Submerging (Swans Landing) Read Free Page B

the same last names—but Malloy didn’t have any leads.
    “What about...Westray?” I asked, cringing as I thought of the girl who had stolen Dylan’s heart.
    Now Malloy narrowed his eyes. “Westray,” he repeated, rolling the word out in his thick Scottish brogue. “Can’t say as I know anyone here named Westray, but there is an island by that name.”
    Tingles shot their way across my scalp like tiny spiders. “Where is this island?”
    Malloy nodded into the distance. “North of the mainland.” He gave me directions from Stromness to Kirkwall, where there were ferries that traveled to the islands farther north. He rubbed his thick beard with one hand. “Only, I don’t know what you’d hope to find. The village there is even smaller than Stromness. Not much to interest a wee hen like yourself.”
    His gaze burned into my skin, seeping deep into my bones. I swallowed, keeping my hands clenched on the railing to hide the trembling. I knew not all humans were friendly toward finfolk. I had grown up with warnings of what some of them might do to us if they found out our secret. As kids, Dylan and I used to try to scare each other with stories of finfolk ending up as aquarium exhibits. Not that we’d ever heard of that actually happening, but it was a recurring nightmare we’d both had once.
    I felt like I should say something, anything to distract us from the current conversation. But then Malloy spoke again.
    “Well, what should I do with you?” he asked. “I would probably be in trouble if I let a lassie I plucked out of the ocean go wandering off without evidence of a passport to prove you’re here legally.”
    I hadn’t thought of this problem. Of course I didn’t have a passport. I didn’t need one during a swim across the Atlantic Ocean.
    I opened my mouth to speak as a shout echoed across the dock. “Sailor! There you are!”
    Josh stood on the wooden deck, his hands on his hips. He was dressed in only slightly damp jeans and a black hoodie, his bag slung across his back.
    “Your boyfriend?” Malloy guessed.
    I rolled my eyes. “Worse. My brother. Is that proof enough that I’m here legally? I have family waiting for me.”
    Malloy studied me for a moment, but then he nodded. “Aye, go on to your family.”
    I giggled, trying to sound light and carefree, like a silly American girl who had gotten lost while swimming in a foreign country. “Thanks for the ride.”
    Malloy walked me over to the rusty metal ramp where I could descend to the dock. “My pleasure. But next time, better keep to swimming near the shore.”
    Josh stood like a glowering statue as I made my way down the dock toward him. Only when I had reached his side did he move, wrapping one thick hand around my arm and pulling me away from the boats and the people as quickly as possible.
    Josh didn’t say anything as we maneuvered away from the docks and into narrow streets between small shops.
    After a moment, I’d had enough of Josh’s silent glare. “Say what you want to say,” I told him.
    A muscle in Josh’s jaw twitched. “You could have been killed,” he said. “Or found out .”
    “I changed back to human form before they got a good look,” I said. “Besides, I doubt any of them would have believed they’d really caught a mermaid if they had seen anything. They probably would have brushed it off as a trick of the light or something.” I waved a hand dismissively.
    “This isn’t Swans Landing, Sailor,” Josh spat at me. “We have to be careful. We don’t know how the people here would react to finfolk.”
    I pulled my arm from his grasp, snorting. “Right, because the people back home were so friendly.”
    Not everyone in Swans Landing was finfolk. In fact, most of the people on the small, isolated island were human. The locals all knew our secret, but the only reason they didn’t reveal us to the rest of the world was because no one else would believe them. Still, relations between finfolk and humans