I'm going to try and update as much as I can this week because I go on holiday next Wednesday until the 4th of September. There will be a lot of lying on beaches, so I'll probably be able to update once or twice while I'm away!

Sorry that I've been so rubbish with updates recently. I never thought it would take me longer than a week to update a chapter, especially when I used to update every day a couple of years back! Anyway, September will be the month I'll get my routine back! Thank you for your patience, and recently, your comments have really been making me laugh, so keep em coming! I read them all ;)

- Sian

Before Mandy could leave, Rowan stormed after her. He grabbed her by the arm when her foot was through the front door. "You don't get to disown me," he hissed. "I've never wanted to be a hunter, and you didn't disown me for going to university. You didn't like the idea, but you didn't abandon me. Don't walk out on me now mum, not because of something as silly as gender."

Mandy didn't turn to look at him. "It's not really the gender, Rowan. It's who you're with. How can I support a relationship with that- that creature?"

"We're soulmates. You have to accept it, just like I had to accept it."

"You're not soulmates, and I don't want to."

"Do you really want to walk out of my life forever?"

Mandy pulled her wrist from his grip. "I have no choice."

"You always have a choice," Rowan appealed. "I'm telling you not to walk out on me." Just for once, can you put your hate and your pride down so I can see you cowering behind it? "You never used to be this cruel."

"I have," Mandy scoffed and turned. Her blue eyes were as cold as ever. "I've just never been so cruel to you. Now you've given me a reason to hate you."

Rowan flinched at her words, and Mandy looked away. "You don't hate me you hate Thalassic Mortals. Kaerius is good, and he's funny and-"

"I don't want to hear it." Mandy stormed through the door and down the front garden path.

Rowan rushed after her. "He has a beautiful tail, and he likes to splash me when I'm sitting on the rocks. When Kaerius sleeps in the bed, he steals all the blanket and gets moody when I try and steal some back. He's grumpy a lot and has no patience." Rowan stopped walking when Mandy did. "You're both similar in that way. We're a lot like them. He's a lot like you-"

Mandy knocked the words out of Rowan's mouth by slapping him across the face. Rowan didn't stumble, and his head barely turned from the impact, though it stung.

"Don't you dare tell me I'm similar to that creature." Mandy scowled, but her eyes didn't reach Rowan's. The hand that smacked him trembled. She turned away from him, and the hand covered her mouth. "I'll tell my hunters to stand down. I'll tell them I killed your Thalassic Freak. Then you can get on with your life." Mandy took a step forwards but paused. "Don't come back to the house. It's not your home anymore. Michael can pick up your stuff."

Rowan didn't have the strength to plead and watched his mother walk away. When she was gone, Rowan entered the house and shut the door behind him. He looked up to see his dad watching him from the living room doorway. Michael's eyebrows curled to make his eyes sad. His sympathy tipped Rowan over the edge. He slumped to the floor and covered his mouth, so he could cry in silence. Rowan scrunched his eyes shut, and the tears fell.

"Kaerius," he heard his dad say. "He needs you."

Rowan just wanted a few tears to fall, but when Kaerius's hands were on him, the emotion gushed up his throat and out of his eyes like a burst dam. He couldn't turn it off like he usually could. He cried until his head hurt. Kaerius held him, rubbing his back, wiping his tears, murmuring in his head about how Rowan didn't deserve to be so unhappy.

Rowan rested his head against Kaerius's shoulder until he ached from sitting on the wooden floor. "Dad," he sniffed, knowing he was still standing by the door, unable to comfort him. "We have to end this curse."

Michael's sympathy turned to pity. "I've tried. The sooner you give up on her, the easier your life will be. She's given up on you, and she's a lost cause, son. You can't help those who don't help themselves."

Rowan shook his head. "If she were just horrible for no reason, I would have given up on her like I did before I knew she was cursed. That disgusting personality was made by someone else. That's not her, you said so yourself. We have to fight for the person she used to be because she's locked away inside of her somewhere. Don't you want to help her?"

"She hit Rowan," Kaerius said, frowning. He had watched it from the window. "Deserve no help. Rowan too kind."

"I don't know how to help her," Michael said. "I wouldn't even know where to begin to break the curse."

"Well, you can stop praying," Rowan said and got to his feet with Kaerius's help. "Because it wasn't the goddess who cursed you."

* * * * *

Rowan decided to go back to university the next day. They wouldn't find the cure to the curse overnight, and his dad convinced him that turning his life back to normal would make him feel better. Rowan had stayed up late the night before catching up with the work, so Jack wouldn't eat him alive.

Lunchtime came quickly, and Rowan hunched over his laptop in the library, searching through his mother's website about the supernatural. The website required a password to get in, and the name was changed every week, so the website wasn't easy to find unless you knew what to look for.

"Solar," Jack said and sat next to him on the couch. Rowan quickly shut his laptop, not wanting Jack to see that he was searching through a list of vampire traits.

"Hey," Rowan said, forcing a smile when Jack stared at him suspiciously.

