17 Desperately Seeking Mermaids #3
For a long moment Mara said nothing. Then she inclined her head.
“Thank you. It cannot undo the past, but... I appreciate your words. And for my part... you did not ask for me to make this sacrifice, or for me to love you. That was my own silly, romantic dream, and it was not fair of me to place it on you.”
Then, she squared her shoulders and turned back to Hawk. "Alright, then. But just Hawk.”
Elizabeth nodded. “I understand. Thank you.”
Mara pulled at Hawk’s coat. “Come with me."
Hawk followed her from the room. "Where are we going?"
"To your ship, Captain. We will need one of your longboats." She looked to Roxanne, who had risen again from her spot in the corner, as Mara reached the bottom of the stairs, crossing the room.
"Is he giving you trouble?" Roxanne asked, casting fierce glances at Hawk.
"No trouble," Mara replied, smiling at her with surprising gentleness. "We'll be back no later than sundown."
"You're going with him?" Roxanne's fingers twitched near the hilt of her sword. "I'm going with you."
Hawk expected Mara to balk, but instead she actually smiled. "I'll be alright," she promised. "I'll be back soon."
"And so will I. I'm going with you." Roxanne turned her glare back to Hawk. "I don't trust him any farther than I can throw him. Which ain’t far. If he wants to take you anywhere, he's taking me, too."
"I can assure you - " Hawk started, but Mara shook her head.
"Alright," Mara said, and turned for the door, the little smile on her lips almost making Hawk forget the angry, wily woman he'd spoken to minutes prior.
Fish people! he thought. Whatever. As long as she took him to Silver.
Inside his grotto, Silverfin looked into his tarnished, old mirror, beheld his luxurious long tresses, and sighed.
He cast his eyes around his dwelling, where each nook and cranny stood filled with coffers.
Each one contained treasures that would have provided a biped with a life of riches beyond their wildest dreams...
and they were all worthless. Silverfin sighed again.
What use was all this personal beauty and all this treasure if he had no one to share it with?
When he had been with Samuel, poor and hairless though he was, he'd felt himself as wealthy as a King. A single touch made him feel all-powerful, even though he had been missing a limb. A single look made him feel sated when he hungered. A single kiss... Silverfin brought his fingertips to his own lips, but the saltwater of the ocean had washed away the last, lingering traces of Hawk’s kisses.
You thought yourself so smart, so wily, with all your plans. You were a fool.
He had given that man all he had and more. He had given him his body, his heart, and the greatest treasure in the seven seas.
He'd given Hawk everything. It had not been enough to secure his love.
Silverfin ran his hands down the scales of his tail, trying to take comfort in having regained his true form. Being whole again. But how could he be whole when he'd left his heart in that cabin?
Gone. It was all gone. Even if he were ever to see Samuel again, he could never touch him the way he had touched him when they had been bipeds together. He had been a fool to try and live as one of them.
Mara had been right. He will not care about your love. Getting involved with bipeds will cause you nothing but pain.
“My honored Lord.” Silverfin was startled from his dreary thoughts by a familiar arrival.
“Lord Scarletclaw?”
“A summons for you, my Lord,” the crab pronounced with his usual flourish.
Silverfin wished he had his one good foot back so he could kick the offending crustacean. He'd have even taken the one the fucking sharks ate. “What kind of summons? I’m not in the mood for being summoned.”
“From your sister, the Lady Maraxilla.”
“If she's come to rub it all in my face again, no thank you,” Silverfin turned his back upon the pestering courtier.
“She did not say anything about rubbing,” the crab scuttled into Silverfin’s way again, lifting a cautionary claw. “But I can tell you, she does not come alone.”
What did he care who Mara had dragged out here? “How did she even get here, anyways? Did Mami Wata give her back her tail?”
“She’s aboard a ship!” the crab announced with glee. "Such a tiny ship. So easy to sink. Oh, what a tragedy that would be!"
"Leave her alone, you insolent shellfish," Silverfin shot back. "The ocean has taken enough from her already!"
"Then I'll tell her you're on your way," the crab replied, smirking as much as a crab could as he scuttled off again.
Silverfin sighed, starting after him. Only for Mara's safety, he told himself. Whatever news she had from land - of Hawk, of the treasure, of anything - he didn't care.
He didn't have far to go. The rocky ocean floor rose up into tiny islands that were death to larger ships, but as he and the crab approached, Silverfin could see the bottom of a small longboat floating near the edge of one such island.
Suddenly angry, he swam up underneath it and gave one side a mighty shove.
The longboat, predictably, flipped. But instead of just his fancy-dressed sister, three bodies spilled into the water, and Silverfin suddenly found himself looking into the most familiar, wide-eyed, freckled face...
...of Samuel Hawk. His former lover. Hawk was here.
The man who'd broken his heart.