Mermaidia: A Limited Edition Anthology

by Pauline Creeden

  “But that’s what makes it perfect,” Nixie whines. “Forbidden.”

  I spread out my arms. “You won’t be able to play that song in front of humans,” I point out. “At least with sirens, some people will just think it’s a play on the word instead of the actual creature.”

  “She has a point,” Brendan says.

  Nixie sighs. “We’ll see how it goes.”

  “Besides, it’ll be a lot easier to find rhymes for sirens than dragons,” I add.

  Nixie pouts, but Brendan laughs.

  “We’ll figure it out,” he says.

  “We will,” Nixie adds. “The whole point of forbidden love is—”

  “Yes, yes,” I say, waving my hand, “but it’s just not believable.”

  “Should we do a song about a mermaid and a leviathan instead?” Nixie asks innocently.

  My face is always pale, and I’m so glad that it doesn’t change much color at all when I blush. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumble.

  “No? Well, Ezra’s over there,” Brendan says, pointing to a table where Mirella, a witch; Kayden, a Spriggan; Logan, a werewolf, and Ezra all sit.

  Ezra isn’t just a leviathan. He’s a shifter than can only transform into that form. It’s incredibly rare.

  “We’re just friends,” I insist.

  “Mm-hmm.” Nixie isn’t convinced. “You haven’t left yet because you want to say goodbye to him.”

  “I want to say goodbye to my friends,” I defend.

  “And he’s a friend…” Nixie says.

  I scowl. “Go away and write music,” I mumble and then burst out laughing at her ridiculous pout.

  “You know you love me.” Nixie winks. “Come on, Brendan. Let’s go write a song about love and waves.”

  “No sea dragons!” I call.

  “None!” she shouts back.

  “And no leviathans!”

  I glance around. No one’s looking my way, especially not Ezra. Good.

  Before I can head toward their table, Edlyn and Baltic approach. I smile at my fellow merfolk, but inwardly, I’m grimacing. Nixie might’ve been teasing, but she also wasn’t entirely wrong. I definitely wanted to say goodbye to Ezra.

  “Are you ready to swim out to the ocean?” Baltic asks. He’s one of the few merfolk to have his hair and tail match color. Both are a chocolatey shade of brown.

  “Not yet.”

  “No?” Edlyn asks. She wrinkles her nose. “I’m pretty sure the others have all gone already.”

  “I think so, but…”

  “It’s already going to be after dinner if we leave right now,” Baltic points out.

  I grimace and crane my neck to look around them.

  Ezra’s gone, and no matter where I turn, I can’t see him.

  I sigh. “Fine. We can go.”

  We leave the dining area, and I keep looking around for Ezra, but he’s disappeared. Oh, well. It’s not like I won’t see him in a week. It’s also not as if he knows how I feel.

  I perk up slightly. Maybe he’s at the pond. If he’s returning home… Actually, his parents might not be leviathans. They might be shifters instead, which means he won’t be swimming to his home. He’ll be walking or driving or flying there.

  No, I don’t know every detail about him… yet.

  As soon as I touch the water, my tail returns. Edlyn’s one of the few to have a black tail. I wave to her and Baltic, and then I swim as earnestly as I can for home. It’s not as if I’m not excited to see my dad. I am. It’s more that the Magical Hunters Academy feels like home too.

  I love the water. It’s impossible to be a mermaid and not love it. The waves, the feeling of swimming… I imagine it’s similar to how birds feel when they’re flying. It’s so smooth, so effortless, and yes, it takes a long while to reach the ocean, but soon enough, I’m entering our kingdom, Hydria.

  But something’s wrong. There are guards everywhere, all armed with tridents, but they won’t tell me what’s going on. They don’t prevent me from entering, and I zoom through the water to my parent’s coral home.

  My aunt is there. Ever since her husband died a few years ago, she lives with my dad and I. My mom died giving birth to me.

  When my aunt spies me, she sighs with relief and embraces me so tightly I can’t breathe.

  I pull back. “Aunt Mishell, what’s going on?”

  “Rillia…”

  “Just tell me!”

  “Hydria was attacked,” she murmurs as tears fill her eyes.

  Chapter 2

  “A-A-Attacked?” I can barely get the word out. “How? Where? Why? Who?” When?”

  “Sit down,” Aunt Mishell urges.

  I’ve been swimming in tight circles around her since she said “attacked,” and her words have me halting.

  “You know no merfolk sits except the king and queen,” I say.

  Her smile is tight and small. “I wanted to get you to slow down, and saying ‘slow down’ wouldn’t have worked, would they have?”

  Probably not.

  “Please, Aunt Mishell, just tell me what happened.”

  “Your father was hunting the liger sharks. They’ve been swimming closer and closer to our kingdom every tide. He spied them first.”

  My stomach twists into knots. “Who? The sea dragons?”

  “No. Actually, the attack was from the selkies.”

  “The selkies?” I gape at her. “Why would they attack us?”

  “I have no idea. No one knows what provoked the attack.”

  “Where exactly did they attack? Did we… Did we suffer…”

  “There were casualties. Not many died. Two guards. Five were wounded.”

  “Dad? Where is he?”

  Aunt Mishell says nothing, or I leave the “sitting” area for deeper in the house. Dad’s not in the dining area, and he’s not sleeping in his bed of seaweed.

  “Aunt Mishell!”

  “His tail is injured,” my aunt says, swimming up behind me. She pats my shoulder, spins me around, and gives me a tight embrace.

