Forgive My Fins (18 page)

“What about Quince?” I ask, grasping at anything that might get me—us—out of this mess. “He can’t just disappear for a weekend. I mean, last weekend was bad enough, that was just a day—”

“I have already sent a messenger gull to Rachel, asking her to give an explanation to his mother.” Daddy gives me a stern look. “You will not get out of this Challenge.”

“The Challenge?” Quince asks. “What’s the Challenge?”

Calliope speaks up, finally. “It’s terribly romantic, actually,” she says, making swoony eyes. “You and the princess will be sent to a deserted island for the next two days, with only each other and brief visits from friends and family for company.”

“Deserted?” Quince repeats. “How deserted?”

“You, me, and a palm tree,” I say.

“Not even an island monkey?” he asks with a smile.

I find myself smiling back despite my anger. “Maybe a seagull or two.”

“This is serious, Lily,” Daddy says. “Calliope will visit you to evaluate your situation, as will I.”

I release a heavy sigh as I sink back down into my seat. “I know.”

If Quince and I can’t prove we’re an unsuitable match, Calliope has the same power Daddy has to deny the separation. I’m not sure why Daddy is doing this, but clearly we’re not getting out of it. Now that it’s begun, I just want to get it over with.

“How soon do we start?” I ask.

Calliope brightens. “Immediately.” She gathers her massive bag from the floor. “I will be happy to show you to the island and explain the rules.”

I nod. “Let’s do it.”

18

T
he “island” is really a tiny atoll, a ring of sand-covered reef that peeks through the surface. At least the sand is deep enough to support some grasses and shrubby bushes and one sad palm tree that grows at a forty-five-degree angle to the ground. At the center of the ring is a blue hole, like a private plunge pool.

“The rules of the Challenge are simple,” Calliope says. “For the next two days you cannot leave the bounds of the island. If you need hydration or salinization, use the blue hole.”

“What about food?” Quince asks.

Leave it to a guy to focus on his stomach. We just ate!

“All necessary sustenance will be provided. You may choose to shelter on land, but I would recommend the pool.” Calliope seems way too excited about this.

I guess it’s not very often that she gets to perform her full duties. Especially in the case of a mer-terraped bond. Humans in Thalassinia aren’t totally unheard of; we get a few each year. But usually they are so undeniably in love with their mermate that a separation is unthinkable. My situation is unique, to say the least.

“You will be presented with three tests,” she says, positively glowing with enthusiasm. “You might not know you are facing a test at the time, but your performance will still be evaluated.”

“Great,” I mutter.

Quince asks, “So, we pass the tests, and then the separation goes ahead?”

“They are not pass or fail,” she explains. “Your performance in the Challenge is evaluated by his highness and myself. At the end of the forty-eight hours, I will make my recommendation, but the king will make the final decision.”

“Fine.” I kick at the sand. “Let’s get started.”

Calliope clucks at me—yes, actually clucks. “I’ll leave you, then. Your first test will be administered in the morning.”

She turns and dives into the sea, transfiguring from her finkini to her fin as she sails through the air. Great. I drop down onto the sand. The last thing I wanted this weekend was to be stuck on a stupid island with Quince. We were supposed to be separated by now. I’d been thinking, We’ll have dinner, then the separation, and maybe frozen sugar cakes for dessert. Not, We’ll spend two days together on a stupid island.

I need to get back to Brody.

Quince lowers onto the sand next to me.

“I know you’re pissed,” he says, staring out at the ocean horizon. “I can feel it. But we’ll get through this, and then it’ll be over.”

He doesn’t sound quite as eager for the separation as I feel, but he must want to get this over and done so he can get back to his regular life. A weekend on a deserted island wasn’t exactly in his plans, either.

“Even though it’s partly your fault,” I say, although there’s not a lot of accusation behind my words—he didn’t know the mess he’d be getting into with that kiss—“I’m sorry you got dragged into this whole thing. My dad is taking it kind of disproportionately serious.”

“No big,” he says with a shrug. “I mean, it’s not every day a guy gets to hang in a magical, mythical kingdom surrounded by beautiful mermaids.”

He leans into me, nudging me with his shoulder. Like a buddy.

Yeah, right. Beautiful. Not me. No one has ever looked at me and thought, Wow, that Lily Sanderson is one beautiful girl. On my best day, I’m cute. On my worst, a frizz-balled mess.

