Chapter 5
Chapter Five
The sensation of falling jerked me out of sleep, and I landed with a cold slap, water rushing over my head. I managed a short gasp before being dragged into the icy depths. Darkness swirled with yawning currents, pulling me deeper. For half a heartbeat, I hoped it was a dream, but I was dying.
My vision darkened around the edges, the need for air eclipsed by an eerie calm as I sank, too tired to continue the fight. Water filled my lungs, carving into my soul as if it could free me from the coil of my mortal flesh.
A light flickered in the distance, racing my way.
A bioluminescent green and blue coiled through the murky depths, growing as it approached, a form clarifying with fluid grace against the brutal current.
His face materialized among the murky depths, webbed fingers reaching for me as the darkness stole the last of my senses.
When I woke, it was to a light, melodic hum teasing my ears and the heat of the sun on my skin. The storm had faded, and I absently wondered if I had left the blinds open. Water slapped at my legs, flowing over my feet and stealing the sand, only to slide it back in a second later.
Water? What the hell?
I opened my eyes, blinking at the burning brightness, shocked to find myself on a beach, rather than in bed.
My lungs ached, and I rolled over to heave, coughing up bile and probably water.
My stomach hurt as though I’d been doing this a while, and a warm hand caressed my spine in comfort.
The sweet humming resonance came from behind me, likely attached to the hand, and soothed the waves of nausea in my gut.
The frequency seeped into my bones, and the pain dulled.
I dozed again for a time, strong arms wrapped around me in the sun, day passing in lazy bouts of rest. Any panic from pain floated away, leaving me with a gentle calm and sleepiness.
We lay together, my heartbeat syncing with his as he pressed himself to my back, skin warm and smooth, mostly.
Below our feet, the water lapped at my toes and washed up around a long fin trailing off into the waves.
The powerful, finned tail I’d glimpsed before flicked lazily.
On the muscular arm around my waist, pale patches of scales intermingled with his skin, creating luminescent swatches of color that gleamed in the sun.
“If this is a dream, it’s a nice one,” I murmured.
“If you dream of near death often, mikró astéri, I might suggest seeking less dangerous hobbies.” The voice was like the low tide smoothing over stones, a resonant, melodic tenor that vibrated through his chest and into mine.
The words were teasing, but the tone was laced with a deep, ancient weariness.
I turned to face him fully for the first time. And my breath caught, as everything I could hope for, from every romance novel I’d ever read, lived within the mermaid—man... merman?
He was breathtaking. A timeless definition of divine beauty.
His face, a mix of sharp and elegant lines: a defined jaw, high cheekbones, and lips lush and fit for demanding kisses.
His skin was pale, as with many things beneath the sea, and smooth, giving way to iridescent scales that swept along his temples, the line of his collarbones, and down his powerful arms. They shimmered with the light, shifting between green, blue, and deep violet as he moved.
His eyes, teal flecked with gold, held me captive, as if, should I dare to look away, he’d vanish.
Dark lashes framed the delicate uptilt of his eyes, and I instinctively reached up to brush his hair back, running my fingers through the soft strands.
It fell long and loose around his shoulders and down his back like a living tapestry.
The roots were dark and deep, blue-green fading into a beautiful turquoise and ending in white like sea foam.
I’d never seen anyone or anything as beautiful before.
“You’re…” I faltered. Real? Magic? A mermaid… man?
A gentle smile touched his lips, and he traced his fingertips over my face. “I am Skye.”
“Luca,” I breathed. “I mean, my name is Luca.” His words trickled back in. “Wait, death? Did I die?” Was this heaven? An afterlife? Did I deserve a heaven with the most beautiful creature I’d ever met?
“Not dead, mikró astéri. You fell from the sky as the little star you are, and I pulled you from the waves and healed your body, as you are not meant to breathe water. Never before has a mortal become trapped in the churning storm of my prison.”
“Oh,” I said, unable to hide my confusion.
The sun warming my skin and the waves lapping my feet felt real enough, far beyond anything I’d ever imagined in a dream.
From our spot on the beach, I could see water for ages, a distant far-off cliff, and perhaps even further away, a lighthouse on a hill.
Wait, was this the cove from the painting?
“I’m not dreaming?” I asked.
Skye’s smile faded, though he continued to trace gentle lines over my face, his touch sinking through me with a vibration that sang of familiarity and home.
“My prison,” he said with sadness. “Possibly now yours. Though I know not how you came within. The curse is meant only for my kind. Old tricks of the Fae as they thought to wrest power from my people, yet all that remains trapped is myself.”
Prison? The Fae? Wait… “Are we inside the painting?”
“Yes,” Skye agreed.
The possibly cursed painting my boss had given me. “Uh…” If I ever got out of here, I was going to give Xavier a piece of my mind. This was not my idea of a holiday vacation.