Three Rings (The Fairytail Saga) (38 page)

Tristan felt the stirrings of excitement. He thought about his life, and how different he was from the other mermaids. He could fly without issue, and live on land for days at a time without being too bothered by the withdrawals. Sure, he’d always written that tolerance off to the fact that he often indulged in contact-but it had over a month since he’d had sex-but aside from a bit of mental fatigue-he was fine. Yes, he’d been tortured somewhat the week before as his injured body had swum from almost one continent to another-but could another mer have fared as well? He doubted it.

‘Maybe you’re onto something,’ he said softly. ‘There’s no way to test it, of course, but I might be a little tougher than most.’

‘That plane was a mess. My money is on a
lot
tougher than everyone else.’ Adele’s phone went off and she reached for it. Tristan allowed her to-he could see she’d responded out of reflex, not because she was trying to hide anything from him. She scanned the screen, a deep frown furrowing her brow. ‘Oh….shit.’

Tristan sat up. ‘What?’

Adele’s eyes lifted to meet his gaze. ‘I hope you meant what you said about inner strength Tristan….because you’re going to need it.’

Tristan’s heart began to race. ‘Please tell me that nothing has happened to Link.’

‘Nothing bad...yet.’ Adele sighed and handed the phone over. ‘He and Ivyanne got engaged on the weekend, and apparently they sealed it with a
lot
more than a kiss.’

Tristan’s blood turned to ice. He scanned the phone, growing rapidly ill as he read the text:
Ivyanne’s engagement party is this Saturday night, and I want you here for it. Sherri couldn’t keep him out of Ivyanne’s bed, so if either of you care about him in the slightest, you better pry him out of her hands before I send him into the next life.

The message grew blurry towards the end. Tristan rubbed the back of his hand across his face and felt the tears smear to his temple.

‘Tristan I’m sorry.’ Adele’s voice was church-quiet. ‘I know that doesn’t help but…’

Tristan held up a hand. He couldn’t get a word out-couldn’t even think straight. A lump was forming in his throat, one he didn’t anticipate going away until he locked himself in a room and sobbed it out in privacy. He stood up quickly, his chair toppling over.

‘Text him that you’re on your way. Then gather anything you need from here and we’ll post it to Sydney,’ he said hoarsely, blinking back tears. ‘We’re leaving-
now
.’

‘Tristan...my parents…’

‘Will be
fine
so long as you show up before that party.’ He said roughly. ‘We’ll have to swim to Australia, then north to Seaview. It’s going to take at least three days so we need to set a cracking pace.’

‘Can’t we fly?’ Adele asked. ‘It would save time. I have enough cash to get us tickets to Australia without leaving a paper trail.’

Tristan shook his head. ‘No way. I’m too recognizable-I googled the accident yesterday and saw my face on quite a few websites, along with that basketball player. If anyone’s going to notice me-it’ll be in an airport.’

Adele nodded. ‘Fair enough. It’s just that the furthest I’ve swum is from Hawaii to L.A.’

‘That’s actually quite a long distance.’ Tristan couldn’t believe she’d ever suggest flying after what he’d just been through. Maybe she was a nice girl, but sensitivity really wasn’t her strongest suit. ‘Just go pack, okay? I’m going to end this fool before he takes one more thing from-’ Tristan’s voice broke. ‘You have an hour tops, then we’re gone.’

Adele nodded dumbly. ‘Okay,’ she said quietly. ‘Tristan I-’

He held up a hand. ‘Please….’ The knowledge that Ivyanne had made her peace with his death enough to accept Lincoln’s hand was like acid in his veins, and he couldn’t even look at Adele at that moment without wanting to throttle her for her involvement. ‘One hour.’

Adele turned and scurried out of the room. Tristan sank back down at the table, put his head in his hands and let out a wrenching cry.

⁓

Lincoln awoke in the worst mood on Monday morning. After a half hour swim with Sherri, he’d gone back to Ivyanne’s house, eager to pick up where they’d left off, pleased that he’d done the right thing by his charge-and had been floored to discover that he’d been locked out.

