Lara asked. “Or learning enrichment based on, oh, ship building or marine studies or something. That would help your student retention rate and attract families and money from off island.”
Antonia shot her a sharp look. “You a teacher?”
“No, I . . .” Lara hesitated, her world shifting underfoot.
What was she now?
“She’s an administrator,” Iestyn said.
He was there, leaning against the doorjamb, regarding her with warm, golden eyes.
She shook her head, ignoring the bump of her pulse. “I worked in an office.”
“The headmaster’s office. You know stuff.”
His obvious pride made her flush with pleasure and embarrassment. “I know a little. Bookkeeping. Grant writing.”
“See?” He smiled, making her heart flop foolishly. “Stuff.”
He strol ed forward and gave her a warm, firm kiss that did nothing to steady her shaky heart. He smel ed like sunshine and the sea.
Regina hummed in interest.
“I need to talk to you,” Iestyn said.
“Wait your turn,” Antonia said.
“Go.” Regina took the knife from Lara’s hand. “Eat, drink, enjoy yourself.”
Lara looked from Emily’s bright, curious face to the unfinished crostini. “But . . .”
“Go on. You’re a guest.”
2 6 2
V i r g i n i a K a n t r a
That was al that she was. She swal owed, stricken.
Iestyn swung her to face him. The sun slanted under the porch eaves, il uminating his handsome face, tipping his hair with gold. “Why did you disappear like that?”
“I didn’t disappear.” She was proud of the way she kept her voice even. “You saw me, I was right here, I —”
He cut her off. “I wanted you to hear.”
“Hear what?”
“Good news. The best.” He lifted her up and seated her on the rail of the porch, trapping her between his long, muscled arms. He nuzzled her jaw. “You know Lucy is a healer, right?”
“I . . .” Lara inhaled, dizzied by his closeness, dazzled by his bright expectation. “Did you show her your burn?”
“What? Oh, yeah.” He eased back.
Lara shivered, deprived of his warmth, as he tugged down the neck of his T-shirt, exposing his throat.
She stared at the smooth white scar, faint against his tan.
“You’re healed,” she said stupidly. “She healed you.”
She pushed back his tawny hair. Even his stitches were gone, his head wound healed as if it had never been.
Lucy had done for him what Lara could not.
Iestyn shrugged, revealing in a single, careless gesture how little the pain and trauma of the past few days had affected him. “She
A sliver of ice worked into Lara’s heart. “I don’t understand.”
But she did. Or was afraid she did.
“There are two kinds of merfolk,” Iestyn said. “Selkie, like Dylan, who shed their sealskins to take human form F o r g o t t e n s e a 263
on land. And finfolk, like Morgan, who are total shapeshifters, who can take the form of any creature of the sea.”
Morgan. Lara summoned a vision of the big, brutal Viking with the sea foam hair and golden eyes.
Iestyn’s eyes.
“He looks like you,” she said slowly.
“Actual y, I look like him,” Iestyn said. “My mother was selkie. When I Changed for the first time, I took seal form, so I always figured that was it for me. But I guessed I had finfolk blood, on my da’s side. Because of the eyes.”
“You told me your father was human.”
“He was. But Conn thinks maybe Morgan’s
