Page 72 of Better in Black
There was a bright flash, and all the other Annas melted into thin air. The real Anna continued to gaze into the distance.Arabella has to bring her back now,Ari thought.She must keep the bargain. She’s a faerie. She has no choice.
Arabella glowered and sank beneath the water. Ari folded her arms and waited for her to resurface. This she did after a moment, her eyes glowing with annoyance.
“You got lucky,” she said petulantly.
“I didn’t,” Ari said. “You were just wrong. About Anna. About me. About love.”
Arabella swam in little angry circles. “I am bound by my promise, and I will let you go,” she said finally.
“And leave us alone after that, as you said,” Ari prompted.
“I will do as I have promised,” said Arabella. “The spell on your Anna shall wear off within the hour, now that the others are gone. Claribella!”
A figure rose from one of the other pools. Ari blinked, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. From the waist down, the second mermaid had human legs, visible through a damp tulle skirt. From the waist up, she was a fish.
Claribella, Ari thought, in sudden realization. She recalled the story of James’s disastrous bachelor party. Surely this could not be the same faerie? Then again, how many fish-headed mermaids named Claribella could there possibly be?
“Claribella and Arabella?” Ari said. “Your parents must truly have disliked you both.”
“Sister. Lead them out,” Arabella said imperiously.
Ari turned to help Anna to her feet—and froze. Anna’s eyes were wide, fixed on Ari, and her stare was anything but blank. Instead, she was gazing at Ari as if Ari was a pure miracle, and in the light of Anna’s eyes, Ari could not help but feel like a knight who had cut through a hedge of thorns to rescue his beloved.
“Ari,” Anna said, rising to her feet. Her voice was husky. “I knew you would find me. I knew it.”
As Anna and Ari stared at each other, Arabella made an angry splashing sound. “Do get them out of here, Claribella,” she said, “before they start kissing. I really couldn’t bear that, after the night I’ve had!”
—
Once Anna and Ari emerged from the bathhouse, they hurried through the crowded nighttime streets of Soho and waved down the first hansom cab they saw, desperate for some privacy.
Inside the cab’s dark interior, Anna drew Ari close and kissed her until Ari nearly fainted. It was so lovely to have Anna back in her arms, Anna’s lips against hers, Anna’s heartbeat in her ears.
When Anna and Ari finally drew apart, they were both smiling at each other.
Anna wound a tress of Ari’s hair around her finger. “How could you tell?”
“What?” said Ari, caught off guard; they were already turning onto Percy Street, and her mind was on getting home.
“How could you tell which one was me?” Anna asked. “There must have been something that stood out, that the magic couldn’t duplicate. What was it?”
Ari turned to face Anna and gently put one hand to her cheek. “You were the only one,” she said quietly, “whose eyes held real sadness.”
—
Then they were home, and inside their flat; they were putting away their damp clothes, and they were getting ready for bed. They were both quiet and thoughtful, going through the steps of turning in for the night with a kind of reverence, gaining back ground that the evening had taken away.
And then Ari was in her nightgown and Anna in her green-and-white-striped pajamas, and they were in their bed. And Ari lay on her side, while Anna folded her arms behind her head on the pillow and gazed up at the ceiling.
And Anna said something that was not at all part of their usual routine. “What did you mean before? That my eyes held sadness?”
“Are you sure you want to talk about this now, love?”Because,she did not say,you usually don’t want to talk about this ever.
“I think I do, yes,” Anna said. “I know it’s the first time. But indulge me.”
“Well…” Ari said. “I know you’re usually…very social. You like going out, you like spending time in crowds having a good time together. Just because you’re not leading the, ah, tempestuous romantic life you once did, doesn’t mean you can’t still go out and enjoy yourself.”
“I know that,” Anna said mildly. She thought for a moment before she spoke. “I suppose I have become something of a homebody recently.”
