This was not a stellar preamble.

“What is it?”

“You must promise not to say anything, not to anybody. Not anybody at all.”

And this was not much better.

“What is it, Ha-Lah?”

“I cannot tell you unless you promise that.”

“You will tell me,” he returned.

“I really cannot. Not unless you promise.”

“Ha-Lah,” he said in warning.

“Really, Aramus.” She gave his neck a squeeze. “You will know when I share, so now, please, just promise.”

He scowled at her.

Then he growled at her.

“I promise.”

She smiled at him.

Then she spoke.

“Silence is a mermaid.”

He did a slow blink.

“I’m sorry?”

“Silence, she is Mer.”

“Mars’s Silence,” he stated, but it was a question.

Ha-Lah nodded.

“The Queen of Firenze.”

She smiled again. “The Queen of Firenze.”

“She is of the Arbor,” he pointed out. “And the Arbor is landlocked.”

His wife shrugged. “I do not know how she is Mer. I just know she’s Mer.” She then tipped her head. “But I sense she either does not know, or like me, she fears sharing.”

“Not only to you, but to Mars.”

She bit her full lower lip, knowing how a husband would take this news when it was not freely given to him.

“Shite,” he muttered, on his side of the matter, knowing precisely how he felt about his wife not sharing.

He sensed with the affection growing between Mars and Silence that Mars would not care his queen was Mer. Aramus did not know this, but he sensed it.

However, he knew exactly how it felt that his wife kept something crucial from him.

And he had good reason to believe Mars would feel the same way.

“This is not a bad thing,” Ha-Lah declared. “This is possibly a good thing. It is just that I need to speak to her about it as soon as I can when I am with her again.”

At this, Aramus thought he understood.

“Which would expose you as a mermaid to her if you did.”

“No, for if she knows she is Mer, she will know I am. Though if she does not…”

It was only then Aramus relaxed.

Silence, he could trust, and not only because he could trust Mars, for if Silence knew something, she would share it with her husband, and if anyone needed to know his wife’s secrets, it was the couples of the prophecy.

But she was Silence and her name did not entirely define her, but it was not far off.

And of all the women, he had noted that Silence had a deep affinity for and with his wife.

Not to mention, she wrote to Ha-Lah with great consistency and it was clear their friendship meant much to both women.

“Then we will endeavor to find you some time to discuss this with Silence and what it might mean to this Sisterhood of the Beast when we are with her again.”

His wife pressed into his body at the same time she pressed her lips to his.