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Fun of a Lifetime 49
A.C. WAS IN SOME SERIOUS SHIT. “Ah, A.C. We meet again.” Ceto swirled her finger in the water, and the whirlpool circled him closer to her, and, ironically, that stupid hat closer to him. “And who do we have here?” “Do you know Angel?” the kid asked, leaning off to get his damn hat. “Pipe down, kid.” A.C. tried swimming backwards, but the current was too strong. So, yes, he’d planned to eat the kid, but at least he’d make the death quick. Painless even. Well, after that first bite. But Ceto? She was known for stretching torture out over eons. No one deserved that. “I do know her, child,” Ceto answered, her tails seeming not to move at all. Yet somehow she was closer despite A.C.’s attempts to get away. “Who are you?” “I’m Michael.” The lucky S-O-B actually got the hat and managed to stay on A.C.’s back. “I want to see Angel. She promised she wouldn’t leave me, but she did.” A smirk settled on Ceto’s lips as she met A.C.’s gaze. “Altruism, darling? How unlike you.” A.C. thought
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SEEING LOGAN’S MIR-A-MAR RACING THROUGH THE WATER off to the northwest, Angel adjusted her angle of ap-proach accordingly. Boats traveled faster than she could ever hope to swim so she didn’t want to undershoot in-tercepting him. “Captain, can you have one of your pod flag Logan down to let him know I’m here and ask him to stop?” “Are you sure, princess? Having a dolphin break the Rule of Speech is a serious infraction.” As if that mattered with her list of felonies. “I’m sure.” The captain eyed her a bit longer, then whistled the order to the pod. One sleek, gray body dropped low, then sped off as the rest of them continued skimming the waves toward the boat, matching their speed to hers. Angel was getting tired, but nothing was going to stop her from saving Michael. Why had he gone with a shark? Why had Logan let him? What had any of them been thinking? A few minutes later, Logan’s boat slowed. She hoped Logan was as receptive to her as he had been to the messenger. He was w
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FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, ANGEL SAW A SIGHT THAT MADE her blood run cold. Floating on the waves, rim side up, was Michael’s hat. Logan saw it a second later. He cut the motors, leaving one barely idling so he could steer alongside it. Then, leaping off the bridge and clearing her tail, he grabbed a fishing gaff to scoop the hat from the water. The waves kept it just beyond his reach. Cursing, Logan tried again—and almost ended up in the ocean. Which was where she belonged. Checking first for shark fins, Angel took matters into her own fins and dove over the side. Within seconds she had the hat, and two seconds later, Logan had it. “Where the hell are they?” His skin blanched beneath his tan as he traced the rim of the hat, such stark pain on his face that Angel couldn’t look at him. Not knowing she was responsible. “I’ll see what I can find out.” Ten minutes of searching the ocean floor and finding a fistful of discarded hammerhead teeth gave her a clue—as did the lack of sea l
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SHE HAD TO KISS HIM. There were a million reasons for Logan to back away from that stipulation, chief among them that she was a mermaid. As much as he hated that fact, he couldn’t deny that he’d wanted to kiss her last night. Before he’d known. And could, if he allowed himself, want to again. But she was a mermaid. What would be the point? There was no future for them. And even if there could be, he had Michael to think of. His son would have to lie to everyone he met because he couldn’t tell anyone that his stepmother was a mer¬maid. Back-to-school night? “Oh, sorry, my wife couldn’t make it. She’s having her tail washed.” Homeroom mom? “Sure, but the lemonade is made with saltwater.” Never going to happen. No and hell no. He wanted Normal. A mermaid was not normal. To bring that thought home, her tail brushed his legs. “Logan?” And what the hell was he doing even thinking the word wife in relation to her? “Are you ready?” She floated a little closer. The kiss. Right. “Yeah
