so he wanted to meet you too.”
River’s eyes narrowed and Fen sighed, internally. Jason was only trying to help, but the selkie could sense that Jason had punched about sixteen of his sister’s hot buttons in one sentence.
“We don’t need help, first of all, and second of al
l, this is ridiculous. He can’t live in the sea, and we don’t need help. And what do you mean I’m sad…” River’s voice trailed off as comprehension dawned. “Wait, are you sad, Jason?”
Fen liked River even more, seeing how swiftly her mind cleared of anything but care for her brother.
“Sometimes I’m sad you’re sad,” her brother admitted, sheepishly. His quiet words hit River like a punch in the gut, causing Jason to change the subject by pointing at Fen. “But he’s going to help, because he’s magic, and he doesn’t even really look like he does now but I recognized him anyway.”
Fen laughed, a sharp bark of a laugh, like that of a seal. When he spoke again, those traces of accent River had heard before were stronger.
“That you did, mate. You are a clever lad. You do see more than most people, don’t you?”
Jason nodded, grinning at the praise. “I can’t do some things real good, like math, but I see lots because I watch lots.”
Fen nodded solemnly. “And that’s the practice of a wise man.”
“Wait, stop,” River said. “What the hell is going on? What have you told my brother? And why are you fucking with my family?”
“River,” Jason scolded, but Fen only smiled at her.
“I’m not ‘fucking with your family’, River. I really am here to help, if you’ll let me. And all I’ve told your brother is the truth.”
“That you’re magic?” River demanded, still furious. “And what does he mean that you don’t look the same? Are you in disguise or something? What kind of person runs around in disguise?”
Fen let her ask her angry questions, emitting only calm and care. He spoke when she’d finished, and then his voice was as equable and reasonable as a professional newscaster.
“One kind of person who needs a disguise is the kind who isn’t quite a person, in the sense that you mean, and doesn’t quite look human.”
Before River could challenge Fen’s words, as she was clearly about to do, Fen dropped his human glamour.
Suddenly there stood before River and Jason a man the same size and shape as the original, and yet somehow his presence was huge, filling the shop. The skin that had appeared tan before was now more golden, more exotic, and the blond hair was a darker, more metallic hue, like a golden crown, flowing up toward the ceiling.
As if he’s underwater, even now, observed the part of River’s brain that hadn’t gone speechless.
But it was Fen’s eyes that were most changed. From a stormy-grey, they’d become huge, liquid and black.
Seal’s eyes, River realized.
The smell of the ocean filled River’s small shop, and her ears caught the faraway sound of waves.
“What are you?” she marveled, noting with an air of distraction that she felt only calm and peace, when she should have been freaking out.
“I am of the sea, River,” Fen said, his voice resonant with a timbre that hadn’t been there before. “And I was drawn here, to you, for you. I do want to help. But you must be ready and willing.”
For the first time in a very long time, River had no words.
“If you are, then come to me tonight, alone, to your beach. I’ll explain everything then. But only if it’s what you want.”
And with that, Fen vanished.
River and Jason stood in silence. But while Jason’s face glowed with happiness, the emotions tracing over River’s features were far more difficult to read.
Finally, the sister turned to her brother.
“What the hell just happened, Jason? And start at the beginning.”
Eagerly, Jason obliged.
Chapter Five
“You’re not going to need that,” Jason said, obviously mortified by his sister’s behavior. She loaded the other shotgun shell, anyway. There was no way she was meeting any man, let alone one who claimed to be magical, without a weapon.
River wasn’t ever going to be vulnerable again.
She snapped closed her father’s old break-action shotgun, then got ready to argue with her brother.
“You’re not going with me, Jason.” Her voice was firm, to let him know she wasn’t budging on this issue.
“Duh. Of course I’m not. He said he wants to see you alone.”
It took River’s brain a second to catch up with Jason’s words.
“Really? You don’t want to come?”
“Why would I?”
“Well, um, normally when I do something you want to come too. Make sure I’m okay.”
“You’re just meeting Fen. He’s awesome. So don’t shoot him.”
“Jason, you just met this guy, and he’s claiming some pretty crazy stuff. I don’t know how you can trust him like this, especially after…”
“He’s nothing like that guy,” Jason said, giving River a look of total incredulity like she was trying to convince him a gerbil was as fierce as a T-Rex, his favorite dinosaur. “You can trust Fen.”
