Ink: A Mermaid Romance by Karsak Melanie

Author:Karsak, Melanie [Karsak, Melanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clockpunk Press
Published: 2015-06-01T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 12

In the Atlantic, a bonding ceremony takes place in the king’s grotto. His Majesty says a few words of blessing on to the couple, they exchange the symbolic marriage shells, and the bonding is complete. In my great-great-grandfather’s day, however, the acolytes of the Great Mother Ocean presided over the holy affair. After King Tricus decimated the temples in his fit of rage, the ceremony had gone from being a spiritual one to a matter of state. The bonding ceremony that was waiting for me, however, was nothing of either sort.

About midday, Manx had loaded Pangi and me, and four Gulf mermen guards, into his Cadillac SUV and sent me back to the villa to change for the event. The bonding ceremony would be held at Club Blue. I would become a bonded mermaid and queen of the Gulfs while standing on two legs. This was not how I’d ever envisioned such a special day. But, then again, nothing about my bonding was as I wished. When I imagined who I would wed, I’d never imagined someone like Manx. I’d never really romanticized much over who my bonded partner would be, but when I did, I’d always seen myself with someone more like Hal.

I lifted the nagual’s photograph and stared at it once more, my eyes taking in every line on his face. Looking at him was making me feel even more trapped. Creon had sold me into this arrangement to advance his own power. His niece would rule the Gulfs. The Gulfs would owe Creon for the refuge he was offering and would owe me their allegiance. Creon would have the Gulfs in his hands. I had become a puppet. Now Manx would try to shake the truth from me, using the cecaelia to discover my gift. And then what? Would he have me use siren song against humans? On the freshwater mers? On the naguals? I stroked my hand across the photo, touching Hal’s face. Mere hours after my heart was awoken by someone I had no hope of ever loving, they’d traded me off.

“How does it fit?” Pangi called. “Don’t you love it? The color reminded me of your tail.”

I stared into the mirror. Pangi had selected me a sequin, aquamarine-colored gown for my bonding ceremony. She’d already neatly braided my dark hair, curling the dark streaks of blue and magenta, pinning my locks at the back with a sand dollar adornment.

“It looks…great,” I said. I did look striking, but it hardly mattered.

For a minute, Pangi was quiet. “Ink, I know you are nervous, but we need to get going.”

I looked down at Hal’s picture again, folded it, then slid it into my sequin bag. Sighing, I rose and opened the door.

“Wow,” Pangi said. “You look beautiful!”

Despite my own frustrations, I didn’t want Pangi to feel bad. She had selected a nice gown. “Thank you. It was a lovely choice.”

The pretty mermaid, who was dressed in a rose-colored gown that matched the hue of her hair, smiled.

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