*
This had been the fanciest dinner she’d ever eaten, definitely one for the books. Only thirty minutes into the feast and her stomach was starting to bulge uncomfortably. Mermaids came one after another into the great room, bearing heaping platters of steamed lobster tails, smoked crabs, and sliced abalone.
At first Trisha had worried that all she’d taste was water. It was still strange to her to be breathing it in, but it felt no different than the air she breathed on land. Maybe a little thicker feeling, but that was all. The food itself tasted the same as it would above, in fact, maybe even better. It was super fresh and sweet.
She honestly hadn’t expected to eat undersea creatures. She hadn’t known what they’d serve, but she’d been prepared for seaweed salad or roasted coral, because surely they wouldn’t eat their sea friends. Right?
Maybe she’d watched too many cartoons growing up, because she’d been dead wrong. There’d been muscles, clams, shrimp, even fish. Seeing them tear into steaming fish had felt a little like watching a cannibal eat. For a quick second it’d turned her stomach, but it had all tasted so good the feeling hadn’t lasted.
But now she was sick. There was too much food and if she had to force herself to swallow one more bite of anything she was going to hurl.
She tried to swallow her gag reflex as yet another mermaid set yet another platter in front of her. Mouth drooling, stomach heaving, she covered her mouth and eyed the others. They weren’t eating the way she was, more picking and moving pieces around.
Sirenade grinned, her teeth reminding her somewhat of a shark’s the way they were pointed.
“You’ve finally finished have you?” She leaned in closer, the briny scent of her hair tickled Trisha’s nose. “I thought I might pass out before too long.”
Grabbing onto her sore stomach, Trisha snorted. “Oh my God, please don’t tell me you all were waiting for me to finish?”
The men—who were at the opposite end of the table—looked up then. Hook with brows lifted and Sircco with a ghost of a smile. Feeling like the world’s biggest ass, she groaned.
“I’m so sick I think I will puke, right now. I just didn’t know how to say no more.”
Setting her sterling silver fork down, Sirenade pushed her half-eaten plate away. “It’s quite simple really, you open your mouth and say ‘no more.’”
Rolling her eyes, Trisha moaned. “Har. Har. Har. You guys are hilarious. The food was good, but I think it’s reached my eyeballs at this point.”
“So why didn’t you say stop?”
“Because you’re a queen and all I kept thinking was, if I stop she might want my head on a pike. Why do you think?” Trisha knew she was acting more familiar with Sirenade, talking to her like they’d known each other forever, but in some ways it felt like that. The beautiful mermaid was so easy to talk to.
A bronze hand patted her own. “Oh, little mortal, you are as funny as Hook claimed. I think I should enjoy having you in my realm. Have you given any thought to staying?”
Trisha tilted her head. “I’m leaving in three days. I can’t stay.”
“Mortal, you can always stay. The choice is yours. Do you not like our realm? Sircco?” The gentle swell of an ocean tide rocked in the depths of Sirenade’s cool amber eyes. “He seems to like you a great deal.”
An uncomfortable sound tripped from her tongue, a mix between a laugh and a snort. “Umm… no,” she said slowly, not sure how to handle this, still not entirely certain she trusted Sirenade wouldn’t go psycho Red Queen on her if she did the wrong thing. Tapping her foot, she made an effort to not look at Hook this time—last thing she needed was someone else assuming she was in love with a man she barely knew. “He’s a king, he can get any mermaid he wants. I doubt he’s thinking of me at all.”
“Hmm.” She tapped her black claws on the table. “I wouldn’t say that, Sircco and Talia were engaged once. Before she met Hook.”
Trisha’s eyes widened, snapping her gaze up toward the two of them. “And he’s not angry at Hook?”
“I should say that is not the way of our kind, that we’re more refined in how we handle emotion, but that would be a terrible lie.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle, she found herself liking the fishy woman sitting beside her.