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  FATHOM

  A Continuation of FINS

  By Ashley Knight

  Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press

  © 2012 / Ashley Knight

  Copy-edited by: Darren Pulsford

  Cover Design By: David Dodd

  Background Image provided by: Ken Koeberlein

  LICENSE NOTES

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the vendor of your choice and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  FROM CROSSROAD PRESS & ASHLEY KNIGHT

  The Fins Trilogy

  Fins

  Fathom

  And soon – the thrilling conclusion!

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  DEDICATION

  To my beautiful daughter, Emma.

  You are my angel.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Greg, my husband, my rock. Thank you for being in my life! I love you more than words can say.

  Emma, my little angel. You’re such a sweetheart – so willing to help in every way. I love you.

  Belle, my little mini-me! Thank you for not fussing when I put you down for nap time. Mama loves you.

  Dad, as always, your support means the world to me! Thank you for helping so much with Fins. You’re my biggest fan!

  Once again, to Mum who inspired me from early on to write. Thank you for your encouragement all those years.

  Joline and Aaron - your help with both books has been invaluable. Thank you for all your hard work.

  Annie, you jumped in, dropping everything at the last minute to be my mermaid at my book signings. That gesture meant more to me than you’ll ever know. Thank you!

  Ken Koeberlein. You are such a fantastic artist! Thank you for creating such beautiful covers for both of my books. You were always kind to me and don’t tell anyone, but I think you’re my long lost brother.

  To Karen, for getting me started - you were a blessing.

  To the wonderful author, Nathan Lowell, who dove in at the last minute and saved the day! You are my unsung hero!

  Jacob Mac. In school, you were the most gentle and accepting person I knew. I hope you enjoy the character I named after you.

  And last, but never least, to the fans of the Fins Trilogy. You have been incredibly supportive and kind in spreading the good word about my little book. Thank you for everything – I love you guys.

  “Our strength grows out of our weaknesses.”

  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Chapter One

  New York

  The blistering heat from the sun’s rays made my skin tighten like leather stretched over a drum. I could do nothing but stare at Thayde’s lifeless body as the waves that lapped the beach jostled his arms at his sides. The part of his tail that wasn’t underwater had already started to crisp. Gathering his upper body in my arms, I stared down at his beautiful face before burying my head in his neck. A mournful scream escaped my throat.

  “There’s nothing you could have done to prevent this.” The voice chimed, making the hair on the back of my neck rise. “He made his choice.”

  I pressed my face into Thayde’s cold neck. He still had that wonderful smell that made me dizzy when I breathed him in. I was never going to have this again. Fear and helplessness racked me to my very soul and my arms automatically tightened around him.

  “We must leave.” The voice instructed.

  “No.” The fierceness in my voice surprised me.

  “They are on their way,”

  “I said no!” I shouted and looked up, but the beach was deserted save for a lone hermit crab who braved the mountains of sand I’d created from moving Thayde.

  “Thayde,” I looked back to my love lying heavily in my arms. “I can’t do all this alone.”

  Something tickled my leg. The crab was attempting to climb over it to get to Thayde. Holding the creature between my thumb and forefinger, I flung him into the sea.

  “Baby,” I choked, but there was no use; he wasn’t coming back. He’d been dead for an hour. There was nothing more to do but give him back to the sea.

  Setting him gently on the sand, I unfastened the necklace I’d given him from around his neck and held it tightly. I placed my right hand on his chest and took one last long look at my soul mate, trying to ingrain every inch of his face into my memory.

  “Goodbye, my love,” I whispered, closing my eyes. Reaching forward, I kissed his forehead, instantly hearing the bubbles. My eyes shut tight as I felt them begin to form all over his body.

  “Morgan,”

  That was Thayde’s voice and I screamed, reaching out to stop him from leaving. But the bubbles had encased him completely and he vanished before my eyes.

  “Thayde!”

  “Morgan!”

  “No! Please!” Horror gripped me. What had I done?

  “Morgan, wake up baby!”

  A dream? This was a dream?

  “Open your eyes.”

  It couldn’t be a dream - it was too real.

  “Open your eyes,” His deep voice repeated and I obeyed, peering through my tears into Thayde’s worried face. I flew into his embrace.

  “You had another nightmare,” he said as he rocked me back and forth. “It’s okay.”

  Sobs racked my body, not allowing me to speak. Thayde said nothing more - he just held me in his strong arms and stroked my hair while I cried it out.

  My dreams were so real I couldn’t separate them from when I was awake anymore. The nightmares had been plaguing my nights ever since The Blessing and they came so often that at times, I didn’t want to go to sleep. I missed having peaceful dreams.

  Thayde’s steady heartbeat calmed me and the tears subsided. This was my fourth nightmare this week and I was sure Thayde was getting sick of being woken up in the middle of the night.

  “I’m sorry,” I mumbled into his chest.

