How to be a Mermaid (The Cotton Candy Quintet #1)(22)

Finn took us deeper and deeper into his world. I know scientists say light doesn’t penetrate the ocean past one thousand meters, and I instinctively felt that we were way beyond that because we kept descending. Rather than get darker, the sea glowed with ethereal beauty. I saw as well as if I was standing on land at high noon on a cloudless day, although that might have been my enhanced eyesight.

At first, there wasn’t much different in the way of underwater life. We passed by fish and kelp and marine mammals that were spread pretty far out. The deeper we went though, the more exotic and crazy the world around us got. Colors started appearing around us, in the water itself. The fish got more colorful. I saw whales. I saw more creatures than I could recognize. Here, I found that the deep ocean wasn’t different shades of blue going into the darkest black: it was all the colors of the rainbow and more.

“Wow,” I murmured appreciatively, the first I’d spoken in a while.

Finn glanced behind and offered a smug smile. So he was proud of the ocean, his magical world. I would be, too.

I wasn’t prepared for what lay ahead of me when we crossed the edge of a chasm into an ever deeper realm.

“Oh my god,” I breathed when I looked at what lay below.

There was a city.

An actual, functioning city lay below us, sparkling in its impossibility. It wasn’t the kind of city that you’d think of when you think of underwater kingdoms. No ancient ruins or Greek columns or Disney-esque castles dominated the landscape. This was a modern underworld city, complete with tall, twenty-story buildings made from sandstone, kelp, and shells. They were beautiful.

It was busy too. Things didn’t move in two dimensions here like they did on land. Rather than restrict traffic to the streets, merfolk and animals simply swam in whatever direction they wanted. And I saw tons of merfolk and other fish, living harmoniously in an underwater utopia.

“This is Thalassa,” Finn explained, slowing down long enough to divulge that bit of information. “This is the capital of the Atlantic Ocean.”

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. “And so...different than I thought it would be.”

“What did you picture?”

I couldn’t answer, unable find the right words. The simple truth was, I didn’t know what an underwater city should look like.

“Smaller,” was all that came to mind.

Finn chuckled with a shrug. “The palace is that way,” he said, pointing off in the direction. “Ponce, are you sure you want to come along?”

“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.”