Page 76 of The Noble's Merman

Kent held back a sneer, turning his head away from Young and back to the sea below. Before he could speak, Seth called out to Wenta, “I’m sure you heard from your merman friend there, but we will talk better later. How I’ve missed the feeling of your body against mine! I’ve been hungry for you, dear Wenta. I promise I’ll ravish you exquisitely next time we are near?—”

“Enough!” shouted Young, taking his anger out on Kent’s wrist. He winced from the slight pain. “Like you all said, it won’t be long now until we reach England. Less than a week, perhaps, if the winds favor us. You’ve seen each other, you’ve spoken, that’s enough.”

“One more thing, please. Oh, please!” Kent nearly whined with how desperate he must’ve sounded.

“Enough is enough,” growled Young. He pulled on Kent’s wrist one more time, finally tearing him away from the railing, and dragged him back to the door in the floor that led belowdecks. Kent’s heart pounded, not just from the force, not just from the high of seeing his beloved, but from something else. The magic inside his body clutched at his heart and coiled around it like tentacles. It kept him warm and elated, even as he was urged to climb down the ladder. Seth stayed above, perhaps still talking with Wenta and Mo, and Kent couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy that he wasn’t allotted more time. But this separation would be only temporary. They would be together back in England soon enough.

Once back at the door to their small room, Young finally let go of Kent’s wrist and pulled out the key from his coat pocket. He did not say a word as he stopped, and stood for a moment. Those silver eyes bore into Kent with a certain sort of intensity; a peculiar, terrifying hunger that made Kent’s stomach coil and shrivel in fear. Dear God, have I done something wrong?

“You’re too pretty for a merman like that,” was what Young finally said. “Why should you leave yourself exclusive to him, when plenty of much finer men are here right in front of you?”

Kent couldn’t help but clench his teeth. What the hell? Was Young trying to woo him? The thought disgusted him, especially by the sight of the pirate’s crooked smile, shadowed in that gnarly black beard. “Because I love Mo,” Kent retorted. “No one else fills my heart in the way he does. I wouldn’t dare be with anyone else.”

“What does love have anything to do with it?” He narrowed his gaze, fire sparking behind his eyes, before he shook his head, apparently dismissing the whole thought. “Whatever. In you go.” And he opened the lock, shoving Kent back into the room with Allen.

“So you wish to become human?” asked Wenta once they were back underwater.

“Yes, absolutely. I love that man aboard, Kent, and wish to be with him on land. Not only that, I’ve always felt some sort of pull toward humanity my entire life,” replied Mo, searching around for Noon. It didn’t take long to find her, as she swam slow and steady; the whale never strayed too far from the ship. “Do you know anything about the process, of becoming human?” he asked Wenta.

“Actually, yes,” she clicked, and Mo’s heart thudded at those words. “In fact, I already have some human blood in me, though I’ve yet to shift into a human form myself. But I’m positive I’m nearly there, and I’ve learnt a lot about it from my grandmother, bless her heart.”

“Human blood?” The coincidences with Allen were starting to sound too much like mere coincidences. “Does that mean you are a half-breed?”

Wenta pursed her lips. “Not quite. My father was a half-breed and wed a full-blooded mermaid, therefore leaving me with only a quarter human blood. Which, apparently, is not enough human blood to let me shift freely between human and merfolk forms. The magic has a delicate balance, I suppose. If I wish to become human, I must form a connection with humanity, just like a full-blooded mer would have to.”

All this information was coming at him so fast, it made his head spin at just how quickly it was being filled. He waved a hand in front of himself. “Wait—wait. So your father was a half-breed, and could shift between human and merfolk forms easily? But if one has little or no human blood, like me and you, they cannot do that, and must tap into other magic?”

“Precisely. Yes, you got it!” Wenta smiled and nodded.

“This is new information to me, too,” said Noon. “I had known merfolk and humans could breed together, but I did not know the intricacies of how that would affect their ability to shift into human or merfolk form.”

They all swam easily along together in the blue expanse, never letting the sloop John Beaut out of their sight above. The sun was warm overhead, casting gold rays through the water, occasionally disturbed by shadows as schools of fish swam by. “I’m still curious about your family,” said Mo. “Do you have any siblings?” He realized it was a tangent, but he just needed to know.

“None that I know of.” She rubbed her chin. “I was the only youngling of my mother and father.”

But perhaps, Allen and Wenta share a father, yet had different mothers? “If you remember me saying, there’s another friendly human man on board with Kent, whose name is Thomas Allen. I ask you this because… Allen had told me before he has mer-blood, and bears a striking resemblance to you. It’s uncanny.”

“Oh, truly?” Her brows shot up. “I know of no one by that name, and it might just be a coincidence. Unless… there’s a secret sibling I’m unaware of, to which, could be possible. My father never spoke much of the time before he met my mother, and it always left me wondering.”

“I wonder too, then. We didn’t see Allen when we went above the surface; he must’ve been belowdecks. But I’m sure if you saw him, you would understand why I’m so curious.”

“Yes, yes. It is possible my father coupled with someone else before Mother… though unfortunately, I cannot ask him anymore.”

“Is he…?”

She nodded grimly. “Father was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was brutally attacked by sharks when I was young. Mother died of illness soon after. I ended up being primarily raised by my grandmother, and… well, it was rather recently that she had passed on, too.”

Sharks were serious predators, and Mo knew that all too well with what happened with his own parents, witnessing the bloody mess first-hand. Even though what his own father did with his mother’s body was quite different, he could still empathize. “I’m sorry for your losses.”

“I am fine now.” She smiled. “But thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He grinned back. “Though, if I may go back to the original topic, about becoming human…”

“Ah, yes. What do you know about it? You said before you feel a certain kind of magic connecting yourself to your beloved. That should be what you need.”

He nodded. “Yes, and Noon here told me what she knows, about how that connection to humanity will grant merfolk legs.” He petted Noon’s side, just behind her eye. “Do you feel that same magic with Seth?”

“I do, in fact.” Wenta’s whole face lit up with glee as she spoke of him. “While I wouldn’t say I’m ‘in love’ with him like you and your human are, it is still a form of love, one where I care for him deeply. Like how one cares for their friends.”

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