Yuu paced in front of the front door of Ramshackle, glowering. It had been three days. Plenty of time for Mallory and Varrun to have completed their, erm, ritualistic first challenges of marriage. They would have returned to the Banejaw mansion by now—at least, she assumed it was a mansion. Either that, or the Banejaws lived in a tower, or an underground laboratory, or something equally magical and ominous. Living situation aside, they should be back.

  Azul hadn’t checked in on her, or contacted her, or so much as deigned to pass her in a hallway in three days, and, after the second day, Floyd and Jade had ‘mysteriously’ disappeared as well so she couldn’t question them. What was worse, was, she’d started feeling….things in the mark on her shoulder.

  Yuu had been going about her usual coursework, monday, when during the middle of a Magical Creatures lecture (ironically titled: If it Bites, It’s Probably not Friendly) her shoulder began to….tingle?

  At first, she thought she was imagining pixie bites, but then it grew warm, and an odd sensation began to flood her system. She felt, almost as though the mark had a personhood of its own, first satisfaction, then annoyance, then determination, then panic. The odd part of all of it was, though she recognized the emotions, her own were completely calm. It was as though the feelings had put themselves on stage for her body to watch, and then rejected all of them.

  Very shortly after that, she caught the briefest glimpse of absolute and utter loneliness, longing, and… and was that desire? Before there was a snappy, static spark at her shoulder, like a TV signal had short-fused and gone out, and all secondary sensations died.

  The night before, just before she’d gone to sleep, she was unhealthily wrestling with memories of the wedding (and of Azul) when the connection snapped to life again, this time in technicolor. It was as though, for a few minutes, she relived the feelings she’d had in the lagoon in real time—being held, being wanted, feeling both riled and peaceful. She felt the sorts of things that make reasonable make unreasonable demands, and then bite people, until, with a similar blue snap! the feelings died again.

  Now, fortunately, there was no room in herself for emotions that weren’t her own. In fact, she was having a hard enough time containing the frustration she had in her own body.

  Three days, and any connections she could have to people who could help her with this unhealing—still bleeding—wound were no help at all! The healer insisted there was nothing malignant about the mark and that it would heal on its own—it wasn’t. Azul, the cowardly perpetrator was nowhere to be found, and no one in Octavinelle, nor anywhere on campus knew how to find him. Not even ROOK had been able to pin him down, earning her a very confused look from himself and Pomfiore when Rook failed, possibly for the first time in his life, to hunt down ‘prey.’

  Her last chance, her Ace-in-The-Hole, and the cause of this whole mess in the first place, was Mallory Banejaw, who should have read her letter by now. But if she had, then where was she?

  “Hey, um, Yuu, are you expectin’ someone?”

  It said worlds about Grim’s concern that he’d used her actual name.

  “Yeah,” Yuu growled, pacing in front of the door, yet again. It was not being knocked on, opened, or entered through, yet again, and she snarled at it—as though the door were personally responsible for its lack of guests.

  “...Are they comin’?” Grim asked tremulously, from his perch on the comfiest chair in the entry—the shoebench.

  “They’d better be,” Yuu growled again.

  “Listen, Human, you’ve been actin’... kinda strange the last couple of days. Maybe it’s time for a break, ya know? Eat some tuna. Eat some more tuna. Let some things that don’t matter go.”

  “Three steps to absolute success, Grim,” Yuu praised as well as she could under the circumstances. It wasn’t often that Grim was this caring, and she didn’t want to squash his efforts, but unfortunately for her, this wasn’t something to just let go. She had a ticking magical timebomb in her shoulder, and the smarmy octopus who had given it to her was nowhere to be found.

  “So, that’s a yes? We can go for tuna?” Grim flicked his tail hopefully.

  Yuu shook her head. “You go ahead, Grim. I need to—”

  It happened. There was a knock at the door.

  Yuu was already yanking it open before Grim could properly flee the entryway, nearly tripping over his tail as she went.

  There on the other side of the door, tan-faced and glowing was the happy couple from the wedding, Mallory and Varrun Banejaw. Varrun looked peaceably the same, standing cool and somewhat aloof beside his new wife, but Mallory, as glowy as she was, couldn’t resist a giggling, tackling hug the moment she saw Yuu.

  “Yuu! Yuu, it’s so good to see you. When your letter said that it was ‘dire’ that I come to Ramshackle, I thought you’d be dying in a gutter somewhere outside! Oh, the honeymoon was such a rush, I can’t wait to tell you all the gorey details!”

  “The shark hunt did not have that much gore,” Varrun added under hsi breath, stepping over the threshold behind Mallory. “May I?”

  “Mmph course,” Yuu beckoned him in behind them from under Mallory’s shoulder. Varrun strode in, picked up the pitcher of juice she’d laid out and offered a glass to Mal as a way of prying her off of Yuu—for which, for once, Yuu was grateful. As grounding as hugging was, right now she needed answers more.

  “Mal, I’ve really gotta talk to you about that dust.”

  “The dust?” Mallory pulled back, still beaming. “Yeah, it was really—Whoa!”

