Tropical Dragons Series Box Set - Naomi Lucas Page 0,2

when the comet returns, the elders say a wildness stirs the world. We may be blind to the magic, but it’s all around us. It shakes things up, and almost never in a good way.

We pass the last of the rocks, and I take up both oars, pushing us into open waters once again. Leith falls back against baskets with a groan, huffing lengthy breaths. His chest is on display for the sun above and one of the mermaids flicks water at him with a giggle. They like seeing his lean muscles on display. Mermaids love flirting.

My heart reverberates in my ears and my breaths are short as well, but one of us has to row, and I am my brother’s keeper. Unlike him, though, I have gone beyond the rocks numerous times before hunting for large fish. Alone.

Jye and her bright yellow tail, long, red hair, threaded with white shells, and disturbingly deep black eyes goes behind the raft and pushes it. She sticks her tongue out at me, forcing a smile to my lips.

A rhythm forms and my breaths ease next. Leith turns to Elae as she hangs off the side, petting his arm. He teasingly flicks one of her exposed peaked nipples, and she laughs, flapping her tail. I look away as they begin to whisper to one another.

The merfolk, like every species on Venys, are just as cursed as we humans. When the red comet first came, one thing was assured in the years after its arrival: male birth rates dropped tremendously. For everyone. The difference is, though, like many magical creatures, the merfolk live exceptionally long lives and take many partners. Extinction isn’t on their minds, not at the moment at least.

But mermaids adore our men, and our men adore them.

I continue paddling for a time with Jye at my back. We’re parallel to the coast as we pass the mouth of the jungle river.

Verdant trees rise in the distance, like a lush blanket of fuzzy moss. Some trees are high, some low, some pale green, while others a bright yellow like Jye’s tail. They all mesh together from a distance. The jungle is dense with life.

Before the expansive river mouth lies an estuary where the Mermaid Gulf’s glorious blue water turns brackish, and past the estuary, where the river begins—and what those brightly colored trees represent—is the Forbidden Jungle. Beaches line the coast of the estuary and all along the Mermaid Gulf.

My home, Shell Rock, is apart from the main jungle, sheltered in a lagoon of sorts. Although the jungle’s borders are near, steep cliffs separate us from the jungle. We are also protected from waves coming in by the many isles and large rocks that rise from the Gulf.

Shell Rock is shielded from the waves of angry ocean storms and from the worst of the behemoth creatures of the jungle.

Now and again, a giant crocodile makes its way to us, but one has never gotten through our protective nets.

I finger the band of croc teeth resting around my neck. My gaze trails back to the mouth of the jungle river. To enter such a place… it is only for the most skilled, the strongest. Venturing there has always been a dream of courage for me. My fingers leave my necklace to grip the hard oar again. Today, I can’t risk journeying in. My lips part. Leith needs my protection.

Yet I daydream of spearing a great ape and bringing its pelt back to my people. I’m the best hunter we have now that my father is old, but I’ve never been given the chance to prove it.

My gaze drags back to my brother, who’s now languishing on his side, his fingers playing with Elae’s wet hair while the mermaid dapples his jaw with kisses.

Leith needs my protection, I think sourly.

Yda is doing the backstroke in the water beside them.

“Aren’t you supposed to be watching for crocs, serpents, and razorsharks?” I huff.

Yda sticks her tongue out at me and flips back around to dive under the raft. A scratchy, odd noise beneath my butt fills my ears, and I squint. She’s dragging her nails under the boat to unsettle me. Jye and Elae giggle. These mermaids and their games.

The high sun comes and goes. As the day lengthens, the red comet barely moves across the sky. Sweat leaks out from every one of my pores, mixing with the salt of the ocean water. My hair clings to the back of my neck where my braids