For a second time, Rowan was being told of Syryn's death.

"Can a human survive a month without air?"

The mermaid was driving a nail through Rowan's heart.

"Dead. Your lover is dead."

The mermaid was a spoilt thing who was sheltered all her life by her family. She had been allowed to get away with being rude and disrespectful by the mers. When she saw how Rowan had protected her, she falsely believed that the anti mage was never going to hurt her. It emboldened the mermaid.

Rowan was quiet. The first warning about Syryn's death had been stressful but seeing how it came from the enemy, Rowan hadn't allowed it to affect him too much. Now hearing it from a witness, the anti mage had to face the facts.

"Keep her tied up and locked inside a cabin. I'm going to Silisia," Rowan said as he stood up.

"Will you look for Syryn in the abyss? You'll die as well," the mermaid told him gleefully.

Rowan didn't understand a lot about what was going on anymore. Why Syryn ended up a captive of the mers, and why he was accused of killing the oracle. The appearance of the monster in the water and the Syryn that he had seen with it was another mystery. Unravelling it began with finding the end of the twine which lay at the bottom of the ocean.

"Why don't you release me? I can make you my human lover?" The mermaid told him with a coy smile. "Let the matters of the past remain in the past. Syryn is gone and you have to move on to better pastures."

The blond had met her type before - self-absorbed and selfish to the bone, unable to see the danger she was in. He turned away and dived off the ship.

____

Syryn's dreams of punishing the mer folks ran into a snag when he realized they were not in a hurry to come back to Silisia.

Levia had shrunk herself into a tiny monster but she was still scary to look at. She rode on Syryn's shoulders when the mage went out looking for food. Guilt-free, Syryn raided the mer shops and ate as much food as his stomach allowed. Levia also partook of the stolen feast but she no longer needed enormous amounts of food to satisfy her hunger cravings.

The mage was sitting on his throne, resting his bulging stomach when he saw an approaching mer.

The mage leapt out of his seat and peered into the distance where a silver-blue coloured mer was swimming towards him. The mage smiled wide and happy because Drevin was here.

"Syryn?" The prince came to a stop and stared at the mage like he was looking at a mythical creature.

"Welcome home, Drevin," he said while holding his arms out.

For a few seconds, the mer was immobile. It was difficult to force a shift in his brain which believed Syryn had already died. Syryn was alive and well before his eyes. The shock of seeing his friend back from the dead was so great that Drevin didn't even register the little monster that was curled over the throne majestically.

"No hug?" Syryn asked the prince.

Drevin closed the gap and wrapped his arms around Syryn. Arms sliding into place around the mage's back, Drevin hugged him harder than they ever had.

After the upheaval that had taken over their lives, seeing Syryn again was one good thing he could celebrate about. The mer closed his eyes and held the human close.

And this was the sight that met Rowan when he descended to the depths of a destroyed Silisia.

Rowan had long memorised the silhouette of his lover. Though Syryn's back faced him, the anti mage could still tell who it was in the arms of a merman.

Why? Syryn had seen him. Why didn't he come for Rowan? The sour taste of jealousy took Rowan's control by its horns and flung it away. Not caring for the mer's relationship with his mage, the blond feared that if he watched them any longer, there would be blood in the water. He hadn't seen Syryn in over two months. And this wasn't how he wanted to meet his mage.

When the mer opened his eyes, he caught sight of Rowan in the distance. Silvery eyes met blue.

"Syryn, we have a guest," he warned the mage.

Syryn turned around and saw the handsome blond man he had seen on the surface. This time, a pang of something hot throbbed in his chest. And the way the man was looking at him communicated so much though Syryn couldn't read him.

Rowan felt his heart sink as he got closer to Syryn. He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Syryn hadn't recognised him.

"Syryn," he called out to the mage. "I've been looking for you."

The mage's mouth parted in surprise.

"You know me."

The anti mage smiled. "Yes, I do. We were planning on getting married when you disappeared from the surface."

"What?" Syryn was bug-eyed. This gorgeous man was his husband to be?

"You don't believe me?" Rowan asked. "We even live together. You have a younger brother and many others who care about you very much, Syryn. They're all waiting for you to return home."

Syryn's eyes lit up. "What's my brother's name?"

"Lucien," Rowan replied, fighting the urge to pull Syryn away from the mer. All he wanted to do was take his mage away and hide him from the world.

That's when Drevin realised something important. Syryn and the blond human's conversation indicated that his friend had lost his memories of life on the surface.

"Syryn, you're an amnesiac? Why did you never tell me?"

Rowan pulled his gaze away from Syryn to look at the beautiful merman with whom his mage was very friendly. Perhaps if he knew the mer, he wouldn't have begrudged him. But right now, all he saw was a stranger whose presence overshadowed his own in Syryn's life. But not for long. If he had to court his lover all over again then that was what Rowan was going to do.