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My eyes still stung from the brine, though I couldn’t recount if it had been the responsibility of the sea or my own tears. My arms still felt warm from the last hug my grandmother stole, a whispered will that she would join Dai when the time came.
Shin let me have this –the last moments that would soon be swept away by raging waves. I waved until I couldn’t anymore. Enraptured in his arms the hollowness I feared would follow didn’t, rather my heart felt light and I nearly forgot my anger –now evaporated to annoyance.
“Do you know how long I waited for you? Whether you’re the god of the sea or the god of a pebble, a man never listens to instructions.”
Shin, normally equipped with a silver tongue and striking comeback, smiled with mirth swimming in those irritatingly crystalline eyes of his. Deep and clear and so so attractive. Wishing I could shut those infuriating lids just to kiss them each gently.
“That stupid emperor was going to steal me away –again.”
His smirk dropped at this, “let the human try; find out what happens when I can control my rampage.”
“Shin.”
“My bride.”
Cheeks pinking at the title, he looked nothing like a god and everything like that boyspirit all those months ago who bragged he had won my kiss. The Sea God’s Bride!
My cheeks hurt too, not inflamed but pinched with all of my smiling nonetheless, “I should like to hear your excuses when I tell the Sea God of this hearsay.”
“I imagine such a coward wouldn’t be able to stand at my feet if you did…”
“Hmm?”
“He’d be too busy trying to capture such a daring magpie instead.”
“Sweet words don’t suit you.”
Shin cackled at this, my arms still around his waist, I could feel each breath stolen from his lungs, heartbeat thundering a rhapsody and seeming so enchantingly human. Stumbling over my steps, the cobblestone of a familiar bridge blanketed in mist, greeted us and Shin offered his hand a smile filled with mischief likely borrowed from Namgi as he led me.
We walked through stall busy streets and nodded to passing schools of fish and spirits alike. Many bowed back. Smiles welcomed our return. My chest grows warm.
Instead of the Sea God palace I’d grown accustomed to, we make a turn down a familiar back-alley. Shin tugs me to our home, the Lotus pavilion, much like the red ribbon now secured tightly to our wrists. It flutters in between us as we do. Tangible and unbreakable and so antithetical it feels like fate is having one last laugh at our expense. I want to giggle too though.
No more tears soak my eyes even as Namgi and Kirrin look at me steeped with affection and loyalty.
“I’m home.”