How to be a Mermaid: A Falling in Deep Collection Novella (11 page)

“I didn’t expect to see you out of the prison, Tara,” another voice said, interrupting our discussion.

My heart pounded as I turned to see Finn lounging in a depression of the walls. His sea green eyes found only mine, and he offered me a secret smile. All I wanted was to feel his lips against mine again, but then I felt awkward at the idea of what I was going to do.

Nereia instantly brightened. “Ah, nephew!” she cried, holding out an arm for a hug. “I’ve been worried about you! Where have you been?”

He pushed himself off the wall and paddled over towards us. I could feel the blush heat my body with every inch he moved closer. He gave his aunt a one-armed hug, although I could tell that he was keeping an eye on me.

“I’ve been learning things,” he said vaguely, which just made my cheeks blush even more.

Nereia looked at him, frowning slightly before wrapping him up in another hug. “I’m just glad that you’re safe.”

“For now,” Finn said honestly, meaning it as a joke, but none of us took it that way.

I shivered at the thought of him being on display in an aquarium, unable to leave, unable to be understood by anyone.

“You got the fire flower right?” he asked, changing the subject. “So it’s just a matter of making the potion again and me...”

She raised up a finger and tut-tutted him. “I want to discuss this with you and your father,” she chided. “And speaking of, we should get a move on, because I still need to make the potion before tonight,” she decided in an ominous tone.

Not waiting for any more questions, she jetted towards Oceanus’s palace with one, powerful flick of her tail.

“
Hey, wait up!
” Ponce cried, shooting off behind her, leaving Finn and me alone, which felt all too awkward.

“I...I guess we should go,” I said to Finn, the words tumbling out quickly once I recovered enough.

“Are you okay?” he asked, picking up on my mood.

“Yeah,” I said unconvincingly. “Just had a long night.”

“I wouldn’t mind another kiss,” he offered with a smile.

I don’t know if I had ovaries at the moment, probably not, because they would have exploded at his words and his smile. Despite myself and my worries, I smiled.

His lips touched mine then, and I swooned into his kiss, relishing it. How could someone who didn’t know what a kiss was only a few hours ago be so good at it?

Now that I found out that I was half-merwalker, there really was no big reason as to why I couldn’t stay here if everything worked out. Was there a future for us? Could I allow myself to hope that this wasn’t just some sort of fling?

I’d have to figure it out after we saved Kai.
If
we saved Kai.

“Did you know?” I asked breathlessly.

“Know what?”

“That I was half-merwalker?”

He searched my face for a long time before shaking his head. “No,” he admitted. “But it makes sense now that Nereia changed you.” He gave me a lopsided smile. “So that means…”

Rather than complete his statement, he kissed me again.

“We should get going,” I told him sadly. I could get lost in those kisses, but we did have a deadline.

I dolphin-kicked my own tail, following after Nereia and the snapper. A second after I did so, Finn was beside me, swimming at his top speed. I did take a little pleasure in that while I was in a flustered state, I could swim faster than him.

Nereia was already inside when we arrived at Oceanus’s throne room. The guards were waiting idly, grinning like predators at us as we approached. I guess they got the memo from their friends guarding my cell that they should try scaring me.

Well, it wasn’t going to work. Even if I did gulp a little louder than normal.

As I passed through the doors, I was shocked to see King Levi—Leviathan, as I now knew him—and Queen Nadia presiding over everything next to Oceanus. If I could stumble and fall flat on my face, I would have. Thankfully, I was swimming.

After learning about his power over the ocean, Levi intimidated me even more than Oceanus did. Which was good, because Oceanus was not happy to see me.

“I see you’ve changed,” he scoffed under his breath. “But you can’t take any old grain of sand and call her a pearl.”

“I’m not trying to be a pearl,” I objected.

“My son thinks you’re one,” he said pointedly, looking at Finn who frowned stoically.

I looked at the merking, shocked. Did he know that we kissed last night? I felt my stomach sink at the thought.

“She is a good person,” Finn said, his tone dangerous.

Meanwhile, Levi and Nadia weren’t paying attention to our conversation, fully devoted to whatever Nereia was going to say about Kai. Oceanus shot me another glare before he turned back to them.

“Do you have it?” Levi demanded of Nereia. “Do you have the fire flower?”

