Chapter 5
LIAM
The bar empties out around eleven.
It's a weeknight, so the crowd thins early—the selkies head back to the water, the regulars settle their tabs, and the couple who've been slow-dancing by the jukebox for three hours finally call it.
I wipe down the bar on autopilot, the same way I've done it every night for six years.
Glasses. Counter. Stools. Lock up the bottom deck. Close out the register.
Kira's drying glasses beside me after pulling them out from the dishwasher that needs repairing because it doesn’t fully dry them. She hasn't said anything about the writer girl yet, which means she's been thinking about it for hours and is about to say a lot.
"So," she starts.
“Yeah, she’s another one,” I immediately confess.
“She looks like she’s human.”
“Yeah, she is,” I say, glancing at the stool where Freddie ordered her daiquiri from. She’s cute as hell, but I feel guilty getting someone like that wrapped up in this. Usually it’s someone from the Cove, and they know about the curse.
Kira pours a shot of tequila and sits at the bar. “What’s she in town for?”
I grab a shot myself, because now I have to kiss another person and repeat this damn cycle over and over. “She’s a writer, she said. Forgot to ask why she’s here exactly.”
Kira rubs some salt on her skin from a bag at her hip, something most coral fae do if they’re up on land for too long. “Well, make sure a round is on you before you kiss her. It’s so messed up that Thalassa makes you go through this over and over.”
I bring the shot glass to my lips, breathe it in before tilting my head back and letting the burn rush down my throat. I smack the glass harder than I need to. “Yeah, I think she’s cursed me twice, honestly.”
Kira’s brown brows raise. “Technically she can’t curse you without there being a break in the curse, so I mean, at some point, we have to be able to actually break it…
but the new girl is cute, though," Kira adds, casual, like she's commenting on the weather, eyeing me like she’s hoping for more conversation.
I don't say anything, because she’s not wrong.
I make it a point not to get caught up in these poor women, because how fair is that?
I look away to hide a slight smirk, because the shit that shell was saying for Freddie was so damn funny.
And the way she look mortified… I’d climb you like a tree… I’d let you harpoon me.
“You know I don’t date anymore, or do anything with someone the shell picked,” I say, cleaning out both our shot glasses.
“I know, I know. How about this, maybe we visit Morwen.”
I grunt and sit down at the bar, leaning slightly so one leg is straight out. “It’s such a bitch getting to his island,” I say, although that’s only a small reason I haven’t gone in six years.
She grins and raises both hands. “Well, at some point you got to do yourself a favor. Because you deserve to have someone, Liam. And the shell's clearly got taste."
I exhale and lean both hands against the bar.
The wood is cool and solid and real, which is more than I can say about most things in my life.
"She’s funny, too,” I admit, because there's no point in lying to Kira and she'll just keep pushing until I say it.
There was something in Freddie's eyes when she said I can't feel anything anymore.
A flatness. Not dramatic, not performed.
Just... empty. The same kind of empty I see in the mirror every morning.
Because of the whole missing a heart bit. I doubt hers is the same. What has happened in her life that makes her feel that way?
My eyes widen a bit. “She did say she dreamt of it… none of the others have said that so far,” I blink and look away, shaking my head.
“Probably just another Thalassa special… this is just shit timing with Thalassa being here this full moon,” I glance at Kira.
“Last time that happened she made it so hard on that selkie. Imagine being that way with a human who isn’t from here? ”
“Just keep her away from Silvertide, and it’ll be fine.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I say. That’s where our gathering this year will be, where Thalassa will appear.
Last time her and I got into a rather large fight because I demanded her to break the damn curse, to which we both ended up bruised and scratched.
She tried to fuck me after, but I rejected her as hard as I possibly can.
“Anyway, see you tomorrow,” I say, tapping the table.
“Aye, aye, heartless lover man.”
I head out into the night, the street lamps lit with real fire that magically come on when it gets too dark.
I think about the way Freddie’s face went red when the shell said the thing about my hands. The way she growled shut up at her own purse.
It would be nice to see her blush like that again.
That thought catches me off guard, because I’m usually more guarded with letting my mind wander.
Since removing my heart, it’s like emotions just can’t land like they used to.
That sense of wanting to see Freddie’s face contort with mortification at how much she clearly wants me, at how much that shell is probably speaking an honest truth, feels more like a memory of what wanting something is like. An echo.
It’s a reason I just keep my distance until the kiss, so the shell can wash up to someone else’s doorstep.
Except, this one… she dreamt about it.
The ocean is dark and breathing as I finally approach it.
I strip off my clothes and walk into the shallows, letting the water climb past my knees, my waist, my chest. It’s never cold like how someone not from the ocean might feel, more like a soothing embrace to my skin.
When it hits my shoulders, something in me loosens, like my body remembers what my heart can't. I dive into the waves, gills opening immediately on my neck as I swim further out. Just until I reach a spot where the waves don’t crash.
