How to be a Mermaid (The Cotton Candy Quintet #1)(25)

Finn gestured for me to come over. I wrapped an arm around Ponce’s body and brought him along with me as I swam to the door.

The sharks’ eyes never left us, never blinking once.

As I passed Finn, he nodded sympathetically to me.

I wished I could get my heart rate under control. Nerves were getting the best of me, and I couldn’t quite explain why. Maybe it was because Ponce had said that Oceanus would flip his lid if he knew that a human was in the palace. I gulped self-consciously and passed through the doors and into Oceanus’s throne room.





CHAPTER 7


The collective gasp from all of the room’s occupants when I entered the room made me flinch. I squinted, trying to discern the shapes around me as the bright light momentarily disoriented me.

Why was it so bright?

“What’s wrong with her?” a female voice asked in much the same kind of voice that you would hear someone shriek over a mouse in the kitchen. “Why is her tail like that?”

What the heck was wrong with my mermaid tail that merfolk could pick up something off about it right away? The other creatures of the sea hadn’t noticed as much. Maybe it was like humans noticing that someone had bad plastic surgery, while an animal wouldn’t care.

Whatever it was, I was starting to feel like maybe my tail hadn’t been the good camouflage that I thought it was.

I glanced over to where I’d heard the voice and saw an elderly mermaid with dark blue skin gaping at me. There were a lot of merfolk in this room. It was like a royal court, and there were dolphins and whales and fish and octopods and crabs all looking at me, making me the center of attention. On a dais in the middle of it all, a merman sat on what looked like a throne made up of seashells, coral, and sand covered in algae. He had a deep blue tail which contrasted with his long ginger hair and beard. He appeared to be in his mid-fifties, although I got the impression that he was much older than that. For a man in his fifties though, he was well built and muscular. Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been jealous. A crown of tan coral sat atop his head.

Despite the difference in hair color, I could tell from the shape of his face and certain idiosyncrasies like how he combed his fingers through his hair, that he was Finn’s father, King Oceanus.

Like Nereia’s cave, the room was lit by glowing plants, only far more of them, and these cast the throne room with a white light.

Oceanus scrutinized me in the way a scientist dissects a bug, his face contorted in a grimace that said he wasn’t amused. “Finn?” he questioned, his deep baritone voice reverberating throughout the chambers. “I was told by my sources that you were traveling with a disfigured mermaid. Who is this?”

Murmurs broke out among the court, guessing at who—and what—I was. Oceanus sternly glanced around, silencing the gossip.

I had to stifle a shiver. Beside me, Ponce actually shuddered. I guess King Oceanus really did scare the caviar out of him.

Finn moved in front of me, almost in a protective gesture. “We need to talk. Alone.”

Oceanus’s eyes narrowed, and for a second, I thought he was going to push the issue. “Leave us. Everyone. Except you,” he pointed to Finn, “and you,” he said, pointing to me, although the contempt in his eyes was enough to make me squirm.

The throne room began to clear out, the court stealing furtive glances back at us. I thought back to my meet and greet from only the day before when I was the center of attention for a drastically different reason. Now, I would have given anything to be back there. Except I needed to reverse whatever was happening to me, and I needed to keep my promise to Kai.

My heart squeezed and I hoped he was okay.

“You stay too, Ponce,” Oceanus boomed. I hadn’t noticed that the snapper was trying to slip away with the crowd. Ponce snapped right back to my side.

“Here, I thought you were coming for a visit, my son,” Oceanus said, “but it turns out that this is a business trip. You need to explain to me what you’re doing with a merwalker. She is a merwalker. I can spot it a fathom away.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked. “Everyone keeps calling me that, and I have no idea what that is.”

Oceanus raised an eyebrow. “Who is ‘everyone’?” he asked, his voice low and dangerous.

I thought he was asking me, but Finn answered, “Nereia, Ponce, and myself.” While his voice was even and quiet, there was an intensity to it as he addressed his father. I got the feeling that this wasn’t the first time he and Oceanus had had a confrontation like this.

“Let me guess,” the king said, rubbing his temples, “my dear sister was the one behind this abomination.”

Finn nodded.

Oceanus groaned. “And here she is, out trying to get the ingredients for some damned potion!” He pounded his fist on the arm of the throne and it echoed throughout the now-empty room. “Is there even a reason for that potion or is she hiding something from me?”

“You know as well as I do that she needs it sooner rather than later,” Finn answered, bristling.

Oceanus glared at him. “Do I?” he asked. “Do you? She could have motives get this—” he indicated me again “—permanent. It’s happened in the past.”

“I don’t want to be a permanent mermaid either!” I blurted. “Until twenty-four hours ago I had no idea mermaids were even real. But what is this? What is a merwalker?”