Page 45 of Chasing Tail
“Like how to get rid of him and our step monster for good without all of us going down with him.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “You told me your father overthrew the previous king, stole his wife, and everyone loved him. Asserting dominance is the way in the ocean. My home isn’t a monarchy, but if a prince or princess killed the king or queen to stop a war, they’d be celebrated. So why would your people kill you for doing the same thing he did to the previous king? I’m sure everyone here loves you if they invite you to their orgies and keep it a secret from your father. Don’t you have trials here where you can testify to his crimes? Taron might not be able to, but I’d be happy to tell everyone what he did in the ocean.”
Adamo chuckled.
“I love mermaids who aren’t totally used to land just yet.”
“Did your girlfriend eventually go back to the ocean?” Beck asked.
“She’s still on land. We have to travel a lot because of what we are. She got tired of me leaving her alone for long periods of time. So she broke up with me. She’s happily married to a bear shifter who lives right next to the ocean. There’s a forest on one side for him to shift and do bear things, and she’s got the ocean to play in. When I’m in the area, I visit them. She’s still lovely, even if she insists on eating entire fish raw.”
That was interesting. Talora told us mermaids went to land, but I’d only ever heard of the one since I got here, and she had gone back to the ocean. But, I had to admit, there were things I liked here.
“How does she deal with the pain when she gets back in the water?” I asked. “I didn’t know it was like that when Beck suggested a bath. It was how he found out I was a mermaid.”
“It’s a rite of passage, little mermaid—a test to see where you truly want to be. After a while, the change is painless. You’ll still have to dry out and peel your tail off to get legs, and it will always itch, but going back in the water doesn’t have to be painful. A lot of mermaids lack the patience to figure out they can have both. They can’t deal with the pain, but the call of the ocean is too strong. They end up going home. She dealt with the pain because she loved me, even though I hated her being in pain. She was so excited the day it stopped.”
Interesting. I didn’t know how to process that, so I filed it away to think about it later.
“If no one else has any more questions about mermaids, I have about a million about who these guys are and how they know what they know,” Callum said.
Adamo leaned forward and smirked,
“We’re three of the Seven Deadly Sins. Just the ones your father and stepmother have committed. We’re here to punish them and avoid innocent lives lost. We have an idea, but we need your help. We’ve already observed you and know you aren’t like him.”
What the fuck? I’d heard of the Seven Deadly Sins, even in the depths of the ocean. Mermaids didn’t put much stock in them. I know I didn’t. It was the sea witches who liked to threaten everyone in the ocean with the concept of sin.
I thought they were just trying to scare people. Sea witches got off on that. Aside from Talora, they really just enjoyed messing with your head. Unless I had been wrong about them this entire time. Taron wouldn’t be here with me if it weren’t for a sea witch. She had helped both of us. And apparently, one had helped Salem. He made an impression, and now every sea witch in the ocean talked about these men, even if they didn’t explain they came in person to punish people.
Forrest, Beck, and Callum looked like they were still processing, but I just knew these men had the answers to everything.
