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whisper echoed just enough that Laurel heard it. She glanced back. Both men grinned at her.
    “Ignore them,” Bridget said. “Unless you are interested in one of them? Then by all means, accept their attention. Both are good men with strong reputations.”
    “Not really looking to date,” Laurel answered. “Just want to get home.”
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    B rutus was not sure if his reveal went well. Laurel didn’t scream or cry or faint, so that had to be an indication he’d handled it appropriately. His new ward gave the impression of being a smart woman. Surely the blunt approach was best. At least, it was better than trying to think of lies as to why she couldn’t contact her government. He was not one for lying.
    Rushing through the halls to find Aidan, he almost tripped over his own feet. The man was always in the collections room, cataloging and organizing the treasures brought back from the ocean. Well, more accurately, he was always in the collections room unless he was in Althea’s home trying to pretend they weren’t lovers.
    Whenever they returned from a shipwreck, Brutus and the other hunters sent scavengers out to the location to bring back artifacts. The items were clues as to how the world above had changed. Aidan cataloged his findings and sent small scrolls to the surrounding countryside with stories and drawings for the population to wonder over.
    “Aidan?” Brutus frowned as he poked his head into the large rectangular room. Inside were rows of long tables overfilled with recovered artifacts. Aidan had been complaining he was running out of storage space. “Aidan?”
    Why wasn’t the man cataloging? It was in the middle of the day.
    Thinking of Lady Laurel, Brutus paused. If he had a woman waiting for him, he probably wouldn’t want to play with rusted fishhooks either. In fact, he might never leave his home again.
    Perhaps he didn’t need Aidan. Brutus knew the story of how they came to be, had lived through it. He’d done an adequate job so far in explaining reality to his ward. Turning back around, he went to seek Laurel out in his home. The urge to see her was fierce, and this would give him something to talk about to her.

Chapter 8
    “ L et me see if I understand this correctly.” Laurel wasn’t sure what to make of her situation. The evidence of a merpeople cult was all around her. “We’re underwater in a snow globe that was put here by Poseidon to punish a group of Ancient Greeks for being impious. They’re merpeople who are immortal—”
    “For the most part,” Bridget interjected. She pointed upward. “Surface air can kill us. Well, some of us. I’m working on a theory as to why some can surface above and why others can’t. Just, don’t go swimming outside the dome and you’ll be fine.”
    “Right,” Laurel said. She eyed the mural depicting mermaids on rocks. “So, there is no murder or accidents? What if you lose an arm down here it, what? It just regenerates?”
    “Well…” Bridget shook her head. “I suppose homicides are a possibility. I haven’t heard of any deaths by murder or accident. It wouldn’t be much of an immortality curse if merfolk were easy to kill. Merr heal quickly, and I tend to think that non-vital limbs might not grow back.”
    “You don’t know?”
    “I never thought to ask about dismemberment,” Bridget said.
    “What about population control?” Laurel walked along the wall. She imagined a distant spot depicted on a beach might be a child playing.
    “Children are very rare. I don’t know why I was blessed with triplet sons. Maybe the conditions of my coming down happened to be perfect. None of the other women have become pregnant.” Bridget touched her elbow. Laurel stiffened. “No one knows what the future holds. I understand that you’re scared, but life here is not so bad, and you just have more future now than you did before.”
    Losing her baby had been one of the hardest moments of her life. The emotional pain of it had nearly