I immediately head for the bathroom, glad that the roommate didn’t stick around. After setting Caspian in the tub, fully clothed, I turn on the water, and go on the hunt for salt. Ifind a box of table salt, a little container of some kind of fancy flake salt, and in the very back of their pantry a bag of rock salt—the kind used for old-fashioned ice cream makers. Perfect.
I dump all of it in the tub with Caspian. As soon as the salt is absorbed, his legs start to change. Watching his transformation from the cliffs was incredible, but seeing it up close is breathtaking.
I admit, I may have gotten the idea to use the tub from that one movie, but the film holdsnothingto the magic that’s happening right in front of me. The skin on his legs puckers before scales seem to rise like goosebumps. They gain color as they become more prominent, an iridescent ombre of turquoise and blue that knits together like chainmail.
Instead of the classic drawing of mermaids with a whale tail, his is more like that of a beta fish, the fins unfurling and floating ethereally in the water. He’s fucking beautiful.
After a few minutes of me wringing my hands and silently begging him to be okay while staring at him in wonder, Caspian blinks his eyes open. The color is already returning to his cheeks.
“What happened?” he croaks, voice gravelly in a way that shouldn’t turn me on, but does.
“You dried out.” I smile and sit on my hands to hide the shaking. The relief I feel at seeing him revive is unparalleled.
“Do you feel better?” I ask.
He nods, then looks down at his fully formed tail sticking out of the water. “Oh. Um… are you going to experiment on me?”
“What? No!” I balk at the suggestion, but then pause. Ihave colleagues who would do just that. And didn’t I want to take him to coffee to question him? “You’re a living person, with rights. Do I want to know everything about you and how this is possible? Absolutely. But I won’t encroach upon your freedom or experiment on you.”
Caspian tilts his head, gaze sliding around my face before he looks away and nods. He pulls his shredded shorts out of the water, and sets them on the edge of the tub. “Madi said people will want to study me.”
I stare at the glistening scales on his tail. “There are some people who would. She’s right to keep this a secret, but I’m good with secrets.”
“Really? Tell me one.” He gives me a cheeky smile, twisting to rest both arms on the side of the tub and his chin on his crossed wrists. The ashen quality his skin had before is gone now, and there’s just a touch of color in his pale cheeks. He looks so sweet and boyish, I can’t help but smile.
“I wouldn’t be good at secrets if I did that.” I flick a bit of water at him. “But I’ll tell you one of mine. That way if I share your secret, you can share mine. Deal?”
“Deal.” His returning smile is as bright as a rainbow.
I reposition so I’m sitting cross legged on the floor instead of kneeling. “Now, I’ve never told anyone this, but I once entered an art contest, and the drawing was so bad they sent it back with a brochure for one of their classes.”
“That doesn’t count.” Caspian shakes his head disapprovingly. “It needs to be on the same level as mine.”
“Okay.” I lean back on my hands. The tile is cold beneath my palms, which have turned clammy as I think of the biggest secret I have. One I haven’t shared with anyone. Not even Seb, though I think he’s guessed it, especiallyafter our last call. I drop my head against the wall and look up at the ceiling. “I’m in love with my best friend.”
Caspian sits up straighter. “Hunter?”
A door slams down the hall before I can answer.
“Caspian!” Madi calls, sounding panicked.
“Phoenix?” Hunter’s loud footsteps sound just behind Madi’s lighter ones, getting closer and closer.
“In here,” I holler back.
Caspian gives me a wide-eyed look and shakes his head, water splashing over the tub as he struggles to get out before they get here. I place a hand on his shoulder to still him. He can’t keep this from Hunter. It’s clear the three of them are going to be pack, and if that’s the case, Hunter needs to know the truth.
“It’s not telling the secret if he finds out for himself,” I say, feeling a little bad for my manipulation, but I know it’s for the best.
Caspian glares daggers at me, making it clear he’s going to spill my secret to Hunter because of this. It’s a risk I’m willing to take. Maybe it’s time. I wipe my dry hands on my pants, and hold my breath.
The bathroom door swings open. “Where have you been? We’ve been looking—” Hunter freezes in the doorway. “What the hell?!”
26
Ican’t be seeing this right. I stop so suddenly, Madison runs into my back. I rub my eyes, but nothing changes. A massive tail hangs out of the bathtub. A tail attached toCaspian.
“W-what?” I blink, but nothing changes. Caspian won’t meet my eyes, staring instead at his scales. Scales! The tail flicks, the edges of the fins fluttering a beat after the motion. What the fucking hell. “I need to sit down.”
