by Rinelle Grey
No thoughts of pretending he hadn’t seen it even entered his mind. He was far too curious.
When Zara had first mentioned seeing a mermaid he’d been half convinced she’d imagined it. Despite having very real evidence that dragons existed, the idea of mermaids had still seemed fantastical and unbelievable.
Until this moment.
Sure, it was possible the scale could have come from some other sort of fish. But Damrian didn’t believe it had.
He stared at it intently. Up close it had a pearlescent shimmer. He could just imagine a whole tail of these scales, and how they must have glistened in the sunlight.
Looked like he’d done it. He’d found a mermaid scale.
Now what was he going to do?
Should he tell Zara?
That was the real question in his mind.
He wanted to. He knew she’d be even more excited than he was. He wanted to see her eyes light up, and the look of joy on her face when she realised that she hadn’t imagined it. That she had proof of that.
He just didn’t want to know what she was going to do next.
Movement of the water nearby drew his attention away, and he turned to look at Zara’s face behind a mask. The heavy plastic dimmed her excited grin somewhat, but not completely. She took the scale from him, her face a picture of wonder.
Then she pointed to the surface.
Damrian followed her up and over towards the boat.
Neither of them said anything until they pulled themselves onto the deck.
Then Zara ripped off her snorkel and mask. “You found it,” she exclaimed jubilantly.
Damrian wished he could share her enthusiasm. But his mind wouldn’t stop asking, what was she going to do now? He was probably about to find out.
“Yes, I found it,” he said, his voice almost a heavy sigh.
Zara didn’t even seem to notice. “Now I’ll have no problems convincing them. I wonder what a DNA test will show? Do you think mermaids have half human, half fish DNA, or something even more alien?”
She looked at him then, all the awkwardness of their earlier conversation gone.
She had no idea how much her words were affecting him.
This was clearly about more than just wanting to know mermaids existed. Her curiosity about DNA raised uncomfortable questions in his own mind. Did dragons have half human DNA? He had no idea. No one had ever tested it.
Though there was every chance that the discussion with the humans was touching on this topic right now.
The thought made his heart heavy.
“No worries convincing who?” he asked, still half hoping she’d have an answer he hadn’t thought of yet.
Her eyes narrowed. She’d picked up that he wasn’t as excited by this as she was.
“I told you, didn’t I? I’m planning on using this for my thesis topic for my degree. It’s sure to get me top honours. No one else will have anything like this.”
She was watching him carefully, waiting for his reaction.
Damrian was pretty sure he didn’t have much chance of masking the horrified look on his face.
He tried not to blame her. She clearly had no idea what she was proposing. None of the ramifications had occurred to her.
But he still couldn’t help being bitterly disappointed that this was her first reaction.
“No, you’re right,” he said slowly. “I guess no one else would have anything like it. Except maybe that reporter who wrote the article about the dragons.”
He still felt bitter towards that reporter. The one who had cared more about what the story would mean to her own life than about what effect it would have on his kind.
It twisted his heart to put Zara in that same category.
Her eyes widened.
Then she frowned. “This isn’t about sensationalism. This is about scientific research.”
She looked at him earnestly, as though she thought she could make him understand. “Don’t you want to know? Aren’t you in the least bit curious to know if they exist, and if they do, what they’re like? Are they like us? Are they different? Why have they been hiding all this time?”
Damrian had to admit, he was curious. “Sure. I’d love to know more about them, and what their lives are like. But I’d never let that curiosity overcome their rights to remain hidden, if that’s what they want. These aren’t just animals, Zara. Obviously they don’t want to be found. What right do you… do we… have to expose them?”
Damrian searched her face, desperately hoping she could see what he meant. That she’d get it. Because if she didn’t, he wasn’t sure he could ever trust her enough to tell her about his own true form.
And that possibility scared the hell out of him.
Chapter 16
Zara stared at Damien in disbelief, a thousand thoughts tumbling through her mind.
His words echoed through her head. What right did they have to expose them?
Up until this moment, she hadn’t even really thought about why mermaids wanted to hide. Just wanting to see them, to know they existed, had consumed her, and she hadn’t really considered anything beyond that.
Now she held some real proof in her hands, and he was trying to convince her not to tell anyone.
Why?
What advantage was there for him in protecting mermaids?
Sure, maybe he just wanted to keep their secret, that was entirely possible. She could even understand it. But that didn’t feel like the whole story.
She couldn’t explain why, but she was certain there was something else influencing his argument. Something personal.
She stared into his eyes, remembering how they’d changed earlier. Suddenly, that paired with his uncanny water skills. He could stay underwater longer than anyone else she knew. And he never used a snorkel or goggles.
Was he…
“Are you a mermaid?” she blurted out.
The idea seemed fantastical. Impossible.
But it would explain a whole heap of things.
