Chapter 31
Thirty-One
In true Mia fashion, she arrived with Rosie ten minutes before seven in the evening, as promised. Angie designated their meeting spot outside the storage shed, out of view of the seashore.
“Angie āyí! Angie āyí! Where’s your boyfriend?” Rosie hollered. “Is he gonna be my new uncle?”
Angie laughed, drawing the attention of some passing dock workers. “Uh, I don’t know.” She stopped there. It was too strange to use the term boyfriend to describe Kaden. Despite their closeness, she had no idea what they were, or what she was to him.
“I wanna see mermaids!” Rosie exclaimed, jumping up and down and clapping her small hands, her bracelet jangling. Angie thanked her ancestors that Rosie hadn’t yet seen the murdered mer, innocent to the death and carnage.
Mia shushed her. “A little quieter, please? Tiān, she has not stopped talking since I got her from camp. Must have eaten too many candy bars.”
“Sorry, Māma,” Rosie muttered.
“So, where’s this mystery guy? You meet him here at the docks? In college?” Angie caught Mia’s sharp eyes lasering in on all the young looking men.
“At the docks. And sorry Mia, we have to walk a little bit.” Angie motioned with her head toward a desolate stretch of beach. Mia’s eyes burned a hole through her back as Angie led them further from the busy part of the docks.
“Angie,” she piped up after several minutes. “Where exactly are we going? Utqiagvik?”
Angie chuckled. Utqiagvik was Alaska’s northernmost city.
“My feet are tired,” Rosie whined.
Angie glanced over her shoulder.
“Just hang in there a little longer, okay, sweetheart?” Mia grabbed Rosie’s hand.
After another ten-minute walk, she stopped where Kaden had asked her to meet him. “I was kidding about Utqiagvik, but maybe you did lead us there,” Mia grumbled. She mumbled something else under her breath while fumbling around in her purse and taking her phone out. “One second. Nick’s calling.”
“Papa!” Rosie called out, turning around to face Mia, standing on her tiptoes and pulling down on Mia’s tucked in blouse, rendering it untucked.
“Honey, wait, I can’t hear you. Let me go somewhere with better reception.” She turned and walked back the way they came, still on the phone, and Rosie bounded after her.
Angie rolled her lips between her teeth, watching after them. Leave it to Nick to ruin this moment.
A splashing and sloshing noise caught her attention.
Kaden awaited, partially submerged in the water so only the top of his head and shoulders were visible.
Her smile faltered when he didn’t return it, his expression as frigid as the winter seas.
“Is everything okay?” Angie walked toward him, but he held up one hand. Why wasn’t he happy to see her? Had something happened with his family, in his queendom? Or…
The image of fish at the barbecue last night came back to her.
“Tell me something,” he started, moving toward her enough so she could hear him, but far enough so that she couldn’t touch him from where she stood. His tone was abrasive, yet carried a doleful undercurrent. “The sanctuary was raided. The same one I showed you.”
She sucked in a sharp breath, the punch of realization striking her and hollowing out her chest. “Kaden, wait.” Her voice cracked with emotion under his unhappy visage. “It’s not what you think. Hear me out for a second, okay?”
“There’s no other explanation, though. You’re the only person who knows their location. Did you tell your family? The dockworkers?”
“Kaden, I didn’t say anything to anyone. My dad put—”
Before she could say cameras, Rosie’s boisterous voice came from behind her. “Angie āyí! You have a mermaid friend?”
Angie drew her mouth into a straight line and bit her lower lip. Maybe this wasn’t a good time for them to meet Kaden.
“Oh, no. No, no, wait, let’s go back!” Angie whirled around and ran in their direction, but Rosie, smaller and more agile, zipped past her and ran toward the water where Kaden was.
Kaden’s eyes widened, and he looked from her, to Rosie, and then back to her, and she took solace that he didn’t leave.
Mia was at Rosie’s heels, stuffing her phone into her purse, and when she was close enough, grabbed Rosie’s hands to keep her from running. Rosie was staring at Kaden, open-mouthed.
“Sorry, Angie. Nick just wanted to know where we were and when we could—” Mia looked up to where Rosie stared and screamed.
“There’s mer here! Kill it! We have to get out of here!
” Panic surged in her voice, and she reached into her purse and pulled out a pocketknife, unsheathing the blade and flung it in Kaden’s direction.
His eyes became two bulging orbs in his face, and with quick reflexes, he disappeared underwater. The knife landed with a plop beside him, and sank.
Angie grimaced. She screwed up and should have warned Mia, but it was too late now.
Kaden resurfaced and shrunk back, putting his hands up, staring at Mia.
“Mia! Stop!” Angie rose to her feet, and fell flat on her face when Mia grabbed her arm and yanked her backward toward the tree line.
“We have to go. We have to go,” Mia kept saying.
