That name. Azure.A. Like the letter carved on the tooth atthe end of a bracelet of hair. I watched as the name snared and tightened around my wife.
“You’re mistaken,” said Indigo. “Have we even met?”
“We went to high school together! You guys had that crazy graduation party?” The woman paused. Frowned. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. You’re not Azure... Indigo?”
The way she said the name. There was a distaste to it. The other woman’s mouth crimped, and I wondered what memory she held behind her teeth.
Indigo’s smile turned brittle. “The one and only.”
Indigo gestured at the hotel. It was a sign:You are in my realm.
The other woman managed a laugh. “Oh my God, it’s been ages! I’m visiting family, haven’t been back in years. How are you? Do you and Azure still talk?”
“No,” said Indigo. “I haven’t seen her in years. She left the island.”
Within seconds, Indigo summoned a frosty, regal sheen, as if she were made of gems and even her shadow were too precious to step on. The other woman picked it up like a scent.
“Right,” the woman said, matching Indigo’s coolness. “Sorry to hear that. You two always seemed close.”
“Life rarely goes as planned,” said Indigo. “I hope you have a pleasant stay on the property.”
“Thanks,” said the woman, nodding at me once before turning on her heel.
My head started to ache. By the time we were alone in our rooms, I could not remember how we had got there. My mouth tasted of salt.
I couldn’t stop thinking of the pain on Indigo’s face. All these years, she had carried a secret wound. I’d known it existed, thoughshe had forbidden me from asking any questions. In that time, a chasm had widened between us. And now I knew it had a name.
“Who is Azure?”
Indigo stiffened. I had never once broken her rules, but I could not ignore that. Not when it was so boldly thrown in my face. Indigo sat at the foot of the bed, digging her thumbs into the arches of her reddened feet.
“She was my best friend,” she said, not looking at me, not repeating her name. “We had a fight. She ran away after graduation.” Indigo breathed carefully, as if the air had been disturbed by her admission. “She was the closest I had to a sister growing up. It’s hard to speak of her.”
For months now, I had dreamt of the engravedAand the cool braid of dark hair. I told myself it was a hundred different things... an odd souvenir from a lost love, a magic spell to ward off evil, a keepsake of her mother’s. But theAwas for Azure.
Indigo disappeared into the bathroom. When she emerged, she wore a long, white nightgown I had never seen before. It reminded me of the figure in the window.
“Are you coming to bed?”
“Soon.”
I drew a bath and stared at the water. I wondered about Melusine’s husband breaking his promise. Folklore categorized Melusine a mermaid, but never clarified whether that’s what her husband saw. I wondered about the moment when he caught the muscular flex of her tail, the red in her scales like so much gore, the knowledge of how she must have cramped her otherworldliness to fit into something as silly as a tub of water. When he broke his promise, did he see a mermaid, a maiden, or a monster?
If I broke my promise to Indigo, what would I see?
Chapter Six
The Bridegroom
The next morning, the blue bitterness of Azure’s name remained coiled in my jaw.
“You’re awake.”
Indigo sat up in bed, staring at me.
“I don’t want to be,” I said.
I turned from where I had been leaning against the large windows that looked out over the wind-wrinkled sea. I have never liked swimming in open water. I hated the cold void of the ocean, the disturbing weightlessness of my own limbs. Indigo’s eyes were cold and depthless, and I felt that same sensation, a pebbled seafloor pulling my feet out from under me.
