Page 44 of The Merman’s Betrothal (Outcast Hearts #2)

R ory tore through the water, muscles burning with the strain.

He’d left Loch Broom a while ago but knew it would still be hours to reach the Shiant Isles by swimming at this pace.

When he’d travelled with Fionn they’d used the current, barrelling across miles as though it were the Minch’s very own underwater metro system.

The trouble was, Rory had no clue how it worked.

He swam to the surface to take a break and check his bearings. For an instant he thought he’d been blinded; the moon’s glare was so bright! Then his eyes adjusted and the twinkling crests of the waves took shape under the moonlight.

The Summer Isles were behind him, a collection of little islands between Loch Broom and the wider Minch. For Shiant he would need to keep heading west, and then south once he was close to the Isle of Harris.

Miles and miles of water stretched ahead of him.

I should have taken the Star, Rory thought ruefully. What if he was already too late to help Fionn?

The fear churned in his gut, all too real and ready to drag him under. He couldn’t shake the feeling that Fionn must be in trouble. Rory shivered and stretched his limbs. He couldn’t— wouldn’t —let anything happen to his stupid merman.

He sank into the black void of the night-time Minch.

This underwater world was much eerier in the dark.

A school of fish brushed past, causing Rory’s spines to flex in alarm.

He was learning his new shape had all sorts of involuntary reflexes.

Like his fins, his spines were quite flexible when at rest. But at the slightest hint of danger they snapped taut like a column of savage, needle-point daggers.

I guess if I run into a monster I can just back into it.

Rory squinted into the darkness. Down here he saw only the rough shapes of passing creatures.

His senses relied more on subtle sounds and pressure from the water against his skin to tell him about obstacles.

Not that there were likely to be any, aside from a small kelp forest he was briefly entangled in at the start of his journey.

Frustration simmered in Rory’s muscles with every stroke through the water. He was too slow. Fionn wouldn’t have left him waiting like this if it were the other way around.

On the edge of his hearing, a whale call rolled across the Minch like an unhurried peal of thunder. ‘ I… Am… Here. Child… Is… Here. ’

Struck by an idea, Rory filled his gills with water and then expelled a call of his own. ‘ I… Am… Here. Need… Help. Help… Prince… Fionn…’

A shoal of mackerel scattered in the distance as Rory’s call passed them and rolled onward. He hoped it would reach someone who could help.

Rory continued to belt out this song as he forged onward. The words began to lose meaning, blending into a single sound comprised more of emotions than words. I’m coming, Fionn. I will find you.

The water flurried around him. Rory felt his pace pick up.

He sang louder, with abandon. Poured everything into it.

All the bewildering ways his life had changed and how he, him, Rory Douglas had changed but not really changed just found himself, finally, out here in the abyss where love and adventure beckoned.

Here he was, fully himself and free to feel however he felt without external expectations pressing in on the image of who he thought he was supposed to pretend to be. I. Am. Here.

He was free to love a strapping blue merman with a cock. Free to love a handsome, prideful bastard with all his swagger and all his compassion and all his poorly hidden sensitivity besides. The rest of the world be damned.

Rory’s teeth nipped at his lips, sharpening, as if into focus, just a little more.

The ocean rushed in his ears, filled with his wordless song.

Carry me, he urged it. Carry me to Fionn.

His fins curved flush against his limbs, creating a streamlined shape as the water frothed and churned. Rory slipped into a mass of roaring bubbles, shooting like a bullet across the Minch.

I’m coming for you, Fionn.

And no one’s going to stop me from taking you.

* * *

Rory came spinning, bursting out of the current near the palace boundary. He’d lost control of the water propelling him and so tumbled head over feet in his chaotic effort to drag to a stop.

Once his brain had stopped spinning, Rory registered the sound of a shocked splutter from gills that did not belong to him.

Neacel’s slender shape emerged in the darkness. He was open-mouthed, eyes creased in a mixture of wonder and disbelief. ‘ I heard your call, ’ Neacel said breathlessly. ‘ That was you, wasn’t it? We were coming to find you! ’

‘ Jesus, it’s good to see a friendly face. ’ Rory pulled himself upright. By Neacel’s side, Acha bobbed her head. She seemed uncertain of Rory, but gave his shoulder an experimental nudge with her nose anyway.

The water practically fizzed around Neacel. ‘ You travelled the currents? How did you do that? ’

‘ Um. I just sang to the water. Like Fionn does. ’ Rory patted Acha’s head, allowing the relief to flood his chest. He wasn’t alone in this any more.

