“Agápe?” Aranare interrupted her.
My mouth fell open.The Siren Goddess of Love.
“Yes, that was it.” Skye’s eyes lit up. “She told me that I was a descendant of hers and that I had a choice. I could die, or I could be given a second chance to live out my destiny. Naturally, I chose the second chance. I didn’t realize it would come with wings and scales.” She fell into tears again.
Aranare and I exchanged a glance and gave each other a silent nod of agreement.
I sat down beside her and rubbed her heaving back. “You are not a monster, and you are not alone. We have a lot to talk about, so we’ll take you back to my house for a hot chocolate.”
Skye nodded, hiccuping back tears.
“But first, I think Aranare wants to show you something.”
Aranare pushed himself up, his hand dug into his curls as he turned to meet Skye’s gaze. A ripple of energy scintillated through the air as he stepped forward, his chest rising and falling quickly. He yanked his sweater over his head, tossing it aside with his T-shirt, revealing a bronzed torso and sculpted abs that rippled with every breath.
The wind howled through the cracks in the lighthouse momentarily, and then everything fell silent. Scales, iridescent and dark as the midnight sea, unfurled across his chest and shoulders in a smattering of glistening greens and blacks. They glittered along the sculpted planes of his arms, torso, and throat. His amber eyes burned brighter, like Skye’s had.
From his back, wings erupted—not feathered like Skye’s, but sleek and translucent like a fish’s fin, leathery and dark in places, but edged with an oily pearlescent sheen. They stretched high and wide, glistening like hematite.
I inhaled sharply. Aranare was no longer just handsome. He was devastating. A creature born of ocean storms and wind-swept beaches, every inch of him radiated power. And yet, even in his transformation, something human flickered in his gaze as it settled on Skye, her mouth open in awe as she watched him.
10
Skye
Their voices morphed into nothing, a shrill ring on the periphery of my being. I thought I heard them say Finn was a merman and that the storms had been created by some dark lord whose name sounded like it rhymed with banana.
There was a prophecy, and they were going to find it. Had Morgana said something about the Drowned?
It was all too much. The edges of my vision blurred, and I raised a hand to my temple. “I need to get some rest... ” I pushed my hot chocolate aside. “Is it okay if I sleep here?”
“You will stay with me from here on out.” Morgana sprang up from the rickety kitchen table, her eyes soft with concern as they swept over me, so tender it made my stomach twist. Her sympathy was a mirror, reflecting everything I was trying to forget. “You can borrow some PJs and have a shower.”
“No!” I recoiled at the mere thought of water.
“It won’t always be like that,” Aranare said quietly.
“Like what?” Morgana whipped her head to him.
“She’s afraid of water touching her.” He gestured to me, and I trembled at the thought, rubbing my hands across my arms.
“When you asked me where my people were from that day at the café, you knew.” I glared at him.
Aranare’s cheeks flushed under my gaze, and he looked away. “I didn’tknow, I just had a sense there was something more to you.”
“That’s why you could see Donahue. I should have realized it earlier.” Morgana slapped a palm to her forehead.
“What?” My brows drew together in confusion as I turned to her.
“The man with the sunken face at the Ferris wheel that night. Only those of the ocean can see the Drowned, and you saw him too.”
I stared at her in disbelief, but she shoved her chair back and rushed over, sweeping my hair aside and tugging down the collar of the sweater she’d loaned me.
I jerked away from her. “What are you doing?”
“Look, the Symbol of the Ocean.” Morgana gestured to my shoulder, where a tattooed wave was now burned into my skin. Above it, a crescent moon had begun to rise.
“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” Aranare grinned and stood, lifting his shirt.
