Page 53 of Make Out With A Merman

It’s real. Raw. Us.

When we break, I rest my forehead against hers.

“No more fear,” I whisper. “No more distance.”

She nods. “Okay.”

We sit like that for a long time, wrapped in silence and each other.

But underneath it all, I feel it again.

The rumble.

Faint. Deep.

The rift’s not just coming.

It’sawake.

The warmth of her lips still lingers, but the air around us shifts.

It’s subtle, at first. A strange pressure in the back of my skull. A low hum rising through the soles of my feet.

Then the lake stirs.

Not visibly.

Butdeeply.

Like something rolling over in sleep. Something ancient. And pissed.

I go still.

“Ryder?” Callie’s voice is soft but sharp. “What is it?”

I lower my head, eyes locked on the black water.

“It’s the rift,” I murmur. “It’s not just pulsing anymore. It’spulling.”

She sits up straighter. “How bad?”

“Bad enough I can feel it in my chest. Like it’s dragging the tide inward.”

She doesn’t say anything for a second.

Then: “What does that mean?”

“That it’s waking. It’s…opening.For real this time.”

Her hand finds mine.

Warm. Solid.

Real.

“Then we face it together,” she says. “Whatever it means.”

I shake my head. “Callie”

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