Immortal Sea (27 page)

“Oh. Yes.” Liz struggled to pull herself together, straining her facial muscles to smile back. “Nice to meet you. How is Grace?”

Liz flipped through her mental file of patients. Grace Hunter, three months old, father Dylan.

She felt an almost audible click in her skull as another piece slid into place. “You’re married to Dylan Hunter.”

“That’s right.”

Liz resisted the urge to grip her arm. “Your husband works with Morgan. Morgan Bressay.”

Regina eyed her cautiously. “Sometimes.”

“Environmental protection.” Her heart pounded. “Underwater exploration.”

Caution morphed into suspicion. “So?”

She was scaring her, Liz realized. She scared herself. She was taking a risk she wasn’t prepared for with a woman she didn’t know. The children’s voices faded in and out like the sound from a television a room away.

“I just wondered . . .” Her nerve and her voice failed her. “Have you known Morgan long?”

“Never saw him before this trip. You?”

She licked dry lips. “He’s Zack’s father. Zack is my son.”

“The teenager.”

Liz nodded. She couldn’t do it. No matter how desperate she was for information about Morgan and insight about their son, she couldn’t unload her deepest fears and secrets on this friendly, normal, uncomprehending stranger.

“Puberty’s rough. All those changes,” Regina said.

Liz caught her breath.

“I can just imagine,” the other woman continued deliberately, “what you must be going through.”

Her heart beat in her throat. “Can you? It’s harder for Zack, I think, because he . . .”

“Takes after his father.”

Liz swallowed hard. “Exactly.”

Their eyes met. Held.

Regina smiled crookedly. “Dylan takes after his mother in almost exactly the same way.”

“His mother,” Liz repeated, afraid to guess. To hope.

“His mother was the sea witch Atargatis.”

Liz stared blankly.

“Selkie, merfolk, whatever you call them. The children of the sea.”

A wave of gratitude and disbelief swept over Liz, making her dizzy. There were others. She wasn’t alone.

Regina’s arm slipped under hers, warm and supportive. “Here, you look like you need to sit down.”

She led her to a bench beside some play equipment, fortunately deserted.

“I’m fine.” Liz raised her head, a bubble of panic rising in her blood. “Em.”

“Right over there with Nick,” Regina reassured her. “That’s my son, Nick.”

A dark-haired boy launched himself from the top of the fort, arms and legs wrapped around a pole. He looked so normal, so much like Zack at his age, Liz’s chest ached.

“Is he . . .” She stopped. She was a doctor, trained to ask the right questions, to find the right answers, to respond quickly and decisively in a crisis. But Morgan’s revelation had left her floundering.

“Dylan is Nick’s stepdad,” Regina said.

Liz nodded, feeling like a bobble head doll.

Regina sat beside her on the bench. “How long have you known?”

“I didn’t. I guessed. Honestly, I’m not trying to pry into your personal life, I just—”

“About Morgan,” Regina interrupted. “When did you find out?”

“This afternoon. He took me out on a boat.”

Regina nodded, her eyes sympathetic.

“I thought he was crazy.” Liz drew a deep breath. “Or I was.”

“Not crazy. In shock maybe.”

“Not seeing things?” She’d meant to sound ironic, but there was a wobble in her voice that shamed her.

“If you are, then half the island is hallucinating along with you.”

“Half the island?” Her voice rose.

One of the other mothers glanced over curiously.

“Okay, slight exaggeration. Listen, we can’t talk here.” Regina stood. “Come to my house. The kids can play video games while we talk.”

“Talk,” Liz said.

She hadn’t had a close girlfriend since Allyson ditched her for Gunthar sixteen years and a lifetime ago. She’d been too busy, too immersed in her studies, her work, her children. Her grief.

Connections, she reminded herself. She’d moved to the island in search of a community where she and her children would belong.

She’d never needed a friend more than now. Never imagined she’d bond with another woman over their lovers from the sea.

Regina shrugged. “Talk, open a bottle of wine. Frankly, you look like you could use a drink.”

“So, the sea witch Atargatis had three children with her human husband.” Regina counted them off on her fingers. “Caleb—he’s our police chief. He’s human. Dylan, my husband, who’s selkie. And Lucy.”

They sat at her kitchen table, sturdy oak with a blue bowl of ripening peaches and tomatoes in the center. Liz was comforted by the child’s artwork on the refrigerator, the framed handprints on the wall. Bits of sea glass wrapped in fishing line and silver wire caught the light in the wide apartment windows. She looked around the eclectic, comfortable, normal home and felt like Alice after she’d tumbled down the rabbit hole.

She set down her half-full glass of wine, a good red Italian Montepulciano. “I’m sorry. Did you say selkie?”

“Seal in the water, sheds his pelt on land to take human form,” Regina explained.

Dear God, was all Liz could think. She made it sound so ordinary.

“They’re all children of the sea,” Regina continued. “Selkie and finfolk both. But the selkie only take one form in the ocean. The finfolk can change into anything. Have some more wine.”

“I rule!” piped Emily’s excited treble from the open door of Nick’s room.

“Shit. No way,” Nick said.

Regina winced.

“It’s all right,” Liz said. “She has an older brother.”

“That explains why she’s winning.” Regina refilled Liz’s glass. “Anyway, the third kid, Lucy, Caleb and Dylan’s sister, was supposed to be human. Nice girl. Island school-teacher. Taught Nick. Anyway, turns out she’s selkie, too, a big deal magic worker. She ends up as consort to Conn ap Llyr, who’s kind of like their king. Are you following this?”

