Winner: Mermaid’s Mirror Life Under the Sea Contest!

After a long delay (I know, I’m a slacker!) — we are really excited to announce the winner of our Mermaid’s Mirror Life Under the Sea Contest. The winner was chosen in part by Novel Novice and in part by author L.K. Madigan, herself — who will be sending the winner an awesome mermaidlicious prize pack!

And the winner is … Lauren S.

Congrats! Here is Lauren’s winning entry:

She could never belong to him.  The thought was sharp and bittersweet, the sting of a ray’s barb to his tan chest.  Soft undulations of currents teased the gold expanse of his scales as his fin fanned out, riding the tide’s pull.  His head broke the surface, cool crisp air foreign to his skin.  It was safe. Night enveloped the island and its nearly empty shore with fathoms of darkness.  The beauty of the moonlight shining off her pale skin was like the flash of a school of Atlantic Herring with lightning bursts of silver blinding as the fish banked and turned, leaving him alone in the inky sea cut sparsely with flickering moonbeams.  He opened his mouth, but language would not come, he had no voice to call his beauty to him.  Daring himself, he moved closer to the shore, hands burying deep in the shifting, shivering sands.  So little time to remain close to her.  If discovered, his people would punish, hers would kill.  For one glimpse of her smile he ignored the siren’s beckoning call of his world.  The red waterfall of her shoulder length hair tempted him, but to touch her was to burn, to feel the poison of a lionfish flush his skin.  Look my way, he begged, sending his thoughts to her.  She stopped walking, one foot ankle deep in the water, one foot on the loose sand, bridging their worlds with ease.  Her face turned towards him, the wan moonlight glowing in her sapphire eyes.  I see my world in your eyes, if only you could see me.  His thoughts rippled through the air and into her mind with the melancholy echo reminiscent of whale song.  He knew he should hide, shelter himself behind the craggy rocks battered by the unending waves.  Frozen in the shallows, water surged past his scale covered hips.  The night air cooled his bare chest and he rubbed his arms, trying to ease the discomfort of the sea breeze’s rough caress.  His blond hair fell into his eyes, and his move to brush it away caught her attention.  She spun on her heel to face him, the dance of her movement graceful as a seahorse uncoiling its crimped tail as it twisted in the sea.  Her first step in his direction was an enticing dream, the sway of her human hips like the rainbow colors of a jellyfish.  He ached to touch, to hold, but to do so was death.  In all the years he’d traced her life on this island, never had she see him before.  Twenty summers she’d haunted the shallows and he’d clung to the shores.  The muscles of his fin twitched as her smooth bare legs navigated the tide pools and around the darkened rocks.  Eyes luminescent, she gazed down at him, just out of reach.  Her warm breath clouded the air as she joined him in the shallows.  She reached out a hand, graceful fingers brushing his tail.  He trembled with joy.