Free The Marked Ones by S. K. Munt

barely visible. Vana had spent a great deal of money, billions in fact, to secure that property, on account of it being a national park. As far as the government knew, she was the caretaker, and was forbidden from building anywhere else on the island. Likewise, the public were strictly prohibited from using ‘her’ side, or the little private beach which practically reached the front garden at high tide.
    The Court family owned several more permanent residences, but none of them were quite as secluded from the world as Bracken Island was. Ivyanne had always loved Bracken, and Vana had already decided to pass it on to her daughter as a wedding gift. She felt immense pleasure when she envisioned that moment.
    Everyone had been pushing Ivyanne so hard, but she was yet to push back-not because of weakness, but a shining inner strength. Vana wanted to stop everything and hold her daughter and tell her that everything would be okay, but Vana simply didn’t know if that was true. She hadn’t started trying for children until she was almost two hundred, and the two hundred and seventy five years of disappointment that had followed had been dark times for the then princess. She wanted a different fate for Ivyanne, to have children young, like a human, then watch them grow for centuries. And not just one little girl like the women in their family had always had, but three, maybe more. Golden haired angels that Vana could hold before her time was up, that Ivyanne could enjoy before becoming queen..
    Vana didn’t doubt that her daughter would make her decision wisely and with grace-she had never taken her responsibilities lightly. The only question was, would she choose for  love, loyalty or practicality? Vana took a moment to appreciate her daughters’ despair. How sad it was that neither husband offered all three.

6.
    The first four days were definitely the hardest for Ivyanne, but by the Wednesday afternoon, she was beginning to feel more in control of herself. Knowing, since the swim on Sunday night, that she could be trusted to get into the ocean without taking off, she had allowed herself more frequent swims to stave off the withdrawals. The beach was a busy place, so solitary transformations weren’t often possible. However, surfing was a good cover.  She often took one of the rental boards between her shifts and trekked around to Oyster point, like she had that day. The point break on the other side of Oyster Point wasn’t a great one-the locals preferred the bluff on the alternate side of the cove-but that meant she usually had it to herself. On the occasions when she discovered tourists there, Ivyanne comforted herself by actually surfing. Gliding on the water was almost as satisfying as gliding through it.
    Except today of course, when the surf was crap and a father was teaching his young daughter to surf nearby, forcing Ivyanne to stay in human form. Ivyanne was bored silly and paranoid. She constantly looked north to the cape in the far off distance, imagining Ardhi there with binoculars, watching her. And then she felt bad for thinking that. She really needed to cut the poor guy a break.
    Despite her frequent swims, Ivyanne still found it difficult to sleep at night, and she caught herself fantasizing about other ways to vent her frustrations.
    There were only so many things that could counteract mermaid withdrawals. Food, which on the mainland, was loaded with toxins and best ingested in moderation, singing, which Ivyanne couldn’t do anywhere near anyone, lest she should brainwash them with her siren song, and sex, which she’d been prohibited from until marriage.
    Sex was the most effective cure apparently. It fed to the Succubi aspect of their genetic make-up. Ivyanne had grown up in little villages where the entertainment had usually been dancing, swimming and canoodling under a starry sky. She’d never been allowed to partake of course but it hadn’t bothered her then. But now when she spotted Sven and