All at once her mind flew to the humiliation of the morning, and her discovery that she’d accidentally announced to who knew how many strangers that she and Andre were a couple. She pulled her hand away quickly, her eyes shifting to the water before her as her cheeks heated.
“I know that, of course,” she admitted. “Mermen usually have bigger hands than mermaids, too.”
Understandably, Heath disregarded this uninteresting comment, his tone becoming a little businesslike.
“Tell me what’s happened since I last saw you, Merletta.”
Merletta let out a gusty sigh that was much too intense, the exhale carrying enough force to expel water rather than air.
“So much has happened,” she said frankly. “My test was chaos, to be honest. I had to follow this trail left by trainees from the past, and like a fool, I got distracted by a pod of dolphins, then ended up running afoul of killer whales.” She shuddered. “I even got stung by a jellyfish hiding from the whales. Then the trail took me down into this chasm, where I only just dodged a giant squid and made it into the tiny tunnel. But the tunnel led to the maelstrom, which was almost more deadly than all the rest!” She shook her head. “I made it to the middle, and added my name. But I was grabbed before I could take the clue left there for me.”
“Grabbed?” Heath repeated, clearly alarmed by her matter-of-fact description of the sequence of disasters.
She nodded. “It wasn’t actually an enemy, though. It was August and the others.”
Relishing the chance to speak freely, she took her time, explaining about the surviving guards, and how they’d intervened when they saw Center guards waiting to kill her outside the maelstrom.
He was so interested, she couldn’t resist going into more detail about the challenges she’d had to complete, and the dangers she’d faced. He was an attentive listener. He had no need of words to communicate that he had nowhere else he wished to be, and nothing on his mind but their conversation.
Merletta became animated as she spoke, gesturing with her hands as she described some of the test’s more dramatic events. As she recounted the heart-stopping moment when she’d dived into a small hole to escape the giant squid, she shifted forward so far on her rock that her hips became submerged, triggering the change from legs to tail mid-sentence.
Unperturbed, she continued with her story, flicking her fins for emphasis, until Heath’s laughter interrupted her tale.
“What?” she demanded, a little disgruntled.
“Sorry,” Heath chuckled. “It just seemed like you didn’t even notice that half your body just transformed.”
“It’s a pretty familiar sensation by now,” Merletta told him. She followed his gaze, which was fixed on her shimmering scales. “Would you prefer me to change back?”
“Of course not,” said Heath comfortably. “It makes no difference to me—you’re still you.”
Smiling to herself, Merletta slipped the rest of the way into the water, twisting around so that her elbows rested on the rock, and the water held her weight. She continued her account, ending with the dramatic explanation of the guards’ survival and timely intervention in her test.
“And now I’m a third year,” she finished, letting out a sigh.
“Shouldn’t that be a triumphant declaration?” Heath quizzed her. “Why do you sound depressed?”
Merletta laughed ruefully. “I’m glad I passed the test, of course. But Ibsen is the primary instructor for third year, and I’m not looking forward to more time with him. Plus, I have plenty of challenges to grapple with, even before classes start.” She grimaced.
“Like what?” Heath pressed.
“Well, for one thing, the guards who survived, and who rescued me after my test…” Merletta shot him a sideways look, wondering how he’d feel about the violation of their island sanctuary. “Well, I brought them here, and showed them the truth about drying out. They sort of live here now.”
“They do?” Heath started and looked around, as if expecting to see the three mermen-turned-humans standing right behind them, waiting for their introduction. “Where are they?”
“Out hunting, I assume,” Merletta said. “In the ocean, that is.”
Heath looked a little rattled by the revelation of the guards’ presence, but he made no comment on it.
“That’s not what’s weighing you down,” he said instead. “When I saw you earlier, back in your underwater city, you looked upset.”
Merletta plucked a leaf off the surface of the lagoon and twirled it between her fingers, not meeting Heath’s eyes.
“It’s nothing,” she said uncomfortably.
“It isn’t.” Heath’s reply was forceful, but after a moment of silence, his voice softened. “If you can’t tell me, Merletta, who can you tell?”
She let out a shaky laugh. “No one, I guess,” she acknowledged, turning a rueful smile on him. “I was just thinking about my family. Or rather, my lack of family.”