“Sorry … I’m just excited you’re here.” He looks slightly crest fallen, like he knows he is getting ahead of himself.
“I can tell.” I laugh, touching the back of his neck, letting the wisps of rigid mahogany hair fall through my glowing fingers. “It’s just scary. I was murdered, Orion. I don’t quite know how to feel about that.”
“Yes, my sister has impeccable timing.”
“Your sister?” I back away from him slightly, wondering why I’m going to meet the woman who murdered me. I understand his quip about being terrified now. It isn’t funny.
“Yes, I have two sisters, Azure and Starlet. Azure was the one who killed you.” I shift uncomfortably and he senses my unease. He looks me straight in the eye and vows, “I will make her pay. I swear. She shouldn’t have taken your life from you.” I feel my heart start to race again.
“She’s …” I start.
“A psiren. The darkness consumed her long ago.” Orion’s mouth is a hard line.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t feel sorry for me. Starlet was closer to her than I.” He begins but I cut him off.
“Starlet is the one I’m going to meet, right?”
“Of course.” Orion’s brow creases with sincerity.
“Good. I don’t really fancy having a nice get together with the woman who stabbed me.” I admit and he looks amused.
“I understand. I’m trying to make this easy for you. Is there anything you want?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what I need right now. Or even where we are.”
“Somewhere in the Pacific.” Orion answers me in such a blasé fashion, as if we are two people chatting in front of a local coffee shop.
“Will you just sit with me for a while? I think I need to process this, to get used to this … body.” I gulp in thick mouthfuls of water which are somehow quenching my need for air.
“Of course, take as much time as you need.” Orion sits with me on the pew, holding my hand. He lets silence fall over us as I stare down at my tail for what feels like seconds but is probably far longer.
“I do have something I’d like to show you.” Orion whispers, breaking the silence. I’ve taken time to process and so many things still don’t make sense to me. However, I can’t help but push them aside unintentionally as I get caught up in Orion’s smile. He turns to me hopeful.
“But?” I ask, his eyes making my heart pound as they shine.
“It might be too soon.” The words fall from his lips and his brow furrows. My heart falls.
“Don’t we have to somewhere to be though?” I ask, trying to distract him.
“For this … I think I can make a small detour.”
“Then I’d like you to show me.” I say, stroking my now straight hair behind my ear. I miss the ringlets tickling my ears nervously, but I can’t deny that the long style is gorgeous.
“Okay then, your wish is my command!” He makes a faux bow and I laugh to myself as he grins once again.
“So where is it, where are we going?”
“My favourite place in the whole ocean.” he kisses my cheek, wrapping his tail around mine, the scales creating a delicious friction. I look up into his eyes and he looks back into mine, which are reflected aqua in his royal blue eye mask.
“Liar.” I say and he lets out a bellowing laugh that stems from his taught abdomen, rattling through the waves above us and warming my heart.
We leave the white marble chapel through a high archway, hand in hand. Orion shows me how to move my body in the open water. He demonstrates in the current that had not reached us inside the walls of the place where I had awoken, undulating, rippling against the moving water. His body is lusciously long with the royal blue tail that gives him a speed beyond the imagination of any human.
My new eyes make everything clear as crystal and the phytoplankton shimmer every shade from mint green to jade, magnified to perfection. Outside the chapel, I pause to take in the hundreds of fish that pulsate in the water. I’m closer to them now than I could get in any aquarium.
“You okay?” Orion calls back to me.
It’s then that I realize he has moved a considerable distance forward in the few moments I have been stationary. I turn onto my back so I face the surface and look up at the lowering sun. I see my reflection; wavy and interrupted by the waters end, but undeniably me. I can see my eyes, framed by aquamarine, my lips fuller than I’ve ever seen them, and a waterfall of hair behind me. My tail is glittering, thousands of tiny mirror like scales layering to form a strong instrument of speed and grace, attached to me at the waist. The sight of it shocks me and for a moment, I feel fear cling at me.
