How to be a Mermaid: A Falling in Deep Collection Novella (7 page)

“I want to see what happens,”
the snapper said. He sounded as mesmerized as I felt. Maybe he didn’t visit Thalassa much either.
“Although your dad frightens the caviar out of me.”

Finn raised an eyebrow. “He scares the caviar out of me too,” he admitted. “All right, this way then.”

***

The palace was a bona fide castle that put the Palace of Versailles to shame. I should know—I went there on a school trip when I was a sophomore in high school.

While the rest of Thalassa wasn’t the same kind of architecture or even the same era, the palace was an enormous structure that shined in its own splendor. My first thought was that it was Roman-inspired, then I wondered if it was the other way around; maybe Roman buildings were inspired by Thalassa. It certainly seemed as old as that. White marble columns held up each level, making a horseshoe-like complex with marble and gold statues dotting the courtyard in the center. A few of them looked to be eerily human, like they collected shipwrecked statues from the surface. There weren’t outer walls to the building itself; the entire space was left open for visitors to come in at any point. I saw rooms, meaning that there were more private chambers deeper into the building.

“That’s your home?” I asked, trying unsuccessfully to keep the amazement from my voice.

“No,” Finn answered. His expression was carefully neutral as he looked at the palace. “I don’t stay here if I can help it.”

I couldn’t imagine doing anything else except relishing in the beauty of the place. Exploring the palace could take months. Appreciating the fine craftsmanship could take years.

“Why not?” I asked.

Finn glanced at me and frowned. He opened his mouth to speak, yet Ponce jumped in before he could say anything.

“Oh, you’ll see,”
the snapper said.
“Prince Finn is a bit of a rebel without a cause.”

Finn rolled his eyes. “I don’t like it. And I do have a cause.”             

I laughed despite the nerves that were swimming in my stomach like a bunch of sharks. I hadn’t realized how anxious I was until I was looking smack dab at the front of the palace.

Could I really meet a king and ask for a sea witch’s help? When I’d just heard that he hates humans?

I shuddered at the thought. A mermaid performance in front of a crowd I could handle for sure. I’d been performing since I was a little girl, however I’d never done something like this.

A hand on my shoulder brought me back to the present. I twisted in surprise at the touch, then I realized that it was Finn, offering me comfort.

“Are you okay?” he asked, giving my shoulder a squeeze.

“Yeah,” I said. Even though we were underwater, my mouth still felt dry. “I’m a little intimidated.”

“It never gets better,” he told me honestly. He grinned. “And he’s my dad.”

He understood my hesitation, empathized with me. I thought about my own dad, who definitely wasn’t scary. My mother was though. Maybe she and Finn’s dad would get along well, not that I could ever imagine my mother as a mermaid. It wouldn’t be sensible enough for her.

“Are you ready to go in?” Finn asked.

I swallowed. “Yeah. I’m ready.”

We swam downward, entering through one of the open corridors that connected the various buildings of the palace. I was open-mouthed the entire time at the amount of detail that was squeezed into the place. Every square inch was covered with intricate designs and ornamentation. Shells, sand dollars, and coral were the decorations here, and while that stuff would have been present at a cheap resort on land, it was a work of art here.

“We don’t have to go directly to my father,” Finn told me. “You can rest, get used to being here a bit more. I don’t know what mood he’ll be in. He’s a bit unpredictable.”

I thought about it and then shook my head. With Christine waiting for me and the impending trip to Portland, I couldn’t afford to waste any time. “If he can see us now, that would be best.”

“I’ll be right with you,” Finn said.

“
And me too
,” Ponce added, although his demeanor had changed slightly. He looked as nervous as I felt.

As soon as we turned a corner, I could see why Finn didn’t like being there. A swarm of gorgeous mermaids descended upon us like a pack of wolves. Descended upon Finn, rather; they had no interest in me or Ponce.

“Finn!”

“Finn’s back!”

“Oh, my goodness. Hello, handsome!”

Apparently, I wasn’t the only girl to notice Finn’s good looks. There were at least twelve mermaids all vying for his undivided attention. He was a celebrity to them. Human girls would have acted the same way around Prince Harry, and for the record, I thought Finn was far better-looking.

At least I wasn’t as brazen as they were, getting up in his face and throwing myself at him like they were.

They were all gorgeous, each and every one of them perfect in her own way, whether she was slender, athletic, a bit curvy, or didn’t appear to be human at all.

Their long hair swept all about them in swirls that seemed to be choreographed around their lovely faces. Under the sea, it didn’t matter if your hair was frizzy or thin, because in the water, it all looked gorgeous. While the upper half of some of them could have passed for human, some of them certainly couldn’t be mistaken for humans. Some were definitely humanoid like they were real versions of Ariel from
The Little Mermaid
, while others were more fishy in appearance. Evidently, the definition of “mermaid” was very loose. Some of them were completely covered in fish scales, their skin reflecting off the glow of the plants that lit the hallways. Some had human skin tones and hair colors, while others were all sorts of different colors, from blue and green to lilac and magenta.

Though I hadn’t been prepared for the sheer variety in their appearances, they didn’t frighten me. If anything, I felt jealous with these beauties throwing themselves at Finn. Not that he was my boyfriend or anything…

Maybe they were just friends, right?

The mermaids were wearing various forms of clothing fashioned from kelp to shells and old, thin sailcloth which covered up their breasts, thankfully. After everything, I wasn’t sure if I would be comfortable with a bunch of naked mermaids surrounding Finn.

Silly Tara. There’s nothing going on between you and Finn.

