Coming Up for Air

by Amanda Meuwissen

  Now Leigh was the one crying, and when Tolly floated closer to him, it was insult to injury that he could not touch Leigh or hold him because his claws were too sharp. Instead, he carefully rested his palms on Leigh’s thighs.

  Our skin and scales are tougher than a human’s. Our claws do not hurt one another unless we use force. But I hate how easily I could cut you. There is no end to the magic, Leigh. Even if they never found me, I cannot grow legs again. I can never change from this form again. I could show you a false face, an illusion, but you could not touch it. You deserve better than a monster you would have to keep hidden from the world that could never hold you again.

  “You’re not a monster,” Leigh said, because he’d said the opposite too many times when he didn’t know any better.

  There had to be something they could do. Leigh was a planner. He was a good planner. But from juvie to a life of crime, magic didn’t play a role. All he could think to do was place his hands over Tolly’s and lean forward to kiss his forehead.

  Then the tip of his nose.

  Then his lips, even if Tolly had to keep his mouth closed or risk cutting him on the edge of his teeth.

  Tolly pulled back with a start, and Leigh’s eyes sprang wide.

  “What?” he asked, but even as he did, he saw something happening in the pool, the water starting to swirl and darken, with a strange light emanating from the center.

  You must leave. Now, Tolly said, pulling away and swimming out of Leigh’s reach. They have found me. Please remember me as I was.

  “No.” Leigh shook his head as fresh terror filled him. “I’m not letting them take you. Who are they? How many will there be?”

  Two. They are hunters.

  “Only two?”

  Two is all they need.

  Moments passed before two dark figures appeared, swimming with the swirl of water like circling sharks, one in shades of yellow with edging in red, another nearly completely black. They circled wider, intent on trapping Tolly between them.

  Leigh, please! Tolly stayed in the middle as if accepting his fate. I recognize them. I grew up with these kin. You must get away from the pool!

  Leigh wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He didn’t have a weapon, didn’t stand a chance against even one being like Tolly, but he didn’t care. As soon as they expanded their circle to encompass Tolly and would soon pounce to drag him away, Leigh pushed from the edge of the pool to drop into the water.

  Leigh!

  If they’re taking you, then they’re taking me too. But I’m not letting either of those things happen without a fight.

  Opening his eyes under the water, Leigh took in the full sight of the other merfolk. In general, they were much like Tolly, only larger, one blond, mostly canary yellow with red-accented scales like the reverse of Tolly, and the other, larger still, had dark hair and was almost entirely black, trimmed in midnight blue.

  Leigh, you don’t understand! Tolly swam to him, trying to guard him from the others. The spell has broken. You can no longer breathe underwater.

  Leigh thought something felt different. That certainly made things harder, but he was not deterred. He could hold his breath long enough, even if the time they had left meant they would simply meet their end together as the others circled closer with their maws open and claws outstretched.

  Don’t accept this, Tolly. Don’t let them win. Go out fighting. You’re allowed to defend yourself. It doesn’t make you like them. You hear me, assholes! Leigh wasn’t sure if they could, but he shouted in his mind anyway. If you want him, you’re going to have to go through me.

  Dark, foreboding laughter filled Leigh’s mind in two overlapping voices as he swam to be back-to-back with Tolly and fought against the natural inclination to swim up for breath.

  You wish to die? the yellow one said.

  And the black one completed the thought. Then we will gladly grant your desire.

  They shot forward in unison, Black toward Tolly and Yellow at Leigh. The strange center of light at the bottom of the pool remained with the swirling water, but Leigh paid it no mind and focused on every episode of Shark Week he’d ever seen and what parts of a creature from the deep might be vulnerable.

  There were gills on this form along the rib cage, so when Yellow came at him, fangs bared, Leigh kicked as hard as he could right at that spot and the merfolk sank with a gasp.

  Tolly had pivoted away and came up on Black’s side to take a bite of his shoulder. Black might be larger, but Tolly was faster.