Nereia loved the attention. She held the room like a performer, a magician, and I was starting to see why they called her a sea witch. “Yes. And I wanted to share my news with everyone at the same time.”

“And she must be here for this?” Oceanus demanded, pointing to me.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. Childish. And he was the king of the merfolk?

“Oh yes, dear brother,” Nereia intoned, her expression very serious. “She’s vital to the entire plan.”

“She is?” Finn asked, alarmed.

Oh, Finn.
Here was the part that he wasn’t going to like.

Nereia sighed and crossed her arms across her chest. “Finn,” she said slowly, “I know that you’re used to saving the creatures of the sea, but this time, we’re going to try something different. I’ve already gotten Tara’s permission, of course.”

Every eye in the room turned back to me, even Oceanus’s. I fidgeted under their gazes, wanting to melt into the walls. “She did,” I confirmed, my voice stronger than I felt. I couldn’t even look at Finn’s shocked expression.

“You can’t be serious,” Finn hissed. “Tara, it’s dangerous.”

“Less so for me than it is for you,” I answered back.

Nereia beamed at my words. When she spoke next, she addressed the two dolphins again.

“As you know, your majesties, the fire flower is found deep within Mariana’s Trench. A flower that grows in the most impossible of conditions. And because of that impossibility, it’s perfect for my potion.”

“Which is?” Levi urged.

“We’re going to make Kai fly,” Nereia answered like it was the most natural thing in the world. And Tara...” She pointed back to me, her smile brilliant. “...Tara is going to be the one to give the potion to him.”

“I can do it,” Finn interjected. “I was so close two nights ago.”

But Levi understood, following Nereia’s logic. He nodded along with Nereia’s plan. “And you failed two nights ago, Protector,” he said. “And failure is not an option again. Not with my son’s life on the line.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes when Finn flinched at the barb.

Levi smirked, satisfied at Finn’s reaction, and turned back to Nereia. “Tell me how this...
mermaid
...would be able to succeed where our famed protector failed.”

Well, for one, I wouldn’t be there to distract him,
I thought sarcastically.

Nereia gave me a knowing smile before she spoke next.

“Little Tara here is a special breed of mermaid. I’m sure Oceanus already knows, but she’s a merwalker. One who can travel between the sea and the world Kai is trapped in.”

Levi and Nadia looked at me, alarmed themselves now at the reveal that I was a merwalker.
Great,
I thought. Now they think I’m the enemy.

“You can appear human?” Nadia asked.

I nodded. “Yes. I met Kai on the surface. I know exactly where he is. And I can get access to it.”

“She and Kai got along well on the surface,” Nereia added. “And she can help coax Kai to make the jump out to the ocean.”

“Is it a long way for him to fly?” Nadia asked. “Can he make it?”

I opened my mouth, knowing that the quarantine tank was at least eight yards from the edge, and then there were rocks below to worry about. It was an impossible jump. And if he could fly...well, I had no idea how that worked.

“He can,” Finn interrupted. He was frowning, clearly unhappy. “Listen, I can do it.”

“I can’t risk you being caught,” I told him.

His jaw clenched as he watched me.

Heart pounding, I lift my chin just a little bit. I felt my gills open to suck in some water. My mermaid tail kept me righted. Yet at the same time, I was still the human I’d always been.

Now, I was living the real dream. I was in two worlds. And I was going to have to be a part of them continuing forward.

Everything depended on this. Before all this, I never really believed in mermaids. But now, it was time to start believing in myself.

“I’m doing it.”

***

“You don’t have to do this.”

Finn grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. I swayed, feeling a little disoriented under his intense, sea green gaze.

While Nereia was busy mixing the ingredients together for the potion, I was left trying to prepare for a mission that felt huge and beyond my control.

“I do,” I told him gently.

“This doesn’t affect your world,” he pleaded, searching my gaze.

“It does,” I said. “It affects both of my worlds. Yours and mine. Ours.”

A thousand different emotions crossed his face all at once, from conflict to deep concern.

“I don’t want you getting hurt,” he whispered. “You had nothing to do with this.”

Despite myself, I wanted to laugh. “That’s not what you believed the first time you met me.”

His brow furrowed. “That’s not fair.”

