Before pg. 73, and onward

Quince stepped into his house nearly in a daze. From the short night at the dance to the long ride home and everything at Lily's house, with this persistent dry throat, part of him felt like nothing would ever be the same between the two of them. He had no idea what this "long story" was going to be. And why did Lily tell him to take a salt bath?

Still, he wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. His mom was already at work, so he quietly walked upstairs to the bathroom hallway. He let the tub start to fill while he went back down to the kitchen, grabbing a salt shaker and bringing it back up. He looked at the salt shaker, furrowing his eyebrows at the generic brand label. Quince had heard that athletes took salt baths before, something about muscle recovery. He was no athlete, though, and Lily definitely wasn't either. Regardless, he started to shake the salt out into the tub as the water filled, eventually disrobing and stepping in once it was ready.

The next morning, Quince was still fighting a serious cough in his throat. It was weird, though. He wondered if it was a sore throat, and if he was going to get sick, but Lily and Ms. Hale acted like it was almost to be expected. So, for that reason, he didn't think it was a cold. By the time he got up that morning, coughing and downing yet another glass of saltwater, he noticed a note under the front door.

Meet me at Seaview Beach park at three.

Lily's handwriting.

He had to wait all the way until 3:00pm to find out what the hell her long story even was? Quince sighed and stuffed it in his back pocket. It would be a long morning, for sure.

When Quince rode his motorcycle into a beach parking spot, he felt pulled. He looked up and across the lot at the sandy beach below, but he couldn't see her. Still, weirdly, he knew that Lily was there already. Quince could feel her presence down on the beach, waiting. When he started to walk down the boardwalk toward her, he only saw that gorgeous, curly hair of hers. Quince stood behind her, trying to judge her body language, figure out if she was still prepared to kick him.

Instead, she asked, "Do you believe in other worlds?"

"What?" that could not have been more out of the left field to Quince. What did that even mean? He laughed, just barely. "You mean like alien planets?" Is she an alien? What the hell is going on?

"No, worlds right here on earth. Worlds you can't see. Worlds you never knew existed but that were there all the time."

Quince listened very carefully, taking her words in and letting them settle. He very carefully dropped himself to sit on the sand next to her, knees bent in front of his chest. "What's this all about, princess?"

As soon as he uses the nickname, he could see, maybe even feel the mixed emotions it gave her.

"Look at the sand," Lily said, pointing at the sand by their feet. "See all those shells?"

Is this…even related? "Yeah…"

"Those are coquinas."

Quince still didn't understand, distracted by whether or not Lily was just stalling. "Right, they come in on the waves-"

"That's what everyone thinks," Lily answered, shaking her head as she looked at Quince's face. He stared down at the sand intently, though. "Look closer."

Quince stared at the sand, waiting a few moments as a wave washed up to their feet, leaving the coquinas revealed as they once again buried themselves.

"Whoa!" Quince said, momentarily distracted, for real, by this fact. He leaned forward to scoop the sand into his hands, picking and combing through the sand to see if he'd caught any of them.

"They don't come in on the waves. They live under the sand."

Quince furrowed his brows, briefly glancing up at Lily. He wanted so badly, to ask what this was all about. But this was the Lily he knew. The Lily he felt so connected to, her depth and knowledge and the way she spoke. Still, if she had a point, they would surely get there, wouldn't they?

"Look at the water," she instructed, looking down at the sand. Quince followed her gaze. "See all the ripples?"

Quince looked at his handful of sand, and then his gaze traced out to the ocean.

"The coquinas cause the ripples. Even though they are hidden, they still affect the visible world."

Quince was in awe, considering all the creatures living beneath the sand, getting washed up and disturbed by the tide as it washed over the shoreline. "Wow. That's amazing."

"An entire world, hidden, but causing ripples in the world you know. The world you see."

Quince stared down at the sand, each spot where ripples were being left behind. It was incredible. Growing up, he'd never spent much time on the beach. It didn't matter that he lived ten minutes away, the accessibility was irrelevant. He just wasn't the kind of outdoorsy kid to play on the beach, and his dysfunctional family didn't much help either. Just as he started to connect dots, wondering why Lily was opening up with this speech, she continued.

"That," a short pause, maybe to gather courage. "Is kind of what Thalassinia is like."

Quince squinted, letting the sand fall between his fingers as he turned back to face Lily. "Thala-what?"

"Thalassinia," Lily answered, looking back to look at his face. "My kingdom."

