Flipped Off (4 page)

Power crackled around them, and the vial in her cleavage glowed bright.

Melwiss swayed. “I am happy to pronounce you handfasted with a pending balance. The balance vial will only work for you for the next two years. Take care of it.”

Lorai released Adam’s hand and caught the mage as she collapsed. “Melwiss!”

Juno and Derix came running from their witnessing position near the dock. Derix lifted Melwiss and nodded. “We will take care of her.”

Melwiss waved her hand. “Jus’ tired. Need sleeth an food. Congratulashun. You are blananced.” She fell asleep on Derix’s shoulder. The snoring gave it away.

Juno checked Melwiss’s vitals. “She’s fine. Well, as fine as she can be. She pushes herself too hard. We are going to have to find her some kind of keeper. The Mage Guild is looking into something, but few—if any—will work with her. She is too eccentric for their tastes.”

Derix carried the mage away.

Juno hugged her. “Don’t worry about her. She will be here when you get back.”

Lorai squeezed her. “I don’t know when that is going to be.”

“Take your time. We will be here when you return.” Juno leaned back and rubbed her hands on Lorai’s arms. “Be happy, and your place here will always be waiting for you. Congratulations on your handfasting, but I want you to have the actual wedding here.”

Lorai looked at the woman who was younger than her dress. She smiled. “We will come here for the wedding and the honeymoon.”

“I will take it as a promise. Have a good trip.” Juno smiled.

Adam came over and took Lorai’s hand. “She will; when we have finished the spell, we will come back, no matter when that is.”

Juno grinned, and Lorai saw her following Derix to Melwiss’s cottage while she and Adam headed for the portal. It was time to get back to the human world. She had to visit her mom.

The slip of the stones under her feet was familiar. Lorai had been coming to this cove for the last six hundred years. The day her father died, her mother gave up her contact with the mortal and magical world to stare at the home that had delivered her one true love. The grey-blue waves dashed and crashed against the shoreline in an endless symphony.

Lorai wore a lined gown and a heavy cloak. Two kilometres of icy coastline led to her mother’s final resting place, so to speak. With the crunch of stone under her boots, she made it to the niche in the stone face that housed her mother.

She stood for a minute, taking in the proud features that stared out to sea—half her body wrapped in the stone that surrounded her, and her torso was slowly being overtaken by her resting place. Giants never died, they simply became part of the rock that had birthed them.

“Lorwella of the rock, your daughter requests audience.”

Lorai stood still, getting her strength from the stone around her, just as her mother used to. The sun set and she waited. Days passed and she still waited.

Lorai didn’t know if it had been days or weeks when her mother’s eyes slowly opened. A slight smile creased her translucent lips. “Lorai. You have come for a visit?”

Lorai moved stiffly, her body the same temperature as the rock around her. She walked to her mother and pressed her hand to her parent’s cheek. “I have come to gain your blessing.”

“Why? You have been an adult for eons. You need nothing from me.” Lorwella’s wise eyes were sombre.

“I am handfasted to a shifter.”

If her mother’s stone could have cracked in surprise, it would have.

“A shifter? Oh, my dear, your heart will break when he passes.”

“That is not what will happen. The mages, shifters and fey have made an arrangement. The feys’ birth rates have dropped so drastically that they were in favour of finding a way to bind them to the growing population of shifters. A magical balance is struck, and it binds fey and shifter for however long they live.”

Her mother closed her eyes. “I must think on this.”

“Yes, Mother.”

This was the time-consuming part. Lorai stepped up to her mother and leaned against her while Lorwella thought it over.

The season grew colder before Lorwella’s eyes opened again. “If you can be with him until an end claims you, do it. I would have wanted to go with Orai, but I could not. I did what was natural for me, though it broke my soul. Be with him and bring him to me. I want to see the man that you would give up eternity for.”

“I will. We will be here within the year. If you hold off becoming one with the cliff a little longer, you may yet see grandchildren playing at your feet.”

“I look forward to it. I will endeavour to be up to speed by then. Time does get away from me.” She smiled slightly. “Now, give your mother a kiss and go find your man. It has been months for you, judging by the waves and tides. You should be with him. I give you my blessing. Go and swim with your mate, Lorai.”

“I love you, Mother.”

“I love you, daughter.” Lorwella’s eyes closed, and the faintest line of alabaster began at her hairline.

Tears filled Lorai’s eyes as she walked back to the nearest safe spot for transport. Her mom was coming back to her, so she was really hoping that she hadn’t lied. A grandchild had been promised, so she was going to try to deliver.

Hopefully, Adam would be a willing collaborator.

A controlled transport later and she was in Adam’s home. The change in temperature nearly made her pass out. The forty-degree shift was hard on the body.

She changed clothing and looked around. He was still at sea.

Sighing, she went to his computer and powered it up. He had shown her how to check on the locator on his vessel to get an idea of where he was.

The display gave her a topographical map of the sea floor and the ship’s location.

“That isn’t right.” She muttered it out loud and backed the display up for the previous two weeks.

Her heart pounded in her chest, and she got to her feet with her hands shaking. She checked the vial tied into her hair and let herself out of the house, walking along the deck and down toward the beach. On the way, she shed her dress, her shoes, her underwear, anything that would weigh her down.

Naked, she looked at the water and replayed the map in her mind. She could be there in three hours. As she shifted into her mermaid form, she really hoped that her analysis of the trajectory was wrong.

She had seen that pattern of motion before, but the reason had always been the same. Pirates.

* * * *

Adam winced as Rick checked his wound.

The pirates wanted them to find treasure and were yanking the boat around in an effort to find the
Diadem.

“I can’t believe they shot you.” Rick murmured quietly.

Adam sighed as the pressure on his ribs supported the hole in his flesh. “I can really believe it.”

