Hart of the Sea

Chapter 20

Over a week had passed since the last time I was in the shallows. Since I'd last seen Talia. But I thought of her for every second of it. I hated that I wondered if she thought about me too.

She'll probably just forget me. I'll live out the rest of my life underwater, and her on land, probably falling in love with some human that wouldn't get mad at her father for what he does for a living. Gods, I'm pathetic.

I'd been spending my extra free time before the last school year began with Calliope and Oriel, helping their mom nurse them slowly but surely back to health. They weren't going to be better in time to start school with everyone else, but they weren't going to miss much. At least, I hoped they wouldn't.

"Thank you, Hart, for helping me so much with them lately," Luma whispered to me as we swam away from Calli and Oriel's room. "They wouldn't be recovering even half as fast if you weren't around, you know."

I smiled, carrying the bag of their meager medical supplies over to the driftwood table in the living room. "You give me too much credit, Ms. Tibell."

She playfully rolled her eyes. "Oh, Hart. Always so humble. Coral and Tide raised you right, that's for sure."

"Yeah," I beamed. "They definitely did."

#

"Hart, good, you're home," Mom said, pulling me through the front door before I could swim in myself. "Your father and I have a surprise for you."

"What?" I asked, curiously glancing around our living room.

"Tide, he's home," she called out, ignoring me while unable to hold back her smile. I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but thought better of it. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

My father swam into the living room from the hallway. "Look who came to see you!" He swam to the side, and out from behind him came...

"Marsh!" I cried, rushing over to him and throwing my arms around him, hugging him as tightly as I could. He hugged me back just as tightly before we both pulled away to see each other. His hair was still the deep red shade that I remembered, which complemented his dark green tail nicely. But his face had lost its boyish quality; over the summer his features became more chiseled and defined. The work he'd been doing in the shell deposits made me look embarrassingly scrawny compared to him.

"Hart, wow. It's been too long," he laughed, his voice deeper than I remember. We swam over to the living room couch and sat down next to each other. "How was your summer? And, hey, did Calliope and Oriel ever end up responding to you?"

My smile faltered. "Oh...you don't know what happened?"

His eyes widened. "What do you mean? Are they okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, they're fine now, but..." I took a deep breath. It was painful recounting everything that had happened, and I didn't think there'd ever be a time when it wouldn't be. But I told Marsh everything, every last detail. Them getting kidnapped, me finding out about my true parents and how they helped with the rescue. And how much Talia had helped. I even found myself telling him about how Talia and I had gotten into a fight about what happened. Fight. Yeah, right. More like a one-sided barraging.

He was understandably in shock; it was a lot to take in. "So, the human girl you told me about in your letter, is this the same girl?" I nodded. "And...she went against her own father to help two mer he'd captured, because she knew they were important to you?" I nodded again, slower this time.

"Yeah...what are you getting at?"

He chuckled. "What am I getting at? Dude, how could you even doubt her feelings about you? So she got upset when you mentioned spending some time apart. I mean, she should have respected that, but from what you've told me about her...I think she's just afraid of being lonely, man. A little like you," he teased, poking my shoulder.