“It’s okay if you feel afraid.” Orion’s voice moves from beneath me. I turn away from my reflection and he’s there whispering in my ear, his chest pressed to my front.
“It’s just …”
“Shocking … I know.” He strokes down my spine as I adjust to an upright position in the water. I nod.
“I glow …” I query, raising my hand up to my eye level and examining my luminous skin.
“Yes … it’s the touch of the Goddess, our connection with the moon radiating throughout you.” Orion explains and I almost choke. He keeps giving me all this information and it sounds like total nonsense.
“You aren’t glowing.” I notice, looking at his skin in the rippling reflection.
“I’m a lot older than you. My shine has all but worn off.” He says with a smile creeping across his lips. Like there’s some kind of internal joke I’m not getting.
“Don’t say that.” I scold, wishing he could see himself through my eyes.
“Come on, we don’t have much time.” He continues to whisper though there’s no need; it is only us and the fish for miles.
We swim for what feels like moments, but that’s probably because I’m distracted by everything that surrounds us. Coral reefs pass underneath us and a peaceful silence infects the water. I don’t feel the need to ask questions, I just swim allowing Orion’s hand and the current to take me wherever we are headed.
“Here.” he says suddenly, watching me like a hawk. I can’t decide whether he is trying to guess what I’m thinking or wondering whether he should ask.
“Where?” I ask, looking around. We are in a deep part of the sea, the sandy sea floor shadowy beneath us. Other than this, I see nothing.
“Follow me.” Orion commands, authority seeping into his tone. I do as he asks, taking his hand as we dive together. We move deeper until Orion halts, turning his body perpendicular to the seabed as we come to a single boulder. The sand spreads out before us, flat and desolate for miles. Wherever in the Pacific we are, we have left the reefs and shoals of fish far behind as a consuming silence falls over us and I wonder how the hell he found this place. One boulder in an entire ocean without a map or GPS in sight, how has he managed that? I think to myself as I wait awkwardly, needing to break the tension as Orion moves in front of me, examining the boulder before nodding once.
“This is your favourite place?” I ask incredulously.
“No, patience Callie.” he cocks a brow and I zip my lip as he moves forward and rolls it away, his biceps bulging. The boulder reveals a tunnel opening in the rock underneath the small layers of sand that sweep the ocean floor.
“Down there?” I ask, peering over the edge.
“I know it seems tight, but you have a tail now. You can manoeuvre in ways impossible for a human.” He assures me but I pull a face. Looks too much like an accident waiting to happen to me. “I’ll go first.” He says patiently. “Hold onto the end of my tail fin if you start to feel claustrophobic and I’ll pull you through.” I nod, unable to come up with a response that doesn’t make me sound like a wimp. I watch him as he rotates; folding his body in half at the waist and propelling downward with what would be a dolphin kick with legs.
I take a deep breath, as one would to dive, before remembering this is redundant, and follow his lead. He is right about m
e being able to manoeuvre the tunnel easily, but the sides close in on me unpleasantly so I grab onto his tailfin, feeling the force of glistening sinew pull me up and into a pool of water. I see something above me and wondering how the starry night sky can exist under water, I surface, popping my head above the barrier of the water and gulping in a lungful of dry air.
“What the …” Is all I can manage as I realize that what I can see from beneath the surface isn’t the sky at all. I have emerged into an air pocket, rock walls surrounding all sides but one, which holds a small trickling waterfall that has somehow eroded its way down through the rock and into the room. It’s like a cave in the bottom of the sea and utterly bizarre. However, the location of this cave isn’t what makes it strange at all, but rather the hundreds of luminescent dots that scatter the slick ceiling, looking down on me like oddly blue-greenish stars.
“It’s … for you.” Orion admits, his cheeks flush with heat. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen him embarrassed.
