Chapter 14

"I need a moment." I might have said the words in a calm voice but my turbulent emotions meant I was anything but calm.

"Coralina, I would like to complete your naming day as your father asked me too." Lin stated.

"Right at this moment I'm going to attend to my human duties. After that I'll return to discuss the matters I have just witnessed."

I came up with the only excuse I could. With a flick of my tail, I left my momentary glimpse into the future. Heading back to the palace, my mind swam with everything I had learned. All that I had known now lay before me as a bunch of lies.

I paused only when I ended up in the place where I could glimpse all of the history of the mer. What a glorious history we had, until now. Watching the seasons roll by, it startled me to see that we had suffered a previous rebirth of our civilisation. This time was due to a group of mer trying to branch out and take over. I peered closer at the images as they swirled by me. History was not as clear cut as I always thought.

"If you watch these walls long enough, you will see back to the first mer. We haven't always had the best or the fairest civilisation. Mer are just as fickle and greedy as we see the humans. We are one and the same." Lin had caught up to me as I studied our species through history.

"There are good humans." I thought about Mel and Donovan.

"Yes, and there are bad mer. Now you know the truth."

I stood there in my human body with a sense of defeat, but also a strange slice of hope growing within me. Considering that yesterday I thought I was the only mer, today had ended up quite informative.

"Do you think there are other mer in hiding?" I dared to ask.

"I have much more hope that there are other mer now that I've found you, or that Byron found you. If you let me complete your naming day we will find out." Lin tried to convince me but I shook my head.

"I can't do it today. I need time to consider all that I've learnt." With a wave of my hand, I pointed back to where I'd seen the prophecies.

"I understand, my queen. Perhaps we can try tomorrow." Lin sounded so hopeful that I hated to disappoint him.

"Tomorrow," I agreed with a nod. "Now we should go to the aquarium." I said as I turned to Byron.

"You're not working at the aquarium anymore, Coral. You've got a hundred more important things to do as the queen of the mer." Byron said and I stared at him for a long moment.

"I work at the aquarium." I spoke the words slowly in case he'd forgotten.

"You did. Do I have to fire you so you'll stay here and look after things?" Byron appeared both amused and slightly exasperated.

"Fired? Are you going to strike me down with fire?" I asked in confusion and he let out the cutest chuckle.

"No, it means that as the boss I told you never to come back to work."

"Like Susie?" I frowned at him.

"Exactly like Susie." He nodded his head.

"But I didn't do anything wrong! Humans are very weird." I concluded and Byron laughed.

"True, but you need to be here looking after mer things." He waved an arm around at the palace.

"Yes. The first thing is to make sure Lin's secret entry remains inaccessible. Next time you want to come here you only need to ask to enter." I said to Lin who nodded.

"I will leave and let you two have the day to yourself." Lin stared pointedly between us.

"Meaning he expects us to start producing merlings." Byron winked at me.

I paused for a long moment as I thought of the obvious. Byron and I could have offspring. We could fill the palace with merlings.

"I hadn't even considered that possibility." I sounded as startled as I felt.

"You completed the mer bonding ceremony with me but haven't even wondered about merlings." Byron's gently chiding voice made me wince.

"I did that so you could see." I made a wild gesture back to behind the thrones.

"Coral, calm down, I'm joking." He swam over to me and pulled me into his embrace.

"I'm not so good at finding things funny anymore." I admitted as I let him hold me.

"Yeah, and you have good reason. I understand why. The great thing is that now you have me. If you ask dad he'd say I'm incredibly optimistic, a hopeless dreamer and always in the cheerful side."

"Where is Lin?" I looked around and saw nothing but empty water.

"Didn't you hear him say that he'd leave us alone? We've now got the rest of the day to ourselves." His wicked grin made my heart start to race and my gills flapped uncomfortably.

"We should check on the aquarium. Belloo and my other friends will wonder where I am." The words escaped me when it wasn't what I wanted.

"You talk to all of aquatic life, don't you?" Byron asked as he pulled back from our embrace to peer at me.

"Yes, Lin already said that he was my teacher. Didn't he teach you?"

"I'm not as adept as you so I've only learnt a few of the more common words shared amongst the different species. They get a bit miffed when I don't understand. You and dad have spoilt the oceans inhabitants into thinking that all mer will understand them." Byron shook his head and appeared down.

"I guess there are a lot of different nuances in the way they all communicate." I considered and Byron nodded.

"If we go and check that everything's fine at the aquarium, will you let me take you out for the rest of the day?" his aquamarine eyes shone at me and I knew that I could never refuse him.

"I would like that." I smiled at him and he relaxed against me.

"So would I."

Once I'd secured the palace, we headed back to the aquarium. In the light of the day it was quite surreal to me that I had another mer swimming next to me. He wasn't just any mer either, he was my mer bond.

"Something just occurred to me." Byron interrupted the silence between us.

"Yes?" I glanced over at him.

"Why do you have a human house?"

"It makes it easier to come and go from the ocean." I replied and Byron stopped swimming.

"I think I need to see this." His eyes lit with curiosity.

"Come this way." I changed course slightly and headed to the house.

"One more question?" Byron asked after a while.

"You can ask me whatever you like." I replied

"How the heck did you fit into normal human life where nobody suspected anything about you? I didn't suspect anything and I'm half mer. You always have normal clothes. Where the heck did you get clothes?" these items confused him I could tell.

