A Thousand Salt Kisses Forever (Third Book in Salt Kisses series)

A Fascinating Pain

We shot down to the depths of the ocean and I felt my legs merge together. Sometimes there was a gentle sting during the morph but more than often it was relatively painless, just the strange sensation of my two limbs forming one.

Spirit was traveling at lightning speed in a diagonal direction, and I had to kick my tail furiously to keep up with him.

Eventually, we reached the sea bed, where he continued to rush along. I glanced at our surroundings, as I kicked hard. There were a few crystal houses, but sparser than the central kingdom. It was a little wilder here too, big rocks and billowing seaweed. We must be on the outskirts of The Jewel, and I just prayed the temple wasn't too far.

"Are you planning on going to the meeting like that?" he asked, looking straight ahead.

My mind was still a complete whirl. I was just so fixated by my lateness, although I did register somewhere that he was referring to my topless situation.

"Ideally not!" I replied, yanking my hair over my chest and trying to think straight. "But, how am I going to get a top? Out here? Now?"

He paused and looked at me for a minute. His brow creased and his eyes moved upwards and to the right. I could see that he was considering something. Eventually, he began cursing in mer-language. I could not understand the word, but what I did gather was that he was annoyed by me.

"Don't worry," I said swimming off ahead, feeling the sting of tears again. I was not going to be anyone's burden. I would rather just wrap a bit of seaweed around my chest, then upset any more people today. Even if I showed up looking like Slimer, at least Llyr would know that I had tried my best. But Spirit came up behind me, grabbing my elbow as he passed and carting me off into a cove in the rocks.

"Seriously, don't worry about it!" I wailed, as he pulled me along.

"I do worry about it, unfortunately," he said moodily.

I let my body relax so he could pull me along. He steered me under a mossy arch and out into a clearing where upon a rock, sat a beautiful mermaid. She looked up at us both, looming above her, and jumped.

Spirit swam down towards her, explaining something in Mermese, whilst I floated about around them.

I fanned my hands up and down, to push me towards them and watched her, as they conversed. She was very fair skinned, with long thick red braids. Her face was angular and her lips were a ruby red like the anemone on the rock she sat upon.

Now she eyed me up and raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at Spirit. He held up his hands as though to protest any funny business.

Really? I thought, as I realized what was going on. What about Pigtails? How many mates did a man need?

Spirit began to talk again, now gesticulating towards me. I imagined he was trying to explain that he had some kind of duty of care towards me. I crossed my arms over my chest to protect what shred of dignity I had left, and exhaled shakily.

He put a reassuring hand on her arm and said something softly, whilst I watched on. She crossed her arms and looked upwards and away from him.

As much as I appreciated what Spirit was doing, I couldn't help but wish she would just get over it and hurry up.

Eventually, she begrudgingly reached under the rock, retrieving a pair of oyster shells. I winced as she held them upwards. They were chipped in all the wrong places, not to mention covered in barnacles.

Spirit frowned at her. "You can't expect her to wear that!" he said, now in English.

She shrugged and chucked the shells over her shoulder, and they floated off behind her. She reached again under the rock, this time pulling out a disintegrating fishing net. I began to curse myself, for a) not wearing a bra today, and b) abandoning my t-shirt.

Spirit shook his head at her and put his arms around her waist. He kissed her on the cheek and whispered in her ear. Now I raised an eyebrow and looked away, as his lips moved down to her neck. She was certainly making him work hard.

But I remembered his kisses well, and I knew that they were enough to make any maid melt. Sure enough, she giggled and stretched her arms upwards, traveling now towards a little secret nook in the rock. She put her delicate arm inside and fished out a spangly shiny garment, made almost entirely from pearls. I blinked, as they shimmered. This was a turn up for the books.

The mermaid swam over to me and without so much as a 'how do you do,' began to fasten the thing around my neck and tie it around my back. When she was finished she lifted up her hands to Spirit. 'Happy now?' her expression read.

Spirit nodded silently, his eyes lingering on me, for much longer than what was necessary. Err, what is he doing?

Fortunately, the maid had become distracted by a little fish which swarmed in front of her face, and she swiped her arm batting it away. Spirit snapped out of his trance and rose up to kiss his maid farewell. I looked down at my new top. From what I could gather it was a sort of pearl-string halter-neck, which held an oyster-shell bra in place. It was fancy.

I attempted to thank her, but she did not want to talk to me. She resumed her position back on the rock and gazed into the distance. Just as we had found her.

I looked at Spirit and he shrugged before swimming back through the arch. Once we were out of the cove and back in open water, he turned to me.

"Sorry about her," he said. "She is normally quite pleasant."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry," I said breezily. "Everybody's angry with me today."

"Hmm, well you are certainly causing an upset in the kingdoms," said Spirit, as we traveled.

"Well, I meant from home, but...okay, thanks for the heads up." Although Spirit's words stung, his brutal honesty did actually feel refreshing. "Does everybody down here...hate me?" I asked, now craving further truths.

Spirit shrugged and I felt my guts clench. "A lot of our mers seem to find you fascinating but others think you are a pain," he said eventually.

I swallowed and looked down. It hurt, but I needed to know these things. I needed to be prepared.

"Nobody hates you though, Crystal," said Spirit. "It is impossible to hate you. I know, I have tried it."

I looked up at him, it always took me by surprise when he uttered anything nice. Such words were few and far between, lending them all the more meaning.

I didn't quite know why he wanted to hate me; whether it was to do with the strange chemistry between us once or the fact that I was human, but I was thankful he had come to value me enough to be a friend right now.

"Thanks," I smiled, realizing his words had given me a little strength. "Well... I'm glad"

He nodded and looked up. "We are here now."