Chapter 16
Gil
Ihaven’t felt this nervous since the first time I swam to the mortal realm.
I was seven years old, and it was farther than I’d ever gone on my own.
The curiosity of what was out there pulled me toward the rippling light.
Well, curiosity and a dare from my older sister Goldie, who said I wasn’t brave enough.
I was too—and I was determined to show her I wasn’t a guppy anymore. Now? The nerves of young-me resurface, bubbling up with every breath I take.
As I swim past the sunken coves, I should see sunlight rippling off the water. Instead, my view is obfuscated by clusters of fish near the surface, their shadows dappling my face.
Plop!
It can’t be.
As if being thrown with force, a small orange ball plunks under the water, leaving a powdery residue in the wake that’s promptly gobbled by the swarming fish.
Cheese balls.
My mind races. There’s no way this is a coincidence, and like a lovestruck guppy, I swim. The fish flee as soon as I approach, their desire to not become dinner larger than their hunger.
The surface is littered with more and more cheese balls, like fluorescent orange snowfall under glass. And there she is—at the top of the rocks like so many years ago.
“Please.” I hear her voice and rise from the water. I meet her wide eyes, scooping the soggy snacks up in my webbed hands; if she’s here to recreate the first time we met, then it’s a good thing I still remember my part.
“Want some?” I ask, and the sound she lets out is both a laugh and a sigh of relief.
“You’re him, aren’t you?” she says, her voice soft. She stares down from her perch, like a songbird. “Gale?”
What?
“Gale, Gale?” I repeat. Come to think of it, she did always have a funny way of saying my name. I always assumed it was a difference in accents and not—
“You thought my name was Gale that whole time?” I shout. This is the most romantic moment of my whole damn life, and she’s calling me the wrong name.
“Oh my God.” She gasps, hands covering her mouth. I shake my head, watching the smile creep up on her face. “In my defense, your mouth was very full when we met.”
There’s a beat of silence between us as a grin on her face spreads into something wild and untamed.
“You’ve always been Gil…” she says the words slowly, with intention, as she moves closer.
We stare at each other as I nod. She stands at the edge of the water, so still and quiet apart from the sound of nature all around us.
She reaches up to pull off her cover-up, revealing pale, freckled skin with patches of pink on her elbows and knees.
Her swimsuit is white with puffed sleeves and a skirt that barely hits her upper thighs.
She looks like she’s wearing a damn wedding dress, and I can’t take my eyes off her.
Marina—gorgeous Marina—rushes toward me, her hair trailing behind her like the curl of a pink ribbon.
She stops short once she’s knee-deep in the water, and I sink down to my shoulders. I’m completely unable to discern the wide-eyed way she’s looking at me.
But if she was still afraid… would she be waiting for me?
Marina reaches forward with shaking hands, hesitating before her arms return to her sides.
“I’m sorry,” I say, “I should have told you right away, it’s only—”
You can’t want this.
“You’re—” Marina whispers, her eyes intently combing over every inch of my face. I wince in anticipation of what her next words may be. “—so beautiful,” she says,
I must have misheard her, but her lips are upturned, and her hand is touching my arm.
“You don’t have to humor me, darlin’,” I say, sinking deeper into the water. “You’re flawless and I—”
She scoffs, shaking her head. “Flawless? I’m not, I’m not…” She lets out a shaky sigh, her fingers trailing down the uneven bumps of skin on the side of her neck. “I, well, I wish my scales were as pretty as yours.”
Scales.
My lips quirk into a smile, and I rise to my full height to study her.
“If you can handle my scales, I think I can handle yours,” I say, not letting my gaze break from hers. The two of us skim each other’s skin and scales, taking in our similarities and differences beneath the cheese-ball orange tinted skies.
“Then,” she says, her palm spreading flat across my chest, “let’s stay like this.”
Tentatively, with caution I’m unable to shake, my hand covers hers, the webbing outstretched, cupping around her fingers like the sleeve of a sweater.
It’s a funny thing, really; the two of us wearing layers of flesh and fabric. For what? Covering up our flaws or differences doesn’t matter.
Especially now that we’re face-to-face, neither of us give a damn.
We want to be next to each other.
I reach out to stroke along the arch of her elbow where her skin is pink and irritated. Marina winces in anticipation and I freeze, my finger webbing outstretched and on full display.
“Does it hurt?” I ask. The last thing I want is to cause her discomfort.
“No, it’s not that.” She bites her bottom lip. “I don’t want to gross you out—the skin might be broken in a few places.”
It is.
But if she thinks a little thing like that will keep me from wanting to touch her, she’s wrong. “May I?”
She nods, and my fingers slowly glide from the bumps on her elbow to her neck—the area I’ve seen her scratch at the most. The pad of my thumb softly traces the places where she’s left claw marks in her wake.
Marina sucks in a deep breath but doesn’t move away. Is she enjoying this?
Interesting.
“I should have never run from you,” I whisper, drawing her close and leaving a kiss on her temple.
“Then don’t next time,” she says with no room for argument. She pulls me down by the shoulders until her lips are on mine.
The kiss is tender, her lips soft and as sweet as the pie she ordered for breakfast yesterday morning. She wraps around me with the fluidity of the springs themselves, cupping my face in her hands.
The warmth of her mouth is tender and all mine, punctuated with gasps until that sure feeling turns to desperation. Her arms wind around my neck, trailing across the gills that sit along my cheek bones.
“I’m so glad I found you again,” Marina whispers, her chest is taut against mine. There’s a familiar buzz of magic pulling at me all of a sudden. I look down and see my glamour is around her neck—and the charm is now resting on my skin.
My disguise flickers on for a moment, like a glitch on a screen, and Marina draws back with a gasp. As soon as the contact is broken, I return to my true self.
“This is the thing that disguised you?” She turns the charm over in her hands—I must have left it on the edge of the bathtub.
While I like the idea of her wearing jewelry that’s mine, I’d rather have it be something that doesn’t make me look like a human again when we touch.
Unless…
“It is,” I say, my voice hoarse. Our faces are so close I can feel her breath on my lips—I’m shivering from the delicate way she explores the different textures of my face with one hand. With the other, she pulls the necklace away from her neck with so much force it breaks the clasp.
“Then I guess we don’t need it anymore,” she whispers. Then, holding the chain out so it sways over the surface of the water, she lets go. The expensive and unnecessary charm sinks to the bottom of the springs.
She sees me, she found me, and now, this is where our story begins again; this time neither of us is going anywhere.
“I planned to tell you all this differently,” I say, but she’s tucked under my chin, her skin on mine, and I can’t say I’d change a thing about this moment.
“Oh yeah?”
A grin spreads across my face just as the early light of Sunday morning peeks through the trees. This is my chance to show her exactly how much this all means, and I’m not going to mess it up by hiding. Not anymore.
“Give me an hour, and I’ll show you.”