The pirates were using their equipment and two of their divers.

Adam could have healed himself if he shifted, but he was stuck below decks with Rick. His ship wasn’t his own.

He lay back and thanked his lucky stars that Lorai wasn’t here. He didn’t want her anywhere near this mess, and if he did die of his injury, at least they weren’t mates yet.

She would live a long and healthy life without him.

* * * *

Lorai spotted the salvage boat and the smaller vessel tied to it. She stuck to the edge of the reef and circled the men under the water.

Two divers were fanning the silt to move it, and two others were watching from behind. It didn’t take much effort to figure out that the men with the spear guns were the pirates.

She slipped into the deep water, hiding in the blue as the men worked. They could only manage less than an hour at a time, so she waited until they were out of the water and looked around for the wreck using her senses.

Lorai found some strands of gold chain and wrapped them around her fist. The wreck had struck the edge, the ship was under the silt, but the cargo had fallen into deep water.

With care, she placed the necklaces in the silt and fanned more of it over. She had seeded the site with enough gold to make them remain in place.

After she had faked the find, she returned to the deep and watched from the shadows. It was early enough for another dive. She just had to wait.

She had hardened her skin against the pressure of the deep and any stray spears, but she still acted silently, swimming around the treasure hunters and spy-hopping near the boat.

Three more pirates were on the deck of the boat. The weapons gave them away. There was no sign of Adam, but their tenuous link was still in place. He was there and he was alive.

With three men on deck, she went in search of reinforcements. A distraction was required, and even the most hardened soul stopped for dolphins.

She cruised through the waves and found the pod she was looking for.

The matriarch greeted her formally, and Lorai asked for help. The conversation took place with clicks and body language. Three babies came by to investigate her tail, and Lorai moved it to let them chase it like aquatic kittens.

When they all had a chance to head to the surface and breathe deep, they turned with her toward the ship.

She wanted them as a distraction, but she wanted them safe from the guns. She showed them where she wanted them to be, and they began to cavort as requested.

Lorai poured on the speed and swam under the boat on the far side of the divers. A quick elevation above the surface to the hips and she confirmed that the men had gone to the port side to watch the dolphins. They were pointing and laughing. It almost made her sorry for what she had to do next.

She had only done this manoeuver once in all her years, but it had worked on the Spanish ship, so she was sure it would work on this vessel.

Lorai cruised back nearly a kilometre, turned and moved toward the ship at speed, uncaring if anyone saw her. Twenty feet from the ship, she came out of the water and flew through the air, across the deck, to slam into the pirates and haul them over the side and into the water.

Once they were in, she turned and flashed toward the two guards on the divers, barrelling to them and divesting them of their regulators and their spear guns.

The treasure seekers saw her and saw the men struggling for air. She pointed toward the boat, and they didn’t hesitate. They swam past the floundering pirates struggling to shake off their tanks and moved to take over their ship.

Lorai was one step ahead of them. A flick of her tail and she was out of the water and soaring to the deck. She landed on her feet and went looking for her mate.

The grunt was a sound she was familiar with, but she had never heard him in pain before. She followed the voice and heard two men speaking softly.

The common space smelled of blood and infection. A man was sitting next to Adam and making him smile.

The smile froze when Adam saw her. “Lorai.”

“I leave you alone for a few months and this is what happens?” She tsked and knelt at his side.

The other man was staring with his mouth open. “Adam, why is there a naked woman dripping all over you?”

Lorai eased a hand under his back and another under his thighs. “It’s an illusion.”

Adam grunted. “You can’t carry me.”

She stood up easily. “I can. Now, watch your elbows. We are going to finish what we started.”

The other man scrambled to his feet. “Where are you taking him?”

Lorai smiled and spouted the cover story that they had selected. “Adam here has latent fey genes. We are about to activate them, and then, he will be able to dive as long as he likes.”

It should have been difficult to haul him up and out onto the deck, but it was the curse of those who lived under water. She was far stronger than she looked.

Adam’s lips were white, his skin was hot and his complexion was chalky. There was a glaze to his eyes, and she was more worried than she had ever been.

Adam smiled. “Do you want to do it on the deck or in the ocean?”

“I think we will jump into the water for this. I will need to get you away from the boat. We don’t want to sink your ship.” She smiled.

His men were back on the boat, and the pirate vessel had been cut loose.

The men looked at her warily. A blond asked, “What are you doing with him?”

She smiled and showed a mouthful of pointed teeth. “He is tribute.”

Adam laughed and then gasped. “She is my fiancée. I did tell you that she swam like a fish.”

The two held the gate for her and assisted her onto the floating dock.

Lorai looked at Adam. “Ready?”

“I have waited nearly a year. I am ready.”

She smiled and took a step into the ocean, holding him as the salt water struck the hole in his body.

She supported him with his head above water and pulled at her hair to free the vial. She shifted her feet into fins and pushed them nearly a kilometre from the ship. “Ready?”

He nodded and his head lolled on his neck.

She pulled the cork with her teeth and let the salt water enter the glass.

For a moment, nothing happened. Lorai shook Adam to keep him awake, pressed the vial against him, and suddenly, the magic took hold.

Crackling power filled the water, bound them and pulled his beast from him, splitting it and giving half to her. Her power and the thousands of years were split and given to him. They shared all that they were, and the water boiled around them.

When the power surge stopped, they sank under the waves and let the forms they now had take over.

This was going to take some adjustment.

Lorai looked at the smooth expanse of her dolphin-like tail with the silvery fins and glossy scales. It was different from her blue and green standard.

Adam looked at her with solid black eyes and his black hair moving with the tugs of the water.

You are more beautiful than before.
The admiration in his mental whisper was heady.

You are very attractive yourself. King of the seas.
She flicked her tail and moved around him.