A Thousand Salt Kisses Later (Book 2 of Salt Kiss series)

The Unexpected

"You're scared of an eel?" said Spirit, sailing down the mountain towards a devastated Nephys.

Nephys looked up, and her distress turned to delight.

She rocketed upwards and threw her arms around him, shrieking with happiness. Spirit looked kind of disheveled; his beard was more overgrown than usual, and his hair streamed out behind his shoulders.

He looked like he had been sleeping rough.

"What's he doing here?" asked Bright, confused.

"Oh, he was banished too," I explained.

Bright broke into laughter. "Really?" he chuckled with disbelief.

Spirit and Nephys descended onto the seabed, and I watched the three erupt into chatter. It transpired that he had emigrated here, and had been staying with the 'mountain mer' the past couple of days.

I really could not share Nephys's excitement. I had been enjoying her and Bright's laidback fun company, finally having a bit of a laugh down here. But now I would have to put up with Spirit and his tense, weird behavior towards me. Eugh, he always makes me feel so on edge.

I watched out of the corner of my eye, and as suspected he focused all his attention on Nephys and Brght and made no effort to greet me.

I sighed and sat on a rock, my whole body ached. I heard Nephys invite him to Evergreen and I inwardly groaned.

"Are you tired?" Spirit asked about five seconds after I sat.

I raised an eyebrow. He had picked up on this mighty quickly for someone who had so little time for me.

"Yeah, I'm knackered," I said.

Nephys, Bright, and Spirit frowned and looked at each other. I realized they did not understand my language.

"Tired" I explained. "My arms ache; I'm a walker, I guess, not a swimmer."

"We'll rest here for a while," said Nephys sympathetically and I smiled and nodded.

"So the three runaways," said Bright merrily. "I would have thought Llyr would be over the moon that you brought him Crystal, especially as a bloody mer! A dream come true!"

I rolled my eyes.

"Oh Bright," said Nephys, coming over to me. "Crystal doesn't want to discuss these matters."

"Oh no, sorry!" said Bright guiltily.

"Do we know why she is mer yet?" said Spirit abruptly, talking about me in the third person, as usual.

"Yes," said Nephys, "Oh gosh - Crystal, do you want me to...?"

I nodded and looked away. She was right, it was the last thing I wanted to talk about, but it may well be that I needed to get used to people asking about it. It wouldn't be the last time.

"This is incredible, this is," said Bright to Spirit. I looked up, I wondered how Bright knew, I hadn't told him. "Not much stays secret for long in The Jewel, Miss White," explained Bright.

"So?" said Spirit.

"It's a love spell," said Nephys. "Llyr kissed her a thousand times, which means he truly loved, I mean loves..." she trailed off flustered.

Oh, those damned little letters again!

"Loved," I said. "It's okay, Nephys. Once upon a time, he truly loved me," I looked up at Spirit, trying not to show any emotion. "Apparently."

It was getting harder and harder to believe it anymore.

Spirit fell quiet. He nodded and looked away.

"Er, hello! Don't you think that's incredible?" Cried Bright.

Spirit raised his eyebrow and shrugged. I really don't get this guy. He was always brooding about something when it came to me.

"Spirit, you're so curious sometimes," breathed Nephys. "It's the most unbelievable thing I've heard in the past century!"

But Spirit did not want to engage in the matter any further. He swam over to his spear and pulled it out the sand, inspecting the limp disgusting eel on the end.

"I think I'll eat him for dinner," he said.

"Ugh!" I cried. I hoped I wasn't going to have to share it with him.

"What's wrong?" asked Spirit. "Did you get a bit too accustomed to the good stuff?"

"Well, I'm certainly not used to creepy stuff, but now you're here, I suppose I'll have to adjust," I spat back.

Stupid, awful man. He had been vaguely nice to me for a couple of days, but now he was back on full vile form.

"Okay, come on," said Nephys holding her hands up. "We've got a long day ahead."

I sighed. The tight, achy feeling returned to my temples, and I realized I felt stressed all over again. I stood up in preparation to swim, while Nephys and Bright launched off in front. I stretched my arms forward, but a burning sensation shot though them. The muscles had seized up.

I winced. Owww!

"I can carry you if you like?" said Spirit. He was next to me, waiting.

I looked ahead and saw Nephys and Bright had stopped. I frowned; they were smirking at each other.

"No, it's fine," I said. I didn't want him touching me, and especially after he'd been near that eel.

I put my arms out again and went to push myself forward, but as I did, I saw my arm was trembling.

"You can go on my back," Spirit offered.

"I don't want to go on your back," I protested, frowning.

But unfortunately, he had made up his mind. He came towards me and put his hands on my arms. I went to tell him to get off me, but suddenly I was struck by a completely unexpected feeling. I paused, as I felt a charge go through my body.

I looked up at him, stunned. I recognized that feeling, but it couldn't be, surely. He turned slowly and wrapped my arms around his upper body, one around his neck and one around his waist and then joined them together in the middle of his chest. I let him maneuver me about completely speechless, and then he launched off with me on his back.

He held onto my hands as we traveled and I found I didn't even have to use up any of my strength, gripping them together. He traveled over to his spear, and I tensed up. I felt him laugh and to my relief, when he picked it up he flicked the eel off onto the seabed.

Does he just have a very, very dry sense of humour? I wondered as we pressed on.

His back was strong and comfortable, and his touch was really quite gentle for such a prickly person. As we moved, I realized I still had butterflies in my stomach. It must have been the way he touched my arms, just then. Momentarily, it felt quite pleasurable. It was just the way he touched me. It was not the mer himself; I reassured myself.

Seriously, what the hell just happened?!