Evergreen (Mer Tales, Book 2) (23 page)

I followed behind when I heard a scream. My heart dropped. Upon surfacing in the basement, I spotted Galadriel and Jax in one another’s arms, but not fighting. She was alive and they were hungrily devouring one another in a passionate kiss.

“You’re here!” she kept saying over and over as tears poured from her eyes.

I stopped, my head ping-ponging in confusion. He and Galadriel were promised? I’d completely missed Jax’s tattoo. As their lips continued to devour against one another’s, I turned away in embarrassment and smiled.

Ferd lingered off to the side, rearranging a stack of beach towels. But beyond, Fin floated in the pool. His eyes were open, watching me. He cracked a smile and feebly lifted his hand. My heart surged.

“Fin!” I dove in to him. “You’re okay!”

He grabbed me and drew me close.

“I survived,” his voice cracked, “barely. But you, how’d you get away?”

“Jax and Ferd saved me from Alaster.” I held him tight and curled my tail around his body. “I’m so sorry. This was all my fault.”

“Your fault?” he asked, caressing my face. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I didn’t protect you, and now you’re a mermaid.”

We sunk underwater together. I pressed my body into his thankful the horrific change was finally over. “They say I’m a princess, too. I have some mark on my hip.”

“A princess?” He took my face between his hands. “How?”

“This.” I pulled up the side of my dress.

“What are you wearing?” He pinned me with a naughty smile.

“Oh.” I blushed. “Georgia made me wear it… I’m afraid it’s ruined now.”

He ran his finger over the mark, tickling the skin where he touched. His face lit up. “Holy carp.”

“I know, but that’s not the worst of our problems.” My tears melted into the water around us. “I didn’t tell you Colin and Alaster were here, and now… I screwed up big time.”

Fin stroked my cheek with his thumb. “Lucy told me Colin was here when I called. I already knew.”

“She did?” I looked down, remembering. Lucy had said he wasn’t coming. “She said you weren’t coming and I thought the worst. Oh, you must hate me.”

“It’s okay now” He enveloped me in a hug, pressing my head to his chest. “Ash, I love you and I’m here. We’ll never be apart.” I heard the smile in his voice.

I wiggled out of his arms, furious. “Why didn’t you tell me of the excruciating pain? The torture! And now with everything, how can you say it’s okay? Somehow my life has been a lie, your uncle kidnapped me and wanted to make me his,” I full body shivered, revolted how close that came into being, “and he tried to kill you and Galadriel. And Colin,” I gasped, remembering. “He killed his own son!”

“Colin survived.”

“What?”

I pulled away from Fin and surfaced. Colin sat in the corner with a bloody towel wrapped around his legs. His childlike eyes were wide and filled with terror. A large red wound decorated his side.

“He’s—human?”

My body involuntarily shook, remembering the pain of the conversion and Alaster’s horrible kiss.

“Yes.” Fin shifted in the water nervously. “Galadriel didn’t have a choice. The barbs had cassava poison on them. I would have died otherwise. After she fed me the essence, Colin had already started to change. He’s a little freaked, but once the sun rises, we can get more essence upstairs and change him back.”

Pity surged inside me. “He tried to save you.”

“Yes, but if I hadn’t shown up when I did,” Fin’s eyes darkened, “he would have laid his filthy lips on you.”

Alaster’s kiss replayed in my mind and revolted my stomach. I looked away. Fin couldn’t know what happened, at least not yet. “He was following his father’s orders.”

Fin swiveled me to face him. “I’m done talking about them.” He pulled me underwater and brought his lips hungrily to mine. A tingle electrified my skin as all my love for him rushed back. I hugged his neck hard in thankfulness. We were still promised. Nothing had changed.

After a minute he studied my face and took my hands. “What are you wearing? How long have you been trapped down here?”

The surprise birthday at the club seemed like lifetimes ago. I brushed my stubby hand against my face.

Fin recoiled in horror. “What did Alaster do to you?!”

“He….” I forced back a sob and tucked my hand behind my dorsal fin.

“Oh, I’m going to slaughter him. Where is he?” Fin popped out of the water and launched himself onto the deck toward the porthole. He yanked on the handle. The hatch didn’t open.

“Damn it, Alaster! You bastard!” He banged his fists on the closed hatch.

At the same time, something crashed against the floor above us, shaking the rafters. We all looked up in unison as the room quieted in terror.

:::

FIN

Friday morning, April 22
^nd

We watched as if the ceiling could cave in at any minute. What had fallen against the floor? Was this another trap? And where was Alaster anyway?

I slid across the suspension bridge to the other end of the basement and hoisted myself up the steps one at a time on my backside. “Please tell me you didn’t leave my Uncle in the lake unattended, Jax.”

“Dude.” Jax held up his hand. “Last I left him, he was out cold and not going anywhere. And your girl didn’t say nothing about you and Gladdy being here, so I had no clue what was up. Us finding you was plain luck. Isn’t that right, Ferd?”

Ferdinand didn’t respond as usual, but Ash shot me an anxious look from the poolside as she hugged her arms. I smiled ruefully.

