I was crying fully now. I couldn't help it. Tears streamed down my cheeks, warm and wet in the cooling evening air, dripping from my chin into the water far below. No one had ever said anything like that to me. No one had ever looked at me the way they were looking at me, like I mattered, like I was valuable, like I was worth something beyond my designation.
"Tomorrow," I said, and the word felt like a promise, like a vow, like the beginning of something I couldn't yet name. My voice shook, thick with tears, but I didn't care. "Tomorrow, I'll come to you. I'll drink your potion. I'll swim with you. I'll let you show me your world. I want to see it. I want to see everything."
Riven's growl of satisfaction rumbled across the water like thunder, his whole body vibrating with barely contained joy. His tail lashed the water, sending up spray that caught the last light of the sun. Thane's face split into a smile so bright it rivaled the emerging stars, his amber eyes glistening with tears of his own. Vale pressed both hands to his heart, his eyes closing briefly in what looked like relief, like prayer, like the release of a breath held far too long.
Kaelan just watched me with those dark, fathomless eyes, and something in his expression made me feel like I was the center of his entire universe. Like nothing else existed. Like nothing else mattered.
"Tomorrow," he agreed, his voice low and reverent, thick with emotion he was no longer trying to hide. His pale hand pressed against his heart one final time. "We'll be waiting. We'll always be waiting for you. No matter how long it takes. No matter what happens. We will always be here."
They sank beneath the surface slowly, reluctantly, their eyes holding mine until the very last moment. The water closed over their heads and they were gone, but not really gone. I could feel them down there, could feel their presence in the deep like a weight at the other end of a rope, like a promise that couldn't be broken.
I stayed at the railing long after they disappeared. Stayed until the stars were fully out, scattered across the black velvet sky like diamonds on dark cloth. Stayed until the moon rose silver over the sea, casting a path of light across the water that looked almost like a road, like a way forward, like an invitation.
Kaelan. Riven. Vale. Thane.
I whispered their names into the darkness, learning the shape of them, the weight of them, the way they felt on my tongue. Four names. Four creatures. Four impossible beings who looked at me like I was precious.
Tomorrow, I would dive into the sea and breathe water like it was air. Tomorrow, I would swim with mermaids who wore my ribbons against their skin. Tomorrow, everything would change. I touched the pouch of gifts beneath my shirt—the shells and pearls and sea glass they'd given me. Pressed my hand against them, feeling their familiar shapes, their comforting weight against my heart.
Tomorrow couldn't come fast enough.
Chapter Ten
LILY
I had to wait three days.
Three days. Not "tomorrow" like I'd promised. Not the next evening, slipping away at sunset, diving into their arms the way I'd dreamed about all through the sleepless night. Three agonizing, endless, torturous days.
The first day, Brennan assigned me to inventory duty below deck, hours of counting barrels and crates and supplies in the cramped, airless hold where I couldn't even see the water. By the time I emerged, covered in dust and sweat, the sun had already set and the crew was gathering for the evening meal. Too many eyes. Too many people who would notice if I disappeared.
I went to the railing anyway, just for a moment, and I saw them, four shapes hovering just beneath the surface, waiting. Kaelan's pale hand pressed against the hull of the ship like he could reach through the wood and touch me. Riven's crimson tail lashing with barely contained impatience. Thane's amber eyes finding mine through the darkness, soft with concern. AndVale, whose voice I still hadn't heard, making gestures I couldn't understand from this distance.
I pressed my own hand against the railing, as close to them as I could get, and mouthed the words: I'm sorry. I can't. Tomorrow.
The look in Kaelan's eyes, the disappointment, the longing, the fierce restraint—made my chest ache like something was breaking inside it.
The second day was worse. Cort cornered me at breakfast, his bulk blocking the narrow passage to the galley, his small eyes fixed on me with that calculating hunger that made my skin crawl.
"You've been distracted lately." His voice was deceptively casual, but his nostrils flared as he spoke, scenting the air around me. "Spending a lot of time at the stern. Staring at the water." He leaned closer, and I pressed myself back against the wall, my heart hammering. "What's so interesting out there, little mouse?"
"Nothing." The lie tasted like ash on my tongue. "Just... I like watching the sunset. It's peaceful."
"Peaceful." He repeated the word like he didn't believe it, like he was turning it over and examining it for cracks. His hand came up to rest on the wall beside my head, caging me in. "You know, if you're feeling restless, I could help with that. Keep you company. Make sure you're not... lonely."
I ducked under his arm and fled before he could say anything else, my stomach churning with nausea and fear. That evening, when I tried to slip away to the stern, I found Decker lounging against the railing, his pale eyes glittering with malicious amusement.
"Looking for something?" His thin lips curved in a smirk. "Or someone?"
I retreated to my hammock and pressed my face into the rough fabric and didn't cry. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of crying. But I thought about Kaelan and Riven and Thane and Vale, waiting in the water below, and I felt like I was being torn in half.
The third day, I was desperate enough to take risks.
I volunteered for the dawn watch, the shift no one wanted, the cold and lonely hours before sunrise when most of the crew was still asleep. I thought I could slip away in the darkness, dive into the water while no one was looking, steal even a few minutes with them. The sea was rough that night, waves crashing against the hull, wind howling through the rigging. Even if I'd managed to get into the water, I wouldn't have been able to find them in the chaos. Wouldn't have been able to hear them over the roar of the storm. I stood at the railing anyway, drenched with spray, shivering in the pre-dawn cold, and strained my eyes against the darkness. Looking for any sign of them. Any flash of scales, any gleam of pale skin, anything.
Nothing. Just the endless, angry sea.
By the time the storm passed and the sun rose, I was exhausted and heartsick and so frustrated I wanted to scream. Three days. Three days of waiting, of watching, of wanting something I couldn't have. Three days of breaking the promise I'd made, of seeing the hope in their eyes turn to confusion and then concern and then a kind of patient resignation that somehow hurt worse than anger would have.
