Cidaris looked back at the entrance. Nucello could go and have Kellia for all he cared. She was nothing compared to Raine. Still, he should say something or else he’d be caught and then never able to see her again. Sighing, he swam closer to the tunnel. “I’m fine. But if you keep hollering, someone is bound to notice and come looking. So shut up.”

“Come out now,” Baetica’s voice ordered him.

“Not until I learn something. If you want that to happen without me being discovered, stop talking. Someone’s coming.” He left the entrance to the tunnel and swished closer to the opening. Raine was walking back towards him.

He felt his heart leap in his chest. The moon shimmered softly off of her sand-colored hair. He wondered if it would glow in the sunlight. Please don’t let that other woman be with her. He shuddered. That creature’s voice was sharp and whiny at the same time. He would much rather gaze at Raine again. Maybe she’d come close enough for them to speak once more. He held his breath as she picked her way down to the entrance. Occasionally she’d stop and glance behind her, but whether she was hoping to see someone or hoping there would be no one behind her he didn’t know. Either way she kept coming down.

His cousin’s warnings about the viciousness of the humans echoed through his mind. He slipped a little further into the cave. She wouldn’t be able to see him right away. And if she was bringing others to capture him—though he doubted someone as lovely as her could be that cruel—they wouldn’t be able to see or catch him before he escaped.

She sat down on the rocks just beyond the mouth of the cave and sighed heavily. “This sucks.”

Cidaris felt his heart leap at the sound of her words. He pushed himself along the small rocks and sand at the bottom of the pool so he could get closer to her.

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Her face turned towards the shadows of the cave that hid him, but he could not see her. And he, though he wanted to, could not risk moving closer. The shore trapped him.

“I wish we could be together,” she whispered. Her voice low and gentle, like waves lapping at a tide pool in low tide. “But you…” she laughed sadly, “you’re a mermaid, and well me, I’m not.” Standing, she walked closer to the entrance and leaned on it. “I can see that you’re not my enemy.” She looked over her shoulder towards the manor behind her. “I’d run away with you. My family…” she glanced behind her again, “My family could never understand. But I love you. I’d love you in the shallows. Hold you as the tide comes in. Trust you as it leaves again.”

He lowered himself in the water to breathe deeply as she pulled the shawl more tightly around her shoulders and shuddered. “But… would you leave your family for me? Oh Cidaris. Only say the words and I’m yours. I’ll leave here and I’ll never look back.”

Cidaris couldn’t contain himself any longer. “I’m here Raine.”

She jumped and clapped a hand over her mouth to suppress a shout. “Have you been listening to me the whole time.” Furtively she looked around behind her, “If my family sees you or even hears you, they will kill you.”

The look of panic in her eyes, sent tingles of fear down his fin, but he refused to cower and deny himself the opportunity to see her, to hear her, and maybe to touch her warm skin once more. “The darkness of the cave can hide me. Their eyes won’t find me here. But please don’t send me away.” His chest burned from the lack of oxygen in his air sac, but he couldn’t leave her. “It would be better for me to die than to spend another day away from you.”

She bit back a smile as she turned away. “If it wasn’t dark, you’d know that you are making me blush.”

“Blush?”

She giggled and looked at him. “It means my cheeks are turning red and warm because blood is rushing to them, since you said something sweet.” She entered the cave and leaned in close so he could run his fingers over her perfect, warm skin again. “Do you really love me?”

Her scent filled his nostrils. But he could bare the pain in his chest no longer and pushed off of the shallows into the deeper water to breathe.