What the Tide Brings

Chapter 25 - Kaelin - Confronting the Past

The next day, Liam took Kaelin back to the boardwalk to explore something other than the Ferris wheel. He couldn't seem to stop touching her in some way, either holding her hand, or rubbing her shoulders, wrapping an arm around her, even nuzzling her neck while they waited in line. Kaelin certainly wasn't complaining. This was what she wanted: to be loved by him and get the affection that she desired.

Last night, they'd stayed a bit too long in the lantern room. Neither of them wanted to leave. If it hadn't been for Molly returning home, they might've stayed even longer. Still, whenever Kaelin thought about what transpired, she couldn't stop smiling. It was better, and so much more intense, than she had anticipated.

When she looked up at Liam, he was also wearing a huge grin. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "Because I'm starving."

"I am famished," she said. They'd missed breakfast due to oversleeping. Andy was the only one at home when they both got up. Cynthia had gone off to speak with the marine conservation group. She was still upset at the thought that a dolphin—which was actually Kaelin—had gotten hung up in fishing boat's net. "I could eat an entire blue whale, I think."

Liam leaned in close to her. "We say horse around these here parts. Maybe elephant, depending on the level of starvation."

Kaelin nodded. "I shall keep that in my mind."

Liam smiled at her. "You do that. I'll just go grab us some corndogs."

She opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand to stop her, adding, "With mustard and soy sauce, I know." He kissed her cheek. "Be back in five, angelfish."

Kaelin watched him retreat into the crowd. Once he was lost to her vision, her eyes began to wander.

She jumped when she heard the loud, terrified screams of a dozen humans, hurtling around in tiny metal cars on a giant looping wooden thing—Liam called it a rollercoaster, when she asked upon first seeing the behemoth. On their last trip to the pier, she thought the people were dying, until she glimpsed their smiling faces on a screen down below, where a man was taking tickets, like the ones Liam bought at the gate.

Next, her eyes followed the Ferris wheel around a few times before the spinning made her dizzy and she had to look away.

From across the way, Kaelin spotted her sister—with legs—wearing a blue sundress and no shoes, her hair flowing in loose golden curls around her milky shoulders, down to her waist.

A mixture of confusion and happiness warred in Kaelin's mind. She was happy that Amaya hadn't been punished for helping her, but she was confused as to what Amaya would even be doing there amongst so many humans.

When Amaya noticed Kaelin, her pale blue eyes became huge saucers of worry, and her mouth dropped open. She turned her head away quickly, searching the crowd for something.

Kaelin followed her sister's gaze to a tall, shirtless man, his golden skin practically luminescent in the afternoon sun. Kaelin would know him anywhere, even transformed into a human, as he was. It was Arlen, the merman to whom she was meant to be bonded. He was dressed in green pants that were perhaps a size too large, judging by the way they hung so low on him.

While many of the girls on the boardwalk seemed to appreciate his handsome face and perfect physique, the sight of his face—which was hard and angry as he examined the humans around him, his mouth set firm—made Kaelin sick to her stomach.