“You … you did this?” I ask, looking up in awe at the mini galaxy. I try to take in the rest of the gloomy room before I find another light source.
Around the pool of water that half fills the air pocket are natural shelves, rocks jutting out from the walls, one of them holds a jar filled with a glowing liquid.
“Yes … one for each year.” He rubs his droplet covered hand on the back of his neck, rising out of the water slightly so that his pectorals are just above the water line.
“Each year?” I look at him confused.
“That I’ve waited … waited for you.” He looks shy still. I can’t respond, I just stare, moving my head so I can see the painted stars once more. They take on new meaning. There are just so many. Too many.
“Say something.” Orion pleads with a whisper, but my heart is pounding in my rib cage just as I’d managed to calm it. I try to count all the painted stars. “Almost five hundred,” Orion cuts me mid count and I let out a sigh, it’s like he can’t bear the silence. So many years, and all for me. Talk about patience. I think back to every time I’ve ever felt alone, felt so isolated I could scream. I had always known I was different to other kids my own age, but if I’d had known there was a man, this man, waiting for me… Would I have done it differently?
“I don’t understand.” I hear myself say as his eyes bare into mine.
“You’re the last maiden left to find. Everyone else has somebody. I’m the last merman left looking for the other half of his soul, and you’re it.” He says this without agenda, but I feel guilt wash over me.
“I’m sorry.” Is all I can manage and he looks confused. I feel a tear bubble and fall down my face.
“No Callie! Please don’t cry!” Orion comes forward and encases me in his arms, the luminescent melancholy galaxy watching us from above.
“What am I supposed to do?” I ask him and then I notice something. Where my tear has fallen into the water, something sparkles as it sinks through the water. I fumble for it, distracted from Orion’s confession, locking it in my closed palm and lifting it out of the water.
“It’s a …” I begin looking at the stone in my palm that throws fractured light back onto my droplet covered skin.
“Diamond.” Orion finishes.
“Mermaid tears?” I ask looking at him and then back at the tiny diamond in my palm.
“Turn to diamonds after a few seconds of contact with salt water.” Orion answers my exclamation. I feel a slight sense of revulsion at this as I let the stone slip through my fingers and fall to the cave’s depths. How the hell do I cry diamonds?
“It’s weird, I know. But it’s kept our race financially comfortable.” Orion admits looking grim.
“You mean you sell your tears?” I ask feeling slightly numb.
“Yes.” Orion says this as though it’s common knowledge.
“So humans know about mermaids?” I’m surprised.
“They know enough.” Orion’s answer is mysterious.
“So I can still go and visit my family? I mean if other humans can accept this then surely my mom …” I start but Orion’s eyes flash cold.
“It’s not a good idea to mix with humans. Particularly not family, Callie. Trust me.” I feel the blow, deeply, but can’t help but wonder why he would say such a thing. Did something happen with his own family?
“So I can never see them again?”
“I wouldn’t advise it.”
“So what? My mom just thinks I went and disappeared?”
“For now, yes. Until the police conclude the inevitable.”
“Which is?” I ask feeling desperation building inside.
“That you’re dead. Which isn’t technically wrong.” Orion says bluntly.
“But …” I begin but he cuts me off.
“Please think Callie. What are you going to tell her? That you’re a mermaid? Do you think she would believe you? You’re risking either her thinking you’re crazy, calling the police, or if she does believe you, the exposure of our world. We have a job to do.” His words ring out on the walls of the air pocket and the bioluminescent light falls on his face casting shadows that make him look powerful and intimidating.
“I guess you’re right.” I concede. My heart breaks as I think of Kayla’s face, alone, without a father or a sister.
“You have a new family now.” Orion promises, coming forward and brushing sparkling tear stains from my cheeks. He puts his forehead to mine and I breathe him in. Salted caramel, sweet and salty, fills my nostrils and I relax.
“I didn’t ask for any of this.” I sniffle.