“No, we can’t, Jason. We can’t trust him.”
“You mean you can’t trust anybody,” Jason said, sadly.
That note of melancholy gave River pause. What had Jason meant when he said he was sad, and sad because she was sad? She didn’t want him feeling like that. The whole point of all of this was to make Jason happy. But being safe was important too…
“I don’t mean that at all, Jase. We can trust each other.”
“And we can trust other people too.”
“Well, yes. But it’s not the same…”
“We can trust Mrs. McGee. She takes me to the daycare every time I go, and we trust her.”
“Yes, but…”
“And we can trust Stan who drives the bus.”
“I know, Jason. But I’m talking about a different kind of trust…”
“We can trust Leo too.”
That shut River up. The fact was, she wanted to trust Leo, and she wanted to trust him the way she meant the word, “trust”. The paramedic had come into the store only a few hours after their encounter with Fen, to take Jason to the barber, and she’d desperately wanted to tell him what happened. She was scared to meet Fen alone, and she was scared to tell anyone else what happened, for fear of sounding crazy.
After all, the story involved a man who claimed to be a sea-prince changing his features and then disappearing as if by magic.
Hours of thinking about the events had led her to believe that it had to be a trick—mirrors, or some sort of mind-altering drug. But that wouldn’t make it sound any less crazy. Or any less scary.
So she’d wanted to ask Leo to come with her that night. He was so capable, so brave and so strong.
Which was why she couldn’t ever beg him for favors.
To do so would be to rely on him. It would mean bringing a stranger into the little bubble that was her and Jason’s world. And that would once more make that bubble vulnerable.
River wasn’t ever going to let that happen again.
So she’d let Jason and Leo leave without a word, and spent her own short lunch hour back at home cleaning and checking their old gun.
“I know we can trust Leo,” she said, her voice strangely quiet.
But that didn’t mean she ever would.
“Well, you can trust Fen too. You know you can, you just don’t want to admit you can trust anybody.”
With a shiver, River remembered Fen’s words about how her brother could see more than others, because he was one who watched. Was that really how he saw her?
Was that really how she’d become?
“This isn’t about me,” River insisted. “This is about safety, and the fact this guy’s a stranger.”
“Then why are you going?”
Why am I going? she thought, to herself.
The fact was, she couldn’t really answer that question. There was too much going on inside of her. There was fear, for herself and for Jason. But stronger than any fear was the need to take care of this herself, rather than be rescued again. River also desperately wanted to keep Jason away from tr
ouble. It was her turn to kill someone in self-defense, after all.
Such straightforward feelings were only the top layer of why River wanted to see this thing through with Fen. Deep down, and well hidden behind years of carefully cultivated cynicism, River was also curious. She wanted to know what this stranger really was.
For there lurked an even deeper, totally unacknowledged part of River that wanted to believe.
Her mother and father had been lousy parents, but exceptional storytellers. They’d told her the folktales of Europe and Louisiana, and she’d believed so fiercely when she was a child, in fairies and magic and mysterious forces that would try to hurt a body for no obvious reason, and even more mysterious forces that would rescue someone, just because they could.
Those stories had always ended well, something River rarely saw reflected in her own young life.
The truth was that, hidden deep inside, there lurked a part of River that was still a lonely girl wanting to believe in love and life and magic. But after so many experiences ranging from the banal to the truly terrible, that innocent part was deeply hidden. Which meant River wasn’t ready to admit any other reason for seeing Fen than to put the fear of God into him.
“I’m going because I’m getting to the bottom of that man’s story. And if he’s lying, I’m going to make sure he never comes back to hurt you, Jason.”
“And if he’s telling the truth?”
“Then I’m going to tell him to stay far away from the both of us. We don’t need his kind of help.”
Jason sighed, obviously disappointed in her. River picked up the shotgun and headed for the sliding doors at the back of the house.
“If I’m not back in a few hours, call the police.”
Jason just stared at his sister with a long-suffering, patient look, as if she were the one who was a little slow.
“Yeah, sure, River,” he said. “I’m going downstairs to watch a movie. Have fun with Fen.”
And that’s just what he proceeded to do.
He’s not going to call the police, River realized. I could be out all night and he wouldn’t do it. He really does trust this guy.
And that’s what really pissed River off.
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