Chapter 69: Our Contract Is Over

As expected, things didn't progress beyond the one dinner with Maya. It was the same old story. Brennan hadn't had much luck with dating in the past and didn't expect that to change. 

He didn't care about something as unreliable as romance. He had more important things to do. 

Unless there was another ocean-loving water fairy weirdo out there somewhere, he would never be understood by his kind. It was ironic that he felt more comfortable being himself around a mermaid than he ever had other fairies. 

Not since losing his family anyway. Back then Brennan hadn't so much as heard of the ocean before. His whole life revolved around his stream and that was how he had liked it until he lost everyone he cared about and went out in search of something new to give his life meaning. 

He found it but not in an "acceptable" water fairy way. Why did they have to give him such a hard time about the ocean? It was water too!

There had to be water fairies who lived on islands somewhere that felt the way he did about the ocean but he was never going to be able to find them. Besides, he had things to do here in Florida. Leaving for the sake of seeking something so frivolous would be counterproductive.

Brennan was finally making headway on his goals. What reason did he have to leave even if the water fairies here would never understand him? 

He wasn't lonely. He wasn't. At least…not any more than he normally was. 

Or that was what he tried to tell himself. In all honesty, he missed Talori fiercely. She hadn't been gone long but her absence was noticeable in a variety of ways. He half expected her enthusiastic voice to sound from behind him any moment going on about something interesting she had seen. 

She had really grown on him. To think he used to get tired of her constant questions. He would give anything to have that right now because his apartment felt too quiet.

When she first came to stay with him he had missed the quiet. Now he missed the noise. There was no winning, was there? That was the problem with getting used to things. It took time to un-get used to them. 

How long would it take though? It had been weeks and Brennan still felt the gaping hole of Talori's absence. Would he even be used to it by the time he saw her again? 

Maybe this would be easier when he was able to be in more regular contact with her. He would probably miss her less that way. If they could message each other somehow that would probably make this weird feeling go away. 

He wished Harmony would hurry up on her experiments but logically he knew that she was doing her best. She spent every moment she wasn't eating or sleeping working on it, to Castian's great chagrin. 

Brennan had noticed something weird was going on with those two though he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Since he got back from visiting Talori's home he had noticed that the air around the two of them was a bit different. It seemed to be primarily on Harmony's end, as if she was nervous somehow. But what would she have to be nervous about? 

She acted the same as she always did so the difference was barely perceptible but it was there. He wondered if Castian had noticed it too. He did spend more time with her these days. 

=== 

Castian noticed something was going on with Harmony as soon as she got back from her trip to drop Talori back home but he didn't know what it was. She seemed…nervous. That wasn't like the confident witch he knew at all. 

It wasn't too noticeable at first because she was hardly around. As soon as she got back, she and the other witches dove straight into trying to create some sort of long-range underwater communication device. She spent more time than ever at the coven and even he couldn't get her to come home and sleep some days. 

He thought that the lack of sleep contributed to it at first. That she was on edge because she was tired and had a lot to do for this project with a time limit on it. 

But since the whole coven was working on it, they finished a month before their deadline and she was still acting like that even after she fixed her sleep schedule. What was going on? What was upsetting her? 

"Harmony, are you alright?" Castian dared to ask after a while. 

She flashed him a smile that didn't quite make it to her eyes. "I'm fine! Glad we got our communication device taken care of so I can get back to my personal project list."

She certainly didn't seem glad. He knew what she acted like when she was excited. This was more like dread. But what could she possibly be dreading? And why wouldn't she tell him about it?

They were friends. She said so herself. Friends told each other their concerns, didn't they? 

"And there isn't anything bothering you?" Castian pressed. 

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Harmony blew him off. "Nah. I'm good."

He wasn't convinced but she quickly distracted him by talking about how she was working on modifying human scuba gear next so she could go with Brennan and install the magic device somewhere in the merfolk kingdom and how excited she was about that. 

Even her excitement seemed somehow less than usual and he knew how much she loved anything to do with merfolk research. Something was definitely wrong. 

Castian lay awake long after Harmony had fallen asleep that night because he was worried about her. He gazed at her in the darkness and brushed the hair out of her face with a sigh. 

"I wish you would tell me what's on your mind. I want to help but I can't if you don't talk to me," he whispered. 

She nearly gave him a heart attack when she actually responded. "What if it's not something you can help with? What if telling you would make things worse?"

"How could it make things worse?!" 

Castian's heart was racing both from the shock of her actually being awake and what she had said. What was bothering her that was so horrible she couldn't tell him about it? She told him about everything else going on in her life both big and small. 

Harmony sighed and rolled away from him, her voice more subdued than usual. "I don't want things to change."

"Why would things have to change? What would? I don't understand."

"We have a good thing going, don't we? I don't want to mess with that. I like the way things are. But if I tell you what's bothering me, it's going to ruin everything."

Castian was flooded with panic. What was it? Was she moving? Had he done something wrong? Was she going to break up with him and switch to another elf? No, that last one didn't seem right. She said she liked the way things were. 

He tentatively laid a hand on her arm. "Harmony, please. I like the way things are too. Nothing you say could ruin that."

"Yes it will! Our contract is over, Castian. There's nothing keeping you here," Harmony blurted. 

It took him a moment for the implications to sink in. Not our contract is broken. Our contract is over. She wasn't ending things prematurely. She was ending things because they had accomplished what they set out to do. 

"…you're pregnant?"

"Yeah. So things have to change whether I want them to or not. You're free." 

How?! How had it happened this soon? He was supposed to have years! Decades! He knew this would probably happen someday but wasn't prepared for it at all. 

A moment later, Castian realized that her wording was a bit odd. "Whether you want them to or not? Do you…not want them to?" 

"Of course I don't want them to! Didn't you hear me say I like the way things are?" Harmony snapped. "But it's all over. You don't need to be here so—"

"I want to be here though. So if…if you want me to be here too, I'll stay. No one else can make me go but you."

She sat up and looked at him in shock. He was shocked too, honestly. He didn't think he would be brave enough to say anything like that but if they were on the same page here…if she really didn't want things to change…why did they have to? 

Castian already knew he was going against fae societal norms by falling in love with his witch in the first place. He had thought his feelings were doomed because she would be the one who wanted things to end the way they were supposed to if she got pregnant. But right now it seemed like that wasn't what she wanted at all. 

Harmony had kept this from him, most likely for months when she started seeming off. Because she hadn't wanted things to change. 

Hope stupidly swelled within him. If she did that…was it possible that she returned his feelings even a little? Or did she simply not want to lose the setup she was used to?

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