“You’re being hard on yourself, aren’t you?” Quince asks.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know for sure,” he says, rubbing his wrists on his knees. “I just get the feeling that you’re thinking negatively about yourself. I know that sounds ridiculous—”

“No,” I interrupt. “It doesn’t. The emotional connection of the bond gets stronger the longer it goes on.”

“Oh.” He turns to look at me. “So you
were
being hard on yourself?”

I can’t see any reason to lie. “I guess so.”

“Why?”

“I just—” I feel kind of ridiculous talking to Quince, of all people, about this. With the bond connecting us, though, he’ll probably understand better than anyone right now. “I know I’m not beautiful. Underwater I feel almost pretty, but on land…” I hold out my already-frizzed hair as evidence. “I feel like a mess.”

“You don’t think you’re beautiful?” His voice is low and uninflected.

“I know I’m not,” I reply. “Not like Courtney or Dosinia. Even Peri has an elegant kind of beauty. I’m just…me.”

Me, with the freckles and skinny legs and too-big lips and eyes. Who could find that attractive? I’m like a speckled ostrich.

“You shouldn’t make assumptions about how others view you, Lily.” He sounds so sincere, I can’t help but look up as he adds, “Some people find beauty in chaos.”

Without waiting for a response, he pushes to his feet and walks away. As I stare at his retreating back, I ask, “Hey, was that from a poem or something?”

Just before he jumps into the pool, he says, “Or something.”

I sit on the beach—staring after him and kind of wondering what the shellfish is going on—until the evening chill hits me. With the sun sinking below the horizon, the surface temperature drops a dozen degrees. Time to turn in for the night—at least I can warm the water in the pool to a decent temp. Tomorrow will bring the tests. As soon as Daddy and Calliope realize Quince and I are the worst match in merworld history, we’ll be separated and back home before you can say “Some people find beauty in chaos.”

Now, why did that phrase stick with me?

“Morning, sleepyheads.”

Peri’s voice penetrates my deep fog of sleep. What is Peri doing in my bedroom? She’s never visited Aunt Rachel’s house.

“Aren’t you two just as cozy as a pair of pearls in a puka shell?”

I bolt upright at the sound of Dosinia’s sneering comment. I
know
Doe is not in my room—she hates the human world and wouldn’t set foot on the mainland if you paid her.

The first thing I remember is I’m not in my room. I’m in the deep blue hole on Calliope’s Challenge island. And the second thing is that I fell asleep next to Quince so my temperature regulation would keep him warm too.

Only sometime in the night we moved from sleeping
next
to each other to sleeping
cuddled
together.

Roused from his sleep by my movements, he stretches his arms wide and yawns so loud, he practically roars. “Morning, princess.”

Peri clears her throat with a pointed
a-hem.

Quince’s eyes finally spread open. His broad smile shows no shame—not that we have anything to be ashamed about. “Morning, ladies. What brings you to our fair island?”

“The Challenge,” Peri replies with a smile. “I’m administering one of your tests.”

With a strong kick, I jet away from his side. Giving Dosinia a skeptical look, I ask, “And why are you here?”

She shrugs and purses her glossy lips. “Uncle Whelk asked me to help.”

Thanks, Daddy.

Certain I look like a fright, I try to tame my curls by running fingers through my hair. It’s so unfair that Quince can wake up looking exactly like he did when he went to sleep, only with sleepy eyes and pink cheeks.

“So what’s the test?” I ask Peri, trying to ignore how Dosinia is eyeballing Quince’s bare chest. Maybe I should have made him keep the T-shirt on this time.

“It’s going to be super-cool,” Peri exclaims. “You’re each going to make a gift for the other.”

“A gift?” I ask.

“Yes.” She claps her hands. “I’ll stay in the pool and help you create your gift. Dosinia will go with Quince above the surface to make his.”

“Are there any requirements?” Quince asks, proving that he’s actually awake and paying attention.

“Nope.” Peri shakes her head. “Just that it has to be hand-made. And with Lily in mind.”

This sounds dumb. How does my making a gift for Quince prove anything about our unsuitability?

He doesn’t seem quite as skeptical. “Let’s get to it.”