I frowned. It certainly did feel like we had shared a moment or two in our time together. My cheeks burned and I crossed my arms in front of me. It could never work out, so I shouldn’t even get my hopes up.

“
See why he doesn’t want to come back?
” Ponce said to me. “
So much attention from the ladies.
”

“It’s to be expected,” I remarked, feeling my blush deepening.

“
It’s made even worse because he is the Protector of the Seas.
”

I glanced back Ponce. “I thought you said he was a superhero. Don’t superheroes get a secret identity?”

The snapper flicked his fins in what I suspected was his equivalent of a shrug. “
Not when you’re the son of King Oceanus.
”

I silently agreed.

In the middle of the crowd, Finn looked back at me, his face pleading with me to save him. It would have been comical if he didn’t look so darned desperate.

While I wasn’t comfortable enough here to really do anything or make a scene, I decided I was going to give it a shot.

I swam over to him, which was hard since the mermaids surrounded him in three dimensions. I grasped his hand and pulled him along with me.

“Come on, Finn,” I said, hoping I sounded like a servant or something. “You, uh, have business with your father.”

Thank you,
he mouthed gratefully to me, and I smiled at him. I guess my mental Mermish translator can read lips, although anyone could read the gratification on his face.

I thought we were scot-free until a fully-scaled beauty with piercing magenta eyes blocked my path.

“What’s wrong with your tail?” she asked me, distaste evident in her voice.

I froze, unable to think of a good reason as to why I had a fake tail. Finn and Nereia had acted like it was the worst thing ever for a human to be dressed up as a mermaid, so I didn’t want to come out and say it. Was I supposed to be completely disguised? Was it a bad thing if I was a human?

Thankfully, Finn saved me.

“It’s a birth defect,” he said simply, almost embarrassed. “She doesn’t like to talk about it.”

She scrunched her face in scrutiny. “Oh?”

We didn’t wait around to explain any further. Now that he was freed from the throng of mermaids, Finn kept moving down the hallways at his top speed, now taking me with him.

“Birth defect?” I echoed, amused.

“You were born with legs,” he said.

From his perspective, I guessed that
was
a defect, although he had a grin as he said it.

I playfully glared at him as he tugged me around the corner with him, away from the group of mermaids, into an empty hallway. Finn paused to catch his breath, obviously shaken.

“That’s one of the reasons why I don’t come here,” he said.

“You don’t like girls throwing themselves at you?” I asked sarcastically. “They were all beautiful.”

He frowned. “They all just want one thing.”

“To be Mrs. Prince Finn?” I teased.

He groaned. “Tara...”

Our eyes met. Everything stopped for me as he searched my face. His sea green eyes, his strong jaw, the way his hair was a bit too long and curled around his face in the water, and the way his scars accented his muscles and his skin. My heart beat loudly in my ears and there was a fluttering in my stomach as we shared a private moment.

Oh, no. No, please don’t let this happen.

I was falling for him. I might have never been in a relationship before, but I knew when a crush developed, and we were way past that now.

Kai’s words about me not wanting to return to land went through my head. What would happen if I stayed here where I always wanted to be? Would that be such a bad thing?

“Tara,” Finn said, his voice raw.

“Yes?” I asked, surprised at how steady my voice was.

Here it was. The movie moment where he’d lean in and give me a kiss, making everything perfect.

“We...” His eyes dropped down to my collarbone. His face contorted as if a decision had been made in his mind, changing the direction of what he was going to say. He turned away from me, still holding my hand. “We need to get going.”

Disappointment blossomed in my chest. I seriously thought that he was about to kiss me. I stifled my groan of disappointment as he pulled me along the hallway.

Ponce appeared next to us, swimming in lazy figure eights.
“Finn, I know you’re not into your little fan club,”
he said.
“But they’re all lookers.”

Finn’s jawline set. “Yes,” he said without looking at Ponce or me. “Just that though. Lookers. Nothing else.”

I looked at our clasped hands, and I thought about how perfectly they fit together. This was a scary position to be in, this new world, and Finn was my navigator through it all. He made me feel like I belonged, even more so than I did on land. There, I was always the weird girl with a strange fascination with mermaids. Here, while I wasn’t quite a mermaid, I was with someone who treated me like I was normal.

No.
He was a merman, and I was a human. This wouldn’t ever work.

I gulped my heart back down to my chest where it beat with the rhythm of a sad song.

We approached a set of great of double doors at the end of the hall. These doors were made out of half a giant clam shell apiece, sparkling with their abalone texture. Intricate designs were etched onto the shells, flourishes of abstract shapes and lines that were tightly woven together. It was stunning.

To my utter surprise and slight terror, I saw that four tiger sharks were at the entrance to the room in an attack formation. Their black eyes watched us as we came up. The palace might have had open walls, yet this was heavily fortified. Whatever was behind this door must have been important.

Like a king.

Finn cursed under his breath. He looked like an animal that was trying to find an escape.

“Is this some kind of throne room?” I asked.

“Some kind of throne room,” he agreed cryptically. “I was hoping we’d catch him alone at this time.”

I didn’t see any clocks and the sun wasn’t reliable this deep, so I had no idea how he knew what time it was.

He looked as if he was about to pull me to another place in the palace, when one the sharks addressed him.

“Prince Finn.” He bowed his head down in a gesture of supplication. “King Oceanus has been expecting you.”

Finn let out a sigh, the color leaching from his face. “I should have known,” he muttered. “Is he alone?” I heard the note of hope in his voice.