He must have hammered on her door for twenty minutes, but if she’d heard him, she’d ignored him. When the neighbors light had flickered on, he’d seen that he was fighting a lost battle, and trudged back to his room with Sherri, who had loyally waited for him, stammering apologies-both of them wet and cold.

Lincoln had been beside himself with outrage at first. Ivyanne hadn’t seemed angry that he’d agreed to accompany Sherri to the water.

Then the : ‘Or
had
she?’ Moment had come. By the time Lincoln got into his own bed, he’d realized that he hadn’t even asked if it was all right. He’d just gone-without looking back,
assuming
Ivyanne understood.

But how would she understand? She didn’t like Sherri, and she wasn’t happy that Lincoln was working so closely with her as it was. He’d come over for their first romantic night alone and then taken off with another naked girl! Lincoln had tried to imagine Ivyanne doing the same thing to him with another guy, and he cringed from the flash of red-hot jealousy.

Okay, so he’d stuffed up-big time.
Again
. What was wrong with him? He finally had everything he wanted and yet he couldn’t seem to remember that it was a blessing he was supposed to be cherishing when it counted most.

Sherri was normal with him all day, acting as though nothing had happened. She was bright and bubbly, and kept his coffees coming, which he drank even though he was trying to cut back. He didn’t want to offend her-he knew she was feeling like a boat without a mooring as it was, and putting on a brave face so he wouldn’t feel guilty for having deprived her of a regular, human future as a kindness to him.

Still, Lincoln knew that he couldn’t allow Sherri to continue to come between himself and his beautiful fiancé, even if it meant hurting his waitress’s feelings, which he hated doing.

Lincoln pulled out a pad and a pen and leaned over the bar, jotting down all of the things Ivyanne loved-her favorite flower, her favorite colors, her favorite foods...Vana had called him the day before and asked him to organize the engagement party for himself and Ivyanne for that Saturday night-the night before Tristan’s memorial out on Bracken. That meant that he had four days to plan the sort of party that would leave
no
question in Ivyanne’s mind as to his feelings for her.

In the meantime, guests had started arriving on Saturday afternoon-guests who had shown up for Tristan’s funeral as well- so the resort was almost at capacity which had his father grinning, but Lincoln nervous. He was going to be flat out between then and the party. How was he going to make time for her as well?

In the end, he’d decided to give Ivyanne
one
day to cool off, sending her apologetic text messages every chance he got so she’d know that he was sorry, but giving her the physical space to calm down and hopefully-miss him. It was probably best to steer clear of her for awhile anyway-her lack of text responses told him that he wasn’t going to be getting off lightly. Why spend hours banging her door down when he could filter that energy into throwing her the most beautiful party she’d ever had?

Until then, he’d have to utilize Sherri as much as he could-by forcing her to be involved in his love life. If she did still have feelings for him, then helping him pick a cake for Pintang to bake his fiancé was sure to make his unavailability clear. And if she didn’t take the hint...well, there were bar jobs all over Seaview. She didn’t need to be in his care if she was going to screw him with his own kindness.

⁓

Ivyanne met Dalton on the dock of the small marina on Tuesday morning, her heart pounding nervously in her chest at the thought of coming face to face with Tristan’s boat again. But she’d called Dalton to organize a check up on his marine craft so that when his parents came, they’d be able to decide what to do with it.

‘Good morning princess,’ Dalton said, addressing her formally for the first time in a long time. His handsome face was full of concern. ‘I’ve been down to the boat and had a look around...but Tristan was tidy. It won’t even need a cleaning before putting it on the market.’

‘I’m still not sure if it’ll get sold that way.’ She said, stroking the side of the vessel lovingly. ‘Maybe mum will like it. I’d take it but I don’t think Link would appreciate that.’ She frowned, thinking that in her current mood, she may just buy it to piss Lincoln off. He wasn’t letting up with the woeful text messages, but she wasn’t ready to let go of her anger either. If he wanted to prove that he wasn’t into Sherri, he could do it by not pissing Ivyanne off in the first place! After all, this was incident number three.