  Yuu wasted no time pulling down the neckline of her shoulder where the mark sat, unbandaged, and still slowly trickling blood. She’d soaked so many bandages and used so much tape that she’d eventually given up and just opted to wear dark shirts.

  “Whoa. Yuu.” Mallory stared dumbstruck at the set of teeth marks in her shoulder. “Hah! It looks just like a—”

  “That’s a mating Mark,” said Varrun.

  Mallory spit out her juice, spraying it all over the entry table.

  Varrun merely tutted at his new bride, and swept his mage stone over the mess to clean it up.

  “Apologies,” he said simply.

  “You got a mating mark from AZUL? He’s so careful. So controlled. He is NOT the type.”

  Hot, angry tears sprung to Yuu’s eyes.

  “That’s exactly the thing, Mallory. He’s NOT the type! I’M not the type. You dusted me without telling me what it would do, and when some got on him… I just lost basic inhibitive social skills, and HE…he…. Sort of turned into an octopus.”

  Mallory shook her head.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  “That’s impossible. I formulated this dust to only work on merfolk. I mean, it might have worked a tiny bit on humans, seeing as we’re sort of related, but on you? On a cecaelian? They’re typically made of more durable stuff. It shouldn’t have affected you at all, and definitely not long term. It was supposed to wear off after a couple of hours!”

  “What WAS it supposed to do?’ Yuu glared.

  Mallory slammed her glass down on the table, glaring at Varrun when he picked it up and tried to get her to take it again.

  “Oh, don’t look at me like that! No one in the world would be enemies with you. I thought you’d find someone who would flirt with you some more, or you could find some friends, you know, more reason to come and visit me in Atlantica—”

  “Liar. You know i’d visit Atlantica anytime for you.”

  Mallory threw her hands in the air. “FINE. I saw you and Azul dancing. And it looked. Well, I don’t know. Compatible?”

  “So why not let us just keep being compatible? I’m HUMAN, Mal, remember? Timing is EVERYTHING. You can’t just force a fatey-destiny-love potion on someone and expect it to go well long-term!”

  Mallory blinked. “I mean…. It does for mermen?”

  Yuu glared harder.

  Mallory’s face fell.

  “Damn. Damn-damn-damn! You’re right. I should have asked you. It was… um… oh man….”

  “Totally normal in Atlantica, but kinda rapey up here?” Yuu accused.

  Mallory let her hands fall into her face, nodding miserably.

  “This,” Yuu said, a hard bite in her tone. “This is why there’s a food and drug administration aboveground!” Yuu raised a soldering finger. “Because if you don’t test it on a wide variety of WILLING and CONSENTING people, you don’t know how much it’s going to affect people or for how long!”

  Mallory was beginning to nod. “You said it’s still affecting you?”

  “Can it be reversed.”

  “Of course we can reverse the effects. We are not, how do you human’s say—Duck chemists?” asked Varrun.

  “Quacks,” Yuu and Mallory said together.

  “Is there a difference?”

  Yuu and Mallory shared the sort of look that they used to when living together, and Yuu felt a pang of loneliness from having missed her friend.

  “Not really,” Yuu said generously. “But the dust is still working. And it’s caused some permanent damage.

  “I see, I… oh dear,” said Mallory.

  “Oh dear indeed,” Yuu snarled back, back to her earlier anger. “I’ve been feeling the same stuff from during the wedding still in flashes. Just in flashes, but it’s still there, and I’d really like it out of my system before—if—I ever see him again, and if I do, I’m going to wring his neck, too!”

  “Too?” Mallory asked miserably.

  “Could it be that you actually care for my cousin?” Varrun asked, in that same, infuriatingly calm tone.

  “What?” Yuu snapped. “I just said I was going to wring his neck!”

  Varrun shrugged. “It’s love.”

  Yuu’s eyes bugged. “It’s not love. He was forced into something. So was I. It was too fast, and without the right timing, Varrun, that tends to make things for humans fall apart, not the opposite.”

  Varrun was examining her like she was a particularly interesting petri dish.

  “Yes; I am… learning there is much about your race I do not understand.”

  “You’re learning exceptionally quickly,” Mallory soothed, patting his arm.

  Yuu brought the attention back to the matter at hand. “Okay, okay. You know the situation now, and please, please don’t let this get anywhere but the three of us. I haven’t even told Grim.”

  “I can hear you, Human!” Grim yowled from the other room.

  “The four of us, then,” said Yuu exasperatedly. “Anyway, Madame Ashengrotto said that it would eat me alive if I didn’t fulfill some sort of….deal.”

  “You could simply fulfill the deal, and leave the mark be. It will heal on its own if the deal is fulfilled.”

  Mallory held up a hand.

  “Yeah, but if the deal is fulfilled, then they’ll be…um…”

  “Mated?” Yuu asked.

  “In word, yeah,” said Mallory. “But you’d stop any detrimental effects, at least. We could find him, and have him give you whatever it was, and buy more time?”

