“I’d leave Tirulia to my sister in a heartbeat. Say the word and I’m mer forever.”
“I’m…exploring that option as well. But what would your people think?”
“What, are you kidding me? They’re already positively moony over the story of you and me, and the defeat of Ursula…The only thing better than having an official mermaid ambassador would be having her marry their besotted Mad Prince and the two living happily ever after. Especially if I gave ’em an opera or two about it.”
“I can see it now. Sebastian and Eric: A Tale of Two Worlds,” Ariel said, putting her hand up as if reading a sign.
“I work alone.”
“Yes, so does Sebastian. Ah well, another great idea tossed into the Great Tide…”
“Hey, check this out,” Eric said, pulling up his sleeve and holding out his arm.
The name Ariel was written out—in mer runes! It circled his arm like the sort of band a warrior would wear, and glistened with oil he had rubbed into it.
“Eric! What did you do?”
“What? Don’t you like it?”
“I love it, but…”
“Until we have wedding rings, I thought it was a nice permanent commitment. Argent did it! Sebastian helped me with the letters.”
“It…must have hurt.”
“You have no idea. That’s how much I love you,” he said, kissing her on the forehead.
They held hands and walked down the beach under the moon, talking about nothing important. Not mermaids, not armies, not sea witches, not fathers, not kingdoms, not distant lands to the west. What they did talk about, no one could much hear; there was a breeze, and the lapping of waves, and the cry of a strangely alert gull. And when they kissed in the light of the moon again, no one saw, and no one cared—except for themselves.
And they were very, very happy.
The moon was just waning. Ariel had gone.
Vareet looked out her window grumpily. She knew the mermaid would be back soon, but it was still hard. Eric was nice—and awfully cute—but she didn’t feel as close to him. Her tutor was endlessly patient. Carlotta was doting and Grimsby spoiled her rotten…but none of them was Ariel.
At least the seagulls were a constant presence. Scuttle had been moved to a comfy nook in a belfry near her, extremely happy with his glittering medal, luxurious retirement, and doting great-grandgull. Jona was made official bird emissary and messenger, keeping lines open between the mer and Eric until Ariel returned. And when Jona wasn’t needed, she tended to stick around Vareet. They couldn’t talk, but they did communicate in their own way. The gull even rode on her shoulder sometimes like a falcon.
Still, Vareet felt a little lonely.
She sighed and climbed into bed, wondering how she would ever get to sleep with all these thoughts in her head.
Then she noticed something on her pillow.
A beautiful, swirled brown and white shell like the one Ursula used to wear, but larger. A whelk, not a nautilus. Vareet picked it up in wonder, turning it over in her hands, admiring its gleam in the moonlight. On a whim she put it to her ear.
Her eyes widened.
In the depths of the shell, she could hear what must have been the echo of distant waves…and also the song of a mermaid.
After the sort of introverted childhood you would expect from a writer, Liz Braswell earned a degree in Egyptology at Brown University and then promptly spent the next ten years producing video games. Finally, she caved in to fate and wrote Snow and Rx under the name Tracy Lynn, followed by the Nine Lives of Chloe King series under her real name, because by then the assassins hunting her were all dead. Liz is also the author of A Whole New World: A Twisted Tale; Once Upon a Dream: A Twisted Tale; and As Old as Time: A Twisted Tale. She lives in Brooklyn with a husband, two children, a cat, a part-time dog, three fish, and five coffee trees she insists will start producing beans any day. You can email her at [email protected] or tweet @LizBraswell.