Page 29 of Magic Potions and the Merman's Lure

“Why would Aquana have anything to do with dolphins?” I grumble. “Their males are sexually aggressive pests and the species in general doesn’t offer us much benefit.”

Keri’s lips twitch. “I think that bit of information will break the hearts of artists everywhere. Mermaids and dolphins go together like peanut butter and jelly.”

I hoist myself further out of the water with a grunt of disbelief. “First, Aquanas have only have superficial similarities to your mermaids, and second, that’s disgusting.”

I make a face in recollection of the sticky-sweet sandwich Keri ate the other day. I only took the smallest taste of the half she offered me, and it was more than enough. I am not entirely surprised when my mate and her friend laugh in response, unsympathetic and cruel females that they are. Lifting my tail, I playfully splash water at them, my lips twitching at their startled laughter.

“Stop, you beast,” Adiele shrieks. “The last thing I want is to smell like salt water all day. You know how much I hate it.”

“You do,” I agree easily. “Why are you here?”

The exasperated look my mate directs at me is the epitome of adorable, but I will not be so easily diverted. I pin Adiele with a stare, my brows rising politely as I wait.

“As it happens, I was invited, bribed, and then ultimately threatened,” she concedes as she fishes a bottle out of her oversized bag and takes a drink. “And it’s all your fault, naturally.”

“My fault?” I glance over at Keri questioningly and my mate sighs.

“Adiele exaggerates. It is not your fault, it just merely concerns you—or more accurately, it concerns your supplement.”

“Keri was filling me in on the problems with it,” Adiele interjects, stashing her bottle once more. “Apparently the stuff that the Underidge coven produces is nothing short of poison according to her research.”

“Poison?” I draw back in shock, my blood going cold. Keri immediately gives her friend a recriminating look.

“Poison is a bit harsh. Don’t scare him, Adiele.” My mate’s expression softens as her gaze returns to me. “The problem is that it works largely by isolating and blocking a significant part of your magic by cutting off your core connection to the primal magic of the sea. With humans alone this can have enough potential problems but doing this to magical species—there is no way to know what the long-term effects are going to be. It can potentially cause some very significant issues that we have no way to gauge.”

I swallow nervously, my heart pounding painfully in my chest. I did not consider that. “You do not wish for me to seek the supplement,” I conclude miserably.

Keri meets my eyes. Her lips part with her hesitation to speak but I do not need the words to understand what she is trying to tell me in this moment. Still, I wait, barely daring to breathe, hoping that I am wrong. She finally nods, affirming my worst fear.

“Without it how will I...” I fall silent.

I do not want to tell her that I selfishly want it just so I can be with her every minute I am able. Her magic is still resisting my lure for some reason I do not understand. We should be closely bound now and preparing to enjoy our first mating together. I can feel the response of her power echoing through my lure, drawing on my magic and caressing me as that of a true mate, and yet there is still a strange barrier keeping my lure from becoming fully embedded and one with her that confuses me. How can I adequately express what I need from her when I am not even sure she will stay if I do? Humans are not like Aquanas and there are divisions of customs that I cannot simply forget, not if I do not want Keri to reject the lure altogether.

“We find another way,” she replies as she reaches over the side of the pool and grasps my hand in hers. “That is why I invited Adiele here. We’ve been discussing the best way to go about it.”

“And I’m telling her I’m out of ideas,” the other female sighs. “Not that I had many to begin with—as you know.” She shakes her head. “This is just not within my own abilities. I know it comes in a fine powder and how it’s consumed, when to use it and when not to, the required dosage, what to look for when an overdosage happens, and generally how it works, but nothing else.”

“All of which has been very helpful,” Keri rushes to assure her. Leaning forward she lazily stirs the water with her fingers as she thinks. “It just confirms for me that this acts a lot like a hormone regulator for human birth control in a functional sense. Which means that we need to come up with something different.”

I eye the dolphin circling back toward me and nod. I really have no idea what they are talking about. Aquana fertile cycles are determined by the moon and sea, and births are not only infrequent but celebrated... but I do understand that blocking it would be a bad thing from that perspective. A frown curves my mouth as I consider further. Then again, females do chase males away when they do not wish to conceive. Wouldn’t blocking it in such a case be not only desirable but beneficial? I sigh heavily. My head hurts and not just because I keep having to chase away this pest of a dolphin. I will just have to take my mate’s word for it that the effect of the supplement is a bad thing. I do understand one thing—Aquanas need the magic from the sea to survive. My blood chills at what I have done by taking the supplement in the past.

If I have damaged myself in some small way... what will that mean for my future ability to successfully mate with Keri? What if that is the reason that the lure is not secure? What if I cannot complete the mating bond and bind my mate to my magic fully so that she can share my life with me? Am I doomed to watch her waste away on the shore in the short years allotted for human life while I go on without her all because of this poison? Contemplating that makes me feel even worse. I will not be able to bear it if I fail her in the most important thing I do for us.

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