Page 21 of Chasing Tail
Chapter 12
The brothers took a break to feed us. Callum stayed engrossed in his potions while Beck disappeared and brought back food. There were things I hadn’t seen before and things from the sea that I recognized. Sort of. They sure did strange things to fish on land.
Beck said it was flounder when he served it to us, but that didn’t resemble any flounder I’d ever eaten. It didn’t look like a fish at all. The skin and bones had all been removed, and it was covered in something thin and yellow that didn’t smell all that bad. Still, the bones and the skin were the best part. Why in the world would anyone remove them? It didn’t look nearly as unappealing as that fish we stole on the beach.
Forrest was with us over breakfast and seemed to get we were unfamiliar with their food, so he tried to explain in greater detail.
“That’s flounder in a lemon butter sauce, spinach and goat cheese, fresh bread from the market, and strawberry rhubarb pie.”
The flounder was unrecognizable, but I’d had cheese and pie before. Those were delicious. Still, the flounder looked more appealing than the fish we stole. I was a mermaid, and I was reasonably sure even if I had legs, I still needed things from the sea in my diet. Everything else I had tried so far was terrific.
I looked up, and while I had been making up my mind about putting that flounder in my mouth, Taron had already demolished half of his meal. He was such a fucking shark, even if he was currently sporting legs. Sharks would put anything in their mouths and hope it tasted good and didn’t make them sick.
“Is that any good, or is it like the time you swam around putting things in your mouth and got a bellyache?”
“It’s delicious, and you’re being rude not eating it. Sea royalty has servants that do their hunting. They also wouldn’t be caught dead, sheltering us or serving us. The flounder is hot, and so is the sauce. This took extra preparation besides just catching it and bringing it home. Beck and Forrest were gone a long time before they brought this out. Whatever was done to the food was done with their hands, and they did it for us.”
I was instantly humbled. My parents raised Seira and me to be polite in every situation. Honestly, I’d eaten some strange things in the ocean before. One of our cousins asked to make a kelp cake for Seira’s birthday and tried to substitute the pulverized jellyfish. We all plastered smiles on our faces and ate it, even if it wasn’t even remotely good.
I decided to try the flounder first. I lifted some of the meat to my mouth with the fork and put it in my mouth. It was very different but quite delicious. Whatever they had done to it, the texture had changed, but there was an explosion of different but unique flavors in my mouth. I couldn’t help the groan that escaped me.
All four men became highly interested in me eating. Callum had taken a break from his potions to eat but mainly had been reading a book. They were all watching me. Taron had stopped shoveling food in his face and was looking at me with one of his eyebrows in his hairline.
“I like that noise you just made,”Taron said.
Forrest, Callum, and Beck seemed like they enjoyed it as well. Forrest and Callum looked enchanted, and Beck was smirking at me.
“You seem to be enjoying the flounder considering you looked like someone slapped your mother when we brought it out,” Callum said with a gentle smile.
“I’ve never seen someone so offended by fish before only to make sex noises after they got over it,” Beck said. “I think it’s a testament to my cooking skills.”
“You’re just asking for a fork stabbing, Beck,” Forrest said.
“I didn’t lay a finger on her.”
“You’re doing everything else, asshole. You’re looking and flirting pretty hard.”
I think we all knew that. Flirting was the same on land too. Taron had been around enough mermen to know they all liked that noise that escaped me when I tasted the flounder just as much as he did. Taron had always been a little weird. He apparently had zero issues with them looking at me a certain way or flirting. Taron didn’t care if they were obviously thinking about it like he was, but his hard-line was touching, even if it was totally harmless.
“Taron hasn’t come at me. Maybe he’s secure enough in their relationship that he just doesn’t like touching.”
“What is the deal, Taron? You went after Forrest with a fork for something harmless, but you’re just sitting there eating when they clearly liked that noise just as much as you do.”
Taron just shrugged and savagely bit off a piece of bread.
“Do you want me to kill them for that? I didn’t dislike it like when they try to touch you.”
“You always had weird logic when you were a shark too.”
“And you’re getting mad at me for feeling things I had no chance of going through when I was a shark. I don’t regret taking Talora’s magic and coming here, but my emotions were less complicated when all I had to do was rely on my instincts to survive.”
“You’re right, Taron. I’m sorry. I can’t even imagine what you are dealing with. A lot of this is strange for me, but this wasn’t even a possibility for you until that massacre. I’ll try to be more understanding, but can you avoid the urge to hurt them?”
“I’m trying. I don’t like it.”
I needed to help Taron. We were here for revenge, but first and foremost, he was my friend. He always looked out for Seira when I couldn’t. If everyone hadn’t been in danger from those nets, Taron would have saved Seira and his entire family. I knew that just as much as I knew every inch of my home.
“How can I make it better?”