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THE PINK CORAL-COVERED BUILDING WHERE THE SEA MONSTER was holding his son morphed from fairy-tale charming to dungeonesque the closer they swam and as Logan sur¬veyed the lay of the… land?… around it. Other than the terraced coral garden in front, only aquamarine water surrounded them—and comparing the color of the water in this hellish place to Angel’s eyes would be an abomination. “We need to find somewhere to lie low so we can scout the area, Angel. That… molehill, crab heap— whatever—back there isn’t going to cut it.” “There’s no reason to.” Angel stopped swimming when he did. “And no way, either. All of Ceto’s pal¬aces are set up with open space around them. There are guards in every tower monitoring arrivals. She already knows we’re here.” Son-of-a-bitch. “So your plan is to go straight in. Meet her face to face. In a position of power.” Bluffing. “Unless you’ve got a better idea?” She started swim-ming again. Well, hell. He was a decent poker player—and it wasn’t as if t
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THE CORRIDOR OPENED INTO A CAVERNOUS ROOM, TIERS OF seating descending to a stage carved from stone and marble. Massive columns held up a scallop-edged roof, sea grass or kelp or something draped from it like cur-tains. One side was tied back—with an octopus? The other side flowed away from the stage in the current, and stone statues lined the concave back of the stage— But they weren’t just any statues. No, those looked like… Logan blinked. Easter Island faces? A cloud of jellyfish circled above the statues with synchronized pulsations, their tentacles swaying from side to side as a swarm of different-colored morays dodged in and out in an other-worldly allemande left. A large dais made of glass sat at the center of the stage, and on it… On it was the most amazingly horrific creature Logan had ever seen. The sea monster. Only… she didn’t look like a monster. She didn’t look like anything he would have thought a sea monster looked like. Like a giant squid or some-thing. Not th
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LOGAN DIDN’T KNOW WHAT ANGEL PLANNED, BUT HE’D MAKE sure Michael was well out of harm’s way. “Cool!” reverberated again in the light current. Logan leaned off the bottom step to follow the sound and saw Michael clapping and smiling as col-orful fish darted in front of him. He looked anything but scared and injured. Angel was right. Ceto hadn’t frightened him. Thank God for small favors. He glanced at Ceto. He wouldn’t be thanking her, however. The sea monster met his gaze, and an eerie smile slid across her face. She nodded to the four makos at the edge of the stage. Two flicks of their tails put them on either side of Michael. The witch glanced at him, her message loud and clear. Don’t say a word, or she’d hurt his son. Logan ground his teeth and reached for Angel’s arm. They had to figure out how to get Michael free before they went any closer. “Michael, why don’t you go with my friends back to your room?” asked Ceto. “The oysters are there, ready for us. I’ll be along shor
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“And, Ceto, I wouldn’t get rid of all your guards if I were you.” Ceto smirked. “But you aren’t me, are you, Angel?” “No, thank the gods. I’m Angel Tritone, daughter of the previous High Councilman and sister of the current one. I know exactly who I am. The question is, do you?” Not that Rod would want her using his position to fix her screw-up, especially since she’d disobeyed di¬rect orders, but one sure thing about her brother was his loyalty. As far as Ceto knew, a High Council contingent could arrive at any moment, which would put a kink in whatever she thought she was going to do. Thank the gods, The Council, and everyone else who’d so put the fear of the gods into Ceto, the sea monster called back three of the sharks, leaving Brutus, the biggest, to guard Logan and Michael. Still not ideal, but it did give Logan a fighting chance. And she meant that literally. “I know who you are, too, Angel! You’re my bestest friend and you’re a mermaid!” Michael laughed be¬fore turning
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Fun of a Lifetime 69
