Page 46 of Mermaid on Heels

She shook her head with a solemn smile. “But my feet are not permanent, you know? They transform back to my tail when I am in the sea.”

“I know that too, Liriya.” His voice dropped low and husky as he took a step closer to her, taking her other hand in his. Liriya held her breath and stared into his captivating eyes as he continued, “Perhaps… I want a mermaid.”

“Why?” Her inquiry sounded more of a desperate plea.

Luke dropped his eyes to their joined hands between them and lifted her left hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckle over the glove. Then, he met her eyes. “And that’s where I owe you my story.”

Chapter 11

Liriya walked arm in arm with Luke through the cobblestone pathway that divided the vast and glorious garden. Flowers of different shapes and shades surrounded them, and Luke explained to her that they were all imported from the farthest and the nearest kingdoms by his father—for his mother.

“Mother was utterly astonished by the flowers, and they were her favorite things about the land. She was crazy about them. Father loved her so much that he decided to make a garden for her where all kinds of flowers that existed on the earth’s surface would grow. He spared no expense to fulfill that wish and had his men import every significant flowering plant they found from every kingdom.”

Liriya paused walking as a bell rang in her head, Luke pausing too. Her eyes shot up to him sideways, wide in astonishment. “Are you telling me…?”

“My mother was a mermaid.”

Liriya gasped. “That one… the older lady who sat on your right—”

“No, no, that’s my aunt, my father’s sister,” he said and added solemnly, “My mother died when I was only six.”

Liriya gasped again, lighter this time, before frowning sadly. “Oh, Luke, I am so sorry… What happened?”

“Dehydration,” Luke said on a sigh.

Liriya blinked, baffled. She hadn’t heard such a term before. “I am afraid I do not know what that means…”

“It means,” Luke said and took a deep breath before continuing, “Drying out, lack of fluid…”

Horror gripped Liriya’s soul and her free hand shot up to clasp over her mouth. She felt her throat closing.

Luke stared into space, his ocean-blue eyes drenched in sorrow and haunted as he recalled his memories.

“My mother stayed away from the sea for so long, engaged with running the kingdom alongside my father, tending to her garden, playing with me and Ced… She didn’t know it would cause her harm, she didn’t think it would affect her negatively. She didn’t miss the sea, that was the truth. She was so irrevocably in love with my father that she couldn’t leave his side even for a day; wherever he went, she followed. They used to go to the sea in the first few years of their marriageandafter having me, but as life grew busier, they had no time to spare for the sea. If they had known it’d harm her they would’ve, but they didn’t, no one did, until she was on her deathbed.

“It started with a deep thirst, and then her skin grew dry. Father teased her saying that it was because she spent too much time under the sun, tending to her garden. Therefore, she took a rest and let her gardener do the job. Overtime, the dryness spread across her skin and the doctor said it was skin disease. She was given treatment but it only worsened. Then her pale skin began to turn blue and no doctor was able to tell what exactly her disease was, or find her a cure—how could they? She was a mermaid, and her body worked differently to humans. The doctors didn’t know that. That was when Mother realized what was wrong with her, she realized she was drying out and it was because she hadn’t been to the sea in three full years.

“So we brought her back to the sea. Mother transformed, but she was weak. Almost an hour later, she claimed she was feeling better and asked to be taken home. We agreed on coming back the next day and the next, until she was fully healed. But that night crushed our hopes of her recovery. Mother caught a fitful fever and the color of her skin turned horrendously blue…”

Luke closed his eyes and Liriya gaped at him in horror, watching a shiver ripple through him.

“It was her last night on the earth. I was beside her when she took her last breath. She was an ethereal beauty even on her deathbed, skin blued, dried and all. Even though I was only six then, I still remember her face—thanks to her portrait my father insisted on making when she was still alive.” A sad smile painted Luke’s lips, as though recalling a sweet memory, and he turned his eyes on Liriya. “My mother was the most beautiful woman I’ve even seen, Liriya, until yesterday, until I saw you.”

Liriya’s breaths escaped her shallower than they had ever been. The grip of the horror of his mother’s fate as a mermaid who lived her human life was great on her, squeezing her soul and almost choking her.

She focused her gaze on him and tried to find her voice in spite of the terror that overshadowed her. “Will I—would I ever—”

“No!” Luke admonished her, almost immediately, stunning her with the fierceness of his tone. His eyes widened in torment and he gripped her shoulders, looking into her eyes. “Liriya, you wouldn’t face the same fate, I—”

“But your mother—”

“She stayed away from the sea for three years,threewhole years, Liriya. Not you, you won’t go through it. I won’t lose you like I did my mother. My mother was dehydrated because she stayed away from the sea, caught up with her duties, but I promise you, I willneverlet that happen to you. I will protect you, Liriya. I will protect you with everything in me.”

His rapid confession stunned her to silence, his words sending a pleasant chill down her spine and resurrecting the fluttering in the pit of her lower belly. The tormented look in his eyes, however, began to kill her soul the longer she stared into them. She was a complete stranger to him, yet they were in pain for her.Hewas in pain for her. It made her heartstrings tighten.

“Luke…” His name slipped her lips like a plea, a low, strangled cry.

“Liriya…” He released her shoulders and cupped her face delicately in both hands. His eyes shimmered with its dampness as he slowly shook his head. “You are not going to die, little mermaid, you won’t end up like my mother. I believe the Creator Himself has sent you to me; you are my answer. And Liriya… I see our future when I look into your eyes.”