They found Trent’s car at the Bird Island parking lot.
“You don’t have to come with me,” Nolan said. “Actually you probably shouldn’t.”
Rosalie was already unbuckling her seatbelt. “Go to hell,” she said without much venom. “Do you have ear plugs?”
“Uh.”
Rosalie reached into her purse, pulled out one pair, and made to toss a second in his direction before hesitating. “Wait, you don’t—like you’re not into girls, right? Or guys? Or… people? Will they even—”
“They almost got me once,” Nolan admitted. “The song told me there were night heron hatchlings on Bird Island.”
“God, you are such a nerd.” She flung the earplugs at him, then herself out of the car.
It was getting dark; there were hardly any people along the trails this close to the park’s closing time, and when they reached the length of trail that ran closest to the island, he could hardly make out the nests on the rock. Peering over the cliff to the water below gave no clue about where to go next.
Rosalie was looking at him for some kind of hint. Nolan took several large steps further from the edge, motioned Rosalie to follow, and removed one of his ear plugs.
“What are you—are you seriously pulling an Odysseus now, you idiot?” Rosalie snapped, nearly drowning out the distant, familiar, eerie singing.
Nolan forced his hand back against his head, jamming the ear plug back in. “This way,” he said, and took off down the trail toward Hidden Beach.
A flight of sandy stairs led from the trail down to the shore; Nolan ran down most of them before vaulting over the railing from as high as he dared. The sand cushioned his fall, but the landing still jarred his ankles.
Grace stood silhouetted against the setting sun, waves lapping around her knees. She swayed slowly, as if in time with the music that Nolan could no longer hear. Further out, shimmering shapes frolicked in the waves, scales and fins flashing in the dying light. Rosalie raced past Nolan, sand flying with every step, then water when she was forced to wade. It slowed her enough that, by the time she reached Grace’s side and grabbed her arm, both of them were already waist-deep.
A shimmering figure rose up from the water, seized Grace and dragged her under, wrenching her out of Rosalie’s grasp. Rosalie screamed so loudly that it reached Nolan’s blocked ears. The mermaid resurfaced to pull her down as well, and in the ensuing struggle, pulled out one of Rosalie’s ear plugs. She was immediately maced for her trouble. But the damage was done, Rosalie’s protection lost in the water.
Nolan ran forward, sloshed through the shallows, and dove underwater as soon as it was deep enough.
The water was murky and the salt stung his eyes, but he forced them to remain open. Rosalie was entranced again and was paddling away from shore under her own power; further out, Grace drifted limply underwater. The mermaid twisted and thrashed nearby, eyes swollen and red from the capsaicin.
Nolan reached Grace first, heaving her to the surface. At first she remained motionless, head lolling against his shoulder. Nolan wrapped his arms around her middle and squeezed, trying to remember what he’d learned about the Heimlich and hoping the same concept would work on water in the lungs. After a few desperate heaves, she began to cough and sputter. As soon as she was remotely conscious, she began to fight.
“Don’t!” he yelled uselessly, ears still plugged with foam and seawater. “I’m here to help—Rosalie’s here!”
Rosalie had reached him, at the point where the water was deeper than they were tall, and immediately stopped swimming. Nolan swore and grabbed her, trying to keep both women as well as himself above water. Then, thinking quickly, he let go, pulled out one of his earplugs, and managed to fit it into her empty ear before slapping his hand over his own. Rosalie went from going limp to thrashing in panic to treading water, wide-eyed but clear-headed. Nolan kicked frantically to stay above water while Grace continued to fight him, before Rosalie noticed and swam closer to help.
A flash of shimmering scales caught his eye, then another, then another. The mermaids were circling now, like sharks around a sinking boat. They were surrounded.
A familiar head of dark, wavy hair broke the surface. Against his will, Nolan knew what Mel looked like coming out of the shower; emerging from the sea wasn’t all that different.
Admittedly she was different, in more than a few ways. Iridescent scales sparkled on her neck, her jawline, and around her eyes in decorative patterns. Her eyes were black and shiny like a shark’s, and when she smiled at him, there was blood and shreds of meat caught in her teeth. A dark green tongue flicked against them, and her mouth moved as she spoke.
“Uh, I can’t hear you,” Nolan informed her, pressing his palm harder against his ear. “Sorry.” His voice sounded calm in his head, but everything else was panic. For a few terrifying moments, Grace’s thrashing pulled Rosalie’s head underwater. She resurfaced spitting out water.
More scaled, grinning heads appeared around them. The beach seemed so far away.
One of the mermaids made the first move for them. It was the one Rosalie had pepper-sprayed; her eyes were swollen shut and weeping, but Nolan had read somewhere that mers had electroreceptors like hammerhead sharks. They didn’t need to see to kill.
She had almost reached them when something heavy clipped Nolan in the side, sending him crashing into Rosalie. Without warning the blinded mermaid vanished underwater. For a moment the rest of the pod froze, confused, before a thread of dark red drifted to the surface.
The next blow wasn’t a gentle glancing tap; something slammed into Nolan’s side, pulling him underwater. He opened his eyes and focused on what had hit him, just in time to see a broad silver torpedo charge straight into another mermaid. The water churned and turned red.
Nolan thrashed his way to the surface, where Rosalie was already towing Grace to shore. The mermaids must have stopped singing to deal with the new threat, because Grace wasn’t fighting her anymore.
