“Read—” Finn started as he heard Iris coming. But hisvoice fell away as he turned and looked at her. “Damn,” he said, exhaling hard as his gaze slid over her.
Each inch his eyes moved over felt like it warmed. And Iris couldn’t help but press her hand to her belly as it flip-flopped.
“We’ll be the picture-perfect couple,” she said, though she was pretty sure she was saying it to remind herself that this was a publicity stunt, not just a fun day out.
“Of course,” Finn said.
Iris was sure it was just her seeing what she wished to see, but she could swear she saw something sad cross his eyes.
“That’s the point,” he added, his voice deader than just a moment before. “Do you want me to carry anything for you, so you don’t need to bring a bag?”
“Oh, my phone. I want to take pictures. To show my sisters. If, you know, I see them again.”
“Of course you will see them again.” Finn’s certainty eased the ache at her sisters’ absence.
He shoved her phone in his back pocket, and then the two of them were off.
The barricades were already up to keep cars off the street, and thousands of people were on the sidewalks.
Iris was at once assaulted by the scents of hot pretzels, hot dogs, gyros, and the sickly-sweet smell of cotton candy coming from the dozens of food carts hanging around, just waiting for hungry spectators to stop by for some food.
“I forgot to ask Willow if she was going to be a part of this,” Iris said as she spotted a float parked down a side street, waiting for the parade to start, that featured several tall trees and a few potted little ones. She couldn’t help but imagine adult dryads and little baby ones popping out of their trees as the float started to move.
“She told me last year that her tree is still too fragile to try to uproot it. But I’m sure she will be here. I’m surprised Monty isn’t here. This seems right up his alley.”
“Oh, he’s going to be here, all right. He got himself on a float.”
“A float? But he’s not fae.”
“Nope. But he has charmed the fae royal family. They invited him to ride with them.”
“I think I underestimated that pelican,” Finn said. “He really does seem to be going places.”
“He has always been a determined bird.”
“How did he come to talk?” Finn asked as they moved close to the barricade to secure their spots, as the crowd started to grow.
“Well, when I was a little mermaid, I was really lonely.”
“Really? Why?”
“Well, I guess I was a bit awkward. I kind of preferred to stay in the royal library and read. And no one else ever wanted to discuss books or anything like that, so I always kind of felt like an outsider.”
“So you befriended a talking pelican?”
“Well, actually, Monty didn’t speak then. He was just a bird who I swore had really knowing eyes. I used to sit on a rock and talk to him, tell him about my books, about my hopes, about what my mother was angry with me about that week.”
“How did he gain the ability?”
“Well, I remembered the stories of the Echoing Tides from my studies.”
At Finn’s blank look, Iris went on.
“Beneath the twilight tide, it was said that there is a species of rare oyster that absorbed not just seawater and minerals, but songs, stories, and secrets.
“Every hundred or so years, just after reproducing, the oyster travels to the harp coral and dies. And if you’re really lucky, you can find the pearls.
“So one night, I snuck out during one of my mother’s dinner parties and went in search of the pearl. It took me all night and part of the morning, but I finally found one.
