How to be a Mermaid (The Cotton Candy Quintet #1)(33)

And I was a merwalker, I could live on both land and sea, right?

I sighed, and leaned my head against the wall. It was too late for me to be thinking about this kind of stuff.

I still wasn’t used to seeing my new mermaid tail. It no longer freaked me out, yet every so often, I’d forget that it was even there and I had to tell myself that it belonged to me. I’d heard about phantom limbs before, but this was ridiculous. It felt like my legs were there, still underneath the shiny scales.

I held up my necklace Finn had given back to me, inspecting it. The stone mermaid wrapped herself up in her tail, her hair swirling around her head. I’d always been amazed at how the artist got so much detail in such a small space. The mermaid looked like the current was actually moving through her hair and her tail was blowing the same way.

Wait a sec...

I froze, looking at the pendant I’d worn my entire life.

How could this be possible?

The mermaid had gills under her chin, in the exact same place were the other merfolk had their gills. Looking at it closely again, I could see that her tail started in the same place on her hips as a real mermaid’s, a little lower than where low rider jeans would fall. In the Disney movie and in my own silicon tail, it went up above my hipbones. The tail was done perfectly, delicately swirling and bending.

This stone mermaid was clearly based upon real-life mermaids. But this was given to me by my dad. How on Earth could he have known what real mermaids were like? Either that, or whoever carved the pendant had met mermaids before.

It was too accurate to be a coincidence. The chances of me having a mermaid necklace like this and then later being turned into a merawlker were too great.

I felt like my soul had been touched by the icy fingers of fate.

How did it all fit together?





CHAPTER 9


Despite being under the sea, I could sense that it was morning when a heavy thud came to the door.

I hadn’t slept at all. Even if I could figure out how to sleep under the water, after realizing that my mermaid pendant was based upon real mermaids, I wasn’t been able to even doze. My mind worked through all the different scenarios and tried to make everything fit together.

It had to have been a coincidence. I kept telling myself that, but the doubt in my mind lingered. And after hours of pondering about the necklace, I had a horrible headache.

The knock on the door woke Ponce out of his trance and he righted himself as he shook off the dregs of sleep.

“Whoozat?” he muttered dreamily.

“Yes?” I called out nervously. I could see Ponce take stock of his surroundings, frown, and then jump at the realization that he was still at the palace.

It couldn’t have been the shark guards at the door—they didn’t have fists to knock with and I couldn’t imagine them being interested in coming in—except maybe to eat Ponce, which I wasn’t going to let happen. My guess was Finn, and my heart swam laps in my chest at the thought. I still felt off-kilter about my revelation last night, so a little reprieve with his mouth and his arms around me would do a lot of good.

The door opened, revealing the one other person I’d been looking for.

I sprang to an upright position, using my tail to steady myself as I swam over towards her, immensely relieved at her appearance.

“Nereia!”

The old sea witch grinned down at me, her white hair floating like a little cloud around her face.

“Little Merwalker,” she exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips. “I didn’t expect to see you so soon. And with your mermaid tail no less.” She smiled widely at me. “It seems like your transformation is complete.”

I was at a loss for words. So much had happened in twenty-four hours.

So all that popped out was, “You’re back.”

Nereia turned her gaze onto my companion. “Ah, Ponce,” she cooed, reaching out to him. “Glad to see that you haven’t been hooked yet. I like you too much for that.”

Once again, Ponce was shy. “Lovely to meet you again, your majesty,” he said.

She waved her hand in a gesture of modesty. “The feeling is mutual. Now, I heard from my nephew that you were back in the sea looking for me. What did you need?”

What I had once planned on telling her yesterday came out all at once, like a tidal wave.

“You made me a merwalker!” I gestured in wide, frantic motions, unable to properly convey how freaked out I felt. “When I woke up on land yesterday, I had the best performance of my life, and then I realized that I had gills and that I didn’t have enough time to really wait to see what happened—I had to find you as soon as possible. So I went out into the ocean, where I met Ponce—” I indicated the snapper “—and I found Finn. He took me to Thalassa to find you, and Oceanus wanted me to stay here so that I didn’t create a panic among the merfolk. And Kai’s parents came—and they want to start a war! So I’ve been here, waiting for you to make everything better.”

Apparently, I could get in a lot of speaking without taking a breath due to my new gills.

She quirked an eyebrow and put a hand on her hips. “Why were you waiting for me?”

“Because I don’t want to be a merwalker! I want you to change me back to being a human.” Although as I said that, I wasn’t so sure. Still, I wanted to be human, but there were other reasons to stay, I realized.