They had only just swum clear of the fighting when an icy hand grabbed his leg and yanked, nails digging cruelly into the meat of his calf. Nolan kicked out and caught something, but the water slowed all his movements, and he couldn’t kick hard enough to dislodge her. The mermaid bared her sharp teeth to the gums, red hair swirling around her like seaweed. Nolan kicked out at her again, and she dodged it with a mocking smile, every bit as nimble underwater as he wasn’t.
And yet, she wasn’t quite as quick as the seal that appeared behind her, opening its jaws to a wider angle than the hinge of its jaws should have physically allowed. They snapped shut around her tail and wrenched downward, shaking like a dog with a toy. Bubbles poured out of her mouth, then blood, before Nolan turned and thrashed his way back to shore.
It was only when he spotted Rosalie and Grace that he realized he’d lost his earplugs in the water at some point. (It didn’t matter, because the only thing the mermaid voices were doing at the moment was screaming bloody murder.) The two women clung to each other as Grace miserably vomited up seawater. Rosalie opened her mouth to say something, saw the look on Nolan’s face, and closed it.
Along his way, he stepped on cold, hard, plastic, which he bent down and retrieved. Rosalie’s pepper spray—it must have washed ashore.
“You!”
Nolan whipped around. Mel stood on the shore, the wet sand behind her sifted into odd tracks from her transformation from tail to legs. She was bloody and limping, and her lovely face was twisted with rage.
“I will devour you whole,” she said, her voice beautiful and captivating even in its fury. “I will sing you to the ocean floor for the bottom-feeders to pick at, and have you begging me for it with drowning lungs.”
Nolan felt light-headed just listening to her. Drowning at the bottom of the ocean sounded so pleasant when she was the one promising it. Maybe the sea would feel like a weighted blanket—
He raised the canister and sprayed it directly in her face. Mel collapsed to the sand, her sing-song threats turned to shrieks of rage and pain.
Barking laughter drew his attention to the shallows, where the massive seal had beached itself. It rolled over, showing its scarred belly, its full size and shape, and its markings. Its jaws opened to that impossible angle again, showing off the bits of mermaid still caught between its fangs.
Nolan stared at it, nonplussed. “You are not a species native to this area,” he told it.
The leopard seal shook itself. Its skin loosened, and its fierce gray face transformed into a spotted hood. A broad human hand reached up to pull it back, revealing the woman he’d met at this very shore.
“Gets boring, all the way down south—people are more fun than penguins,” she said, rolling to her feet and stretching. This time, Nolan had the presence of mind to politely avert his eyes. She trudged up the beach, carelessly stepping on Mel instead of over or around her. “Could do without these things. Too much human in ‘em to be tasty.”
She stopped at a rock near where Rosalie and Grace had collapsed, reached behind it, and produced a large t-shirt and a pair of sweats, which she put on. Both women stared at her, wide-eyed with awe.
“Um, thanks,” Nolan said, sidling carefully away from Mel. “Again. How did you know to come? Do you live around here?”
“Found a fresh half-eaten human on the seafloor, further out. That and the singing.” The selkie grinned. “Saved you twice now. I think that means you owe me dinner. Know any good sushi places? I love sushi.”
“I will buy you sushi,” Nolan said faintly. His stomach rolled.
Grace coughed. “I could go for some sushi too,” she rasped out.
“Same,” Rosalie added.
“I don’t have enough money to buy everyone sushi,” Nolan admitted. His mind clung to the phrase fresh half-eaten human, and Trent’s car in the parking lot. “I don’t know if I can make rent this month. I think the mermaids ate my roommate.”
“Get a better one next time,” Rosalie said flatly. “Seriously, have some standards.”
“At least I didn’t date him.”
“Oh, fuck off.”
Grace, still wobbly-legged, leaned against her friend and laughed helplessly.
The walk back to the parking lot was awkward and strange. Rosalie was focused on Grace, and Nolan was focused on not ralphing in front of everyone. The selkie walked barefoot, heedless of roots and rocks in the trail. She nudged Nolan, nearly knocking him over.
“Kidding about the sushi,” she said. “I can grab a duck somewhere, nobody ever misses those.”
“It’s fine. Like you said, I owe you.”
“Ehh. Sorry about your roommate.”
“It’s fine. We didn’t get along.”
“Oh! Then congrats.” The selkie shot a sidelong glance at him. “And if you’ve got the room… I could always use a place to crash.”
Nolan turned to stare. “What?”
“Look, where I’m from, there’s not much to see on land. It’s ice and more ice. But up here?” She grinned. “It’s interesting. Somebody down south even named me! I never had a name before. It’s Marina,” she added.
“Oh! Uh, nice to meet you. I’m Nolan.” Nolan hesitated for a moment, then—screw it. “I could… help? If you want? We’re close to a university—anything you want to know about the world, it’s all there, and I could show you.” The selkie’s eyebrows shot upward and Nolan pushed forward before he could lose his nerve. “And in return, you could tell me about yourself. About selkies. It’s just, there’s not a lot of research, and obviously you can say no if you don’t want to, but…” His voice trailed off. But the dissertation writes itself!
Marina’s teeth were still sharp when she grinned. “Throw in a sushi dinner every now and then, don’t fucking touch my coat, and you got yourself a deal.”