With a strong push off the ledge that has been our bed, he shoots toward the surface. Dosinia looks right at me as she says, “This should be fun.” Then she smirks and follows Quince.

“Could she be any more obnoxious?” I ask once she breaks the surface.

“Probably,” Peri says absently. “So what do you want to make?”

I look around the hole. All I see is a reef wall dotted with brightly colored anemones and sea fans and other marine life. If this gift is supposed to be for Quince, I can’t use anything perishable like anemones or kelp. On land, those would just rot in a day or two and wind up making his room stink worse than it probably already does.

“I have no idea, Per,” I complain. “The hole doesn’t have much to offer.”

“Why don’t we explore some?” she suggests. “I’ll go up, you go down.”

I shrug in agreement. As she kicks up to the top of the hole, I swim down. This is stupid. I’m never going to find something that Quince will—

Before I even finish my mental whine, I see it. A perfect blue sand dollar, about an inch and a half across. Quince was fascinated by the sculpture in the starfish room, so maybe he’ll like this.

I let Peri know I’ve found something. Her shadow moves over me as she swims down to inspect my find.

Maybe I’m wrong.

“He’s going to hate it,” I grumble. “I don’t know anything about what he’d want. See, we’re totally unsuitable.”

“You never know,” Peri says, admiring the sand dollar. “Maybe he’ll love it.”

I shrug off her suggestion. It doesn’t matter. I’m not about to spend all day making a stupid gift for a stupid test because my dad won’t grant the stupid separation. Quickly locating some
chorda
, I braid together a makeshift string that I know will dry into a ropelike finish when it hits the air. In a few minutes, I’ve finished the cord and strung the sand dollar at the center.

To seal the blue color, I hold the sand dollar between my palms and flash-freeze it.

“What do you think?” I ask, holding it up for Peri to inspect. I’m actually pretty proud of my creation.

“I think,” she says, eyeing the necklace and then me, “that I don’t understand why you hate him so much.”

I scowl. Where did that come from? I tie the necklace around my neck so I don’t lose it.

“I don’t hate him,” I admit. “Not really. Sometimes I think I do, but he’s not really an awful guy
all
the time.”

“So what then?” Peri swims up and studies my face. “Why throw away a perfectly good bond?”

A perfectly good bond? I’m not sure what’s going on here. I mean, Peri is on my side. Isn’t she? She knows how I feel about Brody. Why is she encouraging me to keep Quince—as if he’s mine to keep anyway?

“You know why,” I say, my water-dulled frustration coming out as mild annoyance.

“Brody,” she says, sounding disappointed.

“Yes,” I reply. “Brody. The guy I’ve been in love with for three years. The guy I’m
supposed
to be bonded with.”

“Don’t get defensive.” Peri waves her tail fin back and forth in an agitated gesture. “I just don’t understand why Brody is so much more appealing than Quince. Explain it to me.”

“Quince is…” I whip around in a circle, trying to gather my thoughts. “He’s everything I don’t want. He’s rude and pushy and loves tweaking me at every opportunity. He is a land lover with two capital Ls.” I stop spinning and try to face Peri, but the world around me keeps whirling for several seconds. “Did you know he couldn’t even swim before last weekend?”

“So?” Peri argues. “Now he can.”

“You don’t get it,” I complain. “I belong in the water. Brody belongs here too.” I take a breath, picturing Brody swimming the butterfly. And then Quince on his disaster of a motorcycle. “Quince belongs on land.”

Peri studies my face, my eyes, like she’s trying to read my deepest thoughts. If anyone can, it’s her. But I don’t get to find out what she sees. In the end, she gives me a gentle smile. “I’m sure everything will work out how it’s supposed to.”

Yeah, with me and Brody together under the sea, while Quince stays safe and permanently dry, where he belongs.

“I hope so,” I say as we begin our ascent. “I desperately hope so.”

As we break the surface, I don’t see Quince and Dosinia anywhere. Which is troubling, because Calliope said we couldn’t leave the bounds of the island. If Dosinia tricked Quince into breaking the rules, I’ll strangle her. The last thing I need is this Challenge voided so we have to start over or something.

Then I hear giggling from beyond the shrubby bushes on the north side of the island.

“You are so good with your hands,” Doe coos in her boy-hunting sultry voice. “I can’t think of a merman in Thalassinia with that kind of skill.”