Page 85 of Ensnaring the Siren

Could he really ask her to swim farther than she already did? He’d gladly use all his leave to fly back to Haven Cove and visit, but would it be enough?

A sinking feeling settled into the pit of his stomach.

That was a few weeks out of the year at most. Something was better than nothing, of course, but it would be hard.

“You know,” Lila continued, keeping her tone casual. “Mermaid research is starting to bring in the kind of funding for ocean exploration that outer space has always gotten. We’re going to have a large research ship out here soon once the area is officially declared a marine sanctuary. Think of it like a space station. We’re going to need a rescue swimmer onboard, and there’ll be research internship positions, too, for anyone with an interest in marine science. No experience necessary.”

Lorelei smirked. “Are you offering him a job?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time I got someone a job who needed it for love,” Lila replied with a sly, knowing grin.

“And career dreams!” Lorelei playfully whacked her friend on the arm.

“The pay and benefits will be so good.”

Reid snorted. That was an innuendo if he ever heard one.

“Lila, gross. That’s my brother.”

“We’ll get you technical diver certified,” Lila plowed on shamelessly, “so you can visit Nireed during your downtime. I guess it would still be a long-distance relationship, what with breathing limitations, but she’s less than two hundred feet below us right now, so really, it’s like you’d be living in the same neighborhood, same block even. Which is a lot better than being sixty miles away, or more, at any given time.”

The wheels in his head were turning.

Stationed out here permanently as a civilian rescue swimmer and a duck scrubber? It was a good pitch. Great even. Something he might’ve considered regardless of the circumstances. It would be like living in a National Geographic documentary—always on the forefront of discovery. His casual love of science didn’t have to be casual or vicarious. He could do actual field work in the Gulf of Maine and with a world-renowned marine biologist. The expert in mermaid science.

Who was also an unapologetic matchmaker.

And his sister lived here. Not to mention his mom already made regular trips out to see her. Why not for him, too?

Opportunities like this didn’t come around often. And he didn’t see why he shouldn’t consider it.

Lorelei was the last person Nireed expected to see. But here she was, in the underwater abode Nireed shared with her sister, shaking her from a depressed stupor and dragging her out by the arm and into a fresh current of water.

“What’s happening?” Nireed signed one-handed. “Is it Nautic?”

Lorelei shook her head, continuing to tow her along.

Scenting the water around them, Nireed tried to decipher Lorelei’s mood, but it was annoyingly obscure. But what she did catch was a whiff of a familiar scent she’d been desperately trying to forget up until now. Why did Lorelei smell like…Panic spliced through her. Freeing her arm, she signed in a flurry of motion, “Is it Reid? Is he okay? What happened?”

Lorelei took her hands, gently stilling them. She touched their foreheads together a moment, a quiet demand that Nireed listen, before pulling back to sign, “Just trust me, okay? Everything will be all right.”

Nireed swallowed thickly, then nodded, letting Lorelei lead the way. Whatever it was must have been big for her to come out all this way, and yet, she wasn’t detecting panic, upset, or any number of alarming emotions. Lorelei was as cool as a clam.

Together, they ascended out of the city and toward the surface. But notably, not toward shore. There was a small boat drifting overhead, engine still and silent, and nothing else. No Coast Warrior Helicopter. No Reid.

Disappointment and fear ravaged her already frayed emotions.

Nireed tried flashing her bioluminescence to get Lorelei’s attention. She wanted to sign “where are we going?” but the other mermaid either didn’t notice or ignored her and kept on swimming.

I don’t understand. What’s happening?

Just as she was about to give Lorelei’s tail fins a sharp tug, a splash overhead caught her attention, followed by the spike of a familiar scent. Not a stale, lingering scent leftover from past contact, but strong and penetrating her senses, shearing a deep pang of longing through her.

No. It couldn’t be.

She drew up short, hands clutched to her chest, not daring to hope. She scented the water again, sure she’d imagined it.

There was a Surface Dweller here. In the water, with them, but not just any Surface Dweller.

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