“Well, someone locked the porthole from the other side, limpet breath, and I don’t suppose it was Tahoe Tessie.” I popped my shoulder against the basement door. It didn’t even budge an inch, barricaded shut. “Son of a biscuit eater! We’re locked in.”

“Who’s Tessie?” Jax frowned.

I scowled. “I can’t believe you let Alaster get away so he could lock us in here! Some rescue!”

Galadriel slapped her tail on the water. “You two need to quit arguing! We don’t have time for this. Alaster can easily bring back more mindless mermuscles from Natatoria by morning and we need to come up with a plan.”

“I say we fight ‘em!” Jax rallied. The sound of a javelin unsheathing from the wall ricocheted around the room.

“Doubt we’d last a minute,” I mumbled, remembering Colin’s tolerance to my merman sting. We’d need something stronger, like octopus ink, to do any damage to Alaster or whoever came to arrest us. I glared at Galadriel, remembering the taxi incident. “You got anymore ink?”

Jax’s face lit up. “No way. You holdin’ out on us, Gladdy?”

“No.” Galadriel was suddenly interested in untangling the wispy netted strips of her swim dress.

“Girl likes to drug her boys.” I lifted my right brow and looked at Jax.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Galadriel’s shocked face.

“Boys?” Jax asked.

If I didn’t know Galadriel was a victim of a mob kissing, I would have told him the truth about the flock of love birds showing up at the beach house, considering what a pain in the dorsal fin she’d been. Her silent pleading stopped me.

“Well, me and Ferd. That stuff gives a hangover—let me tell you. Why did you use it in the taxi anyway?”

Judging from her expression, she’d expected me to tell Jax her secret. “I—I didn’t think you’d sing and I’d wanted the taxi driver to take a short cut so I could get to Jax sooner. He must have taken us on the long route instead.” She smiled at me in thanks. Considering all we’d been through and the fact she’d saved my life, I’d never reveal her secret. I nodded. “So, no. I don’t have any more.”

Jax scanned the ceiling line. “We could try the window. It looks a little small but once the light comes in, we can lob Gidget through the window.”

“Gidget?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He pointed at Ash. “Girl midget.”

I held my hand out to Galadriel. “Not any shorter than her.”

“True. You wanna crawl out, Gladdy?” Jax waggled his eyebrows.

She pursed her lips. “Well, not as a mermaid, I don’t.”

“Of course not,” He curled her up into his arms. She melted. “How else can I look up your skirt?” He laughed And Galadriel punched him in the shoulder.

I did a double take at the two of them. This was what Galadriel called an ideal mate? Her Mr. Darcy? Jax was totally opposite of what I’d expected she wanted. I did have to hand it to him. He had her wrapped around his fin.

“Well I don’t want Ash to try because her hand is still healing,” I added before I dove into the pool. I draped my arms around her and kissed her forehead. I couldn’t believe she was actually here with me. My heart sped up every time I looked at her, knowing I no longer had to worry since she was now a mer like me.

“How are you doing?” I whispered.

She formed a small nervous smile, avoiding the question. “How are we going to get out?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

Jax flipped his fin on the deck as if to work off tension. “Sorry about the hand, Ash. Thought the basswipe was a kiss-and-release kinda reptile, not a complete hammerhead.” He shrugged apologetically. “Turns out he wanted to pass her off as Gladdy. They do look identical. The resemblance almost blew my fins right off.”

“It’s because she’s royalty,” Galadriel said in a commanding voice.

A hush fell over everyone. Ash watched with wide questioning eyes.

“Royalty?” I asked, incredulous. “How is that even possible? Ash was born and raised in Tahoe. I know her parents. The walls of her house are covered in pictures of her growing up.”

Galadriel perched her hands on her hips. “Explaining that is the easy part. What I don’t get is how you couldn’t smell the Sasquatch earlier.”

I shot Galadriel a smirk. “Apparently you couldn’t either. Or do you like being dragged around by your hair?”

Ash rubbed her scalp while Galadriel gave me a stern look. “I was upstream looking for Jax, invertebrate, but that doesn’t excuse the rest of you.”

“Smell? Smell what?” Jax asked. “Does Alaster have sulfurous farts?”

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head in exasperation. “You both must have broken olfactory nares. You should have picked up his stench.”

Ash nodded her head. “I smell him.”

“See?” Galadriel smiled, finally happy.

“He reeks like rotten fish,” Ash added.

I sniffed my nose along the water. All I picked up was the sweet honeysuckle of Ash’s skin. “I don’t smell anything other than Ash.” I squeezed her tighter. She remained stiff, but leaned into me.

“Figures. You’re sniff-blind. Happens frequently in merman, but that doesn’t matter now. We have to get out of here.” She tensed her shoulders.

Confusion remained written on Ash’s face. “You still haven’t explained how I’m royalty.”

Galadriel elevated a brow. “The mark on your hip proves you’re my full-blooded sister.”

“That’s what everyone keeps telling me, but how is that possible?” Ash asked.

“Yeah,” Jax chimed in. “I know the Queen has a ton of girls, but she’s not in the habit of losing her merlings.”