“ANGEL? LOGAN? WANNA PLAY BALL?” MICHAEL’S shadow fluttered on the filmy netting draping their hon-eymoon cabana door. Private island getaways didn’t need doors—unless one expected a six-year-old to make an appearance. Logan helped Angel smooth the sheet on the bed, then checked himself in the mirror. They’d had to scramble into their clothes when Mariana had done the first loop around the island. Good thing Angel’s sister had a big set of lungs—half the Caribbean had probably heard her warn them Michael was on his way. One more reason he’d be indebted to Mariana for the rest of his life. He didn’t mind in the least. “Come on in, Michael.” Logan brushed past Angel, unable to prevent himself from touching her shoulder, then he pulled back the netting. “Oooh, awesome!” Michael bounced in—of course— and picked up the crystal sculpture Mariana had given them for a wedding present. “Awesome? What happened to ‘cool’?” Logan said, rustling his son’s hair. The hat had been left back in
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LOGAN WAS GLAD ANGEL DECIDED ON LEGS FOR THEIR wedding day. And the morning after—if only for the fact that she looked utterly magnificent straddling him. Her skin glistened in the warm Caribbean sun. The pineapple-and-hibiscus-scented breeze wisped her golden hair around them, and the rhythmic arrival of the surf on the deserted island beach set the tempo for their lovemaking. The twilight ceremony last evening hadn’t been his idea. If he’d had his way, they would have been mar¬ried in Atlantis immediately after the trial, but Angel had specifically requested a land wedding with all her family… and no tails. It wasn’t enough that she’d fi-nagled both the job she wanted and had him—by virtue of his experience with green technologies—appointed to her Advisory Board, she’d wanted to make a state-ment about bringing the sea and the land together via their marriage. The earliest the wedding could be pulled together, tails shifted into legs, and Michael brought over had been last night
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There wasn’t a dry eye in the place—oh, that’s right. They were underwater. But Angel knew tears when she felt them, and they were what was sliding down her cheeks. And what she tasted when she kissed Logan. “I love you, too,” she whispered against his lips. “I never lied about that.” “Then it’s settled.” Zeus clapped his hands and a giant golden abacus with different colored pearls floated in front of The Council. Angel looked past Logan as Zeus swam over to it. What was the head god up to? She caught Mariana’s smile before her sister tucked her chin to her chest and draped her long hair in front of her face. She had a feeling Mariana knew exactly what Zeus was going to do—and she had a feeling she was going to be eternally grateful to her sister. “In the system of checks and balances that we use On High, two negatives—” the god slid two small black pearls to the side—“equal a positive.” He slid a pink pearl on another row. “Angel offered herself in Michael’s place. Knowing C
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MARRY? Every head, eye spot, and antenna swung toward the doorway. Angel couldn’t have heard correctly. And then she saw who it was. Logan? As gorgeous as the last time she’d seen him, Logan swam into the Coliseum, Mariana right behind him. Oh gods. What had Mariana done? The Council would crucify him—and she did mean literally. No Humans except her sisters-in-law had ever witnessed a convened Council, but they were married to members of the royal family. “Who are you, Human?” Thorsson’s last word rasped across the silence as tightly as his clipped beard swung against his chin. All the beings in the arena followed Logan as he walked—yes, walked, on two legs, every bit as tall and strong and proud of his heritage as he had a right to be—toward The Council. He didn’t utter another word. Not until he reached her. “Hey,” was that word. Then he hugged her. Chest-to-chest, thigh-to-tail, arms-wrapped-around-her hug and, omygods, it felt so good. She’d never thought she’d see him ag
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SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT! Logan kicked his feet, trying to free the one that’d been caught, all the while paddling his arms towards the surface. The creature, whatever it was, let go and Logan swam for all he was worth, managing to grab his knife. Now if only he had his mask on so he could see the thing coming. He wasn’t waiting for it to attack again; the boat wasn’t that far away. He cleared the surface and headed toward it, only to almost crash head-on into a— Mermaid. Right in front of him. Long, flowing red hair and a sparkling emerald green tail. Almost as beautiful as Angel. No one was as beautiful as Angel. “I’m Mariana Tritone. Angel’s sister.” The woman’s voice was almost as lyrical as Angel’s, but it didn’t af-fect him at all. “Do you really want to help her?” It spoke to how far his reality had shifted when he entered into the conversation as if it were completely normal. “Yes. She saved my life and my son’s. I owe her.” Not to mention, loved her, but he wasn’t su