  “Baby, there’s nothing to be sorry about.”

  “I woke you up again.”

  “No, I was already up.”

  Most likely, that wasn’t true, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. Thayde always won any argument we had and I was far too tired to disagree. My eyelids felt as if lead weights were attached to them, pulling them closed.

  “Stay with me?” I muttered, slipping back into blackness.

  “Always.”

  Dear Diary,

  Here I am, eighteen and the ruler of the merpeople. How do I handle all this? I told the last leader, Troen, I wasn’t up to it, but he seemed to think differently. I’m not ready, but here I am, suddenly thrust into a sort of celebrity I didn’t ask for. Most people my age would think “It’d be cool! I’d do anything I wanted!” but that thought alone would prove they weren’t ready either.

  Don’t get me wrong - my life isn’t all doom and gloom, but things have changed drastically. It’s been a year since I visited sunny Florida to see my mom. My dad’s been dead a whole year. I’ve been a mermaid for a whole year. I’ve had new powers ever since Troen performed The Blessing and I’ve been having problems ever since.

  My dreams are too real to be considered just dreams. I have been having this nagging feeling that Thayde is going to die and there’s nothing I can do about it. The worst of it is that I don’t feel like I
have any control over my feelings or actions. It’s not too bad, yet. But how much worse can it get? To live with the feeling that you don’t have any control is terrifying.

  Thayde’s adopted family, the Dartmoth’s, have disappeared. No one knows what Troen did with them. I think about them a lot and wonder what happened. Maybe he banished them, or turned them into slugs. He could have killed them for all I know, but there’s this nagging feeling that they’re not finished with me and it’s turning me into a nervous wreck.

  After Thayde proposed, my world changed. I graduated high school and was accepted to Columbia University - the same university Thayde attended. We moved to Manhattan three months ago.

  New York’s been a huge eye opener. Though the university offers traditional student housing, we’ve been living in Thayde’s apartment. That’s been interesting and could be a story unto itself. For one, Mom and Tammer insisted on visiting right away and made us swear to stay ‘pure’ until we were officially married. So we sleep in separate bedrooms and not very well. Can you imagine how hard it is not to run into his bedroom in the middle of the night and rip the clothes off his beautiful body? There have been a few times that we’ve fallen asleep in each other’s arms and we figure as long as we don’t do anything too bad, we’re okay.

  Thayde was quick to show me around his neighborhood and it didn’t take me long to realize this city is definitely one for the wealthy. I didn’t even want to ask how much his apartment cost to buy. There are cafés and bookstores everywhere and we’ve visited many of them. Of course, we’ve seen all the places that tourists go when visiting New York - the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center and the American Museum of Natural History. All in all, New York is a vast city you either love or hate. Downtown Manhattan is not my favorite place. For one, forget the fact that it’s dirty and crowded – the buildings are so tall they block the sun! However, the restaurants are amazing and diverse. You can get a good Indian curry and a meaty pierogi on the same street corner.

  As far as being able to buy anything; New York is fabulous, but it’s also extremely expensive. I’m still not used to the fact that Tammer is so rich. Anything I need, I have and it’s all thanks to him. People don’t exactly live this way in Stanley, Idaho. Sometimes New York makes me want to run back to my roots – to go home to Idaho and be surrounded by the quiet of the mountains. I think I’ll need a vacation soon.

  I paused, distracted by the sun’s rays as they warmed the side of my face. They formed a golden column through my window onto my queen sized bed. The giant windows in Thayde’s penthouse apartment had an impressive view of the skyline. Many nights already, we’d stood arm in arm, mesmerized by the lights of the massive city. Thayde was completely comfortable here and he should be. This would be his fourth year attending Columbia. I, on the other hand, was just beginning.

  Sighing, I ran my hand through my hair, getting it caught in the tangled mess. I’d been up for twenty minutes and though I’d pulled on some clothes and brushed my teeth, the urge to write had hit me and that was the furthest I’d got.

  I looked about the contemporary styled room and shook my head. It was a far cry from my parents, one-of-a-kind luxury mansion in Vero Beach, Florida. This place was in some serious need of decorating. Thayde was not known for his decorating sense and neither was I. I had a feeling I was going to have to relent and call my talented interior decorator Mom.

  “Babe?” Thayde’s voice called from the hallway.

  “I’m in here,” I answered, closing my diary and leaning over the pillows to plop it on the nightstand. When I looked up, he was standing in the doorway, balancing a glass of orange juice and a flower on a tray on one hand.

  “Thayde!” I patted the bed beside me. “You didn’t have to do that!”

  “I know.” He eased the tray onto the nightstand and picked up the flower. “I wanted too.” Half dressed, he wore a blue buttoned dress shirt and pajama bottoms. When he bent forward to give me a hug, I could feel the muscles in his warm back tighten as he embraced me.

  “Are you okay?” He asked.

