Page 29 of Leviathan's Song
“Well, that’s good news. How come you’re here so early?” I asked again. “Aren’t you tired?”
“Yes.” She thumped her cutters onto the counter and went back to her pliers. “I was pissed at Josh for acting like an idiot and making us leave early and stressed out about not knowing where you were. I just couldn’t sleep so I gave up. I didn’t think we’d be gone so long last night, and I don’t know where Levi lives so I couldn’t kick his door down if I needed to.” I was pretty sure Sidney couldn’t kick a door down at all, but I was touched that she would want to.
“Aww. You were worried about me.” I clutched my clothes to my chest. “You loooovvee meee.”
“Shut up. The shop would go under if you died.” She didn’t look at me, but I saw the side of her cheek lift like she was grinning.
“I was fine. I had my wasps.” I saw her shudder out of the corner of my eye as I dragged myself to the back room to put on clean clothes. I was thankful for my snug jeans and a wrap sweater. The walk here had been exceptionally chilly in the gauzy clothes from last night. I dressed quickly and was beginning to look at an inventory list when I heard the doorbell chime. I groaned; we weren’t even open yet.
“Elara...” Sidney dragged my name out. “You’ve got a visitor.”
Drat.
I felt impressions of cold salty mist and smooth sea stones swirl around me.
Double drat.
My shoulders slumped, and I immediately straightened them. When I stepped into the store front, I locked eyes with Levi, who had his jaw set and was glaring at me. He stood in front of the register counter with two cups of Starbucks coffee set in front of him. Sidney was studiously ignoring us both.
“Can we talk for a minute?” he said.
I sighed.So much for running away. I guess we were doing this ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ conversation anyway.If I lock myself in the back bathroom, he’ll have to go away, right?
Cursing at myself internally, I heard myself say, “Sure.” It sounded like a retort.
“One word from her, and I’ll cut your balls right off,” Sidney muttered dryly without bothering to look up from her work. Levi pursed his lips and slid his eyes over to her, looking decidedly unimpressed. I rolled my eyes. Levi hadn’t done anything remotely deserving of that kind of warning. So he didn’t like me the same way I liked him. I could be a big girl, even if I didn’t feel like sitting patiently while he told me that explicitly.
“Down, girl,” I muttered back and walked around the counter toward the front door. Levi handed me a warm cup of coffee and moved to open the door for me.
“Thanks.” We stepped down onto the sidewalk in the cool Seattle morning and I focused on the sound of the grit crunching under my boots instead of my heart pounding in my chest. I hated confrontation with the fire of a thousand suns. I followed him down a few blocks to a small neighborhood park with a picnic table I’d never noticed before.
“Were you running away this morning?”
Yes.“Maybe.”
“I’m sorry,” he said before we reached the table. “I should have talked to you last night, but I was so damn tired, and it’s hard to have a conversation when both of my roommates have preternatural hearing. Like being immortal isn’t enough for them, they have to go and be able to hear a pin drop from anywhere in the apartment too.” He sighed as he sat on the edge of the table, and his hand twitched toward me before he clenched it tightly shut. He gripped his shorts with both of his hands, the same loosely fitting athletic shorts he’d worn to bed last night. My throat felt tight thinking about how good it had felt just to be held by him.
“Look, thanks for the coffee,” I managed. I watched a breeze move gently through the branches of the nearby trees so I didn’t have to look at his face. “I get it. You just don’t like me as much as I like you. That’s okay.” It wasn’t okay, but I could act like it was. “We don’t need to hash through it all.” I swallowed thickly. Now the conversation was through, and I could go finish my work in peace.
“Elara, I wasn’t… I don’t—” He raised his hand toward me when I took a slight step back. “That’s not true. It’s just a lot more complicated for me. Can we please talk? I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. I know I must have.”
His enchantment rolled over me, more intense than I had ever felt it. It almost felt like it was close to breaking through my ward. I raised my eyes to meet his and found his expression regretful, his eyes soft. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, as if unsure how to start.
“How much do you really know about merpeople?” Levi rested the side of his head on his hand and propped his elbow on his knee. He looked as exhausted as I felt.
“Not much,” I answered honestly. I took a sip of my coffee (a latte apparently), hoping it would wake me up, and tried to remember what I knew or had heard.
“I know that it’s usually the females that have the siren ability. They can shift into a human form with legs when they’re dry enough. They’re a pretty insular people, rather private, which is probably compounded by the fact that they keep their cities underwater.”
He grimaced but nodded along as I ticked off each point, taking a sip of his own coffee.
“That’s about it, honestly.”
“Politics? Biology? Relationships? Culture?” I shook my head at each question, and he sighed heavily. “I really need more functioning brain cells than I have at the moment for all of this,” he said, rubbing at his eyes with his free hand. “So, I’m just going to be as plain as I can be, and you’ll have to forgive my lack of subtlety here. I like you a lot. Probably more than I should at this point, Elara.”
What?My first reaction was to assume he was placating me out of pity, but my heart wanted to thrill at his words. Between my emotional upheaval and his lure skittering across the edges of my consciousness constantly, it was through sheer force of will that I was able to follow what he was trying to impart to me. I tried desperately to focus.
“Mer have areas where we are very instinctively driven, biologically and somewhat culturally. Again, there’s a lot more nuance here than I’m going to be able to get out right now.” He paused for a few minutes to gather his thoughts.
