Page 40 of Female Fantasy
I feel my neck start to heat.
“Play nice, Kai,” Ryke grunts. “It is not like I was in hiding. Or exile.”
Kai rolls his eyes. “Prince Ryke, ever the martyr.”
The two grin at each other for a beat before embracing.
“Good to see you, old friend,” Kai says.
“You too, brother,” Ryke says, his voice choked. “Where are the others?”
“Whoever could you possibly mean?” A high-pitched voice rings out from the other direction. A pale-skinned mer with short blond hair emerges from the left wing. She wears a bustier of rose-colored pearls, which matches her narrow tail. When she spots me, her eyes twinkle. “Ryke, you disappear on us for years, then emerge with…a date? And here I thought you were saving yourself for me.”
Ryke laughs heartily. “Sorry to disappoint you, Mira. This is Merriah.”
I offer up a meek smile, but I am distracted by the pretty mer’s words.
Decades.
She said Ryke had been gone for centuries.
But these mer look no older than thirty and two years.
Just how old is Ryke?
“Merriah! What a lovely name. Welcome, welcome to Caspian. My name is Mira, and this scoundrel here is Kai. Do not sit by him at supper unless you wish to have your appetite disturbed.”
I stifle a giggle.
“Might I suggest he dine in the kitchen?”
Another male appears behind Kai, his skin pale like Mira’s but his locks a fiery orange color, the same as his tail. With an earnest grin and shaggy brows, he appears friendlier than the others. Approachable, even.
But I know all too well that looks can be deceiving.
“Oh, shut it, Dylan,” Kai growls. “You shall scare off poor Merriah before she has her dorsal fin soup.”
The female mer claps. “My favorite!”
Dylan saunters over to Ryke and pulls him into a hug. Ryke practically collapses into his arms, I note. The two must be close.
“Good to have you home,” he says. “Where you belong. Come, there is much to discuss. I need to hear about your travels into the human world. And you owe us an explanation. We all heard the conch, Ryke. Was it you?”
Ryke winces. “That story requires many glasses of ale indeed.”
Kai lets out a chuckle. “Then follow us outside. We thought we’d dine on the balcony this fine evening. The water is just the perfect temperature. Not too hot, not too cold.” The mer then turns his head, gesturing to me. “Why don’t you shift and join us, little one? I cannot wait to hear the tale of how you melted our ice prince’s heart.”
I freeze when I realize that they know not what I am. Ryke’s friends believe me to be a mer shifter in my human form.
“I—” I stumble over my words. “I cannot.”
Dylan raises a brow. “And why is that?”
“Because she is not mer.”
The voice sounds from the entryway behind us. I turn around to find a petite mer with hair as black as night sliced in a sharp line above her shoulders, the sandy skin of both of her forearms and her torso covered in dark inked designs. She wears what resembles a cowhide vest. And her tail, her tiny but magnificent tail, is the hue of a deep green jewel, matching the color of her eyes.
She squints at me, her stance mildly threatening.
