"What do you want from me? Jewels? Potions? Information? Ask me."

  Yuu could feel it through his fingers, in his pulse. He didn't just want her to ask. He needed it.

  _____________________________________________________________________

  Yuu's roommate from her first year at NRC/Ramshackle has been gone a year now, participating in the Atlantican Exchange Program. The first Yuu hears from her is when a wedding invitation arrives on her doorstep announcing the union between her roommate, and the heir of the largest potion ingredients syndicate in Atlantica. Yuu attends the wedding for her friend, but for Azul Ashengrotto? In the midst of the wedding scandal, this is an opportunity for Azul to repair relations with the groom—his cousin. It's not every day after all, that a merman in his position chooses to marry, and even rarer, chooses a human.

  Unfortunately for Azul, the prankster bride plants a handkerchief of Red Dust on Yuu. Through her, Azul is exposed to a substance designed to reveal secrets. Against Madam Ashengrotto's wishes, Yuu and Azul find themselves pulled together by the residual effect of what happens at the wedding, far sooner than either are ready for. Both are unwittingly tied up in a spicy new scandal of their own—this time under the scrutiny of more than just a party.

  ______________________________________________________________________

  Chapter 1

  Yuu

  It was the most expensive invitation Yuu had ever seen: merfolk-made paper—much heavier than parchment or cardstock—and the lettering was inlaid, rather than written on the fibers, with real mother-of pearl.

  ‘To Yuu, Head of Ramshackle House,’ it read.

  Varun Banejaw Weds Malory Jean

  Join us as Varun Banejaw, son of Cetus and Silastia Banejaw, and Malory, daughter of the Jean family, pledge their love before the gathering of kin, coral, and current.

  ? Date: The Last Quarter Moon of the Coral Bloom, at the Evening Neap Tide

  ? Location: Banejaw Grotto, beneath the Pearl Arch

  Come adorned in the colors of the deep, respecting both human and mer traditions.

  Permits two guests.

  She turned the paper over. Then turned it over again. A brisk morning breeze threatened to take the envelope from her as she gripped the cover of the dilapidated mailbox that had rusted itself onto the outer wall of Ramshackle. A smaller note flipped out of the envelope in the wind. Yuu only just managed to catch it.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  This one was written by hand, on fluorescent pink A4, and she would know Mallory’s handwriting anywhere.

  Hi, Yuu!

  The hardest part of the Atlantican Exchange program has been not being able to call and give you updates. I miss NRC. I miss Ramshackle. I miss YOU!

  Anyway, all the updates I have for you would fill a novel, but here’s the ‘back-of-the-cover’ summary…The family hosting magical organic chemistry exchanges had a son. The son had eyes. And he saw me. And now we’re getting hitched!

  Yuu sighed at the paper in her hand. She could read Malory’s excitement by the way the paper nearly tore the page at some sentences, and the careless way she’d started crossing her ‘t’s. Heart fluttering oddly, she continued reading.

  We’re not doing a lot of the human traditions. No bachelor/ettes. No tupperware. No showers. (It’s wet enough down here, anyway.) One thing I am keeping is that, well, I don’t really have a bridal party, but you’re the closest thing to a sister I’ve got. If we can survive the ghosts of Ramshackle for a year together, then we can do a wedding, right?

  I have a seat saved for you next to me at the bridal table. Bring a plus-one if you have one. (Do you have one, now? I mean, it’d serve me right for not updating you…) Wear whatever you want. You and Varun are really the only ones I need next to me to make the day go well.

  (Please PLEASE come. Some of the ‘people’ on the Banejaw guest list terrify me.)

  All my love,

  Mallory

  Yuu wrapped her jacket tighter around her, clutching at her scarf. She read the note. Then the invitation. Then the note again. Mallory was the least impulsive person she knew. Everything about her was ‘even,’ from her temperament to her handwriting to her flawlessly-level haircut. A year was long enough to have found true love, certainly. It was very like Mallory to make her event as no-fuss as possible. It seemed the whole thing had been planned by her fiance’s family. Still, there was a scent, a feel of ‘otherness’ about the invitation in her hands that set her teeth on edge.

  “Human! Why ya just standing around? My ear fires are gonna go out, it’s so cold out here!” Grim yowled from around her ankles.

  Yuu tore her attention from the invitation, and tucked it into her bag before her little charge decided to warm himself up by setting it on fire.

  “Come on. I’ll carry you.” She offered a hand.

  Grim did a little happy dance, and heeled up on her boot.

  “Finally! You’ve recognized my greatness! The honor of carrying the Great Grim!”

  “I’m carrying you because when your fur gets wet, you drip on my desk—please don’t set my hair on fire,” she groaned, setting off for the Magical Linguistics building. Three years, and NRC was finally letting her specialize.

  “Complain complain,” he grumbled into her shoulder. “When’s lunch again?”

  “Same time as every day, but this time you’re on your own. We’re going to class, and then I’m going to the lounge.”

  “What, for fancy food? I’m coming.”

  “I’m getting answers, not food. Save me a sandwich?” she asked breezily. “Unless you know what a Coral Bloom Moon is, or an Evening Neap Tide?”

  “They’re pastries. One’s a mooncake, and the other one’s an alcohol cake,” Grim responded with the authority of a professor. “Oooh, I love cake! When’s lunch again?”

  Yuu sighed, shivering all the way to class, where yet another envelope waited in her desk.