‘Maybe not.’ He stepped on deck. ‘If you have a good idea of what was inside, best off checking that stuff out too. We had a boat stolen a few weeks ago, and a few expensive items have gone missing from others since then.’ Dalton grimaced. ‘It’s been a nightmare. This is such a sleepy area. I wasn’t prepared to deal with security stuff. I’ve barely gotten a wink of sleep since.’

‘If someone is robbing this area, then that’s just awful.’ Ivyanne commiserated, hoping that Tristan hadn’t left any personal effects of value behind.

‘So are the owners when they’ve found out.’ Dalton bemoaned.

‘If they’re giving you a hard time, just sing ‘em out of their senses.’ Ivyanne joked.

Dalton extended his hand to Ivyanne, helping her up onto the pristine white deck of Tristan’s boat. ‘How many yacht club owners do you think serenade the fishermen?’ he cracked, then sobered. ‘But even if I would-my voice doesn’t work like that.’

Ivyanne glanced up at him, surprised. ‘It doesn’t?’

He shook his head. It was reddish brown, shot through with streaks of silver and blonde and looked full of vitality under the sun. ‘Nope. I can sing-and
well
-but the biggest reaction I’ve ever gotten for it is a round of applause. A lot of us Court-Zara’s can’t siren.’

‘Wow. No, I
didn’t
know that.’ Ivyanne looked around the deck, remembering the last time she had been standing there, surging into the sea looking for Ardhi and Lincoln. She shivered at the memory. ‘You can scream though, right?’

‘For sharks? Oh yeah. But manipulating people’s emotions? Never. Your mum once told me that it had something to do with dilution of our genes. I’m fifth generation half blood-I suppose it’s not all that surprising.’

Ivyanne walked towards the cabin, chewing her bottom lip. She was assessing the boat for signs of disturbance, but her mind was focused on Dalton’s lack of sirening abilities. What if singing wasn’t the
only
thing to fall prey to evolution? What if the shark thing went, or the ability to breathe for longer than a few minutes? Would a fifteenth generation mermaid be no more than a human with strong swimming capabilities? It was a scary thought, and it brought her back to Eka’s tirade...obviously breeding with Ardhi wasn’t the solution-the Marked families were doing fine...but perhaps it was time for her mother to do something about the dilution in the Court Zara line, which was just as significant to their species as her own side. After all, the Court-Zara’s made up seventy percent of their population-
they
needed protection too.

At least they had two very good solutions-Lincoln and Ardhi. The more humans they could turn-for both sides of the kingdom to breed with-the more fortified both sides would be. She’d have to get Saraya to investigate….make notes of who could do what, and which chains were the weakest. Once they knew which areas needed most addressing, they’d have a better idea of how to tackle the problem.

‘Where is Link anyway? Figured he’d be glued to your side today.’

‘Why’s that?’ Ivyanne asked, still looking around.

‘Because it’s Valentine’s Day, of course.’

Ivyanne looked up, shocked. ‘It is?’

Dalton nodded. ‘I know it’s more of a human than a mer thing, but considering how exposed we are to the human race around here, it’s pretty hard to avoid.’

‘I’ve been staying at home. And Link’s busy with work.’ Ivyanne shrugged. ‘I’ve never had a Valentine before. It honestly didn’t occur to me. Usually, I just hung out with Ardhi and made fun of those celebrating it.’ The recollection made her feel a pang in her chest. Ardhi. She’d left things with him on pretty shaky terms Saturday night, and then had agitated the situation further by her little tirade Sunday morning. He’d chosen to stay, turning his back on Lux for her benefit. Ivyanne ignoring him on top of that had to be hurting. Maybe, she should go see him in the daylight, face to face, and without having slept with someone two minutes beforehand.

‘Yeah, I’m dateless too. It’s a busy night in hospitality-I have sixteen dinner bookings already.’

Ivyanne smiled. ‘You
know
...there
is
a new single mermaid within our midst-Sherri. Have you met her yet?’

Dalton shook his head. ‘Nah, I’ve heard of her though. No offense, but I’m not really into blondes.’