Quince took in those two words, considering the concept of a kingdom, that Lily belonged to it, and that was what this was all connected to. He blinked, letting the idea ring around in his head. Maybe she really was an alien? "Your kingdom?" he repeated, finally. "What exactly do you-"

"I'm not your average high school girl," she explained, staring right into Quince's eyes. He looked beyond confused at what that sentence could even mean. "I'm a…"

As Lily trailed off, Quince thought about these things. Whatever it was, she was taking it very seriously. That genuine emotion made Quince understand, he felt that whatever it was she was struggling with, wasn't meant to be taken lightly. His face furrowed slightly as he thought about the facts he had, recognizing her discomfort.

"You know," he started, "that salty bath made me feel a world of better last night."

"It did?" she asked.

This was good. Quince wanted her to know that whatever this was, he was taking it seriously, and he trusted her. "And drinking the saltwater didn't dry me out. In fact, it made me feel superhydrated."

"Good," Lily answered plainly.

"Come to think of it," Quince said, as if thinking aloud. His brain was connecting the dots, but they weren't forming a picture. "You seem to take long baths pretty regularly."

"Hey," that defensive nature of hers started up. "You are such a peeping perv-"

"Lily," Quince interrupted, just as the topic was beginning to steer away from the answers she was hopefully going to be giving him. "Was there something more you wanted to tell me?"

Lily's gaze drifted away from him, turning back down to look at the sand. "Well, actually, there was one thing…"

Quince waited for her to finish, only speaking up once it was apparent she wasn't going to. His curiosity was beginning to get the best of him, each of these pieces not really making sense on its own. "And that would be…?"

Quince only sat about a foot away from her, but when she turned her face down to answer with her face between her chest and her knees, her voice was completely lost.

He reached a hand over to lightly graze her chin, tilting her face up. "What was that?" he stared into her deep green eyes expectantly. "I didn't quite catch it, since you were speaking at the sand."

"I said," Lily began, pulling her face away from his hand. She pulled her shoulders back and looked at him, "I'm a mermaid."

Quince's eyes widened at that, his mouth barely open. A mermaid? Like, a tail, underwater? The baths, the saltwater, her naivety around the kinds of things that people just knew, her only known family being her aunt on land-Lily, his neighbor, a mermaid. It made sense. "Huh," he stated with a laugh. "That explains your bizarre obsession with fish terminology," he laughed louder, the absurdity of it all sinking in on him.

Quince completely missed her scowl as he kept laughing.

"Well, that's not half of it, buster." He felt her fist against his chest, hitting him backwards, landing on his back onto the sand. He propped himself up on his elbows. "You're turning into one, too."

Quince started to full belly laugh, just then.

"What's so funny?" Lily demanded.

"Aw, hell, Lil," Quince answered, smirking and shaking his head. "Irony's a bitch," then, he added, "I can't even swim."

His princess leapt up from the sand, wiping it off the rear of her shorts. "Well, you're going to have to learn. And fast."

Quince squinted, finally putting a stop to the humor in the situation as he stood up. "Hold on there, princess. Water and I are not exactly friends. I prefer transportation with wheels."

"That doesn't matter right now," Lily answered, looking away from him. She walked right up to the shortline, kicking off her shoes.

"The hell it doesn't," Quince answered, gritting his teeth as he watched her walk away from him. Normally, that feisty attitude of hers was what Quince loved about her. Now, it was her turn to push his buttons.

Lily turned to face him, hands on her hips. "Listen. We're working on a tight time schedule here. We don't want to be caught in open sea after dark."

Quince's face turned to one of extreme confusion, all screwed up and furrowed as he stared right at Lily. He crossed his arms over his chest, "What exactly is going on?"

"When you kissed me last night, a bond formed and you began to turn mer. Your body started preparing itself for saltwater immersion, raising the saline levels in your skin to compensate-that's why the salty bath felt so good. Salivary glands near the top of your throat grew into gills so you'll be able to breathe underwater."

Her words came at him rapidly, even if it was vocabulary and concepts he could understand, it was immediately overwhelming. "Wait a second-"

"The chemistry of your lymphatic system is changing so it can regulate your buoyancy."

"My buoyancy was just fine-" Quince defended, clueless as to where else he could even start with all of her explanation.

"Oh, and the bond?" Lily continued, on a roll. "Is this kind of chemical-hormonal emotional connection thing that can kind of muddy your feelings. So don't go getting all mushy on me. We're not really falling for each other, even if we start to think we are."

Quince blinked twice to collect himself, so it just makes people fall in love, or what? He ultimately chose another question. "Okay… But what about-"

Lily interrupted, "No time. I can dish more details later. First, I have to get you to the Thalassinian royal court so the king can perform the separation ritual, like, last week. Now get moving."

So there are mermaids, mermaids live underwater in our world, right here in our oceans, and Lily is one of them, and now I'm magically bonded to her because of a kiss, and I'm going to turn into one? Is that what's happening right now? Quince was speechless, certain that he was missing more details than he had.

"Let me get this straight," he started, dumbfounded. "I'm turning into a mermaid because I kissed you?"