Neacel seemed struck by amazement. ‘ Ordinary Bluefolk cannot command the currents, Rory. That is a skill known only to our royal house. ’

‘ Oh. I didn’t know that. ’ Rory wasn’t sure if he’d just committed a crime or done something impossible, but either way it didn’t matter right now. He took a moment to shake the tension from his body and noticed how Neacel’s eyes grew even wider.

Rory cringed and held up a fin. Acha brushed it with her whiskers. ‘ New look, right? Hope it’s not too weird. ’

‘ I didn’t know what to expect. ’ Neacel swam around to see Rory’s spines. ‘ Fionn told me you were Redfolk, but I’ve never seen one before. ’

Rory’s spirits lifted. ‘ You spoke to Fionn? Is he all right? I haven’t seen him since— ’ He stopped short. Since the idiot fucked off didn’t seem the right thing to say.

Alien fins forgotten, Neacel was all business now. ‘ It’s the wedding, Rory, ’ he said seriously. ‘ The Redfolk are here. Fionn’s been taken to meet his betrothed in the palace. ’

‘ What, right now? ’ Rory flinched. That couldn’t happen.

He followed Neacel’s gaze down to the seabed.

The moonlight penetrated this patch of clear water with soft streaks of silvery light.

It made the stones themselves seem spectral, and the apparently empty space they shielded all the more other-worldly.

Neacel grabbed his shoulder just as he started to dive for them. ‘ Wait! It’s guarded. ’ Despite the stress in his song, Neacel’s expression had turned positively excited. ‘ Do you mean to interrupt the wedding? ’

‘ Whatever it takes, ’ Rory said firmly. ‘ I won’t let them take Fionn away. ’

‘ But if he sees you again… surely you will become bonded once more. ’ Neacel’s eyes searched his. ‘ Is that what you want? ’

‘ Yep, ’ Rory said simply. He’d probably never made a simpler decision in all his life.

Neacel gasped a stream of happy bubbles. ‘ Fionn told me none of it was real. He thinks the bond made it all a lie, Rory. But it’s not, is it? That’s why you’re here. ’

A lie. That’s exactly what Fionn had said to him.

‘ Bloody convincing lie, then, ’ Rory said dryly.

He spread his arms, like he was opening himself up for Neacel to see inside his heart.

‘ I’m not bonded to Fionn any more. I don’t know what happened, but it’s gone.

And I still feel this way, and I still want him.

He’s gonna have a hard time convincing me this isn’t real. ’

Neacel worried at his bottom lip, fingers fidgeting with his kilt.

‘ I don’t know if you know. Fionn was the one who cut the bond.

He thought he was doing what was best for you.

’ He added this in a hurry, like he was afraid the information might dissuade Rory somehow.

‘ I don’t believe he was thinking straight. He loves you still, Rory, I know it. ’

It wasn’t really news to Rory. A part of him had guessed Fionn might be behind their soul bond going cold. Rory was just happy to know Fionn’s life wasn’t in danger. Or, well, perhaps in danger of being sold off to some other spiny monsters, but that’s why Rory had to get there first.

He stared at the shimmering mirage beyond the boundary stones. ‘ How do we get past the guards? ’

Acha flicked her head, calling their attention to another shape gliding through the midnight gloom. The creature was easily as large as a man, broad, with four flippers. Rory recognised the scarred carapace of the leatherback turtle as she swam into their circle.

‘ Hello again, ’ Rory murmured. ‘ Did you hear me, too? ’

The leatherback gazed back at him with wise, solemn eyes.

Then, a low booming song reverberated over their heads. It vibrated through Rory’s bones and disturbed the sand on the seabed.

‘ I… Am… Here. ’

Out of the same patch of darkness a far larger, far mightier shape gathered from the shadows.

Neacel squeaked and ducked behind Rory. Rory lifted his arm and grazed the underbelly of the giant whale as she sailed over him.

‘ A humpback whale, ’ he breathed. She was majestic. Easily fifteen metres long. A living leviathan. Her calf clung to her side.

‘ Is she here for us? ’ Neacel detached from Rory’s side. The beautiful whale mother turned a slow circle around their party. She seemed to be waiting for them.

‘ I think so. ’ Rory was giddy again. He looked back to the boundary stones. The palace guards would probably have weapons. ‘ Would they attack her? I don’t want any of you to get hurt because of me. ’

‘ No. If she were an orca then maybe, if she were aggressive. ’ Neacel sounded just as giddy as Rory felt. Perhaps he was considering the same idea. ‘ But humpbacks are very peaceful. It would be an atrocity to hurt one. ’

‘ Good. ’

Rory sang a note of appreciation to their new allies. Acha swam a trail around the leatherback while the whale mother hummed her accord with the plan. Together, they all turned toward the palace.

Rory flexed his spines. ‘ Let’s crash a wedding. ’