One Soul To Share by Lori Devoti Page A

come
back.”
    Nolan stared down at the man’s fingers. The
bartender loosened his hold and stepped back as if burned, but
Nolan wasn’t done with him. He leaned over the bar. “She’s taken
others to the hag?” He hadn’t heard of anyone successfully making
it to wherever the sea hag called home, or if they had, they’d
never returned to share their stories.
    The bartender shook his head, his eyes wide
now and worried. “Don’t think so. They weren’t gone that long.
She’s like the rest of her kind but with legs. She lures men out to
the water and pulls them under. From there…” His voice dropped.
“There’s no coming back.”
    o0o
    Sarina Neri crossed her legs at the ankle and
stared toward the front of the bar. Someone new had entered,
someone different from the worn-out men who usually stumbled into
the place. Maybe, finally, her search was over. Maybe, finally, she
would find a man capable of passing the sea hag’s tests.
    He was talking with the bartender and, Sarina
could tell, hearing tales of her dangers. The superstitious man’s
gossip didn’t worry her.
    No man could resist the lure of a nixie if
she turned her attention his way.
    After taking a drink of her beer, she
uncrossed her ankles and placed her bare feet onto the filthy bar
floor. She was preparing to stand, to search out this new man, when
she saw him crossing the room toward her.
    She smiled. This one was coming to her.
    As he approached, she studied him, looking
for some sign that he was different from the others. She’d tried
eight so far, each younger and, from outward appearance, stronger
than the last, but none had survived her test. None had lasted the
quarter of an hour Sarina considered the minimum she would need to
trick the sea hag into thinking she had brought the old goddess
what she demanded—a man who could live out his life beside the hag
under the sea.
    This man was tall, with broad shoulders that
tapered to an athletic waist. Trim and fit—neither signs he
possessed the talent Sarina needed. He was handsome too, with
rugged features and a cleft in his chin. The hag, like all sea
beings, appreciated beauty. So, his looks were a plus, but neither
that nor the confident way he prowled forward were enough.
    He had to be able to stay alive in the sea
hag’s home long enough for Sarina to swim away with the soul.
    As he moved closer, Sarina spun in her seat
to face him. “Are you looking for me?”
    He paused, surprise registering on his face.
Like the others, he’d probably taken her soft features and feminine
form as some sign she would be submissive, an easy target for
whatever caused him to search her out.
    But mermaids, nixies, none of their kind,
were submissive or easy targets.
    She stood, sweeping her waist-length hair
behind her. The long shirt she’d taken from her last failed
candidate fell open over one bare shoulder, and the dungarees she’d
belted at her waist slipped. Annoyed with the human clothing, she
undid the belt with one hand and let the pants fall to the
ground.
    Stepping out of them, she moved forward.
    She trailed her fingers over the newcomer’s
chest as she walked around him, appraising. “What did the bartender
tell you?” This man was the first to come to her. The others she
had searched out. They had come willingly enough, of course, but
they hadn’t walked into the bar looking for her, as she suspected
this male had.
    “I need a guide,” he murmured.
    His chest and back were layered with muscle.
She paused for a second to lay her palm flat over his heart. Its
beat was slow, slower than any she had felt before. Her brows
pulled forward, and, confused, she took a step back to study him
again.
    He was not a merman come to land, or a
selkie. Her fortune couldn’t be that great. Or poor—another
creature like herself would be harder to fool, harder to mesmerize
into thinking he was in love with her, and harder to convince to
accompany her on her journey to see the sea hag.
    “What