Page 51 of Secrets Among the Tides
“You’re a liar, Elias.”
Ireallyliked the way she said my name. I liked it a lot. My eyes roamed over her slowly, from the aquamarine color on her tail fin to the purple-blue of the exposed part of her tail. A sea foam green dress floated loosely over her body and at her shoulders she wore a purple cloak. The outfit did not do her beauty justice.
“Perhaps. But you must like something about me, since you came calling. Want another kiss?” I raised my eyebrows, smirked, knowing it would infuriate her. When her face flushed angrily, I knew it had worked.
“Ugh, why did I come to see such a barracuda like you?” Her words were angry, but there was no bite to them. And then she answered her own question. “Because I needed a break. I needed to get away fromthem.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Them?” I echoed.
She nodded and sighed, tossing her head back on the couch. “Theroyals.I was suffocating in there. I wanted to get away from the pressure. I wanted something…normal…”
She looked so sad sitting there. I sighed and looked around. There was a lot I had to do. Blades needed making to be sold, and there were some locals I’d promised I’d help out by moving furniture and tending to their animals. But… I looked at her lip, stuck between her teeth…the locals could wait.
“You fancy swimming around town with me, little fish?” I asked, hopping off the table. I didn’t wait for her reply as I began digging through the clutter around the floor. I picked up a long strip of black cloth from the corner of the house and went to the other side to rummage through an old chest.
“I’ll probably draw attention to you,” she said. “The Princess of Thalassar out in Eramaean streets with the kingdom’s most notorious criminal. I can hear it on the broadcasts now.”
I found what I was looking for and turned back to her, handing her the folded fabric. “Ditch the dress and cloak,” I ordered. “And put this on.”
She took the folded fabric from my hands and let it unfold to reveal a long, black dress. Her eyebrows rose. “Yours?” she asked sarcastically.
“Wouldn’tyoulike to know?”
She chuckled as she floated up and untied the strings of her cloak at her throat. I watched the workings of her long, slender fingers move, jerking the strings and dropping the cloak from her body to float to the floor. My throat tightened.
“Do you mind?” she asked, eyes narrowing.
I laughed and crossed my arms against my chest. “Not at all, little fish.” She glowered and I laughed before slowly turning around to give her enough privacy to change.
I heard the swishing of clothes, felt the stirring in the water as she moved. I had that sudden urge to turn and look at her, to steal a glimpse at the curve of her waist, the shape of her scales…
“Finished,” she announced.
I couldn’t turn fast enough. The dress fit her a bit tightly, pressing up against her chest. It ran down tight across her tail, though the sides were slit to allow free movement in the fins, it was obviously designed for a thinner mermaid. She still looked stunning, the material pressing against her every curve.
“Come here,” I demanded quietly, my voice heavy. She swam forward until we were nearly touching. “Turn around.” She did as she was told and my fingers got to work, sweeping her hair behind her head and tying the black strip of cloth onto her head like a swashbuckling pirate. I ended up braiding her purple strands in with the remaining strips of black cloth and tying the end. When I finished, she turned back around. “There,” I said. “Now you’re just a simple mermaid named Maisie taking a swim around Eramaean streets with a simple merman named Elias.”
~~
I LOVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THALASSAR,though the royalty of Eramaea were the exception. There was something about Eramaea that was rather beautiful. It could have been the colors, swathes of pinks, golds and blues that cast a sunset like hue over the entire city. Maybe it was the food sold in stalls along the streets. Maybe it was the variety of mer that swam about with all sorts of tails in all shapes, sizes, colors and styles.
Today, I loved Eramaea because of her.
Her eyes widened as she took everything in for what seemed like the first time. It had me observing every little thing about her. There was always so much to learn, so much to see, new details to pick up. Like the fact that she swam with a slight limp that she seemed to be desperately trying to hide. Or the fact that her eyes looked more brown than black when the golden rays of the palace shone down on her. Or the way she spoke in a Lagoona accent with much more ease than when she spoke in the Eramaean one.
We swam side by side, though I didn’t reach for her hand again, and she didn’t reach for mine. I didn’t mind. It was enough to swim beside her and enjoy her reactions. When we passed a stall that sold river frogs stuffed with water leeches, I noticed her nose twitch.
“Do you want one?” I asked, stopping her.
She looked so excited at the prospect of real food. They probably starved her with nonsense that they passed off as meals in that palace. I ordered two frogs skewered on kabobs and handed one off to her. She dug in without hesitation, smacking her lips as she swam.
I ate mine much more slowly, and when we finished, we went to discard the kabob sticks into a fishing net used for trash.
On and on our adventure went. She’d stop at stalls and look over the things there. Before I could offer to buy anything, she’d move on to the next. The only things she truly held an interest in were foods. Foods, I noticed, that were authentic from Lagoona.
She was devouring snail stew from a to-go bowl like she was starving.
When she finished, she used the back of her hand to wipe her mouth. “So,” she set her bowl onto her lap. We had stopped near the public park. There were coral benches and reefs, with hundreds of fish swimming all around. I lifted my finger up to stroke a passing clown fish. “Why are you here?” she asked.