  Diving down to attack Yellow before he could recover, Leigh grabbed him by the back of the neck and swam down, pushing with all his strength until Yellow’s face slammed into the bottom of the pool.

  I am going to rip your throat out! Yellow raged in the aftermath, but Leigh got his feet on Yellow’s back and pushed off toward Tolly.

  Tolly was fighting hard, slashing and biting and constantly moving to stay out of Black’s grasp. While Black’s back was to Leigh, he swam faster to grip him around the middle and held him in place for Tolly to strike.

  Fool! Black hissed as he struggled to dislodge Leigh. We will rend you both to pieces!

  Starting with you. Yellow came up on Leigh quicker than he’d anticipated, and Leigh was wrenched downward, pulled by stinging claws slicing his ankles, then dragged down farther and farther, deeper than the pool could possibly be, until he hit that strange light at the bottom and everything went white.

  Leigh!

  Leigh was still in the water, but he had no idea where when the light dimmed, and he found himself disoriented and adrift. He struggled not to breathe in as he had grown accustomed to, but his lungs were starting to burn. He needed air. He wouldn’t last much longer, and he didn’t know where Yellow had gone.

  Then he felt arms encircle his waist, with a shock of panic spiking through his chest, until they shot upward with impressive speed and broke the surface. Leigh gulped in air as quickly as he could. It was Tolly who had saved him, and they were definitely no longer in the pool.

  It was dark, but Leigh recognized the river by the docks. Their magic had ported them out to the nearest body of water.

  Leigh, please, you must—

  But Tolly did not get to finish before he was yanked back under the surface.

  “Tolly!” Leigh cried, trying to stay afloat while unable to see anything. The water was too dark. The other merfolk could be anywhere.

  A splash alerted Leigh to the flick of a yellow tailfin at his right. A moment later, another splash and flick of the fin was at his left. Yellow was toying with him, taunting him, while Black must have Tolly.

  “Come and get me, you bastard!” Leigh yelled, running on pure adrenaline now.

  Nothing happened for far too many seconds, and he worried it was already over, that Tolly was gone. Then, just as he’d been about to sink down in the hopes of seeing something, Yellow’s arms clamped around his middle and held tight, one hand coiling loosely around his throat to tap his claws along his jugular.

  Not to worry. I will wait so that Tolomeo can watch.

  Perhaps you are the one who needs to be watching, Tolly’s voice came next, and Leigh looked up to see him surface not far in front of them, holding Black the same way Yellow had Leigh, claws deadly and ready to sink into his throat.

  Yellow hissed by Leigh’s ear with his true voice, resonant and threatening.

  I remember you, Tolly said. Both of you. You are mated now, are you not? I can tell. I will kill your mate if you do not release him!

  Yellow squeezed Leigh’s neck in return, before he chuckled darkly.

  You are no killer, runt. That is why you fled like your weak parents.

  Too often these past few weeks that Leigh had known Tolly, he had seen him have to be brutal, but he wasn’t like his kin. He was stronger because he’d had to be a survivor.

  I will kill him to protect my beloved, Tolly threatened.

  Beloved? Black sneered. You still call him that? He shunned you. That is why we are he
re. He offered you no vow!

  “Because it was about words,” Leigh said, staring at Tolly, only Tolly, not caring that he bobbed in the water with death at his back. “Words I should have said but didn’t. I love you, Tolly. I’m sorry I said it too late.”

  I love you too, Leigh. Tolly smiled, though it was a sad smile full of terrible grief. So please forgive me for what I must do. Release him—he turned his attention to Yellow—and I will stop fighting. I will surrender for you to slay me.

  “What?” Leigh cried, feeling the claws slice his skin in his struggle. “You can’t! Just swim! You always said others weren’t fast enough, but you are, that’s why you escaped them for so long. You can outswim them, Tolly. Just go!”

  If you flee, Yellow warned, I will bleed your beloved dry and feed his corpse to the young ones.

  Leigh believed that, and Tolly’s eyes proved he did too.

  Release him, Tolly said again, and I am yours.

  “No….” Leigh tried to catch Tolly’s eyes again, but he wouldn’t look at him.