I remain with my two legs, floating on my back and staring at the sky as my body rolls with the water, the wetness of the ocean filtering through my gills to wetten my lungs.
It’s weird living on land, because I can technically do it for forever.
But there’s something about saturating my body both externally and internally with salt water that’s akin to a refreshing drink after a very long, hard day.
I don’t turn into my full form much these days.
It’s like the curse killed my adventurous side, too.
Like returning to the water as the ocean created me… I admit, I’m bitter.
I try not to think about Miss brown hair and green eyes. I wonder what kind of romance she writes? I grin to myself, my head slightly rolling with the current, water flowing in and out of the gills in my neck, when I wonder if her books are as dirty as that shell.
It’s been a bit since a human was so fun to mess with—
My brows furrow, and I focus my attention through my body.
There’s an energy in the current. A shift, like something cold threading through the warm tide like a vein of ice. I know this feeling. Fuck me.
Thalassa.
She's not here. Not physically. But she's close to the surface, somewhere out there in the deep water, and she's upset. I can feel it the way you feel a storm coming—pressure change, electric charge, and just a deep sensation of knowing.
There’s a faintness to it that makes me believe she’s not in the waters herself, but ever since the curse, she can effect me through the ocean. It’s another layer that has pissed me off, because it ruins being in here. A wave pushes me hard, like it’s carrying back toward the shore.
Fuck, that sea witch better not be texting me. When another wave pushes me harder than usual, I roll my eyes, diving underneath to swim back to shore.
This curse is starting to get too old for me. It was manageable for a time, with what was happening in my life, but she can’t keep ruining fun connections and ruining my time in the ocean.
When I emerge, water dripping down my body, especially from my hair, I sit down on the sand and grab my phone. A lot of non-water magic folk tend to freeze in such a transition, but the most I feel is just an overwhelming sense of becoming dry.
Of course… Thalassa actually messaged me. All I see is her name, and don’t read the message before looking back at the crashing waves. She’s controlling me, and she’s getting off on it.
As much as I loved those red cheeks from Freddie, it’s ridiculous that Thalassa’s curse is bleeding over onto humans who have no business dealing with this part of our world.
I lower my gaze and open the phone to see what she sent.
Hello, handsome. I’m aware there’s a new match… I saw it in the pearl. A little human, too! You might feel the desire to try and keep a distance with this one, but doing so means the moon window closes permanently. I’ll see you both at the Luminary.
I read it twice.
Three times.
Well, fuck. She’s not one to just tell me this type of stuff because she’s being friendly. Which means something in the curse has changed, or is activated? Something she’s obligated to help me with? She’s done this before when that’s happened.
Why does that matter?
The three dots appear. Disappear. Appear again.
Because it does.
That's it. That's all she gives me. Which is enough to confirm that… I place the phone down and look in the direction that Crescent Cove is in. Thalassa never meddles if she’s not obligated to. The first time this happened, I had my hopes up, thinking it meant she was finally my soulmate, but whatever small bit of feelings I had left were crushed when I realize it wasn’t meant to be.
Something about Freddie has activated something, or altered it. She’s not just some random human, I don’t think.
Thalassa wouldn't need a new rule if Freddie wasn’t different. You don't add locks to a door that's already sealed.
You add locks when you're worried someone found the key.
I was planning to keep as much distance as possible with her, to keep Freddie away from the Luminary, keep her out of Thalassa's line of sight, let her live her summer and write her book, or whatever the hell she’s doing here.
Maybe flirt a little bit, because why not?
Kiss her on the full moon somewhere private.
See if it works, because I’d be lying through my teeth if I didn’t admit that I want one of them to actually work.
If I do that, though, the moon window closes?
Why would it close? That means the curse would have to be broken, because a part of the curse was the shell would always look for others. And if there’s no way to see if it’s truly found the right one…
Is Freddie actually my soulmate?
My phone screen goes black from not using it as I stare ahead.
I think about her being anywhere near Thalassa, and something happens in my chest, an echo if a feeling that’s more like a directive. Something old and deep and hardwired, something that existed before the curse and apparently survived it.
I don't want Thalassa anywhere near Freddie.
I don't want anything to touch her.
I pull up her contact, Freddie (Shell Girl), and almost text her.
Almost warn her. But it's midnight and she's probably asleep and I don't even know what I'd say.
Hey, my sea witch ex just changed the rules because she might be scared of you specifically, so I'm pretty sure you're actually my soulmate, and also I can't protect you the way I want to because the curse won't let me, which means we need new rules of engagement. Like you need to be close to me.
I don’t send anything, not quite yet. Instead I eye where, somewhere in a beach house a mile down the coast, a woman I met four hours ago is sleeping with my heart on her nightstand.
Thalassa is scared.
I open my phone back up.
You’re probably asleep, miss author. When you get a chance, we need to talk. In person, preferably. I can meet at Rem’s Cafe at 8 tomorrow morning. Join me?
I’m done being passive about this now.