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Because wasn’t it also fair to ask, How can two people who aren’t even meant to breathe the same air fit so well together?

Luke didn’t have an answer for that one either. He didn’t even understand fully how he and Syrus fit. Was it pure, animal attraction? Except that wouldn’t explain the easy warmth Luke felt when Syrus teased him or the panic he’d undergone when he thought Syrus might leave. Nor did it explain the patient sweetness Syrus used with Colby, or the answering tug in Luke’s chest when he witnessed it.

God, did this all really boil down to Syrus thinking something special had happened to make Luke answer his call?

It was true there had been a…pull there. Luke remembered hearing that song for the first time, the sensation of it dancing over his skin. He remembered the ensuing compulsion to come down to the beach to investigate. Luke hadn’t even thought he’d find the musical culprit, so why had he been so determined to try?

He wished he could remember the song itself—the notes and the melody. But it had been so faint, traveling to him through the night air, up the coast, across the road. Luke couldn’t capture it in his mind again.

He was brought back to the present moment by a naked Syrus stepping close. With that longing look on Syrus’s face, Luke had expected him to run straight to the ocean. But instead, Syrus wrapped a strong arm around Luke’s middle and tugged him into a searing kiss.

Luke barely had time to consider reciprocating before Syrus released him and—with a wink—made his way into the water.

Luke glanced down to see if Colby had noticed his father canoodling with their large, naked houseguest, but his son was too busy pouring sand carefully into the cracks in the rock to grace anyone else with his attention.

Luke turned his own gaze back to the ocean. Syrus walked steadily into the water, apparently immune to the freezing temperatures. The surf was mild this morning, and he easily made it past the low waves breaking on the shore. And then, when he was in all the way up to his neck, Syrus just…dipped down and disappeared. Luke waited for him to come back up, but the water remained unbroken around the spot where Luke had last seen him.

Was Syrus swimming as a human or had he transformed already? Luke couldn’t tell.

I should get a boat, Luke thought inanely. With a boat, he could be out there, see things more clearly. Maybe a little one with a motor, or he could learn how to sail…

Jesus. One night of seduction and Luke was already considering sailing lessons. He needed to get a grip.

He knelt on the cold sand and dug into the small backpack he’d brought with him, taking out one of the small bundles wrapped with wax paper. “Ready for some bagel, bud?”

Colby grinned up at him happily. “Yeah! Baguh!”

Luke took another look at his son’s sandy hands and amended, “I’m going to feed you bites, sand man.”

They occupied themselves like that for a little while, Luke alternating between taking his own bites and tearing off small pieces for Colby to devour. He could hardly take his eyes off the ocean to feed his son, but they managed well enough.

Luke was just dusting the crumbs off when something finally broke through the surface. There was Syrus’s blond head, framed by the rising sun. And then his waving arm—Luke could just make out the spur there, the only clear sign from this distance that Syrus was back in his true form.

“Luke!” Syrus called.

Luke stood up, laughing. “I see you!” he called back.

There was a tug on Luke’s pant leg, and he looked down to find Colby frowning up at him. “Dada, up!” Luke picked him up, and Colby gazed out fiercely at the ocean. Clearly he’d wanted a better view.

“Do you see Syrus out in the water?” Luke asked, pointing in the merman’s direction.

“Yeah!” Colby clapped in delight.

Syrus must have sensed the extra attention on him, because he dove down again, and this time that massive tail rose out of the water as he did so, shimmering in the sunlight, so strange and beautiful Luke had to hold his breath.

“Doh-phin!” Colby cried.

Luke coughed. “It does kind of look like a dolphin,” he said slowly. “But that’s Syrus. He’s…um, pretty special, isn’t he?”

Colby didn’t answer that, too busy screaming, “Doh-phin!” repeatedly at the top of his lungs. Luke let it go, distracted by the sight of Syrus popping up and down in the waves, bare chest and blond head followed by his shining blue tail. He was trying to amuse Colby, Luke was pretty sure. Or maybe trying to dazzle Luke.

Either way, he was succeeding.

Luke took a second to study the sheer joy on his son’s face. For all that Luke had worried again and again that the world he was raising Colby in might be too small, too isolated, here Luke had somehow brought his son something… Well, something pretty special, just as he’d said. And if Syrus stayed…

Colby would have magic in his life. They both would. Real-life magic, beyond what most people knew or imagined. Colby would grow older and know exactly just how big and strange this world could be.

It was a frightening thought in some ways. Breathtaking in others.