Page 141 of Midnightsong
“Sweet.” Jack put his phone down. Blowing a raspberry, Rosa swung her legs over the lounger and bounded toward them. Sunlight winked off the bracelet Angie had found for her when she was five. It was stacked on a thicker bracelet made of solid gold and studded with pearls, withRosalynn Song-Richelieuengraved on the inside.
Angie made Rosie a promise when she was a little girl at their family barbecue, what felt like so long ago now. That when she made enough money, she would buy her niece a bracelet like the one Kaden gifted her. And for her sixteenth birthday, Angie did.
Majestic fjords and glaciers surrounded them at all sides, a rogue ice sheet drifting by. Lulu emerged from Angie’s room and meandered to her side, staring down at glittering fish darting by.
Angie left her family to their own conversation, walking back to her underwater cameras, tablet, and collecting nets scattered about the boat and moving them into her storage room.
A familiar voice calling her name caught her attention when she returned to the deck, and Angie shielded her eyes from the sun, casting her gaze toward the horizon.
Kaden’s head and shoulders peeked over the water, and he blew a kiss at her, and waved. Angie tilted her head to one side, her lips drawing upward.
Cyrus stuck his head out of the water beside Kaden, with an adolescent Libbi and Hadrien following suit. The four of them dove beneath the waves, resurfacing beside the boat.
“You all want to come for a dive?” Kaden called out. “Mia, Zixin?”
“Ah, no. I’ll stay and man the boat,” Bàba replied.
Mia shook her head. “I’ll stay with you.”
“Hell yeah!” Jack’s heavy footsteps thudded across the vinyl flooring. “Let me go get my scuba suit!”
“Oh, me too, me too!” Rosa was on his heels.
“I put them in the closet in my room!” Angie cupped her hands around her mouth to be heard over the whistling gust of wind and piping calls of black oystercatchers flying overhead.
Rosa and Jack had gotten scuba certified with Ken and Stefan in the past few months, but had never come on a dive with the mer.
They came back dressed and ready, and Angie pulled off her shorts and top to reveal her swimsuit.
“Jump in.” Angie waved them past her, and they ran to the entryway. She jumped first in a cannonball position, and Kaden’s arms wrapped around her while they surfaced. Rosa had shoved Jack in, his voice breaking as he threw his head back and screamed before landing a few feet in front of Angie. Rosa jumped in after him, pinching her nose and eyes shut.
Angie ducked her head underwater, taking a deep breath. Shortly after her wedding, she learned another benefit of their union was eternal mer breath, something Kaden didn’t know. He no longer had to use up his lifeforce if they wanted to be undersea together.
Beside her, Jack eyed Hadrien and Libbi, who stared back at him in earnest. “Um, Your Majesty King Cyrus, can Princess Libbi give me breath?” Jack’s cheeks flushed crimson.
“How?” Libbi asked, turning to face her father, eyes open wide. “Hadrien, you do it.”
“I don’t mind,” Hadrien said with a half-grin. “But he asked you. If Father, and you are okay with it.”
“It’s up to Libbi.” Cyrus shot a glare at his son, and Hadrien rolled his lips between his teeth.
It was a marvel to Angie how much Hadrien looked like Adrielle, and Libbi was nearly a spitting image of Cyrus.
“Actually, it’s alright. I can get my diving gear.,” Jack muttered and swam back to the boat.
“I can give him breath. Jack!” Kaden called after him.
Libbi’s jasper eyes flickered back and forth between all of them. “Wait! Come back.” She paddled after him, and when she caught up, she turned with her curious gaze to Kaden and Cyrus. “What do I do?”
“You press your lips to him and exhale,” Kaden replied.
Libbi nodded with a smile, and turning back to Jack, she did as Kaden instructed.
“Oooh Jack, your first kiss,” Rosa said. “I didn’t get mine until last year.” She jolted with a happy laugh as Hadrien swam to her, and she leaned in so he could give her breath.
“Shut up,” Jack grunted. “It’s so I can breathe underwater, or whatever.”
“I’ll make sure your kids are back to you before the tides turn,” Cyrus called up to Mia.