Except, if he was, he’d just given her the proof that he shouldn’t want her to have.
She knew his answer even before he laughed and said, “No, I’m not a mermaid.”
But there was something else. There was a darker undercurrent to his laugh. She was missing something.
“Look, I just don’t think now is the time to put something like this out there,” Damien said. “The world is already reeling over the existence of dragons, if you tell them mermaids exist, their minds are going to be blown.”
His protest was weak. Lacking in substance.
Zara put her hands on her hips. “But that’s exactly why now is the perfect time for me. Six months ago, if I’d gone to my supervisor and said I wanted to search for mermaids, he would have laughed me out the door. But now things have changed. He’d listen, possibly even encourage me. Do you really think I’m the only one? I’m sure there are a whole bunch of people out there wondering if something they thought they’d imagined might just be real.”
Damien stared at her, his face a picture of horror.
Then he pulled himself together. “Maybe there is,” he agreed. “But maybe there isn’t. It doesn’t seem like a reason to expose them.”
Zara stared at him in frustration. “But if there is, and someone beats me to it, do you know how much that’s going to sting? I’ve never done anything at all of note. This is my one chance to do something big—something no one else has ever done before. I can’t just walk away from that.”
“Zara, you don’t have to do anything big to impress me,” Damrian said earnestly. “I already think you’re awesome.” He gave a half grin.
“And the reality is, what we do in public, what other people recognise us as doing, that isn’t half as important as who we are inside. That’s what really matters, when it comes down to it. Doing the right thing. Would you ever feel good about exposing a race of people who’ve spent their whole lives trying to hide?”
He almost sounded like he kn
ew what the mermaids were thinking, and it crossed her mind to wonder if he’d lied earlier.
But no, she hadn’t had any sense that he was lying, not like she had before. Something else was going on, something she was missing.
Then it hit her.
This wasn’t about the mermaids.
And it didn’t have anything to do with his weird eye thing either, if that had even happened.
His reaction had changed when she mentioned her thesis. When she’d reminded him she’d be going back to uni. Even though he’d denied it, the reality was, he still didn’t want her to leave the island.
She’d thought that maybe things had changed, now they were older. But they were still in exactly the same spot they’d always been. He thought he could convince her to stay here on the island and be a tour guide. He thought she should be the one to sacrifice her plans to be with him.
Didn’t he realise that if she was researching mermaids, she’d have a reason to stay, if not all the time, a lot more often? She was tempted to tell him so, but the reality was, she didn’t see any point. If this was going to be an issue between them, then it wasn’t going to go away.
And she couldn’t stay here forever.
She stared into his eyes, unable to deny that the idea was tempting. It always had been.
Surely if they made love every day, like they had last night, she’d never get bored? That alone would be worth staying for. Her body heated at the thought.
That lovemaking would be almost impossible to walk away from. And she suspected that the more they did it, the better it would get, and the harder it would be to leave.
Maybe he’d done her a favour by breaking things off and insisting that they keep their friendship intact.
“Look,” Zara said firmly, “half the reason people are so worried about dragons is that no one knows anything about them. We don’t even know what they eat, for goodness sake. Yes, people are scared. But in my experience, when people really know the truth about something, they’re less scared of it.”
That got his attention. He stared at her, an eyebrow raised.
“You may have a point,” he said slowly. “But what you’re forgetting is that no one is scared of mermaids because, at this point, they don’t even know they exist. Do you really want to be the one responsible for changing that?”
“Yes,” Zara said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. “Don’t you get it. I want to do something with my life. I want to make a difference. I want people to know who I am. I don’t want to just sit on this island and do nothing for the rest of my life.”
Her heart pounded in her chest. There. She’d said it. The question was, how was he going to react?
Damien looked at her for a few long moments, his expression disappointed.
No, it was more than disappointed. He looked devastated. Like she’d just ripped out his heart and stomped on it.
Didn’t he get it? This had nothing to do with him.
If he cared about her, he’d see that. He’d be prepared to make some sacrifices too. He’d said he would help her find these mermaids, and now that he thought it might mean she’d leave the island again, he was backing out.
“Look, I care about you, Damien. But you have to accept me for who I am. If you care about me, you have to realise that I can’t just stay here and do nothing forever. I need more than that in my life.”
She stopped, gulping in a few breaths, before her voice sounded too pleading. Too desperate.
Before she added that he needed to give her a really good reason to stay.
Because there wasn’t one. Sure, she’d be tempted if he said he loved her and wanted to be with her. She’d probably give in and give it a try. But in the long run, that wouldn’t be good for either of them.
“I’m sorry you feel that way.” Damien’s voice was stiff. “I’ll take you back to the island and let you get on with your life without interference.”
Zara’s heart sank.
He wasn’t even going to try.
He mustn’t care about her as much as she’d thought he did. Because if he did, he would have fought for her. He could even have offered to come with her. It wasn’t like he had a career here that he couldn’t leave. He just worked for his parents.