“Caleb, Dylan, Lucy. One human, two . . .”
Not.
She gulped her wine. “Did you know your husband was . . .”

“Selkie,” Regina supplied.

“When you married him?”

“When I married him, sure. Not when I got pregnant.”

“You, too?” Liz blurted.

“Is that what happened with you and Morgan?”

Liz nodded.

“Must be something in the water,” Regina muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“Joke,” she explained. “So now he’s found you again.”

Liz stared broodingly into her wineglass. She was very, very grateful to Regina for finding her and bringing her home. “He said it was destiny. That fate brought us together twice.”

Regina snorted. “Whatever. I heard he was here to haul Conn’s ass back to Sanctuary.”

Liz blinked. “Conn?”

“The sea lord.”

“Right.” A headache threatened behind her eyeballs, compounded by stress and Montepulciano. “Why are you telling me all this?”

“Who else am I going to talk to? Who else would understand? We are a small and extremely exclusive club.”

Liz smiled wryly. The wine helped. Talking helped even more. “Women who have sex with merfolk.”

“Oh, there are lots of those around. No, we belong to the much more exclusive club of women who got knocked up by their merfolk lovers.”

Her smile died. “But if they have sex with so many women . . .”

“Low birth rate,” Regina explained. “Sort of the downside of immortality. Their population is declining. That’s why children are so important to them.”

“
My son,
” Morgan had insisted. “
My seed.
”

Pain sliced her heart, pounded in her head. She willed her hands to steady on her wineglass. “How many are there?”

“A few thousand, maybe. But no kids. Not for years. And three of their youngest were lost less than a year ago.”

“I meant how many on the island.”

“Well, we get visitors. Not just summer people, you understand. We’re right between the Arctic current and the Gulf Stream, which is convenient for merfolk making the north crossing. But living here? Dylan. Lucy, until last fall. Oh, and Margred.”

Liz thought of that awkward moment of recognition in her waiting room between Morgan and beautiful, exotic, pregnant Margred Hunter, their two faces so different and yet somehow alike. “She’s one of them.”

“Yes and no. Margred chose to live as a human with Caleb,” Regina continued. “She’ll grow old and die just like the rest of us. But she has her own magic. And I don’t just mean the way every man on the island falls over himself when she walks into a room either.”

“She chose to live as human.” Liz grabbed the phrase like a life raft.

“That’s right.”

“What about your husband?”

“Well, sure.” Regina considered her a moment and then said, “Look, I don’t know what Morgan told you about your son, but he’s a lot like Dylan. Which means he has a chance for a normal life. A human life. With you.”

Liz wanted to hug her in gratitude. But she couldn’t afford to lose her head. “If that’s what he wants.”

“What does he know what he wants? He’s fifteen.”

Liz flushed. “You’re talking about Zack.”

“Who else would I . . . Morgan?”

Liz dropped her gaze to her wineglass. “You said they were alike.”

“Dylan and
Zack
,” Regina clarified. “They’re both half-human. Morgan is a coldblooded son of a bitch.”

Liz shivered.

“
Because of you,
” Morgan had said, his eyes alight with intensity, his body throwing off heat. “
Because of my feelings for you. As soon as I knew the boy was finfolk, I would have taken him and gone. For no other woman—for no other force on earth—would I have stayed.
”

He hadn’t seemed so cold then. Or last night on her porch.

But he wanted to take their son away.

Liz straightened her spine. All her life, she’d had to fight for what she wanted. Med school. Her baby. Ben’s life. Sometimes she lost, but she didn’t give up.

Just because her world had changed in the past few hours didn’t mean that she should.

“I need to talk to him,” she said, not sure if she meant Morgan or Zack.

“You want to leave Emily here?” Regina offered.

Liz looked at her, surprised and grateful. She hadn’t expected an ally. “I don’t want to inconvenience you.”

“You won’t. Let her stay for dinner. It’s family movie night at the community center. Popcorn and a double feature. Dylan can take the kids and bring Emily home afterwards.”

“That would be great. Thank you. What time?”

“Ten, ten-thirty?”

More than enough time to have things out with Zack. Her head pounded.

“I’ll have to ask her,” Liz said. Her seven-year-old had spent all day at a new camp. She might object to spending all evening away from her mother and a new kitten.

Which meant any serious discussions with Zack might have to wait, Liz thought, and tried to feel disappointed instead of relieved.

Summoned from her video game, however, Emily showed no sign of separation anxiety.

“Cool. Thanks, Mom.” Her smile flashed. “Thanks, Mrs. Hunter.”

“Hurry up!” Nick shouted. “You’re going down.”

“Bring it!” she yelled.

She turned back at the door to his room, her big dark eyes seeking reassurance. “You won’t forget to feed Tigger.”

Liz’s throat ached. They were growing up, growing away from her, both her children. “I promise.”

She watched her daughter bounce off before turning back to Regina. “You’re sure this isn’t a problem for you?”

“Not at all. Nick’s thrilled. He needs more people his own age to play with.”

“Don’t we all.” She walked with Regina to the landing outside the apartment. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“Then don’t. You good to drive?”

Her obvious concern touched Liz. “I’ll walk. It’s not far.”

A walk would give her time to clear her head and plan her strategy. She thanked Regina again and went home, preparing to fight for what she wanted.

A future where she wasn’t alone.