  Before Leigh could beg him to reconsider, he found himself airborne and could hardly breathe for how quickly he shot out of the water toward shore. They had only been just off the docks, but still Leigh had a long path to fall before he landed hard and rolled up onto the sand.

  As dazed as he was from the force of hitting the beach, he clambered to the river’s edge as soon as he caught his breath. Tolly offered him one last longing look of farewell, before the others descended and dragged him into the depths.

  Chapter 15

  LEIGH PULLED the gate up on the front of the shop, the sun just barely up, signaling the start of his day. It wasn’t officially open yet, but the new sign was neatly painted with a date for the grand opening hung on a vinyl sign beneath it.

  Leigh’s Fix-It Shop—We can fix anything but a broken heart.

  Alvin had frowned at him when he requested it, but it seemed like the perfect kind of middle finger to the universe since none of this would have been possible without Tolly.

  It had been a month since Tolly was taken away to be killed. The first week had passed in a daze, not feeling real or at all fair, even as Leigh did as Tolly told him and continued to set in motion all he needed to finish buying the shop on the corner.

  That night after Tolly disappeared, Leigh wandered—still barefoot and drenched—to Alvin’s place. He didn’t try to hide his tears or his distress when Alvin answered the door. It was one of the few times he let Alvin hug him, and he crushed his friend just as fiercely in return, needing the contact and comfort. After a hot shower and change of clothes, Leigh explained everything.

  “I didn’t know he was planning to leave, I swear,” Alvin said, handing cocoa to Leigh like the silliest, most wonderful of comforts. “I thought he just wanted to surprise you with the shop coz he was afraid to tell you about his other face.”

  “It doesn’t matter. He couldn’t tell anyone what he needed from me because of that stupid pact and its rules. I was supposed to figure it out for myself, but I didn’t. He needed the words and I couldn’t say them.”

  “It’s bullshit.” Alvin shared Leigh’s anger. “All that matters is what you felt, and you loved him like crazy. He knew that.”

  “I know. But it wasn’t enough to save him. He gave up everything to save me.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Alvin hugged him again, more freely than he ever did, and Leigh snuggled into his friend’s arms, wishing it could somehow make the sting hurt a little less.

  They fell asleep like that on the sofa, something they hadn’t done since they were brats in juvie. It felt nice and safe and more than Leigh would ever ask for from his friend, but it didn’t make the trek home to an empty apartment the next day any easier.

  Tolly’s shredded clothes were still on the kitchen floor. His folded clothes and other belongings still neatly piled on the sofa. The forms and the goodbye note from Tolly’s last sweet, selfless act….

  Leigh put it all away, back in Tolly’s claimed drawers and part of the closet like maybe, somehow, someday, Tolly would come back for them.

  Telling Alvin the truth had been the easy part, but with everyone else, Leigh couldn’t explain the horror and didn’t want to relive it again. So he told the members of their strange, extended family that Tolly had gone home. Everyone was sad to hear it, gave their condolences, wondered at why, to which Leigh simply said it was time and Tolly wasn’t able to stay. He thought maybe some of them could tell he was lying, Ralph especially, but no one called him on it.

  “I’m really sorry, Hurley,” Ralph said. “You were great together.”

  He was going to be Leigh’s first employee at the shop, helping him open in the morning before school and working when he got home until closing time. It would help Leigh ensure Ralph didn’t get caught up in any other nefarious dealings or unsavory groups. He hoped spending that much time with the kid wouldn’t be as annoying as he feared.

  For now, all that remained before opening day was to keep stocking shelves, filing paperwork, advertising, all the little things that came with starting a business. Leigh would mostly repair things, but he also had a few things patrons could buy, like batteries and cords, with a growing list of things to add. He’d order anything anyone needed and play it by ear what he had to make permanent fixtures. It would keep him very busy, busy enough, he hoped, to move on.

  A month. A whole month without Tolly, which was longer than he’d known him, yet life would never be the same without him. Leigh dreamed about Tolly constantly, almost every night, in all his forms. Everywhere he turned was a reminder.

