Nichole Giles - Sea So Blue

First American Paperback Edition

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, dialogues, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Published by Jelly Bean Press

PO Box 548

Osawatomie, Kansas 66064

Copyright 2017 by Nichole Giles

Cover design by Melissa Williams Design

Author photo by Brekke Felt

Formatted by Melissa Williams Design

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights.

Purchase only authorized editions.

ISBN 978-1-63034-049-0

Nichole Giless author website is http://nicholegiles.net

For my mom, who taught me that everyone

deserves a great love story.

V IVID LIGHT CUT THROUGH THE surface of the water, shimmering along Caspians blue-white skin as his corded muscles drew him ever-closer to shore. Though it had been years since hed seen the sun, he remembered it from childhood days spent at the beach with the woman from his pasthis mother. Long ago, when his father had snatched him from the sandy beach and dragged him beneath the sea, Caspian vowed to escape Atlantis and return to land. Hed lost track of the tide cycles that had passed since he last saw his mother, but the number was many. Hed been smaller then, and far too young for the joining his father now threatened to force upon him with the arrival of the new moon.

Caspian didnt remember her well, but the scattered pieces he could recall left him certain that his mother would not compel him to join with a mermaid he despised.

Still, it wasnt the joining that sent him in search of his past, but the memories that slipped further from his grasp with each passing tide. His human side longed to remember the sensation of walking on feet, warm sand squelching between his toes. To feel the sun heating his skin, and to know the absence of water that would allow his long, dark hair to fall around his shoulders rather than floating above his ears.

And then there was her. Emerald green eyes, hair the color of fire, and soft, smooth arms, ideal for soothing a gloomy child. Memories of her face had faded over time, and he worried about how he would find her, recognize her in a population so vast. He yearned for peace, with his past, his future, and with his place in the world, a muddled position under his current circumstances.

He slowed as he approached the shore, startled and delighted when his ears detected peals of laughter, and a melody, music different from the song of the Mer, though hypnotic in its own way. The beach where hed last walked had changed dramatically in the time hed been gonethough, as Caspian glided through the water, he noted the size of his hands, and decided that he had changed as well.

Shops and restaurants had popped up, a boardwalk built. As far as he could see, dwellings consumed the landscape, leaving little space unspoiled with progression.

People crowded into groups under umbrellas and on towels, and some dove into the swells on surfboards or other floatation devices. Nerves sang along his shoulders. He was not a boy anymore, and human customs were little more than a distant memory. He did recall that humans believed the Mer to be legends of mystical and magical proportion, fantasy, but not reality. Perhaps he would be wise to emerge in a place less populated, one that would not create such a spectacle as a merman arising from the sea.

Caspian adjusted his course, aiming for the rocky shoals below the cliffs that towered in the distance. The pearl and seashell necklace, a gift from his cousin, tapped against his chest as he plunged deeper, picking up speed again. If Maui had been successful in the creation of this adornment, it would be the key to Caspians ability to breathe ashore until he was ready to return home.

His kingdom and his betrothed would be forced to wait while he became reacquainted with the ways of humans. Caspian believed that this knowledge would be of great use when he inherited his fathers throne and was charged with the task of ruling Atlantis.

As he approached the shoals, the water shallowed, the coast below the cliffs littered with boulders and land-masses, which created a natural inlet. Set back from the populated section of beach, this uninhabited inlet led into a shallow cave, carved into the side of the cliff, and invisible from land. Instead of beach, sharp, pitted rocks and tide pools made up the semi-level ground. The only sand he could see was the soft, white powder lining the inside of the cave.

He pulled himself onto the rocky shore, marveling at the heat that dried his hands before he lifted the rest of his body from the sea. Overhanging land far above provided ample shade, sheltering the spot from sight, and further limiting the possibility of humans visiting the secluded space. In the distant sky, far above him, a shining creature flew, cutting the blue expanse with a thick, white trail. Something about the creature seemed familiar to Caspian, but words and details wisped from his brain as the delicate skeins of newly formed coral.

The golden sun hung high overhead, stinging the white-blue skin on his shoulders, nose, and feet. He scooted into the shade of the shallow cavity, grateful to find the sand cooler here, in the same way that the sea chilled with each foot of depth that generated distance between his body and the rays from above.

As his fin dried, his legs separated, and the webbing between his toes thinned, curling into the creases. Caspian pressed his feet to the sand and, using the rough stone walls for balance, made a wobbly attempt to stand.

Muscles he had forgotten existed tightened, from the bottoms of his feet, through his calves and into his knees, thighs, and hips, and he marveled at the sensation of feeling his weight balanced on two feet that seemed so much smaller than a fin.

At times, hed used his feet to stand in Atlantis, but never for long, and never with any dependency or need. Mostly, it had been an old habit from his youth that sometimes reared up and required the use of his standing muscles. But such occasions had been rare, and standing underwater had never required that his feet alone hold his entire mass.

As if to prove such a deed impossible, he tipped to one side, smacking his knee and an elbow against the rough rocks as he slammed on his backside into the sand. Pain jolted up his spine and left his head spinning. He tried again, taking care with the placement of his feet, this time spreading them far enough apart to create more stability.

He inhaled a breath of air, remembering as he did, that such a thing required the use of his nose and mouth, rather than the deep gills cut into the sides of his throat. Again, the sensation struck him as both strange and familiar. Two more breaths gave him confidence that the pendant had worked, so he attempted to take first one step, and then two. Each time his feet hit the ground, his bones rattled from the force.