Marker; 858 reads and 76 votes! Yay!

AN; So I'm hoping you are liking this book so far! I know I enjoy writing it! Anyways, let me know what you think, so don't forget to vote or comment! And I would like to dedicate this to CutieBlueAngel for making this amazing book cover for my book and this amazing poster you see above! Go visit her cover shop! Thanks for reading! -Sam

A look of relief crossed Delphine's face when our eyes locked. Her black hair was pulled up in an updo, and she wore a short purple dress, and her strand of multi-colored pearls rested at her throat. She rushed past Mr.Walter and up the steps towards me. Her high heels clicked loudly on the hardwood steps and echoed sharply off the walls. She threw her arms around me and buried her head in my hair.

"I was so worried!" she whispered into my ear.

I glanced down at Mr. Walters. He was staring up at us with those dreadful blue eyes, and some of the other guests were starting to turn their heads towards us too.

I pushed away from her, and she looked at me in confusion, probably from my sudden break in our contact, "Upstairs," I said and turned and began to ascend. I heard the click of her heels behind me, which let me know she was following me.

I brought her up to my tower, and once we were completely alone, I turned towards her.

"Are you crazy!" I yelled, and threw my arms up skywards, "Why are you here, you aren't allowed to come! That's part of the rules!"

Delphine stared at me long and hard, "I would be mad not to come here," she said softly, "I was worried, I thought someone had hurt you or worse! How did you get away from that boy!?"

"He was distracted by another human, and I slipped past him."

She walked up to me and grabbed both of my hands. "Did you get a good look at him?" she asked, "Did the human get a good look at me or you?"

I pulled my hands away from her "No, and I don't know," I lied, "Did you see his face?" I asked her.

"No, I was too busy escaping," she told me, "I'm sorry I should've stayed behind, dragged him under, and drowned him out at sea. I just panicked. I had never been seen in true form so close to land, in broad daylight before."

"I wouldn't have wanted you to drown him; no questions asked," I said softly

"I know, that's the problem," she said and pressed her fingers in the bridge of her nose and closed her eyes. She opened them, removed her hand, and looked down at me, "And it's reason you're here," she said and reached up and grabbed absently at the strand of pearls.

I stepped away from her, and crossed the room and went to stand beside the round stain glass window "You shouldn't be on land, he likely got a good look at you, but you didn't see him. He has an idea about what you look like and he could de dangerous."

"Why would he been dangerous?"she asked. "He was just a human, right?"

I swallowed, "He had a mermaid scale around his neck, and whoever it belonged to, their soul is trapped inside. It glowed red and blue in the sunlight, Delphine."

Without a word, my sister walked across the circular room and sat down on my bed, "Are you sure?" she asked me. She looked at me with wide, frightened eyes.

"My magic did not affect him. And he recognized what you were, he thought he was saving me from you. It's not safe on land, around here at least, you need to go tell father and warn all merpeople to stay away. I know it's been fifty years, but we might have another hunter on our hands. I think you should avoid coming on land and let me return to the sea and end this madness. If this is a hunter, we may not be so lucky this time around."

A smile suddenly bloomed across Delphine's face suddenly, "No," she said.

"What?" I asked, confused by her answer and the sudden all-knowing smile.

"You almost tricked me, Marina, I'm smarter than that though. You temporally spelled that boy and had him come with you in case I showed up. You were always the most talented of the sisters!" she laughed like she had been stupid not to realize this sooner and stood from my bed, "You're going to stay here until you do what father wants, and you aren't tricking us into letting you come home before that!"

She began to walk towards the door, and I ran across the room and grabbed her arm. I was in a full blown panic. My sister did horrible things, they all did, I did too, but it didn't mean I wanted horrible things to happen to her.

"Delphine, please just stay off the land, just for now!" I begged her, but she shook her head and continue to make her way back down to the party, with me clinging to her arm like some shipwrecked sailor would cling to a piece of driftwood bobbing in the water.

I lessened my grip to just a few fingers when we emerged at the top of the spiraling staircase and were once more in the view of many eyes. To those down below it looked I was only lightly touching her arm, but in reality, I had Delphine in a death grip.

My ears filled with, with quiet conversation and the soft sound of music.

"Marina let go of me!" Delphine hissed and reached over and tried to pry my hand off, but it was locked onto her, and to prove my point, even more, I dug my nails into her skin.

She winced and sucked air through her teeth before releasing it "Alright, if it's that important to you than I'll stay off land, for a little while at least," she hissed, and I finally loosened my hold on her. She ripped her arm away from me and stormed the rest of the way down the steps, while I watched from the middle of the stairs. She stopped briefly in front of Mr. Walter, and they exchanged a couple of words.

When they were both done they both glanced up at me, before looking back at each other. Mr. Walter pointed towards the back of the house and no doubt towards the back door which she could leave. She all but threw people in her way aside, while she made her way through the crowd before she disappeared from my sight.

After she was gone, I hesitantly joined Mr. Walter at the banister.

"Did you spell that boy, or were you truly attacked?" he asked.

I felt like kicking myself. Of course Delphine would tell Mr. Walters about the incident on the beach! How did I think I was going to keep it secret from him? I should've just told him myself!

I tried to move past him without answering, but he grabbed my shoulder and yanked me pack to him. I looked up at his face.

