How to be a Mermaid (The Cotton Candy Quintet #1)(24)

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.

The shark grinned, which wasn’t pretty on a predator like him. If anything, it made it look like he was baring his teeth at Finn. “He’ll make time for you.”

Finn’s jaw worked while he considered this. “Is it all right if I bring my two guests with me?”

The grin became even wider. “He’s counting on it. He’s interested in who the girl is.”

I shivered. Guards or not, I didn’t like these guys. Ponce had kept his mouth shut and stuck close to me, like I could stop a shark feeding frenzy if the guards decided that he was bait.

Finn took another glance at the shark guards before moving forward. His hand left mine and I wanted to grab hold of it again because I felt naked without it. He went to the clam doors and pulled one of them open. Light poured out from the hole, casting rays on both Finn and the floor of the hallways. Sounds came out, of people chattering.