“Neither did I.” Orion reminds me, holding me close, hovering almost invisibly in the water. His skin feels warm against mine. I thought the water would make me cold, but it actually encases me in warmth that seeps into my chest as it’s sucked into my gills and down my throat in a thick cascade.
“I’m glad I met you. I’m glad you’re done waiting.” I say sighing, banishing thoughts of my family to the back of my mind with a twinge of guilt.
“It wasn’t easy.” Orion admits and I feel his heartbeat accelerate beneath the shell of my ear. I know he’s holding back.
“At least you had others … you know, to keep you company.”
“Pfft.” Orion makes this guttural puff of air and the breath from his exaltation tickle the top of my head. I lean back from his skin, looking him straight in the eye.
“What?”
“Those relationships … they weren’t what you’d call conversational.”
“Oh … so what would you call them?” I ask, knowing I’m putting him on the spot. I can’t help, however irrationally, wanting him to feel a little bit of guilt.
“Physical I suppose.” He looks guilty and instead of the relief I thought I’d feel, guilt overcomes me too.
“Is that expected when it comes to you?” I ask looking at him through full lashes boldly. After all this time his expectations remain a mystery.
“Of course not! Callie, I don’t expect anything from you, I swear. I’m just glad that you’re here! I’ve gotten you your own room for tonight for goodness sakes.” he looks angry, like my assumption has wounded him. I pout internally at the thought of putting walls between us. I’ve spent the last month wishing he were lying next to me, even if it turns out only to be for sleep.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. Besides, it’s not like I find you unattractive exactly.” I say slyly, narrowing my eyes and shifting nervously. Why do I have to be so crappy at being flirtatious?
“The room is there for as long as you want it.” Orion nods gravely. I wonder exactly how long I’ll last before I cave and go crawling under his sheets.
In this moment I want so badly to snuggle up next to him, bury my head into that broad, silken skinned chest, and fall into a deep sleep that lasts a thousand years, or at least long enough for all my problems to disappear.
“If I don’t use it … I mean … that is to say if I chose to share your room … I mean if you�
�d have me …” My cheeks are flushing and I’m hot under my skin. This is so not a normal relationship.
“I wouldn’t expect anything. I’d just be glad to have you.” His eye gleams warmly and I wonder how such a chill colour can burn with such intensity.
“Thank you. Your patience means a lot to me … I mean, this isn’t exactly a normal relationship. I just want it to develop naturally.” I look at him but can’t help but see the slightly crestfallen man behind his expression.
“I understand.”
“However …” I continue catching my breath, “I understand that you’ve waited a long time and I don’t want us to be anymore apart than we have to be. So I would like to share your room, if there are no expectations I mean.” I say it, thinking about what I’m asking carefully. I wonder if I’d be able to stop myself from losing myself in him. If it is perhaps fair asking further restraint from his clearly scarred soul that has waited, seeking mine, for almost five hundred years.
“Really?” he asks, his eyes widening.
“Yes.” I nod and he moves forward, giving the first emotion to a difficult and perhaps seemingly clinical conversation. He pulls me into his arms and plants a chaste kiss upon my lips.
“Callie …” He whispers, my name a prayer upon his lips, his forehead pushed sweetly against mine as we bask in the glow of one another. “You’re really here.” He mutters, it’s almost a sob but I can tell he is using all his strength to restrain himself, trying not to scare me with the intensity of his feelings.
“Shh. It’s okay. I’m here.” I hush him, not unlike how I have hushed my baby sister. He is as old as the hills and yet so completely undone.
“I’m scared.” Orion looks up at me, his eyes trickling liquid diamonds into the salty sea beneath us. I watch them sink, cold and heavy with the weight of his sorrow.
“Why? I thought having lived so long you wouldn’t have anything to fear anymore.” I inquire, his honesty prying me to be nothing less than the same in return.
The Kiss That Killed Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 1) Page 14