Page 8 of The Beauty and the Griffin

Long ago, during my late teen years, my family holidayed for a month in the South Sea Islands, which were primitive and quite unspoiled. Every morning, I would sneak down to the beach to drink in the unspoiled beauty and freshness, and one day I found a boy about my age clad in a lava-lava wrap and seated on the sand alongside the largest coconut crab I’ve ever seen. All three of us were startled, but only the crab scooted off.

The boy rose, greeted me with a cheerful smile, and introduced himself in the Common Tongue as Kapono, explaining that his family lived in the area. We quickly identified each other as enchanters, and talking with him was much easier and more pleasant than I’d ever experienced with other boys.

He convinced me to join him in the crystal lagoon to swim with vividly colored fish and other creatures I’d never known existed. Kapono could name them all, and they behaved like pets, letting him stroke them and nuzzling against him.

How could any girl resist? Kapono was intelligent and kind, and even though he was quite square in build, I found his deep voice, twinkling dark eyes, and teasing grin incredibly attractive. He was fun to be around—a rare quality in my usual crowd—and a great conversationalist. We kept meeting every morning as friends, or so we claimed, but I was head over heels for him by day two, and I suspected he felt the same about me.

Little did I know—yes, this is one ofthosestories—that my crush was a merman, possibly the homeliest creatures on earth since they’re the opposite of mermaids, having fish heads and webbed feet and arms. As acaroven, the second highest rank of magical power, Kapono was able to take the shape of a human and live comfortably in that form. Not even I, a top-rankingsahirawith fairy blood, saw through his disguise.

Our families were unaware of our innocent visits, let alone our growing attachment, but disaster loomed in the offing in the form of Kapono’s cousin, heir to a vast underwater kingdom. She followed him to the island one morning, discovered him hanging out with me and pretending to be human, and blew his cover. Right there on the beach, Princess Pukai informed me that as the eldest nephew of the Mer King, Kapono’s future had been settled at his birth—he would become a military commander and marry to strengthen a key military alliance. His wishes and dreams were immaterial.

Kapono apologized to me, his expression closed, and his bossy cousin ordered him to follow her. He obeyed but spoke into my mind in the saddest voice imaginable:I will never forget you, Bella.

Pukai hated me for years afterward, and the feeling was mutual. But life can take some strange twists and turns.

I spoke with Kapono once more, maybe fifteen years later, when he appeared at Palau Kalah sometime after Pukai had moved the island into Faraway Lake but before the resort opened. I was seated inside the main cave beside its waterfall one afternoon, studying a book of confinement spells while using a magical force field like an umbrella to keep dry, when a totally “ripped” merman with the greenish head of a moray eel popped up through one of the underwater doorways in the cave floor. I confess, my adrenaline spiked at the intimidating sight.

“Arabella,” he greeted me in the quiet yet compelling voice I remembered, then changed into his human form. His round face now displayed rugged angles and hard planes, and the twinkle had vanished from his eyes.

The last I’d heard of him from Pukai, he was betrothed to a mer-princess from the Intheway Reef. They might even be married by now.

I managed to speak on my second try. “Kapono! Wh-what are you doing here?”

“Someone told me I might find you here.” His gaze dropped briefly to the floor, then snapped back up to meet mine. “We’re headed to Yiga Basin in the morning to expel a large-scale invasion of deep-sea dago naiads.”

I blinked. “This is dangerous?” I guessed.

“They are powerful enemies to our people.”

Undoubtedly an understatement.

“Oh.” I flailed for an intelligent reply.

“I just . . . wanted to see you again.”

He caught my gaze, and my heart turned over. “You don’t expect to survive,” I said.

The world considered Colonel Kapono to be a cold fish of a merman, entirely focused on his military career. I remembered the boy with smiling eyes who loved to interact with the creatures he lived among.

“In case I never return, I want you to have this.” He held out one closed fist, palm down.

I slowly extended my hand, and he placed a pink pearl in my palm and curled my fingers over it, clasping my fist between his hands. “It glows from within, like you do.” His dark eyes held my gaze. “I have delayed all these years, but if I return from this conflict, I have no choice but to honor the betrothal.” His sorrowful gaze lowered to our hands. “I must not cast shame on my father’s name.”

Not one word came into my head. I simply stood there, staring at his scarred brown hands wrapped around my pale one. Without another word, he returned to the tidepool, glanced back to catch my gaze, then vanished into the limpid water without a ripple.

By the time Pukai stepped through the waterfall in her human form—that girl does love her dramatic entrances—my thoughts were back in present day, but my mood had drifted far south. I kept the conversation focused on the present. “He spoke to Beatrice today.”

Pukai’s eyes widened, and I’m pretty sure she gasped, because it took her an extra moment to ask, “How did she react?”

“She was frightened but recovered quickly enough to object to his answers.”

Almost imperceptibly, Pukai smirked.

“You might as well say it aloud—the child is ornery like me.” I shook my head. “But you haven’t met her father.”

“I shall happily forgo that pleasure.”

“Knock my in-laws at your leisure, Your Majestydaah-ling, but may we return to the long-lost point of this parley?”

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