“I know,” I said. “But I have to do this. I promised Kai that I would, and I can’t let this war happen—”

He pressed his lips against mine, giving me another one of his fin-curling kisses. After only four kisses, he was getting better. This time, he explored more of my mouth and held me to him. Like he never wanted to let me go.

I melted into it, my eyes fluttering closed. His arms came around my back and brought me close to him, skin to skin, kissing me like a lover for whom the world is ending.

The kiss lasted a long time.

When he finally did break the kiss, he looked at me intensely, begging with his eyes for me not to follow through with this. He caressed the side of my face, making my skin tingle with his feathery touch.

“Don’t go,” he whispered.

“It makes sense, Finn,” I appealed to him. “I know where he is, I won’t get caught.”

“It’s my job, Tara.”

I searched those sea green eyes, glad that I had someone who cared deeply about me. “And I would never forgive myself if someone found you. You would turn into a spectacle for humans. They’d cage you. Dissect you. And the news would descend on you like a pack of sharks.”

His brow furrowed, and I realized that he didn’t know what the news was. I chuckled lightly.

“They would expose you and this world,” I continued, indicating the broad expanse of Thalassa. “You’d never get any rest. It’s too big of a risk for you.”

The muscle in his jaw clenched and unclenched, and I could sense that I wasn’t going to be able to make him see my point.

“And if you fail, Levi would attack the surface.”

I shook my head. “I won’t fail.”

“How do you know?” he demanded.

I allowed myself a grin. “Because I can pretend to be a better human than a mermaid.”

He gave me a sidelong glance and gave a short chuckle, which he covered behind his hand. “How do you do that?” he asked.

“Do what?”

“Make everything make sense and not make sense?”

I leaned into him, playfully looking up into his eyes. “I learned from you. Nothing has made sense since I met you.”

He pulled me into his embrace again and kissed me. And this time, he didn’t pull away.

Not sure of what the etiquette was for entering
rooms, I knocked on the door to Nereia’s chambers. She had told me that as the sister of King Oceanus, she had her own quarters in the lower levels of the palace, not too far from my prison. After the meeting with Levi and Nadia, she had holed herself up here to create the potion.

“Nereia?” I called.

“Come in! Come in, Tara,” came her voice from within.

I opened the clam shell door and with a quick flick with my tail, entered her chambers. Even though most of the palace was light and airy, Nereia’s rooms were dark and gloomy, much like my prison last night. Every nook and cranny in the cave was filled with shells, coral, sand dollars, and even human artifacts like empty plastic bottles and pieces of shipwrecks. More of those weird glowy plants lit the space, although I felt like my eyes could never fully adjust to the dim light.

Nereia was perched on the equivalent of a desk, mixing things into something that roughly resembled a cauldron. Beside her was a red, seven-petaled flower that glowed with red, orange, yellow, and blue colors. The fire flower.

“This dark place looks a lot like the place where you healed me,” I told her wryly, crossing my arms. “When I first woke up in this world.”

It seemed like such a long time ago.

“You don’t need much light when you’re working on instinct,” Nereia said without looking at me. She grabbed a pestle and ground the ingredients together into a paste. After a minute, satisfied with her work, she glanced at me. “You looked scared.”

“I am,” I admitted. “But I know I can do it.”

She smiled wistfully at me. “I have complete faith in you.”

I nodded with my head towards the flower on the table. “Is that the fire flower?” I asked.

Nereia picked it up and looked at it like she had never seen it before. “Yes,” she said reverently. “The rarest bloom in the world. Possibly even more rare than merwalkers like yourself.” She carefully placed it into the cauldron and began folding it into her potion, each movement measured and precise.

My fingers played with the mermaid pendant around my throat. Long ago, it had set me on this course to bring me here now. Perhaps it was always meant to be that I would end up here, that I was always meant to save Kai.

And meet Finn.

The thought comforted me. No matter what happened from here, I knew that Dad would be proud of me.

Nereia scooped up the concoction and gently wrapped it within a bed of kelp. She secured it with a knot and hefted the small package, no bigger than the palm of my hand. She gave it another once-over and nodded with pride.

“Finished,” she said.

“That will make Kai fly?” I asked incredulously. It didn’t look like much.

She grinned at me secretively. “All you need to do is feed him this like you would a fish, and he’ll surprise you. Like you’ve surprised yourself.”