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ANGEL SWAM INTO THE COLISEUM TO THE MURMURINGS OF the assembled members of Atlantian society. Octopi, eels, fish, crustaceans, Mers, Council members. They were all there, every stone seat in the circular building filled. A public lynching. The gold walls of the Atlantian cavern were bathed in the glow from the massive magma wells ringing the circu¬lar building. A gently waving, multihued carpet of every species of anemone known to Man and Merkind covered the marble floor, while thousands of sea beings stared at her with antennae, eyes, or some version thereof. A convened Council used to intimidate her, having all the pomp and circumstance of an entity that dated back thousands, if not millions, of selinos. But now that The Council was convened for her, interestingly, she wasn’t intimidated. Seriously, what more could they do to her? She’d almost cost Michael his life with his father, had almost cost Logan his life, period, and she’d broken the cardi-nal rule of the Mer World. Thi
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LOGAN CHECKED THE COORDINATES GINGER HAD GIVEN HIM, then looked overboard. Somewhere down there, beneath the island of Bermuda, Atlantis waited. He dropped anchor, wondering how much damage that did to the reef, but if this all played out like Ginger had outlined, that would be the least of his worries. Grabbing his scuba gear, Logan scanned the area. A perfect Bermuda day. Sunny with wispy clouds. Logan could see for miles. A pair of boats were well beyond shouting distance, and others farther past them. Windsurfers sailed near the shore, and that party cruise had been headed north. He’d rented the boat for the week, so it wasn’t expected back until then, and no curious Jet Skiers were around to take note of how long he’d be gone. His arrangements were either good subterfuge or suicide. He hoped it wasn’t the latter. One more look at the map and the coastline confirmed that he was at the right spot. Ginger had even mentioned the area off the bow where the greens of the shallows
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“HE’S ASKED ABOUT YOU.” MARIANA SHUT THE DOOR BEHIND her with a swish of her fluke and set a tray of food on Angel’s bedside table. Angel rolled over on the mattress and looked at her. “He has? Who’d he ask?” “Ginger.” Angel groaned. “Great. That bird doesn’t like me.” “True.” Mariana dipped a piece of shrimp in the mango puree. Ginger didn’t like Angel—which was why the bird had been more than happy to share that little bit of gossip with her. The bird knew the news would make its way back to Angel. But rubbing saltwater in the wound only hurt on land. In the sea, things were different. And about to get a whole lot more different if Mariana could pull it off. “So? What did Rod do when he heard Logan was asking about me?” Angel took the shrimp and popped it into her mouth. “Rod doesn’t exactly know.” Angel sat up and flicked her tail over the edge of the mattress. “Why not?” Because Mariana didn’t want to get her sister’s hopes up or jeopardize her plans. “You said yourself
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THE NEXT MORNING, LOGAN STOOD OUTSIDE A YELLOW AND red tent. They’d gotten a new one. A permanent one, according to the sign on the gate: The Flying H Family Circus. Family Circus. The irony wasn’t lost on Logan. “You really lived in a circus?” Michael held onto his hand, the baseball cap tilted back just far enough that he could look up without it falling off. “Yes, I really did.” In another lifetime. And one he was now going to subject Michael to. But he didn’t have a choice. He wasn’t about to take him along to find Angel, and Rainbow… well, Rainbow had enough on her plate at the moment if he could even find her—and he didn’t have time to look. His… parents were the best choice he had. He’d never starved, and Nadia had always been there with a big hug whenever he’d gotten hurt. She’d taken care of him when he’d been sick, asked how his day was. Right now, he’d have to be happy with that for Michael. God willing, this would only be temporary. “This looks cool. Let’s go in.”