Lily's annoyance is obvious in her response, "I don't remember asking you to kiss me."

Quince scowled at her sass, looking away from her gaze as he processed that. There was no reason not to believe her, her story matched. But magic? Him turning into part fish? It was unbelievable.

"Technically, you're turning into a merman."

Quince turned to look at her eyes, tilting his head to one side. Technicalities were not of the utmost importance to him, right then.

"Look, can we just forget the last few days and focus on what we need to do right now?" Lily asked, a little demand in her voice.

Quince's face was still one of frustration, maybe from his own helplessness under the circumstances. Still, he shrugged slightly.

"We don't want to be traveling when the sun goes down. I thought we would have more than enough time to spare, but I didn't know you couldn't swim," Lily explained, turning back away from him to walk into the ocean as she unbuttoned her shorts. "Follow me."

Quince let the confusion show on his face, his mouth open as he watched Lily walk into the deeper water, unbuttoning her shorts as she did so. He stayed put, unmoving as she threw the shorts onto the sand where her shoes were left behind.

"Get your butt moving!"

Quince jumped at Lily's request, beginning to walk into the saltwater, his own hands reaching for the belt around his hips.

"Uh-uh, you can keep your drawers on."
"But you-"

"I will be transfiguring," she replied. "Changing into my fins. You're not fully mer yet. You will be able to breathe and communicate underwater, but you won't be able to transfigure into a merman."

Quince didn't really get it. Still, he acknowledged her. "Oh."

"Lose the shirt, though. It'll only add drag and slow us down."

Quince was satisfied enough with that compromise, pulling his t-shirt up and over his head, tossing it next to Lily's own garments. By the time he looked back over at Lily, her focus was apparent.

"See something you like?" he asked, a teasing edge to his voice. Lily met his gaze, shaking her head.

Quince couldn't help but smirk, unconvinced by her disagreement. He took a step toward the water's edge.

"No! We have to, um, get going."

Quince laughed, staying there for just a moment before he began to wade further into the water, closer to Lily. In an action that still surprised Quince, she threw her underwear past him onto the sand.

He raised his eyebrows, pursing his lips and glancing down at the surface of the water just in front of her, as if hoping to see what's there.

"Eyes up, buster."

Quince smirked again, pleased to have the banter that he was so used to with Lily. He slowly glanced up, eyes tracing over her tank top, then hovering over her chest briefly before eventually looking her in the eyes. She was furious with him, jaw clenched, cheeks blushing red.

"If we had time, I would so punish you for that."

Quince relaxed, slightly. He was thankful to have this back. "You don't scare me, Princess."

"Would you go lock our stuff in your bike?"

Quince looked at her with one eyebrow raised, still uncertain of how long this was going to take or what was going to happen. A kingdom? Underwater? How far was that?

"You do have a way to lock up stuff in your bike, don't you?"

He opened his mouth, ready to say something smart back at her, but nothing came. He shrugged, wading back up the beach to pick up his t-shirt and her shorts and underwear, walking up the sand back up to the parking lot. Once at his bike, he opened the compartment and tossed his own shirt in, then her salty, wet shorts and pink underwear. He tried not to dwell too much on the underwear. Once he returned, he dropped the keys into a Velcro pocket on the cargo shorts.

"The first step is aquarespire," Lily told him.

Quince squinted at her, wondering if he was genuinely meant to know what that meant. "And that is…?"

"Breathing water."

His brows furrowed, skeptical. Breathing water. Lily was acting like this was natural and every day, and I guess if she's a mermaid, then it is? But breathing water was not natural for the rest of humanity.

"Follow me," she said, disappearing beneath the deep blue water. It was about five feet deep where they stood, but Quince lost sight of her, looking around the surface for any sight of her. After a little bit, she resurfaced and he looked her in the eyes.

"What's wrong?"

It hit him very suddenly, his request. "Kiss me."

"What?!"

"Kiss me," Quince repeated, taking a step toward her. She was far shorter now, fully transfigured, no longer stood next to him in the water. "I trust you," and he meant that, even among all of this that was unbelievable and absurd, he did trust her. "But what do I know? If this is going to be my last breath, I want it to be a good one."

And damn, if he hadn't been still replaying last night's kiss over in his head all morning.

When Lily didn't really react, no answer or move to initiate the kiss, Quince took that as the go-ahead, slipping one hand under the water to wrap around the curve of her waist, pulling her torso against his with his lips on her mouth.

Quince kissed her for several moments, feeling her lips on his, the closeness of Lily against him. Once he pulls away, he wants to make good on his deal. "Okay," he started, hoarse, maybe from the bond taking its toll on his body, or maybe from the kiss. "I'm ready to go," he said, immediately slipping beneath the water.