Page 73 of Make Out With A Merman

“No,” he says, stepping back. “If I fail, if I get caught, you can still lead them. Protect them.”

I shake my head. “I didn’t fall in love with you just to watch youdie heroic.I’m coming.”

“I love you,” he says, breaking.

And gods, that wrecks me.

“Iknow,” I sob. “That’s why you don’t get to do this alone.”

But his jaw’s set.

He turns to the water.

Takes one breath.

And dives in.

The lake swallows him whole.

CHAPTER 24

RYDER

The water closes over me like a fist.

Cold and ancient.

I kick down hard, arms tight at my sides. The current grabs me immediately, coiling around my legs, yanking like it knows I don’t belong here anymore.

But I do.

This is where I’m supposed to be.

I open myself to it.

Feel it.

Not just the temperature or the pull. Thewill.

Because the rift is awake now.

And itknowsme.

It knows my bloodline, my tribe, the weight of my failure. It curls around my magic like it’s tasting it. Testing me.

“Not today,” I murmur through my teeth, and the sound bubbles uselessly into the black.

I go deeper.

The lake turns colder. The light above me shrinks until it’s no more than a fading thought.

And then, I reach it.

The trench.

The place where it broke the first time.

The water iswronghere. Not just thick, heavy. Like swimming through grief.

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