Yuu thought she would combust from embarrassment. As for Azul, his tentacles released her, quick as a whip, and shot off to do things like looking completely innocent under the desk, which might have worked, if Yuu hadn’t been still half pinned to that desk by Azul’s hovering torso.

  I’ve been framed! she wanted to scream, but for all the good it would do, she bit her tongue.

  “Hiya, Nerissa!” Floyd, seemingly lacking all sense of self-preservation, waved from where he’d strung himself like a hammock on her grotto’s ceiling.

  “You certainly are looking lovely today, Madame Ashengrotto,” Jade smoothed over quickly, earning himself a raised brow from the madame. “Have you fashioned a new radiant skin potion, or is it simply the Ashengrotto gene?”

  “Flatterers…” Madame Ashengrotto hissed. “I should keep your tongues on display in the lounge.”

  “Not the best place,” Floyd said, cringing. “I always imagined my tongue getting a place of higher honor. Someplace more fun, if you know what I mean, like—”

  “Such as my office in the lounge?” Azul hissed back at him.

  Like mother like son. Yuu might have laughed, had she not been so entirely convinced they were both serious.

  “Nah, I was thinking—” Floyd started, casting a mischievous glance at Yuu.

  “You have a perfectly good Jaw right at the entrance. Why not there?” Jade said with a tight smile, cutting him off.

  “Get out,” the madam snapped. “Unless you really did come to barter your tongues in a deal.”

  “Not todayyy!” Floyd sing-songed, blowing the madam a kiss as he drifted out of the laboratory. “You’re on your own, Zulie!”

  Azul glared at them both as they swam out of the lab.

  “No self-preservation at all,” Yuu found herself mumbling.

  “Hm,” Azul grunted in assent, above her.

  “I presume anyone left present is a paying customer?” Madame Ashengrotto cleared her throat meaningfully. Her gaze drifted right over Mallory and Varrun (whom she had probably escorted in herself before all of this) and landed on Yuu, still perched precariously with her back on the desk under Azul. Her eyes narrowed in that way that only mothers seemed to be capable of.

  “If you are not—”

  Yuu didn’t wait for Nerissa Ashengrotto to make any more likely-disfiguring threats.

  “We are!” she blurted quickly. “At least, Mallory, Varrun and I are. Erm… Azul, would you mind?”

  Azul seemed momentarily confused by her question, until, looking down at her, and then back at his mother, he shot back with a look of absolute—something. She couldn’t read exactly what it was in his face. Disgust? Horror? Betrayal? A heated cocktail of all three?

  He mumbled something that sounded like an apology as he backed away from the desk, and Yuu slipped over to Mallory as quickly as she could. Already dreading the comments that would inevitably dog her later, Yuu avoided making eye contact with anyone but Madame Ashengrotto.

  “Excuse me, Madame Ashengrotto,” Yuu cleared her throat, smiling as politely up at the elderly woman as the situation permitted. “But I’ve been informed by multiple sources that you’re the only person on land or in the sea who might know how to remove this…”

  Yuu tugged back the neckline of her shirt. Mallory gritted her teeth and looked away. Madame Ashengrotto’s eyes flashed, and Yuu very, very deliberately kept herself from looking at Azul, although she heard the thunk of wood at the desk as he pushed himself up from his seat.

  The mark had changed somewhat since that morning…before she’d seen Azul.

  The bite mark had refused to close, but the actual wounds were very small, only bleeding when she moved, and unnoticeably unless touched, but it seemed that without…whatever countermeasures there were meant to be, the mark had darkened, dark iridescent lines spreading from the original holes, like delicate cracks in porcelain, across her pale skin.

  From Azul’s direction, she heard a low hiss, which the bite reacted to, sparking the blue of Azul’s magic for everyone to see. Azul immediately stopped, likely as stunned as Yuu was. Already the mark was prickling uncomfortably, an insistent, almost electric sensation beneath her skin, responding to his nearness, his agitation.

  It ached, though not painfully, as it had the first day, but it was impossible to ignore.

  “I see your predicament, child,” the madam said smoothly, once her own emotions had been smoothed away. Yuu knew that reaction very well from watching Azul. The madam would have plenty to say about this matter, but before anything else, she was a business woman. Polished and professional.

  “I appreciate the look-over,” Yuu said, just as smoothly, as she let her neckline return to its place. “Is there a way to…deal with it?”

  “Why, child. Of course there is,” said the madam, a slow smile creeping over her mouth. Her white hair billowed behind her as she tapped her chin, tilting her head to examine Yuu better. “Although if you recall, Ii did warn you at the wedding. How can I be sure you’ll accept my advice, when it was already willingly ignored?”

  Yuu swallowed. “You did warn me,” she admitted quickly. “I confess, I wasn’t exactly in my right mind at the time. Nor, I believe, was Azul.”

  “Indeed….” hissed the madam, her attention sliding over to Mallory, whom Varrun quickly tucked behind one arm. “I saw for myself that the rumors of your bride’s alchemical skill are not to be underestimated, little heir. However, this particular placement has caused all sorts of troubles—not that I’m complaining, my dear. You wouldn’t believe the business I've gotten from that one incident. So many desperate souls. It would seem that your little experiment has lost your family a significant degree of trust.”