Rosie squealed something that Angie thought was French then, “a real merman!” She bum-rushed Kaden. “Can I touch him?”
“No!” Mia yelled. Her hands shot forward, grabbing her daughter’s arms. “Rosalynn! I said come back!”
“Mia, it’s okay!” Angie looked at each of them. “And Kaden, she’s harmless.”
“K-Kaden? It has a name?” Mia shot her a look that screamed shock and surprise. “What the Hells is going on here?”
“I’d like to know, too.” Kaden’s tone was as sharp as the razorblade Mia threw at him.
“I’m sorry, I should have said something sooner. Mia, this is Kaden. He won’t hurt you or Rosie.” Angie turned to Kaden. “Kaden, Mia, my sister. That’s her daughter, Rosie.”
“We’ll finish our conversation later.” Kaden eyed her.
She nodded. It seemed he’d put aside the sanctuary chaos until after their little meet and greet.
Mia and Kaden’s strained poses relaxed, but only slightly. Angie pressed a palm to her heart and thanked her ancestors. It was a start.
“Are you real? Like real real?” Rosie cut in. “Can I see your tail?”
Kaden gave a nervous laugh. “Yes, I’m real.” To make a point, he pushed himself up to sit on the shore, bringing his tail closer to him. Rosie yelped in excitement and rushed over to touch and “ooh” and “ahh” over it. He held out Mia’s pocket knife. “This is yours.”
Without a word, Mia took it from him, fiddling with it before stashing it back in her purse.
“I can tell you two are related. Your sister tried to kill me too when she first saw me. Twice, actually,” Kaden said. Angie’s face grew hot at the mention. He continued, “Mia, yes? Mia Song?”
“Mia Richelieu now. Nice to, uh, meet you?” Mia looked to Angie, silently asking for help on how to greet him properly.
Angie gave her a thumbs up.
“Why do you have a different surname? You are not sisters?” His eyes held questions for Angie.
“Well, that’s her husband’s last name. When people get married, they can take the husband or the wife’s last name to signify the start of a new family. Or choose to combine the two.”
He pursed his lips. “So, he is your lifemate?”
Something about watching Mia converse with Kaden warmed Angie’s heart, despite him being upset with her.
This time, Mia gave him a soft chuckle. “Yeah, you can say that.”
“Then I’ve learned a new word. Husband.” Kaden flicked a small stream of water at Rosie, who laughed and asked him to do it again, so he did. “So, you and Angie are no longer family?”
“Oh goodness, not at all!” Angie punctuated her words with a quick shake of her head. “Mia is my blood sister forever.”
A spark of understanding appeared in Kaden’s eyes.
About to say something else, Mia stopped and her eyes rounded again.
Angie followed her gaze. “Is something wrong?”
Behind Kaden, two more heads poked out of the water. Adrielle and Cyrus.
“I didn’t realize our meeting was going to become a family gathering.” Kaden’s gaze slid to Angie.
“I didn’t either. I wanted to introduce my sister and her kid to you. Show her that your people aren’t the bloodthirsty murderers she believes your people to be.” Angie dropped her gaze.
“A noble intent. Except I assume my brother and Adrielle are not here to exchange pleasantries.”
“Angie,” Cyrus began, “and more humans.” He and Adrielle stayed back. “I knew you would bring reinforcements. Raiding our sanctuaries. Stealing fish like the treacherous landwalkers you are. I knew you couldn’t be trusted.” He aimed his question at Angie, scowling.
“And now they’ve lured you here to murder you, I presume,” Adrielle added, her voice tight.
“Angie, what is he talking about? Sanctuaries?” Mia hissed into her ear.
“You remember when Nick showed up with the fish last night? That’s where he got them from,” Angie replied in a murmur, never taking her eyes off the three mer.
Mia sucked in a sharp breath. “They’re angry. We should leave.”
“Not yet,” she said, hopeful. Angie didn’t bother to mention how Cyrus almost killed her when they first met. If she did, Mia would try to kill Cyrus herself.
Kaden’s voice drew her from her conversation with Mia. “She,” he looked to Cyrus, and he motioned with his head to Angie, “isn’t directly responsible. I will find out who is. They’re not here to murder me.”
Adrielle nudged Cyrus with her shoulder and whispered something into his ear.
His harsh expression visibly softened. “I suppose the little one doesn’t look like a threat.
Too small to be a soldier.” He jutted his chin toward Rosie who had watched the entire scene by peering out from behind Mia’s legs.
She appeared both riveted and confused. “Is she the meat shield?”
“They’re not, brother.” Kaden swam to Cyrus and put a hand on his shoulder. “That’s Angie’s sister and her sister’s child.”
“I see.” Cyrus tossed a weary look at Mia whose steely gaze pierced through his chest and struck Adrielle behind him.
“Are they–are they safe?” Mia hissed in Angie’s ear.