“It’s not your fault.” Glacies clasped her hand.
“Your turn.” Aarna shook away the shadows, the light making her golden skin glow as she turned to Edward.
“Well, there was a Drowned man by the name of Donahue.” Edward took a long swig of rum. “He’s gone now. We were intimate once, and after that, he became dark and dangerous, so I shunned him. But the truth is—one I never told him, nor cared to admit even to myself—I was attracted to him, like that, too.”
“So, the Drowned boy likes a bit of danger in his men...” Pisceon rolled over onto his stomach to survey Edward over the side of his hammock, his cerulean tail fanning behind.
Edward flushed.
“You can go next, Pisceon.” Aarna’s mouth flattened.
“Hmm.” Pisceon paused, flipping onto his back again. “There was once a little merman who lost his whole family to the Shadow, then he became an orphan, but luckily, his big, bad uncle took him in.” When no one spoke, Pisceon looked to Skye. “Perhaps you’ll pity me enough to warm my hammock now. Or how about you, Drowned boy, Iama bad man.”
Edward hmphed.
“Would you take this seriously?” Glacies interjected, looking downat Aarna, the hammock wobbling with her sudden shift. “She is trying to help us heal. Who’s next?” She swung her head to Finn.
Finn’s torso tensed, and my heart lurched as I remembered the visions we’d seen of his mother, Abalone—her blood flowing into the water.
Finn cleared his throat as if he were trying to find the words, then his body tightened, and I knew he was shutting down to avoid the emotions Aarna’s probing had brought to the surface. “Continue to be sentimental all you wish, but I’m getting some rest.”
I slipped my fingers through his webbed hand. He squeezed.
The others went quiet, and my mind slipped into images of my grandmother and the war we were on the brink of. How many more lives would be lost before the end?
Even though Pisceon had joked and Finn refused to participate, I knew that everyone was thinking of those who were no longer with us as they closed their eyes.
Sleep soon claimed me, soothed by the rise and fall of Finn’s chest and the hammock swaying in the current.
52
Morgana
Pisceon roused us at dawn, and after much mumbling and grumbling, we were swimming again. The seafloor beneath us rose and dropped in elevations and depressions, occasionally falling away into deep trench-like structures. Then, the sand turned to turrets and dunes. On and on they stretched, becoming so monotonous that I was glad for our aquatic superspeed.
After what felt like hours, the dunes thinned, and a towering wall of red sandstone appeared on their outskirts, at its center was a gate.
Someone whispered my name, soft and gentle, as if carried to me on the current. Finn. He dropped back from the group to swim beside me, grazing a finger up my arm.
“The walls of Okeanós.” He gestured at the gates. The color had returned to his handsome face, his dark hair rippling in the swell, and the silver flecks in his eyes were alight again.
“I need to surface for air before we go in there,” I told him. The tightness in my lungs had begun, and I knew I only had a short supply left.
“I’ll come up with you.” He grinned, and his gills flared. “We’ll meet you guys back at the gate,” he called to the others.
I yelped in delight as we moved together through the aquamarine depths. Up and up we went.
We swum fast, testing our speed. My powerful Selkie form spiraled upward as I kicked with my webbed feet and parted the waters with my webbed hands. Beside me, Finn shot toward the surface, a blur of torso and tail.
Joy spread through me as I shed my inhibitions, letting the wild sea creature within take over as I rose higher and higher. A gleeful whoop escaped me when we broke the surface, waves lapping at my chest. A blue sky streaked with white clouds stretched overhead.
Finn emerged, too, gills flaring as he brushed his fringe back from his forehead.
“Santorini could’ve been like this for us.” I squeezed the ends of my hair, chest heaving as I drew deep breaths, replenishing my oxygen. “I’m sorry I didn’t trust you.”
Finn looked away, his throat working as if he was going to say something, but instead he pulled me into his arms, hands cradling my face as he kissed me.
I responded by wrapping my legs around him. My heartbeat increased as his hands slid down my lower back to the curve of my ass.