  “No can do,” Yuu said tightly. “I asked for something… a bit um…”

  “What, did you say you wanted him or something,” Mallory joked, picking up her glass again as the humor returned to the room.

  Yuu remained silent, staring.

  Mallory lowered her cup slowly. “Holy CARP, that’s exactly what you did, didn’t you?”

  “You see my problem,” Yuu said darkly. “If I ever see that dust again, I’m setting it on fire.”

  “Apt. It IS explosive,” Mallory mused. “Hang on. If the dust is still affecting you, then I can definitely reverse that. That’s easy. But undoing a mating mark? That’s above my skill level.”

  “It’s what!?” Yuu growled angrily.

  Varrun made to stand, but Mallory pulled him back down.

  “She’s not a threat, and she’s the victim here, Varrun,” Mallory scolded, before turning back to Yuu.

  “Listen, no one even uses mating marks anymore. They’re just…”

  “Primeval? Messy?” Varrun supplied.

  Mallory snapped her fingers. “That!”

  Yuu groaned. “Wonderful. I’ve got something ‘Primeval’ and ‘Messy’ carved into my body.”

  “Primal is also apt. Man… I really am sorry, Yuu, it’s just that never in a million years would I have thought AZUL would have that sort of inclination.”

  Yuu shook her head. “I understand. I do. It’s just… well, now I'm living with it, and I want to undo it, and no one at all has been helping me or even talking to me for DAYS, so… I guess I’m just glad now I have someone to help? But also, you’re right. Even if you had tested it a bunch beforehand and determined it was safe… It seems like going off of regular Azul, this isn’t something he’d ever do. Ever.”

  “My cousin seems to have your respect?” Varrun asked unhelpfully.

  “Usually,” Yuu grumbled.

  “Hm.”

  “Listen, Yuu, it’s not my cup of tea, per se, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible,” Mallory chugged along her thought process. “What you’re going to need is a cecaelian sea witch.”

  Yuu sighed. “Azul hasn’t talked to me since the event. He wouldn’t even write a note by himself. And he’s disappeared from campus.”

  For some uncodly reason, her eyes began to sting when she said that. Because it was true. Azul had not only abandoned her with no information, but he was ignoring her, avoiding her, and this at a time when she genuinely was in need of his help. The thought stung of something that tasted like betrayal, and worse, heartbreak.

  “That’s not who I meant,” Mallory shot back, not noticing Yuu’s internal disarray. “Also, you’re going to want someone a little higher up the rungs. Not a student. I was going to suggest Madame Nerissa Ashengrotto.”

  Yuu stared at her, wondering if Mallory had lost part of her brain to this marriage agreement.

  “Ashengrotto. Right. The woman who didn’t want me anywhere near her son in the first place. The woman who said it would be easier for ‘the family,’ if I were dead. THAT Madame Ashengrotto.”

  Varrun shrugged. “At least you will know she’s invested in reversing the mating mark.”

  “It can be healed, Yuu, and the venom can be purged. But if you want someone who can do it and leave you alive, that would be the Madame,” Mallory informed her quickly.

  “Great. Just… great. And what exactly does the Madame charge guests she hates? Am I going to lose an arm from this? A couple of fingers? My voice?”

  Mallory shot Varrun a grave look, ascertaining she had his nod before continuing: “She won’t be charging you anything. I feel really bad about this, Yuu. I’ll take care of it. And… and I’ll come with you. I want to make sure she knows not to slip in anything extra.”

  “Sure,” Yuu grumbled. “Go to the sea witch who wants me dead, hope she doesn’t curse me, tell her that her son wants me in a way that hasn’t been popular since the primal dark ages. Not awkward at all. But at least it’s free of charge.”

  Mallory smiled sheepishly. “We’ll fix this, Yuu. And then… maybe Varrun and I can make reparations with Azul as well.”

  Varrun snorted.

  “He’s been nothing but kind to me and Yuu the whole time we knew him. We’re magicless females at a nearly all-male academy of mages. He could have written us off and dismissed us, but Azul Ashengrotto has always dealt with us like equals. He has my respect….and he has Yuu’s, erm—”

  “If you finish that statement, I will dump this juice on your head,” Yuu promised quickly.

  “Right! Well, he likes Yuu,” Mallory covered lamely.

  “When intoxicated,” Yuu added grumpily. “Which is really doing wonders for my ego.”

  “We’ll work on healing your ego after your shoulder,” Mallory promised, petting Yuu’s hair soothingly.

  “I suppose,” Varrun mumbled, tiger-striped human arms crossing tightly over his polo. “I suppose if he has the potential of his mother, then he may be worth dealing with…”

  “He is better than his mother,” both girls snapped at once, sharing a surprised look.

  “Yuu. I didn’t know you cared,” Mallory said sardonically.

  “I don’t want to. That’s why we’re doing this, remember?”

  “Well, there’s no time to waste then! Not many people risk seeing Nerissa anymore, so she takes walk-ins. Says they’re more desperate.”

  “Even better,” said Yuu. “So, when can we go?”

  Mallory took her by the arm, and Varrun stowed their glasses just as quickly.

  “Right now.”