Blood soaked the sand.
Tal skidded to a stop, chest heaving, heart racing so hard he was light-headed. But it didn’t matter, he had her name.
Garrett had placed Athlen at the edge of the surf, the incoming tide wetting the hem of Athlen’s trousers. His face was gray. His chest didn’t move.
Tal clutched the shark’s tooth on the cord around his neck, the serrated edge biting into his palm.
“Tally,” Garrett said, voice soft and solemn.
“Lift him.”
“What?”
“I said lift him. We have to get him back to the sea. We don’t have much time.”
There were others crowded on the beach, murmuring, crying, no doubt watching for their prince of fire to shatter in the waves. But he wouldn’t.
Not here.
Garrett lifted Athlen into his arms, and the way his legs hung over Garrett’s elbow and the angle his neck rolled and the complete lack of tension in his body made Tal grip the tooth harder. Athlen’s vivid copper hair stuck to his cheek and forehead, and blood was smeared along the gray-tinged skin of his neck, into his ear. Hints of his gold-red scales glinted in the bright sun, a reminder of the sunset, and of the preciousness of Athlen himself.
Tal wasn’t strong, especially after what he’d endured these past weeks, but he gathered Athlen in his arms and held him close. He didn’t dare listen for breath or a heartbeat. He didn’t need to. His resolve was strong even if his body wasn’t. He avoided Garrett’s gaze, knowing he would cry if he saw the sorrow and pity in them, and instead turned away and made for the surf.
The first wave knocked him to his knees, and he almost lost his grip on Athlen’s body, but suddenly there were strong arms behind him, lifting him as the next break rolled in.
“I’ve got you,” Garrett said. “Keep going.”
They waded out farther, past the rolling foam and froth. Tal’s boots filled with water, his clothes soaked through, weighing him down. But he kept going until his toes lost touch with the sand at each ripple of the waves.
Crimson bloomed around them like petals of a flower. Athlen’s hair fanned out like a halo. His soaked shirt clung to the hard lines of his torso. He was beautiful and macabre, death and magic merged in one being, in one moment.
Tal cleared his throat. “Morwen,” he whispered. He squinted his eyes shut, trusting in Garrett to keep hold of his shirt so he wouldn’t float away on the current or drown in his anguish. He clenched his teeth. “Morwen. Please. Please. Please.”
He poured his heart’s desires toward the sea—the life he’d envisioned with Athlen in the castle, the happiness they’d share, the family they would have together, joining as the last two of their kinds, alone together. He let the grief wash over him like the ocean and allowed his salty tears to stream down his face, adding his own small drops to the deep vastness of the sea.
Bowing his head, Tal grasped Athlen close, buried his face in the bloodied, ruined chest of his beloved.
“Morwen. Hear me. Please.”
Nothing.
Only the cries of the gulls above them and the crash of the waves on the beach behind them filled the thick air.
“Tally,” Garrett said. “I’m so sorry.”
Tal sobbed, great heartrending sobs that wracked his body and tore from his throat on punches of air. He felt cracked in half, broken open so his insides were raw to the sun and the salt. Everything hurt, from the stinging of his eyes to the throb of his heart to the white-knuckled grip he kept on the body floating in front of him.
As his last hope sank, a pulse of magic rent through the water, slammed into Tal’s chest, and suddenly the familiar push-pull of the sea stilled.
Tal lifted his head.
“Did you feel that?”
Garrett nodded. “I think we should swim to shore.”
Another shock of magic rippled toward them, and suddenly the water receded as fast as a blink, sucking everything out to sea violently. Tal lost his footing, yelling as a wave crashed over his head from the wrong direction, water funneling into his mouth and nose. Garrett grabbed him, wrapped his arms around Tal’s waist, and yanked him above the waterline.
“Hold on!” Garrett yelled, clutching Tal to him as the water rushed away from the shore, sand and shells and fish pummeling around them. Only Garrett’s strength kept them both standing.
As it was, Tal scrabbled to keep hold of Athlen’s limp body, but he was ripped from Tal’s sore fingers, swept away in the tumult.
“No! No! No!”
Tal wrestled out of Garrett’s arms to follow, but Garrett reeled him back.
“No. I’ll not let you drown for a dead man.”
“Let me go. Let me go. Let me—”
Tal gasped when both he and Garrett fell to ocean floor as a great pillar of surf and foam and water rose from the sea. The chaos coalesced into a figure before their eyes, and the ocean itself formed into a body. Fish swam through her torso, seaweed tumbled from her head and over her shoulders. Her eyes glittered as scales, and her mouth was red coral. Her arms were as strong as the tides. She wore driftwood around her neck and a string of shells around her waist. Pearls adorned her fingertips. She was magic incarnate, terrifying and beautiful.
Towering over them, she bent forward, examining Tal and Garrett as if they were insects.
Tal stood slowly and brushed the clinging wet sand from his hands.
“Which of you called my name?” Her voice was the song of the sea, the gentle lapping of water against the hull of a ship, the scream of a waterspout, and the crash of the waves all in one.
Tal’s hair stood on end, and he curled his toes in his soggy boots. “I did.”
“You are made of fire. Have you called to fight me? Finish what your grandsire began?”
“No!” Tal held out his hands. “No. I’m not him. I didn’t call you to fight. I came to bargain.”
She pursed the coral of her lips. “And you are?”
“I’m called Tal.”
“That’s not your true name. You are wise not to share it. What do you desire?”
“Athlen.”
She smiled, but it wasn’t kind. It was shrewd and full of shark’s teeth. She scooped a handful of water from beside her and held it close to her mouth, Athlen’s body floating in her palm. She blew a breeze, and the water glowed as if the sun had dipped below the surface and lit the blue from within.