  In fact, he was fairly certain the full moon had been just last night.

  The door chimed and his ears perked at the sound, realizing he had left it unlocked while he busied himself in the storeroom.

  “Sorry, not actually open yet! Come back in a week!” he called.

  “Anything but a broken heart?” an impossibly familiar voice answered. “Rather dramatic, is it not?”

  A chill tingled beneath Leigh’s skin to hear that voice and then to see him in the flesh when he emerged from the back.

  Tolly. Standing there just inside the door like the most beautiful mirage. Dark hair and eyes. His wide, brilliant smile. Wearing clothes Leigh had never seen before.

  “I’m dreaming.” He closed his eyes, unable to handle the cruelty.

  “No, my love,” Tolly said, coaxing him to look, because soon he was right there, reaching to touch Leigh’s face, “you are not.”

  Leigh sucked in a breath, but he couldn’t deny that he felt the touch, and when a shaking hand of his own reached up to touch Tolly’s, he felt that too. “Tolly,” he said aloud, and Tolly smiled at him before drawing closer.

  “I have missed you so much.”

  The press of Tolly’s lips couldn’t be a mirage, or his warmth, or the weight of his body pulling Leigh in. Tolly wrapped his arms around him, and Leigh clung tightly in return to be certain this was real.

  “How?” he sobbed when they finally parted. “They were going to kill you.”

  “They planned to,” Tolly said, “but their mistake was hubris. They wanted to gloat and further humiliate me, so they took me back to our kin to parade me through the colony before my death, speaking in scorn of my love and my loss. They did not realize that telling of your heroics would be their undoing. You were right, Leigh.”

  “Right?” Leigh was still in a daze, unable to look away from Tolly now that he had him.

  “There are others like my parents,” Tolly said with excitement. “Many, it turns out. I was the first in hundreds of years to make a pact with a human, and though it failed, even the hunters who spirited me away had to admit that you loved me in return. When they made to slay me, others came to my aid.”

  With a gentle touch, Tolly sat Leigh down in the chair behind the counter and told him of a fierce battle that had erupted, brewing for decades.

  “Our love was what inspired the resistance t
o act.”

  “Our love inspired a rebellion?”

  “Yes.” Tolly gazed on him as though Leigh was the miraculous one. “And now kinder leaders have taken control, and those who wish to be more than killers outnumber the rest. Very few of the crueler ones were killed or fled. Most are willing to hear the rest of us out. The tides are changing, truly, and it is all because of us.

  “When the battle ended, dozens of my kin, so many, gathered all the magic they had in order to find a way to bring me home to you. It simply needed to wait for the next full moon.”

  Leigh was living in a fairy tale, and his prince knelt before him like the happy ending he never thought he’d get. “You can stay?”

  “Forever. We have already sealed our pact with a kiss. All that’s left—”

  “I love you,” Leigh said in a rush, afraid he’d miss his chance again.

  Tolly laughed. “And I love you. After all, it was merfolk magic that made such pacts possible in the beginning, because there were precious few of us who fell in love with the beings we were told to drown, so we had to create our own ways to be with them. The right magic can be rewritten if you have enough of it, and it was not as hard as I feared once it was discovered what a powerful tether there is between us, still binding me to you.”

  “I kept dreaming of you.”

  “I am sorry if that made you mourn me all the more, but I am here now, if you will have me.”

  “Always.” Leigh pulled Tolly into his lap to kiss him again, then had to laugh. “We’re going to have to change that sign. Alvin will be thrilled.”

  “Actually, he already is,” Tolly said.

  “You mean you—”

  “When the moon was at its highest last night, I stepped on land once more. But I did not want Miss Maggie to discover me in the nude again.”

  Leigh laughed in near delirium now, but even that was joyous. “So you knocked on Alvin’s door? He was always trying to sneak a peek, you know.”

  “Perhaps, but Cary was the one who answered, and he covered me quickly. I asked only for clothing, a place to rest my head, and where to find you in the morning, and they gave me all I needed.”