Page 34 of Seashells and Daiquiris

“I mean it.”

We stay like that for a while longer, tangled and naked. At some point my head finds his shoulder, and at another point his arm wraps around me, and then I realize that this is the quietest my mind has been in over a year.

When we finally walk back in our dressed, sandy clothes, holding hands without discussion, the house is dark except for the faint glow from the living room. At the bottom of the loft stairs, he stops me to cup my face in both hands, kissing slow, thorough, the kind of kiss that says he isn't going anywhere.

“Sleep in my bed?”

A shiver rushes through me, as if it’s something scandalous and like we didn’t just have sex on a beach.

“I’m self-conscious about morning breath,” I blurt out, blushing almost right away. “Mine, not yours.”

He laughs again, and I can’t deny that it’s magnetic. “Get your stuff and then meet me in the shower. We’ll sleep down here.”

As if floating on a cloud, I do exactly that.

FREDDIE

The Luminary

Silvertide Beach at night reminds me more of an oceanic cathedral.

The sand is pale as bone and stretches in a wide crescent. More bioluminescent waves roll in with a glow so bright they cast real shadows, just like Liam said they would. Hundreds of floating lanterns drift above the shoreline in a warm, golden glow, stretching from the forest and above the ocean to form a ring that goes deep into the ocean. Maybe a hundred yards across, the lanterns sometimes dipping so gently into the water before rising back up as if in its own dimension.

The Luminary Circle.

The sea folk are everywhere.

Selkies in human form, their skin still carrying that sleek shimmer of something recently shed. Merfolk who've shifted to legs for the night, moving with the fluid grace of people who aren't entirely comfortable with gravity. Coral fae with skin in shades of pink and rose and deep crimson, picking off small pieces of coral from their crown like shed antlers. There’s even creatures I don’t have a name for, the tall, thin beings with kelp-dark hair and eyes like liquid onyx, clusters of small luminous figures that might be children or might be something else entirely. All of them are draped in fabrics that catch the lantern light, drinking from cups that glow, talking and laughing with the easy warmth of a family reunion. Some even play a game with coral spirals in the sand, throwing… oh, they’re just playing horseshoe.

Kira finds me first, wearing a thin, iridescent dress that matches her skin, and her green eyes are bright with excitement. "You look incredible."

My hands pad at the dress that Nerissa, a selkie woman who runs a boutique that Liam took me to, made for me. Cream colored with a pearlescent undertone, and a scandalous slit that stop just before revealing too much. A sea glass hairpin holds my brown hair back from my face.

Honestly, at this point, I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to live outside of this place.

“Oh, thank you. Everyone looks so… ethereal. And have you seen my merman anywhere?” I ask. “I lost him.”

“We miss him.” Shellie is tucked away in a small pocket sewn into the dress, because I don’t want to mess around with the fragility of it when we’re so close…

Kira nods toward the water, and I scan the area until I finally spot Liam, who stands at the edge of the surf, talking to an older merman I don't recognize. His silver hair is loose tonight, falling past his shoulders, and he's wearing the same pearlescent cream fabric as me.

He moves while talking, our gazes connecting before he continues to stare me down as he finishes whatever he’s saying.

The look on his face is something I'm going to carry for the rest of my life. It's not the careful mask or the friendly bartender or the man who says he can't feel things. It's open, stunned, and hungry all at once. As he partially hugs whoever he’s talking to, he starts walking my way. Not before a few mermaids crest from the ocean water to lie on rocks, their hair in wet, thick strands, sticking to their skin. And their tails.

I’ll never get over looking at mermaid tails.

I can’t wait to see Liam’s.

My merman crosses the sand to me, each step deliberate, touching someone’s shoulder when they’re about to bump into him. Then he’s before me, and even though it’s been a few weeks of just the two of us, I’m somehow even more bashful than before.

“You lost me,” I joke. “You can’t leave me unattended.”

His eyes move over me, slowly raking over the dress. His hand comes up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear on the other side. “You’re safe here… and I had to talk to one of the elders.”

Thalassa has been like an annoying fly right outside our window, pressing hard to get in but just can’t seem to. As long as I’m with Liam, there’s always been an edge of safety and protection. “So, she’s really not coming to this now? Because I kind of want to meet her⁠—”

His eyes harden. “I’ve already told you that’s the least safe thing, even within this ring.”