Athlen’s body shuddered and his clothes shredded as his legs fused into his long red-and-gold tail.
“He owes me a debt, beloved. Are you here to pay it?”
Garrett wrapped his hand around Tal’s forearm in a vise grip. Tal ignored him, dared not take his eyes from Athlen, buoyed in the pool of light and magic.
“Only if you can save him.”
She tilted her head and regarded Athlen. “You wish to renegotiate the terms of his bargain?”
“Yes.”
She tapped her lips. “And what are you willing to give?”
“I… I’d give anything I could. But he… he doesn’t want that.”
Her lip curled. “You are magic, like me.” She set Athlen onto a plateau of surf and spread her fingers. “But I gave up my mortal self to hide in the sea, to hide from the fire that awaited me on land. I’ve lived as magic for longer than you have been alive. It is a piece of me, and I will not give it away freely.”
“I understand,” Tal said. “What are the terms of the bargain?”
“A life for a life, beloved. Your blood for his legs.”
Tal swallowed. “I don’t—”
“Hurry. I can save someone who still lives. I cannot resurrect the dead.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, tears leaking from the corners, Tal took a shuddering breath. “No. He… he wouldn’t want to be without me on land. He told me. He doesn’t want to be alone, and I won’t doom him to that.”
“Oh, beloved,” she said, tone sad and kind.
Tal felt the sweep of cool water over his cheeks, wiping his tears away. Tentatively he opened his eyes, then flinched back when he found she’d moved closer. Her face was inches from his, small fish swimming behind her eyes, then down the tunnel of her neck, her expression sorrowful.
“You love him.”
“I do.”
“Enough to let him go?”
Tal wiped his sleeve over his cheeks. “If I must. Yes.”
“I am sorry, beloved. A life for a life. Blood for blood. That is the cost of my magic.”
Tal fell to his knees and covered his face with his hands. His heart broke anew. A fresh wave of tears streamed down his cheeks. Garrett wrapped his arms around Tal and held him close as he cried.
“Good-bye, little fire. You are a better human than most.” She caressed his hair, then turned away.
“Wait! Morwen! Wait!”
A yell from the beach, followed by the rapid squelch of someone running toward them, pierced through the sounds of Tal’s grief.
He twisted around. Poppy broke through the substantial crowd that had gathered and ran toward them, full tilt, her curly hair blowing behind her. Shouts from guards followed her, demanded she stop, but the guards didn’t dare broach the shoreline. Poppy had no such fear, and upon reaching them, she fell to her knees and clasped her hands in front of her.
“Morwen! Queen of the sea! I wish to bargain.”
“Poppy—”
“And what do you want, child?”
“Take me with you.”
Morwen’s mouth ticked up and her eyes widened. “What?”
“I pledge my life in servitude to you. I always believed in the merfolk and in you. I am the last of my crew. There is nothing left for me on land. I want to live with you in the sea.”
Tal whipped his head around to stare at her. He broke from Garrett’s grip. “Poppy, you’d really pledge your life?”
“Yes. My life is the sea.”
“A life for a life!” Tal pointed at Morwen. “You said a life for a life. A life. And I’ll give you my blood.” Tal grabbed the shark’s tooth and snapped the cord from around his neck. He plunged the tip into the crook of his arm.
“Tally! What are you doing?” Garrett yelled.
Tal grunted with pain, wrenching the tooth free. Blood ran freely down his arm. “Take it! Save him!”
Morwen scowled. “Your life for the merman’s life?” she asked Poppy.
“Yes! Just take me with you!”
“The bargain is struck,” she said in a biting, begrudging voice.
A tendril of water grabbed Tal’s wrist, while another held half of an oyster shell beneath his elbow. She twisted his arm, and blood ran into the cup of the shell, staining the sheen crimson. Morwen peered at it.
“More.”
The tendril squeezed right above the wound, and more blood welled to the surface. Tal went dizzy and swayed on his knees.
“Enough,” she said when the shell was nearly full, and the tendrils released him.
Tal fell against Garrett.
“Tally?”
“I’m fine.” He blinked away the dark spots in his vision. “Where’s Athlen?”
Morwen turned away from them and grabbed Athlen from where he lay on the surf. He flopped like a rag doll in her grip, and Tal’s belly flipped and his throat tightened. She passed her hand over Athlen, said words in a language Tal would never know.
Athlen’s tail twitched.
His back arched as a tendril of water probed the wound and yanked out the arrowhead. The water glowed and shifted. Tal squinted, unable to make out what was happening, but after a minute she dropped Athlen into the water with a plop.
“He is yours,” she said. She leveled her gaze at Poppy. “And you are mine.”
“Yes. Yes. I am yours.” Poppy stood and walked into the wall of water in front of them. It opened for her, then wrapped around her body, encasing her entirely in a blue glowing cocoon of Morwen’s magic. After a moment the water released her, and Poppy emerged, a spirit of the sea, composed of salt, surf, and foam. She held up her hand and flexed her fingers, giggling at her new form. “I’m of the sea,” she said, her voice the sound of a splash. She smiled wide, then turned, dove into the water, and disappeared.
Morwen stared at the pair of them left on their knees in the sand, Tal’s arm covered in blood, Garrett clinging on to him.
“If you call again, I will not come.”
“I understand.”
“Good-bye, Tal, beloved of water and fire.”
Tal bowed. “Good-bye, Morwen, queen of the sea.”
She smirked and sank into the waves.
The wall of water that she held at bay broke at once, and the sea that had receded rushed back in.
Tal sucked in a large breath and allowed it to wash over him.