Blueisland (Watermagic Series, #4) (21 page)

“You’re gonna be okay,” Marcel whispered over me. He petted my hair as he scooted in
side the cubby hole beside me. Our eyes met as his hand slid over the top of my head and down the side of my locks in long strokes. “It gets easier. There is a lot of power in being a mer. Once you harness that, your life will bloom like a flower.”

I didn’t respond, but let him continue. I needed his support more than I had ever needed anything, more than I had needed my own mother.

“I heard what the Ancients did to Danny.” He was looking at me as he continued to stroke my hair. It was such a soothing feeling having him with me and touching me so gently like that.

I nodded, trying not to cry, but my stomach twisted up into a knot. What could I say? The Ancients were horrible. Surely, he knew that.
“Thank you for turning him,” I whispered looking up at him into his blue eyes.

His hands fell to his lap. “Did he tell you I converted him?”
His expression was unreadable, but his eyes bored into me.

I swallowed and shook my head. “He said you did that because you knew I cared about him. Is that true?” I felt lightheaded and embarrassed asking that, but I just had to know.

His eyes cast down to his long fingers, amusement playing on his lips. “I can’t wait to get you away from this island. It’s much better out in the world away from the Ancients. You will rule your new high school. Everyone will want to know you just like it is for the rich and famous. It is an exciting life and you will have everything you could ever want, even a family that will love and support you.”

I nodded again. I always wanted a close family and now that I was aligned with my school, we were a family in a sense.
Over the years we would grow closer. The French mers were close like that. It would be a good change to have that kind of love and loyalty in my life like they had. “But the Ancients are forcing me to marry Andrew.”

His face remained expressionless, but his nostrils flared at that. “It’s good to have a companion.” His jaw clenched. “Do you like him?” He asked calmly.

I hated this kind of conversation when you were into someone and they treated you like a friend. “He seems nice. But…” I shook my head in frustration.

“But, what?” he asked cocking an eyebrow while tilting my chin up s
o that I was looking him in the eyes. What beautiful, fiery eyes he had.

I swallowed again.
“He’s just not my type.”

He chuckled. “What’s your type?”
His velvety voice was teasing as he searched my eyes.

You—that’s the truth.
But I couldn’t say that. “Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never really had a type exactly, but there was this dream…”

His eyes lit up. “Dream?”

My cheeks flamed. “Yeah. I used to have reoccurring dreams about one particular guy.” Now I was searching his eyes to see how he would react to that.

He rubbed the back of one of his hands and bit down on his lower lip with his head down. I had to know what he was thinking. “What kinds of things did you do with this guy?” he asked gazing down at me now through his thick dark lashes.

I pulled my knees in closer to my chest and giggled. “Oh, I don’t know—stuff.”

“Why don’t you show me?”
His voice was low and husky.

“Why don’t
you
show
me
? I challenged, emphasizing the “you” and “me”.

He looked away and ran his fingers down his cheek like he was considering it. “Is that a dare?” His eyes shifted back to mine.

“I guess you could call it that.” From the way he was talking, I almost believed that he’d had the same dreams, but I knew that wasn’t possible.

He climbed out of the cubby hole, holding out his hand to me. I took it, relishing in the gentle touch of his body.
I was so curious what he had in mind. What were his intentions?

“Oh, look,” I said, my eyes brightening as I pointed at two blue sea horses swimming over by some purple sea plants.

“I’m telling you being a mer beats being a human ten to one.” A shoal of pretty silver fish swam past as he was speaking. They sparkled in the dim light of early dawn.

Still holding my hand, he said, “Dreams are sometimes surreal, so I know just the place to take you first.”

I tried not to smile when he said, “first” because that implied there would be a second place and maybe even a third place we would go together. Time with Marcel was like magic. I wanted as much as I could have.

We swam up toward the surface of the pristine blue tropical waters di
ving hand in hand over the gentle frothy waves like dolphins. I kept laughing as the bubbles from the waves splashed my face each time we dove over. At times we gained such momentum we were practically flying through the air. That was the ultimate, feeling the heat and flame of the sun on our skin like little hot sparks only to be cooled off by the refreshing, tantalizing water caressing our bodies.

Marcel pulled me close to him as we slowed. We came to a stop and poked our heads out of the water. The sun was peaking up out of the ocean horizon, dark blue sky surrounding it as white clouds crossed over. What a sight!
I felt an odd feeling rush through me. It was like déjà vu, like I had done this before.

“Listen,” he whispered in my ear causing it to tickle and send more tingling sensations through my body. “
At this time in the morning you can hear the Greek oceanids singing praise for the coming day.”

I looked at him, surp
rised to hear such a statement. “What are oceanids?” I whispered.

“They are the three thousand daughters of Titans Oceanus and Tethys
and are patronesses of individual ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, rain clouds, flowers, and pastures. There is a little secret most don’t know about. Every dawn they hide in the clouds over the ocean and sing.” His eyes closed and he seemed to be listening very carefully.

I looked up at the clouds drifting over the sun and searched. I wasn’t sure because looking into the sun can cause one’s minds to play tricks, but I thought I saw some women in Greek robes move out of the clouds and then back in. Taking in a breath,
I closed my eyes and listened. At first I didn’t hear anything, but the gentle rock and flow of the ocean, but then, I started to hear the faintest sounds. The more I tapped into the frequency, the better I could hear it. I heard words in another language at such a high pitch that it made my body quake. “Whoa!” I whispered, shocked by the miraculous songs. On that sound frequency the energy was so powerful I could barely stand it. I feared my body would shatter. But I felt this inner pull that was euphoric like I wanted to connect, but wasn’t at that level.