She handed it to me, and I took it in both hands. I couldn’t tell if it weighed more than I expected or if I could feel how important it was, but it felt heavy.

“I can do it,” I told her.

Nereia wagged her finger. “One more thing, since you’re going to be back on human legs again.” She flitted away and swam up towards a shelf on the ceiling. She pulled out a shimmering cloth that rippled like a rainbow as she brought it down to me. The cloth was longer than her arm span and just as tall.

“That’s beautiful,” I murmured, entranced.

Nereia grinned at me. “This...” She threw it around me and secured it around my waist like a sarong one would wear to the beach. “This is for good luck. We can’t have you walking around naked and expect no one to notice you.”

I blushed as I felt the material between my fingers. I guess once I got my legs back, I would have been naked from the waist down. I didn’t have the heart to tell Nereia that I would still draw attention like this, but the more I thought about it, the more I knew that it wouldn’t matter. I was going to be at an aquarium close to the ocean; I’d even seen some people at the aquarium in swimsuits before.

I’d be fine.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Let’s get going,” Nereia said. “You don’t have much longer until Levi’s deadline is up, and we can’t have that.”

I nodded, dumbfounded.

***

The plan was to deposit me on a beach near the aquarium. I hated to admit it, but unlike Finn, I didn’t have the body strength to climb up the side of the cliff to Kai’s tank. I had to go in another way, and this was the easiest. Good thing I’d be human the entire time, and that I knew the aquarium. I had gone over everything with Nereia.

It all made sense, and everything had been worked through. I was confident that I would be able to get to Kai. The rest of it was iffy.

A small group of mermaids and sea creatures followed me towards the shore. Finn, of course, led the way as we raced to get to the shore. I clutched the package to my chest, fearing that I could accidentally drop it at any time. The potion was the most precious thing I’d ever held.

Levi and Nadia were out in the bay by the tanks, ready to greet Kai when he flew out of the water. Nadia had been a nervous wreck before we parted ways, and I couldn’t blame her. This was the second attempt to rescue her son and the first one hadn’t gone very well.

Well, it did do something right
. I looked to Finn. If everything went according to plan, I was seriously going to have to sit down and figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

When we neared the shore, the water got murkier and darker, and there were fewer creatures here. Pollution from the boats and the land dwellers? I hadn’t even noticed it when I dove into the water yesterday, probably because I wasn’t used to how clear and clean the ocean water near Thalassa could be.

I coughed at the water, making Finn turn back to me. His face was stricken, obviously wanting to take over, but he respected my decision enough not to try and sway me.

“Here’s where you’ll have to go on alone,” he said, his voice hoarse. “If we get any closer, we could be spotted.” He hesitated as he looked at me. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes,” I said honestly.

“Stay safe,” he whispered, leaning into me.

“You too.”

I was painfully reminded that we weren’t alone when Ponce bounced into me. Luckily, it wasn’t hard enough for me to drop the potion. I would have sashimied him otherwise.

“
You gonna be all right
?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I told him. “Protect Finn for me, will you?”

His eyes bulged. I laughed and hugged him. “Stay safe, Ponce.” I looked at my little caravan of sea creatures, from dolphins, crabs, and fish, to even tiny little octopods and jellyfish that looked like little bouncy balls. I addressed them from the bottom of my heart. “Thank you for being here,” I said. “I’ll have Prince Kai back before the deadline.”

I turned to leave, and Finn caught my hand. I turned back to him and his soft lips met mine for one more fleeting moment before I had to break away. Despite all the eyes watching us, I got swept up in it. They didn’t even know what we were doing anyways.

“Come back to me,” Finn said.

“I promise.” I meant it.

I started for the shore.

***

I washed up on the shore on my stomach. The shallower the water got, the less my mermaid tail helped. I had to claw my way up the sand with my free hand, grasping the precious kelp package in my other hand. My mermaid skills helped me swim farther and faster than I did before. My upper body, however, was still pathetically human.

I grunted, getting a mouthful of sand as I pulled myself along. How long would it take for my tail to turn back into legs? Movies made it look almost instantaneous.

Once I was finally out of the wet, hard clumps of sand and onto dry, soft sand, I could feel my legs itching.

I glanced down, seeing my scales retract before my eyes. A crease formed down the middle of my tail, bisecting it into two legs. My toes sprouted forth, then the thin fin curled in on itself and hardened into feet.