  “Sure!” It wasn’t a lie. I was okay, but I wasn’t great. I wanted to know why our kind referred to becoming The Link as The Blessing. There wasn’t anything blessed about it. So far it had been a huge burden but I didn’t share it with Thayde and I certainly didn’t tell him anything about the nightmares.

  He pulled away from me, holding the flower to my nose. I’d always loved Oriental Lilies. The smell was intoxicating and I closed my eyes. If I could just focus on the exquisite smell of the flower, I knew I’d be able to rid my mind of seeing Thayde dead.

  “Do you know how lovely you are to me?” He asked and my hand immediately flew to my bed head.

  He laughed and sat next to me. “Yes, even with the bird’s nest.”

  I giggled. He placed the lily next to my glass of orange juice and sat back, looking at me with his dark blue eyes.

  Did he know how lovely he was to me? Probably not. It was like looking at perfection. His black hair had grown out in the last few months and it fell lazily about, framing his face. I could hardly resist the urge to leap upon him and devour him.

  Ever since we had corded, our intense feelings for each other had multiplied. Because cording only happened with merpeople, allowing them to feel what the other was feeling, read each other’s minds and finish each other’s sentences, it was new to me, and at times, too overwhelming. It meant I experienced my feelings for him as well as his feelings for me. My desires for Thayde were barely containable.

  Thayde must have been thinking the same thing because he leaned forward and kissed me, his mouth open and warm. I wound my arms around his neck, pulling him to me and we sank into the pillows.

  Placing my hands above my head, he ran his hands down my arms and around my back, pulling me upwards toward him. I could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest.

  “I love you,” he breathed between kisses.

  “I love you.” I mumbled back. If I could have stayed that way forever, I would. It was pure pleasure being kissed so lovingly by a man who not only confessed his unfailing love, but was all I’d ever wanted.

  “Morgan,” he whispered, rubbing the side of his face softly against mine.

  I knew what we both wanted and I was certainly willing. He was, after all, my fiancé. What was frustrating was the most we’d ever done was kiss. I wanted to go further but Thayde was always the one who backed down, reminding me of our pledge to my parents.

  As we kissed, I began to fumble with his shirt. Taking my cue, he pulled me forward and we both rose to our knees in the middle of my bed. He slid his hands under my tank top, pulling it over my head. I ended up ripping his shirt when the last two buttons wouldn’t undo and he eased out of it.

  Kissing my neck, he moved down to my collarbone, gently sliding my bra strap over my shoulder. As he moved to the other side and began to do the same, goose bumps rose on my skin.

  “Thayde,” I breathed, surprising myself.

  He paused long enough to lay me back against the pillows. His kisses trailed my collarbone, over the top of my bra, to my stomach, where his hands caressed my sides. Reaching toward his head, my fingers found his soft black hair and played through it. Goose bumps begin to appear over my entire body and it was then that he laid his head lightly on my stomach.

  “Morgan, I want to be with you more than anything,” he hesitated, looking away. “But I can’t listen to my heart at the moment. I want you to be my wife when we’re together.”

  “You don’t want to be with me now?” I asked, slightly hurt, the wheels in my head starting to click. Playing like this was one of the most frustrating things I’d had to deal with and each time was harder than the last.

  “Yes!” His intense eyes darted back to mine. “More than you’ll ever know. If I could have you now, I would.”

  “Then have me!” I pulled him toward my face, wrapping my legs around his waist. “I want to be wi
th you!”

  He smiled, his eyes full of love, and traced a finger down the bridge of my nose. “Not yet. We can’t.”

  I felt indignant. “Can’t? We do this all the time!” Unwrapping my legs, I sat up. “I’m practically naked, Thayde!”

  “I know,” he dropped his head. “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t do that!” I pulled his face toward mine. “Don’t ever say you’re sorry. I want to be with you. Don’t you know how much I want this?”

  He nodded leaving me feeling a little stupid. Of course he knew. Part of what I was feeling was what he was feeling and vice versa. It was all part of the cording. Maybe that was why I was feeling so hot tempered at the moment; too many emotions from Thayde and me pushed together. It was almost unbearable.

  Thayde watched the realization dawn on me and kissed me delicately on the lips.

  “You know how much I want this too, but we should wait.”

  I relented. He was right – he was always right. We had to wait until we were married. Fooling around this much shouldn’t have happened. It was the ‘proper’ thing to do. I put my arms around his back and pulled him close to me, his head resting on my shoulder. His fingers trailed my skin just below my collarbone as he made his way to my fallen bra strap, pulling it back over my shoulder. After a few moments of silence, he spoke.

  “What did you dream about?”

  I didn’t want to tell him. If I told him the truth, he’d think it meant something ominous was hovering on the horizon. Sometimes dreams are just dreams, aren’t they? Besides, I wouldn’t want to hear him tell me that he routinely dreamed of my death. So I lied.