  “We will of course take full responsibility,” said Varrun quickly, but Mallory cut him off.

  “I’m understood that I need to consider things from a further perspective since then. I can promise, it won’t happen again.”

  “No, little bride,” Madame hissed again, this time, true venom dripping from her teeth. “No, you won’t. Because where I could have overlooked this slight—in fact, I would have welcomed it, had it not affected my own blood.”

  Mallory had the grace to hang her head.

  “But, this deal is not with you.” Madame Ashengrotto returned her attention to Yuu. “My dear, if this were a mating mark from any other species, I could have it off you and healed in a few heartbeats! Unfortunately for your dear little soul, my source—” there, she glanced at Azul, “—tells me that this is a cecaelian mark, and therefore not so easily undone.”

  Yuu swallowed. “But it is…possible?”

  “Oh, possible, of course.” The madam nodded. “But after three days have passed—and they have, my dear—Well… the ocean does not take kindly to unfinished business.”

  Madame ashengrotto then swam over to her bubbling cauldron, produced a stone from somewhere in her bodice, and magicked it away, clearing the contents.

  “You see, at this point, the best thing to do is either fulfill the deal you made when it was put there—and there was a deal made—”

  “Not possible,” Azul and Yuu said in unison.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Yuu’s heart twinged a bit. Even if she agreed with Azul, she still didn’t know how angry he was about the whole arrangement. For the first time, she glanced over at him, in time to see him soar over the desk, and wade through the lab to take a place more directly across from herself. His expression was smooth and businesslike as always, but he wasn’t looking at her, avoiding her gaze as pointedly as she’d just done, herself.

  “Well, if it’s not possible, then it’s not possible.” The madam shrugged dramatically, smiling a little wider.

  That was what she wanted to hear, Yuu recognized immediately.

  “And if it’s not possible, then the one who can remove it safely is the one who put it there in the first place.”

  Now, Yuu and Azul did share a look. His, wary. Hers, a question.

  Why not start with that in the first place? she wondered. Why drag me to the bottom of the ocean, and ignore me for days, if you could just do it yourself?

  “I am… not aware of how to do that, mother,” Azul said firmly, answering her questions. “In fact, I was not aware that this…this mark, could bond a human at all.”

  “Clearly not, careless boy,” Nerissa huffed, baring her teeth a little more than necessary. “At this point, you’ll need to find a venom cleanse. Either a truth artifact, or an eel stomach, and seeing as one of those items is illegal, due to very narrow-minded lawmaking—” there, she glared at Varrun, “—you will have to do with the former.”

  “Doable,” Azul nodded.

  “And you will have to do it in the next three days if you do not want her dead or mad,” the madam said firmly.

  Yuu and Mallory let out matching squeaks of shock.

  “Dead or insane? Those were my two options if no one contacted me about this?”

  Yuu leveled a glare, first at Mallory, and then at Azul, who both had the good grace to look apologetic.

  “I was trying to make a cure,” he promised quickly.

  “Why make what already exists?” she shot back.

  “A lover’s quarrel already? How quaint.” Madame Ashengrotto rolled her eyes, looking bored. “I will teach you how to get the venom out, boy.”

  “How does that even work in the wild?” Yuu added, exasperated.

  “It works, because no cecaelian woman will ever let a mate near her unless she is absolutely certain she can handle him properly.” Nerissa glared.

  “Of course,” Yuu muttered, cringing as another wave of red crossed her face. If she just stayed flushed red throughout this whole conversation, maybe the madame would just assume it was her normal coloring. There were plenty of tomato-red fish in the sea, right?

  “Of course,” parroted the madam. “Which brings us to the matter of payment!”

  “Is this not something a mother should teach her son, anyway?” Azul proposed in his business voice.

  “Not when the son is this careless,” Nerissa huffed at her son. “Influenced bu some substance or not, I demand a certain degree of personal responsibility from my blood. It is my hope that retrieving my price from both of you—because it will be from both of you—it will help that lesson stick.”

  Her tone brooked no argument, and both Azul and Yuu waited for her demands.

  “From you, my dear, I understand that your bill is being footed by…another party?” she addressed Yuu.

  “That’s right,” said Varrun quickly, knowing when his input was required.

  “Then I’ll ask for the ban on cecaelian practices and all pertaining tariffs within the city to be lifted,” said the madam.

  Mallory gasped.

  “Done,” said Varrun.

  “Not done!” said Mallory. “If you do that, then there will be competing sea witches flooding the city. You’ll dissolve the family monopoly. There’s got to be something else.”

  “This is not a bazaar. I do not ‘haggle.’ that is my price,” Nerissa spat.

  “Needs must. The bans were antiquated anyway,” agreed Varrun. “It was my intention to remove them myself.”

  “How noble of you,” Nerissa smirked. “From you, Azul…, I want you to return here every week’s end for the rest of the year. I have chores that need doing.”