I flopped onto my back, breathing heavily. That was a lot harder than I had expected. And to think that Finn had pulled himself up on the rocks and scaled the walls with only his arms to move him. I had a lot more respect for him now.

Thankfully, my skirt had survived my army crawl, so I had something to cover up my bottom half.

It felt odd standing again, like gravity suddenly remembered to include me. My legs gave out initially and had to catch myself with one hand.

“Come on, Tara,” I gritted. “You don’t have time to be a wuss.”

I totally wish I did though.

I forced myself to my feet again and steeled myself to make sure they were planted properly. My knees shook, but they held. I remembered reading that astronauts had trouble getting re-accustomed to Earth gravity; apparently having your legs be turned into a mermaid tail and back again was a similar experience.

I held the package with two hands, because I was going to be battling walking while trying to hold onto my precious cargo.

I took a step, tentative at first. I didn’t fall. I took another, quicker step. After a few tries of this, I broke out into a jog towards the main entrance of the Aquarium. I didn’t have my temporary swipe card to get in the side entrance, and with a limited amount of time, I couldn’t waste a second.

They weren’t busy in the evening, yet I got weird looks at the way I was dressed from the people standing in line. Their curiosity turned to irritation when I went straight to the front of the line and pushed my way in to talk to the ticket vendor.

“Hey, uh...” I recognized the girl behind the counter, and for the life of me, I couldn’t remember her name. She gave me an unimpressed look, and I realized that she wasn’t happy with me skipping the lines. “I’m Tara Porter, one of the performing mermaids from Neptune’s Aquarium.”

“Yes?”

“I don’t have my swipe card to go in the back. Could you call Neptune or Christine? They’ll vouch for me.”

The girl raised an eyebrow. “I’ll have to speak to my manager.” She got up and disappeared. Minutes ticked by, and I found myself drumming my fingers on the counter.

Finally she came back. Without addressing me, she wrote a note on a pad of paper, tore off the top, and handed it to me.

“Take this to Jerry,” she said. “He’s at the entrance. He’ll let you in.”

I grasped it and nodded. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

I practically ran to the entrance, where a burly security guard who I guessed was Jerry took the note, glanced at it, then at me, and let me in. I ran past the tourists who were snapping photos at the aquarium tunnel entrance, ignoring the fish voices that spoke to me through the glass as I passed.

After the tunnel, I emerged into the foyer where I’d conducted my meet and greet two days before. Christine was storming out there to meet me. I could tell from her expression that she was pissed. Rightfully so, but I didn’t have time to stop and talk to her.

“Tara!” she demanded, nearly shouting. “Where the hell have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you!”

I held up the hand that wasn’t holding the satchel. “You wouldn’t believe me even if I told you.”

“Try me.”

“I don’t have time. Trust me.”

I started jogging again, heading towards the dolphin tanks.

“What? Tara, WAIT!” Christine yelled after me.

I ignored her, continuing my jog. I passed by Jordyn and Alaina, who were heading out to the foyer after Christine.

“Tara!” Jordyn exclaimed. “Where were you?”

I shook my head as I sped by. “No time to explain. I’m sorry!”

Then, the worst of it, I had to bypass Neptune who also looked like he was as angry as Christine, if not more so.

“No time, Neptune. Please trust me,” I pleaded.

I increased my speed, sprinting down the hallways. The Houston Aquarium was massive, and I hadn’t realized how big it was until I had to run down the hallways. I didn’t dare turn back, to acknowledge them would probably delay me more, or they could keep me from ever reaching Kai’s pool, which I couldn’t allow to happen.

I finally got to the dolphin tanks. My appearance set the other dolphins off in the big pool.

“Whoa, she’s back dude!”

“Couldn’t leave us alone?”

“You came to see me, right?”

“Hey fellas,” I said, grinning at them as I continued walking to the quarantine pool, careful not to slip and fall. “I’m here to see Kai,” I said, although if they wanted to leave at some point, I knew that I would help them.

“
Awww...
”

I glanced up, knowing that Christine, Neptune, and possibly some security guards weren’t far behind.

“Do me a favor,” I said to them, “would you distract the other humans that are following me? Splash them, do something to keep them from getting to me. I need to talk to Kai, this is very important.”