"Anything you would like to tell me?"

"No. Let me deal with my own problems."

"Because you're so good at it?" he asked, "He leaned close to my ear, so close that his breath tickled it, "I want a full description of what happened after dinner," he said and pushed me gently away from him, but the gentleness was only due to the fact we were in public. If we were alone, he would have given me a nice hard shove.

"Attention everyone!" he shouted suddenly, while he kept his blue eyes trained on me. All at once, the room was silent, besides the piano music that was still floating through the air. "If you would all join me in the dining room to your left, he said, gesturing to the room that was beside the one we were all in now, "I would like you all to take a seat, and the food I have caterers for you will be coming out. All you need to do is find your name tag," he said cheerfully and let out a short laugh, "Please, let's begin our celebration of HMT's success, there are lots of exciting things I want to share with you after we've eaten tonight, all of which will fill your pockets with money!"

All at once the small crowd began to file into the room and began to take their seats at a long table where a crimson red table cloth had been draped and where red rose centerpieces and silver silverware had been set. The walls were covered with crimson red wallpaper, to match the red table cloth, and had a white repeating floral design on it. Above our heads, a crystal chandelier hung. The lights emanating from its tiny lightbulbs bounced off all of the crystal's facets and made it sparkle magnificently. I followed their lead and joined Mr. Walter in the big room. I soon found my name tag and sat down.

My seat was close to Mr.Walters' chair at the head of the table, but I noticed it wasn't too close. The closest seats were reserved for stern-looking men in black suits.

"It's you!" a boys voice whispered, "I looked to the spot of air that voice had come from and locked eyes with a pair of bright blue eyes."

I stared in horror, not believing my great misfortune, while the boy from the beach slid into the chair next to mine.

"How and why?" I wanted to ask the high forces that controlled our world at that moment.

"I need to talk to you," he said, lowering his voice.

"Try and sit somewhere else," I said and turned my head away from him and instead stared at the balding middle-aged man that had taken a seat across from me. He had a pair of rimmed glasses perched on the tip of his nose, and I lowered my head to my plate, as to not make eye contact with him either.

But is blue eyes potential mermaid hunter kept this up, Mr. Walter would discover him, and he would be as good as dead. At this point, I was almost tempted to let that happen, and I might have no choice. If he were a real threat to my sister, I would have to let him be killed. But first, I wanted to try a find a more peaceful method of neutralizing him.

"You ran away from me before I could give you this and finish explaining what is going on," he said and put something on my lap. I nearly shrieked, when I looked down and saw the green scale in my lap. I felt my whole body go cold; I wanted to fling it across the room.

"No kidding, you attacked me," I said "Was I supposed to go a stroll with you along the beach and not run away from you? Did you follow me here?"

"No," he gestured towards a woman sitting a couple of chairs away from us. She wore a flowy lavender dress. Her white blonde hair was cut in a bob just above her ears,

"My aunt was invited to have dinner here and dragged me along. She's doing all the new artwork for Mr. Walter's office buildings. What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm Mr. Walter's niece," I told him.

"What's your name?"

"Marina. You're name's Tim right?" I asked, recalling what the little girl on the pier had called him before I had made my escape.

"Yeah," he answered.

"I'm going to say this once Tim, it's best if you stop talking to me right now."

"Look, Marina, I know this whole thing is confusing and weird, but I swear I'm not insane," he continued, "I just need you to keep that with you at all time. It keeps them from enchanting you, hopefully."

"What is this even?" I asked, and tried to keep my face calm, while I held the mermaid scale in my hand. I wanted to know if he knew what it was.

Much to my dismay, he answered, "It's a mermaid's scale, I think. Anyways it's supposed to protect you from well...mermaids."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "So you think that this is from a mermaid and it might protect me? Where did you even get this?"

"It came in a box my dad left me. Listen I know you probably don't want to believe me. But I know you saw her too, the mermaid in the water."

"I don't know what I saw," I said softly.

It sounded like my worst fears were wrong, he wasn't a trained mermaid hunter, at least not entirely. He only had second-hand information to go off of.

I glanced over at Mr. Walter and saw he was staring at me. I looked down at my lap, "Stop talking to me," I whispered.

"Look I know you think I must be out of my mind-"

"Your life will be in danger if we keep talking about it," I said and looked over at Mr. Walters who was busy talking to an old bald man.

"Look you're the only one I know that's seen one too. And I need to know why my life is in danger if I keep talking to you here."

"Whales Tails," I let my gaze drift back to Tim. I also had some things I needed to know.

"Huh?"

"It's a store. I'll be there all tomorrow afternoon," I said, "Meet me in the back alley at 6."

"Okay," he said softly.

"Now stop talking to me."

Just then a couple of men wearing blue shirts and black pants and shoes entered the room carrying trays full of cooked food. My stomach churned at the smell of the dead things that everyone here was about to put into their mouths, chew, and swallow.

The waiter placed a plate full of kelp in front of me with little shrimp mixed in it. In front of Tim, they place a plate with a massive stake on it.

I looked down at the unappetizing green and pink thing in front of me. This I could stomach, although I would probably throw it up later tonight. I glanced up again at the spot where Mr. Walter's was sitting, only to find him gone from his seat.

"Tim I've seen you've met my niece already," a voice said from right behind us and for the second time that night, I felt my body go cold.