Seduced by the Sea Lord

Chapter 16

Her question, no matter how she phrased it, didn't seem to penetrate Torun's thick skull.

"Your soul light is so bright," he said. "You will surely be healed by the Life Tree."

"But what if I'm not?"

"Lucy."

"Promise me you'll stay."

"Of course."

"Don't just toss off an answer. Promise me you'll give us a shot even after you finally realize I really can't have kids."

"The Life Tree will heal you." His aquamarine eyes gleamed with intensity. "Have faith."

Faith was the one thing she couldn't give him.

She had wished for a baby for too long. Her chest trembled with her unanswered prayers. The agony from the past year threatened to well up like a tsunami and drown her in the self-destructive longing that had ended her marriage, hope, and career.

"You're a failure as a woman and a failure as a human being."

Lucy had always just assumed she would have children. People did all the time, and frequently by accident. It was so unfair. She wanted a baby a hundred thousand times more. She wanted it with her whole soul.

Science had failed her. Then her marriage had failed.

Unquenched desires had ripped her soul in half. How could she trust in a magical tree to stitch her back together again?

Torun waited for her in the water with complete faith.

Could she throw off all that pain and leap forward, blindly hopeful, all over again? Maybe this time, the fertility treatment would work. It was magical, after all. Maybe this time, the husband would stay. Maybe this time, she could have the family she'd always desired.

Maybe this time.

Her cell phone camera light turned off. The recording had timed out and stopped.

The blackness sank into her. She sat by herself, more alone than she had been since signing her divorce papers.

Lucy turned to start the recording again. The expedition recordings were for posterity. For science. Not for a weepy record of yet another failure.

Her hand hit the edge of the precariously balanced case. Her phone clattered off the ledge and disappeared into shadow.

"Darn." She quested for it with her hands in the darkness. "I forgot my flashlight by the Sea Opals."

Water sloshed, and Torun's form pulled her upright. He was a lighter shadow against pitch blackness.

"I will get this flashlight. Do not fill your head with any more fears or doubts. You are capable of great things. Focus."

Right. The reason she was here, in this cave, breathing air was because she had trusted in him and quested after the—

His lips brushed hers. Cool and firm. Wet from the ocean. Filled with promises.

She clung to his hard biceps. This was right. He was right.

Torun showed her a new world. All she had to do was open her eyes and accept it.

He pulled away. Hunger gleamed in his eyes.

She was no longer cold, and it was no longer quite so dark. His features almost glowed with his confidence in her.

"Have faith," he said again, and turned away.

She sat.

Hey, there was her cell phone! And it was recording, of all things. She switched it to battery supersaver mode and affixed it to her BCD. The next time she surfaced, the phone would awaken and search for an internet connection to post the videos on Facebook. Hopefully, they would post after she discovered mermaid superpowers, and not after she gave up on another stupid, gullible dream.