Damien had turned away and was hoisting the sails, not looking at her.
Zara stumbled over to a seat and sat down, suddenly feeling deflated.
This should have been her moment. She held proof of the existence of mermaids in her hands.
But somehow, it felt like a hollow victory.
Chapter 17
Damrian texted Rowan and Hayrian to come immediately as he strode up the path to the main house.
He had no idea what they were going to do. If Zara exposed the existence of the mermaids, told people that they were here, near Dragon Island, then they were all in trouble. Not just the mermaids but his family as well.
He couldn’t let her do that.
But he didn’t know how to stop her.
He’d given it his best shot. He’d appealed to her sense of right and even thrown in a little guilt. But none of it had made one iota of difference.
Apparently, making a name for herself was far more important than protecting a race of innocent people.
More important than her feelings for him.
That hurt more than he could imagine.
It hurt to realise that it was a good thing he hadn’t told her the truth. That if he had, he would have risked his clan and his family’s safety.
And he’d nearly done that.
He strode into the house and then paced back and forth until his brothers both arrived.
“What’s wrong?” Rowan asked immediately. “It sounded urgent.”
“It is,” Damrian said tightly. He took a deep breath. “It’s about Zara.”
“Did you tell her about us?” Hayrian demanded.
Rowan waited expectantly for the answer.
Apparently no one around here trusted him.
Probably with good reason. Damrian groaned. “No, I didn’t, but I might as well have. She was here hunting for mermaids. She thought she saw one before she left four years ago. And I… I kind of helped her find proof that they existed.”
Yeah, he’d been stupid. The stunned looks on his brothers’ faces told him that.
“Mermaids?” Rowan asked, his expression disbelieving. “You found proof that mermaids exist?”
Hayrian’s eyes gleamed. “I wonder where they’re hiding.”
This wasn’t going the way he’d expected it to. Damrian stared at his brothers. Didn’t they get it?
“She wants to study them and report on them as part of her thesis,” he told them. “And if she does, if it gets out that mermaids exist, we’re going to have swarms of people here.”
He saw their expressions change as that fact sunk in.
Rowan frowned and scratched at his chin.
Hayrian paced back and forth a few times, before turning to Damrian and asking, “What sort of proof?”
“We found a huge scale on the reef. I mean, I can’t guarantee it came from a mermaid, but it certainly doesn’t look like it came from any fish I know. And even just it’s existence will bring a hoard of scientists here to look.”
Hayrian frowned at Damrian and said flatly, “We have to stop her from telling anyone.”
“No joke,” Damrian said scathingly. “Do you think I didn’t already try that? I told her that the mermaids didn’t want to be found and tried to explain to her what it would mean for them if they were exposed. She didn’t care.”
It still hurt to say that. He’d expected so much more from Zara.
“Did you consider telling her the truth?” Rowan asked softly. “Telling her that it was dangerous to us if a whole bunch of scientists came looking for mermaids? Telling her you can guess how mermaids feel about being exposed, because it’s happening to us right now?”
Damrian stared at him. “Tell her the truth? No, that would be the
worst possible thing to do right now. How can I trust her not to expose the dragons if she’s so ready to expose mermaids?”
Rowan gave him a smile. “Mermaids, at this point, are still just a concept. She hasn’t met one, or talked to one and realised that they’re just like she is. You’re different. She knows you, cares about you. I don’t believe she’d put you, or the rest of us, at risk if she knew the truth.”
“How can you be sure about that?” Damrian asked bitterly.
He’d thought that of Zara too. But after this morning, he wasn’t so convinced anymore.
“I know one way to find out,” Rowan said firmly. “And that’s to do it.”
Damrian’s heart skipped a beat. “But we can’t risk it.”
Rowan put a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. I have the perfect solution.”
Chapter 18
Zara threw her clothes into the suitcase, not even caring that they weren’t folded properly.
Tears blurred her eyes.
She needed to get out of here, before she made a stupid mistake. Before she listened to Damien and gave up everything she’d worked so hard for just because she couldn’t resist the look in those blue eyes of his.
She should never have come back here. He could have his damn mermaids. She’d find another thesis topic and never come near this bloody island again. Her father could come and visit her if he wanted to see her.
There was a knock at the door, but she ignored it. She didn’t want to hear anything Damien had to say. It would only make this harder.
She picked up her phone and started writing a text to her dad. He could come and get her and take her down to the jetty. Damien wouldn’t bother her if her dad was there, would he?
Before she could finish, there was another knock. “Zara? Open up. We need to talk to you.”
It wasn’t Damien, though Zara recognised the voice. “Rowan?”
“Yes, it’s me. And Hayden too. Will you talk to us?”
Zara stared at the text, then deleted it. She pursed her lips. “Is Damien there?”