"I've travelled the oceans for the last hundred human years and I found humans quite fascinating. Everything they do is often the opposite of what mer would do. When I first considered stopping my search, I collected discarded items of human clothing.

"I experimented with leaving the water and walking amongst the humans. At first I shocked them and now I know it was due to the horrible condition of my clothing. When I first met Mel and Donovan, all I had was the uniform provided by the aquarium as my human clothes. They took me out on a... hmmm, what's it called..."

"A shopping spree?" Byron suggested and I nodded.

"Yes, they dressed me up in different items and we bought a lot of clothes. That helped me to fit in better with the humans."

"You definitely pass as human when you're in clothes." Byron agreed.

"The caves this way."

I led Byron through the underground cavern. His surprise when we entered my human house gasped out of him. He stared around at the interior of my place as if finding it hard to believe.

"How did you ever have this constructed without raising suspicions?" Byron's amazement at my house only continued to grow.

"Lots of mermaid kisses and changing of human minds." I admitted.

Byron turned to me with a frown after that, "let's get one things straight, no more mermaid kissing any other men. Your kisses now belong exclusively to me." He crossed his arms looking annoyed.

"That makes sense, but a mermaids kiss isn't like our kisses," I pointed a hand between us. "A mermaids kiss is to change the mind of the human..."

"Coral, listen to me, no more kissing any other men." He interrupted me with a fierce expression.

"Byron, I think you're overreacting. Let me get a set of human clothes so we can go to the aquarium." I gave him a bemused look.

"I'm not overreacting! Knowing my mer bond is out kissing other men."

I stopped Byron's words with my lips on his. Kissing Byron in mer form had such a stimulating effect on me. I could've stayed there wrapped up in the world of his kisses, but I had a point to make.

"Those men who received a mermaids kiss from me only ever get a small touch on the cheek. It's nothing like our kisses and they mean nothing to me. You can't tell me you haven't kissed any other human female before me." I said and he went silent.

"Of course I did, but I never thought I'd find an actual mermaid." He finished lamely.

"And I've lived over one hundred years thinking I'd never see another mer. My point is that a mermaids kiss is simply a tool to use to make the humans forget. A kiss between a mer bond couple is a completely different thing."

"Okay, just promise me that you won't give out any unnecessary kisses to undeserving men." He eyed me and I sighed.

"Fine, I promise."

"Actually, while we're on this topic of other partners I guess I should admit a few things to you." He appeared quite uncomfortable so I raised my brows at him.

"So you have kissed human females?" I drawled my words.

"I've had a few serious relationships with women. They were my girlfriends and one even lived with me for a short amount of time." He spoke quickly.

"This is where we differ. I can understand why you wanted to bond with the human females and that you did."

"Do I want to know what that means?" he asked cautiously.

"You were seeing a continuation of the species that I never saw. To me I couldn't see beyond the destruction and my loneliness."

"You haven't had anyone for over one hundred years." He whispered with sad awareness.

"It's only been me. Which brings up another topic. What happens when there is another blue moon? I'm sure Lin told you the prophecy." I said while wondering about his thoughts on the matter."

He scrubbed a hand down his face and then tugged on the ends of his hair, "as much as I don't want any male of any species touching you besides me, I would have to concede. I was born because of the blue moon prophecy, so I couldn't deny us having to attend. Right now I can tell you that I won't like it, but I would love any merling whether it's ours or another humans." He stated.

"The blue moon would allow us to extend our population."

"And our genetic pool, especially if it's only you, me and dad." Byron mused.

"Mer aren't like humans. We are bonded differently to the way humans bond. Our bond is as eternal as the moon above us. Attending the blue moon is not about our bond, it's about our future." I declared and Byron stared at me in wonder.

"That's what will make you the perfect queen in going forward." He smiled at me.

"What will?"

"Your ability to talk your subjects into whatever you deem right. If you can convince me that the blue moon is a good idea when I'm a tad possessive over you, then you can convince anyone of anything." He seemed quite in awe of me.

"That's... interesting. Let me get clothing so we can go to the aquarium." I swam over to the waters edge and Byron followed me.

"Have you ever been in a human house before?" Byron asked in an amused tone.

"Yours was the first I entered."

"That's quite obvious. While we're bringing up uncomfortable topics, I wanted to ask more about your friends."

"Mel and Donovan?" I tilted my head to see him as I prepared my kelp bag with both clothing and my usual bottles of salt water. Considering him carefully I wondered what to say.

"Do they know you're mer or do they just think you're a quirky human?" Byron asked and I shrugged.

"Nobody knows I'm mer except for you and Lin."

"That's good to know." He let out a breath.

"Why?"

"Do you know that they want to be mer?" Byron hesitated before he asked me.

"Yes. In the beginning I thought they were mer, but they're not. They are good friends even though they are human." I told him.

"That's a great weight off my mind. I thought they were odd." Byron pondered on his words.

"They are odd, but they provided me with company when I had none."

"Will you tell me all of your story. I'd like to hear it because I have so many questions."

"After the aquarium." I pointed back into the water.

"Okay after."

Byron held out his hand to me and I grasped his. Last night I had feared telling him my story, but now it wanted to fly from my mouth. I would tell him everything and I would tell him today.