  “Yes, mother,” Azul agreed readily.

  “That’s going to bite into your business, Azul,” Yuu found herself saying.

  Azul only shrugged. “Dead or insane?” he offered, by way of the alternative, and she closed her mouth. “How long will this take, mother?”

  “Three days,” Madame Ashengrotto and Yuu said at the same time.

  Nerissa arched a brow at Yuu.

  “Presumptuous human.”

  “I do pay attention.”

  “Hm.”

  “Wait, Madame Ashengrotto,” Mallory interjected, a last attempt at being noble shining in her eyes. “I hardly know the rules of this world, let alone the customs of all the races. I promise I am changing that, but there are years of life here that I simply don’t have as an advantage. Please let us take the tab for both Azul and Yuu in this instance. It’s the least we can do…”

  “I will decide what to do with my own son, young bride,” Nerissa snapped, tentacles whirling as she took her in once more, and then her eyes lit up—the light of a woman who could smell a second deal. “Did you say…another world?”

  “The other side of the mirrors,” Mallory supplied.

  Where are you going with this Mal? Yuu blinked in confusion.

  “The other side of the mirrors.” Madame Ashengrotto’s smile was too wide, her teeth too pointy. “Do you both want to return?”

  Yuu’s mouth dropped open. No one had truly believed ehr, not really, when she’d claimed her other world. Her memories were so faded, even the headmaster who had spoken with the dark mirror somewhat believed they were just wildly coordinated amnesiacs. This was the first chance…

  She and Mallory shared the same desperate, hopeful, cautious look.

  “Yes,” they said together, with matching fervency.

  Nerissa cackled, rubbing her hands together.

  “Whyever didn’t you come to me sooner? Oh, I could send you back, yes….And would you be willing to go, and not be able to get back to this world?”

  She eyed them both, a contract practically writing itself in her eyes.

  Yuu took Mallory’s hand, hope blooming in her chest. Azul’s expression was still unreadable, but Varrun looked stricken.

  “No…” Mallory said slowly. Releasing Yuu’s hand, she returned her fingers to Varrun’s, who took them a little too quickly. “No, I wouldn’t.”

  But Yuu… Yuu wasn’t sure. She had friends here, and ultimately, who wouldn’t go back to a magicless world and not eventually try to return?

  But, she had no family here. And Azul, heart-rending as the debacle at the wedding had been, had taught her something—Yuu did want family. She wanted the kind of belonging that only bound ties could give her. She loved Mallory, and considered her as something of a sister… but now she was married, and would be seeing a lot less of her.

  Her own family… that was something different. It was the people she could have as part of every day—something different entirely.

  Yuu longed for wholeness, peace, love, and the kind of devotion that a blood bond could give. She'd been wholeheartedly happy for Mallory when she’d found just that, and Azul—Azul had shown her a glimpse of what it could be. But, no matter what she’d felt, Azul was nowhere close to becoming that for her, and it hadn’t been his choice to do so in the first place. If she already had blood ties back in the other world, and if they could feel as whole as Azul had made her feel, then surely that was worth the trade of a little magic in her world.

  Wasn’t it?

  Madame Ashengrotto chuckled, the sound unnaturally filling the laboratory.

  “Return or not, the choice is of course yours to make, but the process would be desirable to you both, I believe. In order to take the mirror back to your world, your memories of it must be intact, and that… that is something I can do. Restore them, you see. Restore the choice, as well, should you ever desire it. It’s just a simple potion…..well?”

  Mallory cast a silent, questioning sort of glance to Varrun, who nodded.

  “I think I speak for both of us, when I say that we very much would….and the price?”

  “From you, young bride, I want the green pearl desk from the tower lobby.

  “Just… a desk?” Varrun asked.

  “You truly have no idea of the value of the things under your inheritance, do you, little heir?” Nerissa sighed.

  Varrun bristled.

  “Is that alright, Varrun?” Mallory questioned shyly. “You’re already doing a lot…”

  Varrun only shrugged again. “Needs must.”

  “And from you, little human,” Madame Ashengrotto addressed Yuu. “I want—”

  “I will be covering the potion cost, mother,” Azul interjected quickly.

  Nerissa’s eyebrows couldn’t have raised higher. “Oh?”

  Azul crossed his tentacles over one another in a show of nonchalance.

  “Needs must.”

  “I see…” said Nerissa, intrigued for the first time. She spread her tentacles wide, and selected several bottles of expensive-looking body parts and viscous liquids from the stony shelves. “I will have to come up with a suitable favor later…”

  Azul didn’t look as concerned as he should for owing his mother an unnamed favor, but he didn’t argue, either.

  Yuu’s stomach sank. Did he want her gone so badly that he would write a blank check to a woman like Nerissa Ashengrotto?

  “Needs must,” he repeated again more firmly, not looking at Yuu—though she could have sworn a rush of purple blood tinged his ears. It was impossible to tell in this light.

  “Well then…” Madame Nerissa Ashengrotto lit the underwater flames beneath her cauldron. “Shall we get brewing?”