Before the song overwhelmed me completely, he pulled me under the water. I was released. “Thank you,” I said breathing heavy. “That was out of this world.”

“You better believe it,” he grinned wryly, holding my back with one hand. “You could never have heard the oceanids as a mere human. Only mers and certain other sea creatures have that privilege.”

I was speechless. Just that alone made it worth it to be a mer.
He leaned in toward me and I wondered if maybe he was going to kiss me. Butterflies flapped in my stomach. The anticipation was so great. I wanted to feel his soft lips on mine once again, but this time I so yearned for it to be his move. But, to my dismay, he didn’t kiss me, but only brushed away some loose strands of my hair out of my face.

“Come on,” he said, pulling me down
suddenly by the hand.

“Whoa,” I said, as bubbles rushed past us.

“The oceanids are usually kind, but they have been known to get testy at times,” he said as he edged me onward.

I know I shouldn’t have been, but I was disappointed. He smelled so sensual up that close. Everything from his perfectly formed chest and washboard stomach to his
velvety voice had my body going wild inside. I bet every girl felt that way around Marcel, but I just wished he felt something more for me than the others.

I tried to ignore my frustration.
Hand in hand, we swam above the ocean floor through rock archways, cutting around high reaching sea trees of varying colors through schools of saltwater guppies, twisting over on our backs as their iridescent bodies rushed over us. What a feeling!

My ears were so in tune that I heard a giant clam open its shell. Its pale pink tongue looked like a bed to lie in, but I wouldn’t risk getting trapped inside. The sea plants of many colors and shapes swayed side to side with the natural rhythms of the deep blue sea.

We swam down the backside of a mountain and continued to descend as the water grew darker and darker. It was much colder. My body started to tremble from nerves. It was spooky in the dark, but I appreciated holding Marcel’s hand. A sting ray with its long flappy wings swam past us. I gripped Marcel’s hand and pulled my body against his side, causing my fear to turn to something else altogether.

“It’s true they are dangerous,” he said
chuckling, “but they usually only attack mers in self-defense. Most often they keep to the warmer waters and hang out under the sand on the ocean floor. I’m not sure what this one is up to.”

The thing was huge.
Like a daredevil, he pulled me under it and away, causing me to nearly faint. “Oh, my! That was close,” I mumbled as I looked back watching it glide away.

He was still chuckling. “Believe me—I’m much more dangerous than that goofball.”

I assumed he was teasing, but I wasn’t sure as I searched his enigmatic face. “Why weren’t you at the Trident Court’s get-together last night?” I asked as we continued to swim downward through the dark water.

Amusement seemed to
dance on his lips like he had a private joke playing in his mind. “I was called away on business. Some overseas mergers, but that wasn’t the highlight…” He was smirking now.

“What?” I asked trying to figure out what he was going to say.

“The Trident Court hired one of my companies to design a house for you and your school. We have a special team that will build it very soon.”

My chest tightened. “What’s the house like?” I was sad that I wouldn’t be sharing the same home with Marcel. I wondered if I would ever see him again once we left the island and started our new lives.

“You’ll see,” he teased, squeezing my hand just enough to increase the electrical current I was already feeling before.

We came to the bottom of the mountain and t
he ground leveled out. The ocean floor was dark and rocky there with little plants growing out of the cracks. I noticed a lot of sea crabs. There were some purple sea urchins, orange starfish, and phosphorescent sea anemones along the rocks and crevices. A shoal of pale colored fish wove around some tall branchy out growths that looked a bit like purple barren trees with tiny white dots speckling their surfaces.

I could see what looked like
rolling yellow hills with orange pastures in the distance. Beyond that seemed to be a village. There were lots of tents of varying colors and makeshift houses. Whatever kind of creatures lived there were likely more primitive than the Ancients.

“This is the hamlet of my friends, the Miengu,” Marcel said in his lyrical voice.

“What are Miengu?” I asked looking ahead at the village.

“
A nomadic group, they are water spirits originally from Africa. They are healers and serve as links between the spiritual domain and the physical domain.”

I rolled my eyes, not really knowing what he meant exactly.

“You’ll see,” he grinned crookedly. “I want you to meet my friend Jengu Wata. We’re just going to get some medicine for one of the Ancients and then leave.”

I was curious about the creature he was going to introduce me to, but I felt disappointed because the plan wasn’t what I expected.
It didn’t seem like what he implied at the start of our adventure.

We swam o
ver the rolling yellow hills of sea trees in bloom and leafy vines with bulbous lights before coming to an orange pasture of sea grass where white horse-like creatures with smooth seal skin, big webbed feet and sky blue sea plant-like manes and tails were grazing. The water animals looked mean when they looked up at us with flared nostrils and pale blue eyes. The leader of them reared up at us.

My heart rate sped up as I looked down the monster’s nostrils. Holy crap. That beast was huge.

“Hey, there, boy,” Marcel said in a calming voice. I felt his hand tense as he blocked me with his body from the creature. Looking over his strong shoulder, I saw the horse blow bubbles out of his nostrils and shake his head like he was somewhat pacified.

Marcel looked away from the horse to me. “They know me once they hear
my voice. Their eyes are blind, but men have to be careful especially on land because they can shape-shift into beautiful deadly women and lure them to their deaths. Sometimes they keep the form of beautiful horses and when people climb on their backs they adhere to their sticky, deathly skin. They ride into the ocean only to be devoured.”

My body shuddered as w
e kicked past. “What are those animals called?” I asked, looking back over my shoulder, seeing that they had resumed grazing on the orange sea grass, but the leader was scuffing at the ground, gazing vacantly in our direction. I got the feeling he might charge at us any second.