Page 3 of Rock of Stages
With the way he sank like a statue, it sure looked like it. His eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving.
Oh no. He would drown!
I looped my arms around his wide chest and heaved. By Poseidon’s trident, he was heavy. Like hauling a boulder through a cresting wave.
I kicked harder. Slowly, painfully, we rose through the dark water. When we broke the surface, I gasped, my arms shaking. The weight of him dragged at me. Up close, I gazed at the thick lines of his features, the bluish-gray skin, the heavy brows.
“Caleb! Caleb!” shouts from the ship rang out.
I tuned them out to focus. He smelled of earth and sea—deep and male and strangely enticing.
But he wasn’t moving.
I whispered a spell to help him breathe and pressed my lips to his. A shimmer of magic rippled through me—something deeper than that of the spell. A warm, electrifying sensation in my body, tethering me to him.
No. That wasn’t possible. He was of land, I was of sea.
His mouth opened with a gasp. His eyes fluttered open and locked on me.
“Who are you? Where am I?” He glanced around and released a guttural shriek. He flailed his giant arms and they cracked through the surface, breaking my hold on him and sending arcs of water cascading. “I’m drowning!” His stone-gray eyes widened with terror. “Oh no, I’m already dead…”
“No, you fell into the ocean, but you’re safe now.”
“Oh, shit!” He thrashed through the surface and sank like a boulder.
I dove, chasing him beneath the waves. His body blurred in the darkness until a blue-gray shimmer pulsed around him again. Some kind of magic? It wrapped around my senses like a tether, pulling me closer. Familiar.
He started to shift. I grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the surface. He didn’t fight me.
When he broke the waves, the gray stone was gone—replaced by a broad-shouldered, very human-looking man. Water streamed down his jawline. His hair, now dark brown, floated to his chin. His eyes, still a storm-gray, locked on mine.
“You’ll be okay,” I assured him. “Just relax and let me help you.”
He searched my eyes with wonder. “Are you a—mermaid?”
“Yes.” I reached out to touch his skin, see if it was indeed softer now, but forced my hand down. “And you’re a gargoyle?” I whispered.
“Right.” His gaze swept over me again.
“Wow.” His voice was low and rough with awe. “You saved me.”
The shouts from the ship grew louder. A floating tube splashed nearby.
“I owe you my life,” he said, voice a smooth ripple now. “Come with me to the ship?”
I bit my lip. My father would be furious. He’d warned me about my wandering too far. About seeking my path when he already had one planned for me—to marry a high-ranking mate from another pod. A merman I felt nothing for.
And yet…
When I looked into this strange gargoyle’s gray eyes, a strange shimmer fluttered inside. Almost like a warm current flowing through me.
“I shouldn’t.”
“Why not?” He dropped his head back and exhaled. “We’ve had mermaids join us before. All kinds of supernaturals. You can shift, right?”
“Right, it’s not that,” I said.
He searched my eyes. When I didn’t finish my sentence, he prodded, “But what?”
