Page 58 of The Rusalka and Mr. Right

“You can’t know that. You don’t have tabs on every single rusalka remaining in the world. There might be others like you, those who have changed and are living in hiding, outcasts,” Jakob whispers, thin graying brows pressed together on his aristocratic forehead.

“Darya seemed very certain, and she and the sisters who still lived near her seemed very sure of my fate—and theirs.” I shudder. Sadness mixes with a feeling of hope. Maybe Kev won’t be in harm's way. Maybe none of us will. But that also means that I’m already the last of my kind. If Koshchei never arrives, then there will never be another rusalka in this world after I pass... and in spite of all the ugly death we bring, the way Kev loves me, the way I’ve changed... The way I gave up everything I knew for Gregor... Such things make me wonder if rusalka could be beautiful things. Good things.

“You have to have a plan either way, baby.” Kev takes my hand. His face is somber.

“You believe I’m something good, don’t you?” I whisper.

“The very best.” He smiles and blinks, something glimmering in his dark brown eyes.

“And without me—without Koshchei—there will never be another like me.” I twist my fingers anxiously, long white and pink twigs sliding from Kevin’s grasp. “Maybe I should—”

Kev startles me into silence when he drops down to the Persian carpet, landing on one knee with a thud that rattles the fancy ornaments that line the mantlepiece. “Marina... Marina.” His voice shakes, then steadies as he claims my hand again. “I cannot breathe without you. You need water? I needyou. You are my rain. My river. Every drop of water that I need to live and the oxygen I need to breathe. I need you in my life. You are too precious to be given to some demon who would just use you to make more slaves for himself. You are too good for him, too good for me, and too good to be the last of your kind, but baby...” He rises when I pull him, shaking his head as his eyes overflow, “Sometimes they save the best for last. If you are that last magical, mystical rusalka, that last badass mermaid... Let me be with you until it ends.”

My brain understands every word he said, but I cannot believe that such beautiful words can be for me. Something small and cold slides over my finger and clings to the surface of my skin.

Ring. Anchor. Water is only half of our life—we cannot live without it, but we need the humans that dwell on the shore, too.

My hand presses to Kev’s cheek, thumb wiping away tears. Tears he makes, water a human makes, that Kev can create—because of me. He’s mine. “You are my life. My breath. My shore.” I flow into his arms, into his kiss. It’s one of those messy, desperate ones, where mouths only meet once, and then you’re clinging to one another, faces buried in necks.

“Don’t leave me, okay?” he whispers.

My shoulders convulse with a sudden burst of silent tears. All of my life, I have had to go, to hide and not show people who I really am.Only one other I stayed for...

And he was stolen from me.

Now someone begs me to stay. Someone fights to keep me with him, to keep us together.

My fingers dig into Kev’s shirt, and I swear. “I won’t. Always with you.”

Long moments pass. The room emptied while we were speaking, but I hear soft footsteps in the hall and an even softer cough in the doorway.

“It’s time.” I wipe my eyes and actually look at the ring for the first time. White gold. Studded with tiny sapphires set in the band. “Oh, Kev! It’s beautiful.”

“Like my girl. Um. The guy at the jewelry shop said it’s called an eternity band—and um—yeah. I thought it was the right one for us.”

I love how he says “for us.”

“Sorry I lost it there for a second.” Kev coughs and tugs on his collar.

“I don’t think you lost anything. You found me.” I put my hand firmly in his and ignore the trembling in my legs and the swirling in my stomach. “When this is done, I’m taking you somewhere special.”

“Ooh. Well, then. Let’s go do this.”

WE STAND INSIDE A CIRCLEof seven, which makes me feel better. I was afraid there was going to be a pentagram involved, and no disrespect to Marina’s heritage, but I didn’t want to summon any demons.

Calder and Janet, Minegold, Alban, short, steel-haired Madge, pregnant redhead Tess, and aging blonde forest goddess Farrah Fenclan make up this ring, but Calder and Janet are justthere because they’re Marina’s best friends. I wonder if I should have asked Cal to drive up from Penn State. It is the weekend, after all. Or I could have asked Ingrid from work, she’s pretty chill.

What the hell am I saying? Cal would have told my parents to have me committed—especially once the wizarding woohoo started.

Calder and Janet step back after Minegold places an old book in Marina’s hands.

Well, hell. Now there are five of them. I try not to freak as I check the floor to see if any lines of flame start to appear. Nope. Just calm, expensive carpets.

“Let powers bear witness,” Farrah’s voice almost makes me jump out of my skin. It’s not the light, pleasant tones I heard earlier, but a deep, resonant tone that’s far too big for her slim, willowy body.

“And powers bind,” Alban takes a verse.

Wait, is this aspell? No one’s whipping out any wands... Are magical powers real, too?

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