"You're bad at replying to messages," Jack said and put his books and folders on the table.

"I'm a busy person." Rowan reflected on the past couple of days. He had rescued Kaerius from hunters, found out his father was a Thalassic Mortal, and his mother used to be one, but they were cursed. He found out he could get a tail, had a confrontation with his mother and started looking for ways to end the curse. All while his mind felt guilty about university work and mortified that Kaerius was dragged into his issues.

"Well, thanks for still doing the work," Jack said and lifted a book to reveal one that caught Rowan's eyes.

"Why do you have that?" Rowan asked, pointing to a book with a poorly dressed vampire on the front cover and 'Supernatural Beings in the United Kingdom' above the vampire in blood-red writing.

"Oh, that," Jack flushed, and Rowan felt terrible for asking. "It's just a hobby of mine." He covered the book with his folder.

"The supernatural?"

Jack pushed his glasses up his nose and frowned. "No, sports." Jack tutted. "Don't ask questions with obvious answers. You're not stupid."

Rowan shifted away and crossed his arms. When he said no more, it was clear that Jack was dying to justify it. He kept shifting his gaze from the books to Rowan and opening his mouth to say something but closing it again.

"Do you believe that the supernatural exist?" Rowan finally asked. He had to bond with Jack somehow.

"Yes," Jack said immediately. "If you opened your eyes and really looked for once, you'd see them too."

Rowan tried not to smirk. "I don't believe in that stuff."

"You're too closed-minded, and you like your sleep too much."

"I don't understand," Rowan lied.

"You wouldn't."

Rowan raised a brow, wondering how Jack would react if he asked about Thalassic Mortals. "What's your favourite... supernatural being?"

"Vampires. You'd think they'd be mermaids and mermen considering we're so close to the beach."

"Mermen," Rowan repeated. He mustn't know enough to know what they're really called.

"Yeah. You know, the humans with tails who live in the sea. Don't be dense, Solar."

Rowan dug his nails into his palms to stop himself from grinning. "Have you ever seen a vampire?"

"No." Jack glared at Rowan, daring him to laugh and make fun of him. "But they're real; I promise you that." Jack sank against the couch and shoved a book in his face, embarrassed.

"How do you know they're real if you've never seen one?"

Jack sighed. "Don't be that guy, Rowan. Just let me believe what I want to believe."

"Well, what stemmed the belief?" Rowan asked. Jack buried his head more into his book. "I'm curious, that's all. I'm not gonna laugh at you."

"Not now, but you'll go to your friends and laugh about me later."

"You said it yourself that I have no friends. It's insulting how you think I'm that kind of person," Rowan mumbled.

Jack peered at him above his glasses. "My dad believes in them," he said sheepishly.

"Has your dad ever seen them?"

Jack nodded. "Lots." He looked like he wanted to say something else but kept it to himself.

"Does your dad like... hunt them or something?" Rowan asked, hoping Jack said no. He shrugged, and Rowan sighed with disappointment. Jack was ashamed to say yes and didn't want to lie by saying no.

"I thought you didn't believe."

"I don't, I'm just making conversation," Rowan said, and Jack seemed to appreciate that.

He went back to reading his book, and Rowan listened to Kaerius talk to himself. So far, he knew Kaerius had captured a few fish, found Laiken sleeping in the cave, enjoyed the big swell, and splashed water at a group of tourists who couldn't see him.

Rowan had asked Kaerius to find Jaiker to ask about who had the power to make curses. Even after hours of searching, Rowan hadn't found anything. He would have asked his mum, but the thought of trying to get through to her pained Rowans heart.

Rowan then eyed Jack. He seemed to know some stuff, maybe even useful stuff. "Are there any creatures who can make curses?" he asked, getting straight to the point.

"Why?"

Rowan shrugged. That seemed to be enough for Jack.

"Fairies can make spells. They're not known to make curses though."

"Fairies," Rowan whispered and opened his laptop. Jack's eyes widened when he saw that Rowan had been looking at vampire traits. Rowan searched through the list of creatures his mother had listed on the site. Apparently, fairies didn't exist. "Weird," he mumbled, tapping his chin and chewing his lip. Could a fairy have cursed his mother? The thought would have been comical for anyone else. "Are fairies still around?" he asked Jack.

"You said you didn't believe!" Jack's eyes burned into the side of Rowan's face.

"Just- answer me," Rowan sighed. He would try to explain later.

"Only with the vampires," Jack said, and when Rowan looked confused, he continued, "As a sort of pet. Every vampire clan keeps a few of them because they're good at making animal blood taste nicer and fills vampires up for longer. It's how they've managed to keep such a low profile."

Rowan couldn't believe he didn't know that. His mother had written down everything about supernatural creatures. How had she missed such an important fact?

"I need to go," Rowan said and slammed his laptop and hurried through the library. It was only when his toes touched the sand that he stopped. How did Jack know so much? Rowan made a mental note to find out whom his father was, before hurrying towards the man sitting by the shore, the man with the striking purple eyes.