Chapter Fourteen
Chapter 14
T he inky green sea swirled before Kelyn as he stood at the edge of a granite ledge that hung over the water. The drop to the water’s surface was two feet from the stone. Never had referred to finding the tongue of stone that licked over the waters as an excellent vantage point from which to locate mermaids.
The air was heavy with moisture and brewed the salty ocean scents to a heady elixir that even he, with his muted senses, smelled all over, as if his skin were the nose. The sun had disappeared behind clouds, though a weak half circle of muted gold glimpsed out once in a while. It would rain soon, so he hoped to get this done before the deluge.
He checked the blue nylon harness he wore, which strapped about him like a vest. Attached to it were a couple D-rings, through which he’d threaded the length of rope.
Turning, he followed the rope along the granite surface about thirty feet to where the two of them had wrapped the other end of the rope around a massive boulder that had only budged a little when Kelyn testingly shoved against it. Valor had knotted the rope expertly, commenting she’d learned sailor’s knots when she dated a seaman in the middle of the last century. It should provide a good hold.
And beside the six-foot-high boulder stood Valor. When his gaze met hers she shrugged, and with a wave, she called to him, “What could possibly go wrong?”
The chick was damn cute when she was working the false hope.
Turning back to the sea, Kelyn sighed heavily and took stock of this crazy venture he was about to literally dive into. He could not swim. His light bones made a free dive difficult, if not impossible. He wasn’t even sure how long he could hold his breath underwater. And he was now only as strong as a human man.
Another glance over his shoulder to wink at Valor felt necessary. The witch had a way of challenging him. And he loved it. But was it worth the risk to get back wings that could be tainted by an unknown evil, as Never had suggested?
“Yes,” he murmured. “I want to be whole again.”
“I want that for you, too.”
Kelyn startled at Valor’s voice beside him. He hadn’t heard her approach, which proved he was out of sorts and not on his game. He’d better check that if he wanted to survive this next challenge.
“This will work,” she said.
Standing up on her tiptoes, she kissed him. It was a long, lingering kiss that said so many things he wanted to hear but dared not put into thought. Hope and want and desire. Better to feel it than have it spoken. Yes?
Could he allow himself to want the girl? He’d stayed in the casino last night because he’d been miffed at her rejection, but he’d also felt he was pushing her too quickly into something she didn’t want. He was supposed to protect the woman. But he knew she didn’t need protection.
Part of him wished she could need him a little bit. How to win over a woman who was her own hero?
Ending the kiss, she asked, “You good?”
“Yes, of course. But, uh...” He swiped the back of his hand over his mouth. “Better wipe that one off so the mermaid kiss will stick. A shame, though. Your kisses are something a guy wants to keep for much longer.”
“I promise you another one after you’ve secured the prize.” A gentle punch to his shoulder sealed her word. With a wink, she tugged at the rope, making a show of checking the secure knots. She patted her gray-and-black-camo coat pocket. “Got the vial and sticking paper right here. Soon as you’ve been deflowered, I’m moving in. I think I should put a protection spell on you.”
“Not a good idea. I want the mermaid to kiss me, not be repelled.”
“Right. As soon as you get that kiss...”
“I’m getting another one from you.” He winked at her and she almost punched him again, but withdrew and instead bowed her head, smiling.
Yeah, she liked him.
“You might want to stand by to tug me up in case the mermaid’s kiss disorients me,” he suggested. “Never been kissed by a mermaid before, but I suspect it’s not as delicious as yours.”
“There you go being a sweetie again. It’s gotta taste like fish, right?”
“I hate fish.”
“We’ll dine on veggies and cake later to celebrate.”
“Sounds like a plan.” He clapped his hands together and nodded with decisiveness. No more stalling. Time to either sink or swim. “Let’s do this!”
Kelyn knelt at the edge of the stone tongue and gave a look to Valor so she stepped back about ten feet, giving him space. Good call. Should the mermaid see her, the creature might be frightened away.
He lay on his stomach and reached down, but his fingers barely touched the surface so he shoved himself forward until he could cup the cool water in his palms. The granite he lay on smelled like old civilizations. The sea smelled rich and steeped with ages of secrets only dead sailors could tell. He wasn’t sure how to call up a mermaid, and Valor had no clue, either. Probably something they should have researched before coming out here.
He’d wing it. Wingless as he was.
Searching the metallic green surface, Kelyn could not see far into the depths. Murky waters. That did not seem to bode well. What had Valor cracked about him getting this kiss? Deflowered? Yikes, this would be the first time he’d ever kissed a fish.
But he was approaching this the wrong way. He needed to remain positive. The kiss was another ingredient to check off the list. And then he’d be that much closer to getting back his wings.
Stirring his fingers in the waters, he closed his eyes and focused on aligning himself with the sea and the creatures within. As faery he had an intimate connection to nature and all her inhabitants. He could tap into a hummingbird’s heartbeat and direct it to the best source for food. He could race an elk through the forest and oftentimes win. He could count a bird’s chirps and determine whether it was a warning or a greeting.
And he could call a mermaid to kiss him if he desired.
That was the key. He had to want it and believe it was possible.
Feeling the ancient memories of the waters bestill him and calm his heartbeat, Kelyn hummed from the base of his throat, tapping into the Celtic rhythms he had never known, but that had been imprinted on his soul through the ages as a collective message from the universe. He did believe in mermaids. He believed in every myth about which the humans liked to tell stories. They were all real.
