Rising Tides

18

"How did the visit with your family go?" Sarah asked her boyfriend as they sat in the library together. Rowan had been unusually quiet since he returned and his expression was grim.

"They're pissed that I attacked my brother and wanted to know why. I explained, but they called me a traitor for defending a human and attacking my own kin and have been hanging out with humans. I told them who and what you are, but you are still human in their eyes. Nothing more than food to them. So I left and came back here. I think it's safe to say my adoptive parents disowned me."

"I'm sorry." Sarah said quietly, pressing a soft kiss to his cheek.

"Don't be sorry, cara mia." He murmured, connecting their lips in quick kiss. "You're the only family I need, and I'll never regret spending time with you or protecting you. I won't let anyone hurt you. Not even the mers who raised me."

Sarah smiled and rested her head on his shoulder. "My mother came to see me and tell me that my father is dead."

"What happened?"

"He was killed by a mer. His body was found floating and dismembered and partially eaten somewhere in the Pacific Ocean." Sarah's eyes watered. "In the letter he sent me, he said that his team had captured a mer and he sent me back one of its scales. I'm guessing the mer's mate killed him and everyone on the team out of revenge."

She pulled the scale out her pocket and Rowan made a low noise in the back of his throat. "Our scales are important to us." He said through a tightly clenched jaw. Cerulean eyes fixed on the shimmering scale. "Like markings on a cheetah or a human fingerprint, no two mers have the same scales and scale patterns. They are unique to each mer, and ripping one off is as painful as ripping off a fingernail. It is considered an act of insult and disrespect to remove a mer's scale."

"Oh." Sarah had no idea what to say to that. She was sure her father didn't mean to be insulting, but she could see why he was killed. She knew Rowan would and had once killed humans out of revenge for her. "The rise of mer attacks have been more frequent, lately. There were reports on the news of dead mutilated corpses washing up on beaches. Why are the mers becoming so aggressive?"

"Lack of food is the issue." Said Rowan. "Revenge, too. Humans keep overfishing and whaling and hunting down our sources of food and running us out of our territories, so mers are forced to leave their homes to hunt for other sources of food. We mers are carnivores and we need meat to survive. We usually eat fish or whales, but if mers are hungry enough they will eat humans."

"Is there anything we can do to stop these attacks?"

"I don't know." Rowan said with an intense frown. "Unless we can magically produce enough fish for the mers so they'll leave humans alone and won't go hungry, there is nothing we can do but urge people to stay out of the sea."

"Would it be a bad thing if humans knew mers exist?"

"Yes. Then humans will be all over the waters hunting us and trying to sell us for money. It would trigger a war between mers and humans." He said seriously, expression stone-cold as he looked out the stained-glass window. "Which is why these killings are so risky and reckless. The more humans go missing and wind up dead in the ocean, the more suspicious they will become."

Sarah shivered and curled up against him. Pressing her face into his chest. "I'm scared, Rowan."

He nuzzled her hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I know. It's okay."

"There's going to be a party on the boardwalk tomorrow night. Everyone in the school will be there and will probably be swimming, too." Anxiety bubbled in her stomach and gripped her heart. "I have a bad feeling about it."

"We could go and keep an eye on them." Rowan suggested. "Make sure nothing happens to them and tell the lifeguards and police not to let anyone in the water because of the increase in shark attacks."

"We could try. I don't think they will listen."

"It's the best plan we have." Rowan sighed in frustration. "Hopefully nothing bad will happen tomorrow."

Sarah hoped the same, but she couldn't shake the feeling of dread and unease weighing down her heart.

"Yeah. Hopefully."