How to be a Mermaid (The Cotton Candy Quintet #1)(19)

My mind wasn’t on the impossibility of the situation. I was too busy reveling in how beautiful everything was under the water. The water was a deep blue, stretching out from me in all directions. Schools of fish swam in perfect formation, and based on the murmur in the water, the fish were talking amongst themselves. I could see the kelp sway with the current, and I even spotted a few jellyfish lazing around, speaking in low, unfazed conversations. I heard whales in the distance, singing to each other in heart-wrenching songs that I now understood. I saw a crab swimming by me, musing out loud who I was. Some fish were curious, swimming right up next to me to investigate.

It was magical. I could see why Kai was so adamant that I wouldn’t want to go back to land. Every time I’d been in the ocean before, it was on the shore or in a boat on top of it. I never witnessed how alive everything was around me.

Perhaps my transformation had something to with it as well. I didn’t think normal humans saw this way, and they certainly couldn’t breathe underwater like I was.

I felt sad that once I went back to my old self, I wasn’t going to have this. I brushed the thought from my mind, scared by how accurate Kai’s predication was.

A snapper wiggled his way next to me, moving his head so he could keep an eye on me at all times. He’d been following me for a while, so I got the sense that he wasn’t just a random fish following a random mermaid.

“Hey?” I asked timidly, strangely remembering my mother’s warning to never speak to strangers. Did that include talking to curious fish?

I stopped swimming so I could face the fish. The snapper’s eyes widened and he stopped as well.

“I-I’m looking for someone... uh...”

“Who are you looking for?” the snapper asked.

I sighed in relief. “Uhm, Finn,” I said. Do mermen have last names? “Finn, the Merman.”

The snapper swam right up to me and turned to the side so he could get a good look at me. “You’re looking for Finn? I know Finn! What do you want with him?”

“I need to ask him a favor.” I wasn’t sure how far in depth I should go. I remembered Finn’s and Nereia’s reaction when I told them that I was a fake mermaid. I didn’t want to spook the snapper by telling him that I was a human in a mermaid tail. “Do you know where I can find him?”

“You simply ask for him,” the snapper said, confusion coloring his voice.

“I tried that already.” I waited a beat, letting the wave of irritation ebb. “It didn’t work.”

The fish chuckled at me in a fit of glistening scales and bubbly water. I didn’t know that fish could laugh, so I gawped at him, dumbfounded.

“You must not have done it underwater. He couldn’t hear you, silly.”

“What?” Come to think of it, I guess even though I’d been in the water, I had said it outside of the water. “I guess I could try it.”

“How else would he hear you?”

Okay, so the fish was making fun of me. “Hey buddy, this is all new to me.”

“I couldn’t tell.”

His sarcasm made my eye twitch. Who knew that fish could be sarcastic?

I closed my eyes and focused on the problem at hand. “Finn?” My voice trembled, even though I was trying to speak loudly and with authority. “Finn, I’m here. I need you,” I added that last part quietly.

“See? That’s better.”

“Yeah, like he could hear me.” Yes, I had spoken loudly, but even screaming wouldn’t carry that far over the ocean.

“He can hear you.”

I put my hands on my hips and waited in the water, the snapper hanging out next to me. A minute passed by, two minutes. Nothing happened. How long should I wait for a response?

“He didn’t hear me,” I grumbled.

“You really need to learn patience,” the fish chided. “You know how vast the ocean is, right?”

“Yes, which is exactly why I should get going,” I told him desperately. “I really need to find him tonight.”

I flicked my tail to zoom off, and something caught my wrist, holding me back. At first, ridiculously, I thought it was the snapper somehow holding onto my wrist. When I turned back, I saw sea green eyes studying me with the same incredulous look I was probably giving him.

“What are you doing here?” Finn asked me.

“I—I—” I stammered, tongue-tied for the moment. He was still bare-chested, still sporting those rock-hard abs, still gorgeous, and, most importantly, he was here. He had heard me, and he came for me.

Finn’s face twisted into a disapproving frown. “And what are you doing wearing that?”

It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about. I looked down and saw the fake mermaid tail. Despite it all, I burst out laughing, which was more from relief than anything else.

“That?” I rubbed a hand over my tail. “That’s kinda why I’m here...”

Now that someone who could take control of the situation and help me out was here, everything came tumbling down at once, my own emotions coming in like a tide. My fears about what was happening crashed into me, threatening to overwhelm me. Someone else could take care of it, and I wouldn’t be stuck with gills or a real tail.

I could be normal again. And then I could help out Kai, following through on my promise. I’ve been let down in the past by life. I wasn’t going to let him down. With Finn’s help, we could figure out a way. I was sure of it.