He wasn’t sure how long he lay there, humming, stirring the waters with his fingertips, but he forgot the witch standing nearby and didn’t notice the sun glimmer on the horizon with a wink before a fine mist began to wet his hair and back.
A bubble rose and broke the water’s surface. And then another, and another.
He stretched his fingers through the water, and when the cool, wet hand clasped his, Kelyn cursed quietly. In for the ride, he reminded himself. No matter the slimy scales that abraded his skin. He leaned forward more until his entire chest hung over the waters. He could feel the rope tug against the rock and felt secure, so he inched forward a bit more.
The mermaid’s head rose, pale green hair spreading across the surface and forming liquid arabesques about her. Within the seaweed-like hair, bubbles formed, and Kelyn saw a tiny fish bob up briefly within the strands. She emerged to her nose, which was flat and gilled on both sides instead of sporting human-like nostrils. At her cheeks gills also flapped. Otherwise, she looked quite human, save for the green hair.
“Hello, pretty,” he offered as charmingly as possible.
Her head rose a little more and her mouth curled into a smile. It was a soft mouth, shaded green as her olive skin but with a tint of rose to it. She tilted her head, brushing it against his open palm like a cat seeking a nuzzle. Kelyn slipped a heavy ribbon of her hair over...well, she didn’t have an ear that he could see, so he dropped the hair and offered her a smile.
He wasn’t sure if she could speak his language, so he didn’t think conversation would be important. Instead he softened his gaze on her and winked.
The mermaid chirred out a giggly sound and behind her, her caudal tail fin slapped the water in a bejeweled display of opalescent scales. Water splattered Kelyn’s face, but he laughed as a means to calm his nervous jitters.
“Your tail is beautiful,” he said. “As are you.”
And then he leaned forward even more, daring to close his eyes and hope upon hope she would understand he wanted a kiss. For ages, mermaids had been known to seduce sailors into kissing them, and then they’d drag them to their deaths at the bottom of the sea.
He’d have to be cautious he didn’t become another statistic to fortify the legend.
When a wetness touched his forehead, Kelyn realized she’d touched her forehead to his. Her flesh was soft and slimy, exactly like a fish. And then it happened. Her mouth landed on his in a cold, yet sweetly exotic touch that shivered through his system like nothing he’d felt before. It wasn’t as intimately surprising as the faery vampire’s bite had been, but it did sharpen his senses to the salty taste on her mouth. She slid her webbed hands over his shoulders, pulling him closer to her until his face was in the water, lips still kissing hers, and then...
He didn’t so much drop into the water as get tugged from the granite ledge like a sack of valuable pearls the greedy bitch wanted for herself.
The harness squeezed his chest as the rope resisted. Kelyn felt the mermaid wrap her arms tightly about his shoulders as the murky water engulfed him. His feet kicked at something slippery. Her tail felt as though it had wrapped about his shins. And then the rope gave a little more.
And a little more.
And soon it was as if the rope might have snapped or come untied, for the mermaid swam swiftly downward, taking him along. The kiss broken, he struggled to shuck off her hold about his shoulders. A shout released his air. Water bubbled about him, and her tail lashed roughly at his legs, beating at them wickedly.
Suddenly he was jerked out of her grasp. Snapped upward by a force about his chest, he realized the rope was still secure. Kelyn stretched his arms, aiming for the fading glimmer of the surface. His fey weight buoyed him swiftly upward.
As he ascended, the mermaid circled him, swishing her tail at his face. The scaled fins cut his skin and he struggled to push away the menacing weapon. It was as if a jellyfish were stinging him. He cried out, releasing his last gasp of breath as he surfaced. Thank goodness for his lightweight faery bones!
Yet, from below, the mermaid pushed up on the soles of his boots, rocketing him out of the water to land on the rocky outcrop right beside the boulder that had apparently rolled to the edge.
Kelyn landed on his stomach, grunting at the incredible pain of his body colliding with the solid surface. He rolled to his back and splayed out his arms, gasping for redeeming air and sputtering up the foul water.
“Wait! Don’t spit.” Valor’s voice sounded above him. “Remember the plan. Let me take care of this.”
The plan. She’d devised a simple way to retrieve the kiss. Using a piece of rice paper that she now pressed to his mouth, she carefully peeled it away and held it up to study. Scales glinted on the transparent paper. “Got it!” She curled the paper and stuffed it in a glass vial, then stood. “I’m going to put this in the car so I don’t lose hold of it. Be right back!”
“Sure.” Kelyn sputtered more water. Man, the sea did not taste good. “You do that. Leave the half-drowned faery here to die!”
Then he laughed a wet and weary laugh. He’d survived that challenge. He wasn’t going to die and end up buried in some rotting shell of a ship filled with hundreds of other unlucky souls. Davy Jones had lost this one. How’s that for a guy who had never taken a swimming lesson?
Pushing the hair from his eyes, he winced as his fingers traced the cuts marking his forehead and cheeks. He would heal, but not as quickly as usual.
The crunching of stone and the sudden wobble of the boulder beside him alerted Kelyn. Accompanied by a rush of sudden wind and rains from above, the boulder wobbled...
Tilted forward...
And dropped into the water, breaking off the granite ledge as it did so.
The rock fell away from under Kelyn’s legs. Frantically, he shuffled backward. Then he slapped a hand to the harness and the rope knotted so expertly by Valor.
“Shit.”