Galadriel took in a deep breath and flipped her fin around so it fell gracefully into the water alongside the pool and paused, collecting her thoughts. “By the time I was eight, my mom had given birth to ten girls, infuriating my father, the prince at the time, because without a son, his father wouldn’t let him take over the throne. I’d overheard him threatening Mom he’d take another mate if she didn’t give him a boy.

“So when the time of delivery came, I hid and watched our nursemaid deliver another girl. Mom was beside herself and so was I. I thought I’d lose my mother to Bone Island, but the nursemaid took the merling away and Mom shut herself alone in her room. No announcement was made of the birth. A few days later the nursemaid returned. And miraculously, Azor was born.”

“You’re kidding me,” I said, flabbergasted. “And the girl?”

“I think you know the answer to that. It isn’t a coincidence that Ash looks like me. And let me guess, today’s your birthday, right?”

Ash nodded in astonishment.

“So is Azor’s,” Galadriel said with a perched brow.

“Could this be true?” Ash’s bottom lip quivered as she clasped onto Galadriel’s outstretched hand. “Me? A mermaid all along?”

Galadriel pulled Ash into a hug and smoothed her hair. “Yes. I watched your birth.”

I scowled, angered over the deception. “Then who are Azor’s parents?”

Galadriel’s chest heaved. “Most likely Ash’s human parents and they were persuaded to accept Ash as their own.”

I pounded my fist into the water. “So Azor isn’t even royalty. After all this. And the King—”

Galadriel turned up the corner of her lip. “His kingdom is built on lies.”

“Does the King even know?”

She shrugged. “I doubt it. My nursemaid disappeared shortly after that. But it was a foolish move, because when the truth comes out, and it will eventually, heaven help them all. My mother can’t hide the fact Tatiana will not have the mark of royalty.”

The Queen was driven by fear over something she had no control over and this proved there wasn’t anything she wouldn’t do for her family. I instantly worried for Tatchi’s safety as I scrubbed my hand through my hair. My conversation with Galadriel from earlier in the beach house suddenly sunk in. Her desire to promise to Jax had to wait all because of a lie. She actually did have secrets—bigger than I could even imagine.

But it now made sense why Ash had the mark.

“Is this why I swim fast?” Ash asked, breaking the tension. “The school took my blood. I wonder what they’ll find.”

I pulled her into my arms. “You were still human, then.”

Ash looked to me with sadness behind her eyes. “I feel so lost now. What are we going to do?”

I exhaled hard. “First we need to get out of here, after that, we’ll take it one step at a time.”

A stream of morning light trickled through the window and filtered into the water. I felt myself switch without thinking about it. I quickly pulled out my shorts from my shoulder pack. Ash’s face contorted as she looked down at herself. Her fin shifted on its own, too. She wiggled her toes. “It is going to hurt again later, when I switch back?”

“No,” I said and kissed her temple.

Jax pulled on his mer-skirt, but Ferdinand stood buck-naked by the bar.

“Do you mind, Ferd?” Galadriel asked and turned her head, but motioned to his groin.

Ferdinand smiled slightly and jumped out to get a towel.

“I don’t get how he listens to you.” I said.

“It’s not all the time.” Galadriel looked into Jax’s eyes. “Must be a wavelength thing.”

“That it is,” Jax added. “He got my sorry fin off of Bone Island, and then when I went back to Natatoria to find Gladdy and got locked up, Ferd busted me out and led me here. He’s a good kid.”

Ferd moved back to the bar and placed the red Solo cups in a line compulsively, like he always needed something to put in order during downtime.

“But, when he came to the beach house the last time, he was practically dead?” I asked Jax. “How the heck did you get out?”

Jax smirked. “Everyone knows Lake Tahoe is a dead end… and Alaster. He’s the worst gatekeeper ever. But when Ferd busted me out of jail and I tried to escape through the Bermuda gate, he made me come to Tahoe, and I had no choice but to follow him. But I’m so glad I did.” He hugged on Galadriel tighter.

“No choice?” I asked.

“Dude screams like a girl and drags you wherever he thinks you should go, unless you can get away.”

But instead of envisioning Ferd throwing a fit, I thought of Azor’s palace next to the prison, and my sister living there.

“Tatiana?” I asked anxiously. “Did you see her?”

“I saw her briefly when the King’s guards locked me up, but after that.” Jax looked down. “Ferd broke me out through the sharks. He’s one wild and crazy merman, I tell ya. Maybe the sharks sense he’ll tear them up if they get too close.”

“So, now what?” Ash asked nervously. “I don’t want to be here if Alaster is coming back.”

I noted her anxiety.

“Time to lob a girl through the window,” Jax said as he hopped onto the deck. “Who’s volunteering?”

“Shut your trap and lift me.” Galadriel reached up her arms to him. He hoisted her on his shoulders with ease, but she couldn’t reach the window ledge. Even on Ferdinand’s shoulders, she wasn’t tall enough.

Then suddenly, a deep boom rumbled the house, knocking everyone to the floor. I shook my head, unable to hear for a moment as dust and dirt crackled down on our heads. A net fell from the ceiling, missing my leg.

“What was that?” Jax asked.