Heart of the Sea

Isla was worried about the mermaid hunter, but she felt better with Quinn’s reassurances. It was true that Oscar Stein wouldn’t expect a mermaid to be spending so much time on land and he was bound to get frustrated eventually and decide there was no mermaid around here to catch. She tried not to think about it too much as she curled up next to Quinn on the couch. It had started raining and the sound of raindrops hitting the roof was making her drowsy. She was half asleep with her head on his shoulder when Quinn shifted carefully and picked her up.

“I think you might be ready for bed,” he said. Isla cracked an eye open.

“Only if you come with me,” she mumbled. Quinn blushed but she didn’t budge.

“It’s your room anyway,” she pointed out. “And I don’t want to sleep all by myself. In a big cold bed. Alone.”

“Alright,” Quinn laughed. “You’ve made your point, you can stop making that pouty face.”

Isla gave him a kiss before snuggling against his side. He still seemed a little shy but he slid his arm around her and it was easy to forget about the mermaid hunter as she fell asleep. She still tried to go as long as she could without going into the water, but after five days on land she woke up feeling pale and shaky. She stumbled around the room getting dressed and almost fell down the stairs. Quinn was up making breakfast and caught her, looking alarmed.

“You have to go for a swim, Isla,” he said, helping her sit down.

“I know,” she sighed. He brushed her hair back.

“You’ll be okay,” he promised. “I told you, I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She smiled slightly and kissed his cheek. “I know,” she repeated. “I trust you.”

He slipped out to see if Kent’s boat was still docked and find out what was going on. When he came back, he found her stringing shells together to make decorations for the windows.

“I brought home so many, I ran out of places to put them,” she explained. He cracked a smile at her.

“They’re very pretty,” he said and she beamed at him despite feeling so crummy. He carried her down the steps to the beach despite her protests and they went down the beach a ways to a much smaller boat so he could take her to a more secluded area outside the harbor. Isla sat wrapped in his cloak as they set out. She felt a little better just feeling the sea spray on her face. Quinn took her to a little cove with no one else in sight and she brightened.

“This is sort of like my cave,” she said, glancing around. There was a little spit of sand surrounded by an outcropping of rocks, and Quinn pulled the boat up onto it after Isla had hopped over the side into the ocean. She took a few minutes to let the water rejuvenate her, and then she swam up to the sandbar and pulled herself up onto a rock.

“You should come swim with me,” she said. “You’ll get bored sitting up here all alone.”

“I won’t get bored watching you,” he chuckled. “I’m quite comfortable where I am.”

“You’re not scared to swim, are you?”

“Is that a challenge?” he asked, laughing. “Isla, you are a menace.”

But he was smiling back at her and finally agreed to swim with her. Isla slid down off her rock and bobbed next to him.

“I’ll have you know I’m a very good swimmer,” he informed her.

“Oh yeah?” Isla grinned. “Prove it.”

She sank underwater and splashed him with her tail before starting to swim away. She heard him call her a cheater before he swam after her. She let him keep up at first, then she took off like a shimmering comet and zipped through the waves, occasionally surfacing to splash him again and swim in circles around him.

“Show off,” he said, pushing his wet hair off of his face. “It’s hardly a fair race when you can breathe underwater.”

Isla giggled and splashed him again before grabbing his hands.

“I want to show you something,” she said. “There’s a special trick mermaids can do; it won’t last for too long and I can’t do it a bunch of times in a row. But you’ve been so nice to me, and I know you’re worried about Kent,” she added softly. “I don’t know what cancer is, but I know it’s not good and that makes you sad, and I want to cheer you up.”

He cracked a small smile at her. “You do cheer me up.”

“Do you trust me?” she asked.

“Of course.”

Isla pulled him under the water with her, pressing her lips against his. He seemed surprised for a moment, but when she pulled back she gestured at him to breathe. He looked unsure but tried it and looked amazed when he was able to breathe underwater too. Isla smiled and pulled him after her, swimming out to a little patch of colorful coral reef she’d found. All sorts of fish and little creatures swam all around it; and a school of big pink jellyfish drifted a ways away. A little fish didn’t dodge them in time and collided with Quinn’s face, startling them both while Isla giggled.

Isla and Quinn bobbed there in the water until she gently tugged his arm to lead him back to their little cove before his air ran out. When he surfaced again he pulled himself up onto the sand while Isla continued to lounge in the shallows for a bit.

“Did you like it?” Isla asked, combing through some shells she’d found.

“It was amazing,” Quinn said, which made her smile.

“Mermaids can do that sometimes, because the sea god kissed his lover to let her breathe underwater,” she explained. “I’ve never done it before, but it seemed right to do it for you.”

The sun was about to start going down, so Isla scooted up onto the sand so she could get dressed again. She was brushing sand off her ankles when Quinn reached out to hand her something. She glanced up and saw that he was holding a perfect little abalone shell. She beamed, practically leaping into his arms. He laughed and caught her so she didn’t knock them both over.

“I love it,” Isla said, clutching the little shell in her hand. She smiled again and bounced onto her toes to kiss him.