Torun swam forward. His movements were cautious and jerky. After shushing her, he was clearly on high alert.

Lucy clung to him. The closeness of pressing against his hard, muscular body was delicious, but it only her fins worked properly, she could help.

If he were attacked and his Council dragged him away, she could do nothing but scream obscenities and cry. She snuggled tighter.

They passed a second echo point.

“There are many around the city,” he said quietly. “At the outer edge, a current can take your voice to another city. Always one guard is stationed at that trans-city echo point. For the entire city to empty like this, something terrible must have happened.”

Another mer floated on the far end of a ridged reef.

Torun froze. They drifted on their own, lower, current.

This merman was thinner than Torun, with red and black iridescent tattoos instead of gold. He carried a gold trident and stared up, the way they had come, transfixed. Like Torun, he was completely naked. Tattoos swirled around his impressive manhood.

With males like these, the future tribal dating site would not be hard to advertise.

Torun ghosted past.

They passed more tribesmen, all hot, all tattooed. Also, all kept glancing overhead, distracted and unwary, while Torun hugged the coral reef underneath them.

Much of the ocean was bare like a moonscape. Not the area around Torun’s city. A great bubble of vibrant life exploded from its brilliant center, like a sun with a corona. Schools of deep sea fish darted over the currents. The living reef spread out as a disc-shaped plateau teeming with a celestial glow.

Rising from the center of the disc, a city of shimmering glass bulbs floated in the middle of the ocean. Each bulb glowed with a subtly different shade of white. One had a dark chocolate cinnamon tint that attracted her. It must be Torun’s castle.

These monolithic balloons, bull kelp bulbs grown to gigantic proportions, increased the song of the reef like a symphony director swelling to the crescendo.

Torun wove through the anchoring trunks to the central column. It looked thick enough to install an elevator. Scarred with age, it also glowed the brightest.

He swam up the column to the city. “We may swim near others soon. If any look at you, pretend that you are an injured male from another village.”

Her hips and boobs hadn’t exactly melted away in the transition. “Will that really work?”

“Most obey the Council’s restrictions from visiting the surface and have not seen a human since Prince Jolan’s mother, decades ago. I will move at an average speed and try to avoid their interest.”

“Fly casual,” she murmured.

“Yes, exactly.”

The central column widened and thickened to form a dais. Torun flew above the lip. In the center, like the stamen of a gigantic lily, ruled the Life Tree.

Radiance shone outward with awe-inspiring grace. The rest of the ocean blotted out. Blessed silence fell upon her. She hadn’t realized how loud the chaos was until now it had all been whited out.

Torun circled the dais, both reverent and watchful.

Little tinkles of sound cascaded through the bare branches and down the tree. Small pebbles fell from the upper branches and piled around the trunk, like a white bonsai in a circular planter.

He swam closer.

Oh, wait. Those white objects were neither pebbles nor fruit.

They were Sea Opals. The smallest was the size of her fist. Some were much larger than her fist; some were larger than her head.

The pebbles were resin bleeding from the tree. These, then, were the mating jewels? So the mermen had a symbiotic relationship. The Life Tree gave its own blood to draw new life to it. Each opal fell as a drop of hope for a mer to bring back his bride.

Torun seemed to read her thoughts. “When you and I unite, the Life Tree will sense our union and grow a blossom. The nectar inside transforms you to live under the water permanently.”

Wow. She gripped him closer. “How do we unite?”

“First, the commitment of honor. Second, the commitment of body. Finally, the commitment of soul. Are you ready?”

“I’m so ready.”

He swam her to the edge of the dais. “We must cross onto the Life Tree platform together, as partners.”

She disentangled and gripped his hand. The dais glowed pure white like a holy church. She kicked her bare, human feet to propel her across.

They landed in front of the tree.

“Now, follow my example.” Torun knelt and bowed his head to its glistening white trunk. “I, Torun of Sireno, present Lucy as my chosen bride. Please shower your blessing and healing on our union and give us a young fry son.”

He kissed the trunk and retreated.

Then, this was her wedding ceremony. Her heart thumped. Fewer guests this time, and so meaningful.

Lucy walked in his footsteps. The Sea Opals shifted beneath her bare feet, warm and smooth.

She knelt. “I, Lucy of Newport, Oregon, present Torun as my chosen groom. Please shower your blessing, and healing, on our union, and give us a young fry baby.”

Torun could hope for all the sons he wanted, but she wouldn’t specify. Any baby would fulfill her longest and most fiercely held dreams.

She kissed the trunk.

Krish! Tinkling increased as though a new breeze shivered through the tree.

Huh.

Had Torun heard the same when he pressed his lips to the smooth bark? She rose to her feet and looked back at him.

His face was white and mouth open. He looked up, over her head, to the top of the tree.

Uh oh.

He focused on her, smiled, and held out his hand.

Maybe it was okay.

She pushed off the ground and floated to him. He linked their fingers, sliding his warm digits between hers, and kissed the back of her hand with his lips. Sweet, tender.

The hunger in his gaze filled her belly with a sizzling promise. “Now, the physical commitment?” she asked.

“Soon.”

“How soon?” She had been pressed up against him forever. The shape of his body imprinted on hers, and the dark chocolate cinnamon scent pulsed in her blood. She wanted to consummate their marriage now.

His aquamarine eyes glowed. Did he sense her growing arousal? “Very soon.”

Her stomach growled.

He blinked in surprise and then smiled. “Come, my queen-to-be. Let me feed you.”