  “How badly?”

  “He might not be able to swim for quite some time.”

  My heart skips a beat, and I close my eyes. Merfolk can and do cry under the water, and I’m doing my best not to now. Aunt Mishell’s trying to be strong, and I’ll be strong for her. She and her brother are so close, even before my aunt moved in with us.

  “He fought them, didn’t he?”

  “You know your father. He saw them and alerted the guards, but he wouldn’t be turned aside.”

  I grin despite my worry. “He should’ve been a paranormal hunter at the very least.”

  My aunt smiles back. “I have no doubt he would have been the best merman paranormal hunter ever, but—”

  “Wait. Why are you here and not by Dad’s side?” I try not to sound suspicious and angry, but I am.

  “Your father wanted me to tell you the news, and he knew you would be coming straight to our house.”

  I swallow hard. Last break, I hadn’t come straight home. I’d gone with Edlyn to her house, and we had so much fun.

  But Dad knows me. He knew I would see the guards and come straight home.

  “Can I go see him?” I ask desperately.

  “When I last saw him, he was sleeping. He needs his rest. Those tending him will let us know once he’s woken. I haven’t had much sleep at all since. I haven’t eaten much of anything either. Are you hungry? I can make us—”

  “How long ago did it happen?” I ask. “Where?”

  “A week ago.”

  “You haven’t slept in a week? No, Aunt Mishell, I’ll make something.”

  “But—”

  “I don’t mind.” I gently push my aunt out of the room, to hers, and guide her toward her bed of seaweed. “You rest awhile.”

  I don’t want her to have to do anything. My aunt’s always been the kind to put everyone ahead of herself, to the point that she would run herself into the coral bed.

&n
bsp; She must be exhausted because she doesn’t argue with me much at all, and I leave our coral house in a daze. Somehow, mostly through muscle memory, I’m able to hunt down a barb-tailed dawn devfin. Once you take off the barbs, it’s a delectable little fish, and I bring down five of them. Aunt Mishell can have three, and I’ll take two, although I don’t know how I’ll be able to eat. But I know my aunt. If I don’t eat, she won’t, so I’ll just have to manage.

  But when I return to our coral house and I check on her, she’s fast asleep.

  I leave the barb-tailed dawn devfins in a basket near the bed of seaweed. My aunt will be able to smell it, not that I want her to have to cook. Still, I can’t stay here and eat by myself, and I’m not about to just swim here and wait for her to wake. Dad might be sleeping too, but I would much rather be by his side from the moment he wakes versus having someone come to our coral house and bring us to the medical center.

  I speed out of there, and I torpedo my way to the medical center. A ton of merfolk are floating around, hovering in place despite the waves, and all of their somber faces make me want to turn back around.

  I can’t do this. I can’t risk seeing Dad like this.

  No. I need to be strong. I’ll just have to pull myself together, suck it up, and be there for him no matter what.

  That’s what family does, and we’re a family. Not just Dad, my aunt, and I, but all the merfolk. At least, that’s how I view us, and it’s also why my crushes have never been on a merman.

  Adra swims up to me. “Oh, Rillia, I’m so sorry.”

  My stomach twists as she gives me a tight hug.

  “I…” I have no words.

  “Have you seen your father yet?” she asks softly.

  I shake my head.

  “My father fought with him. He had to drag your father away from the battle. He didn’t want to leave.”

  Tears fill my eyes. “That sounds like Dad all right. He loves this kingdom. He would die to protect it.”

  “He won’t have to worry,” Adra says. “We’re going to figure out everything—why they attacked, how to make peace.”

  “Peace?” I narrow my eyes, anger replacing my fear. Why should we make peace when they attacked us? We did nothing to provoke them!”

  “The ocean is vast, but not that vast, Rillia,” she says. “We can’t risk a fully fledged war.”

  I want to argue. I’m not prone to violence, which is why I’m considering being a paranormal hunter and not a slayer or executioner. But that’ll only happen if Queen Kaia and King Tullius allow me to. They use Magical Hunters Academy to train us to defend our kingdom. There aren’t many merfolk among the hunters, slayers, and executioners.

  “I have to see him,” I say, darting away with Adra, not wanting to see the pity in her eyes a moment longer. She means well, I know she does, but I can’t handle much of anything right now. Not pity, not compassion, not anything.

  Some of the merfolk who work in the medical center try to halt me, but I see Dad. He’s down halfway in a bed of seaweed, and I rush over to his side.

  He’s sleeping peacefully. I almost want to wake him up just so I can hear his voice and hear from his lips that he’s all right, but I’m not that cruel.

  I grab his hand and rub my thumb over his knuckles. His hand is cool to the touch, which isn’t normal. We don’t live in the deepest parts of the ocean where it’s frigid, so we tend to be warm at least if not hot from our constant moving, but he’s cool, maybe even cold, and I shiver.

  “Dad, you’re so brave. Why do you have to be so brave?”

  There’s no answer.

  A tear leaks out of my eye. Since I’m surrounded by water, it doesn’t roll down my face. It just joins the water in the ocean, and it serves as a reminder that we’re all connected.

  Even the merfolk and the selkies. Why did they attack us? Selkies are generally peaceful creatures! They’re seals in the water, but they can take off their skins and become humans on land. If someone steals their skin, though, they can’t return to the water, and the selkies belong to the water, just like us merfolk. They’ll never be happy long term on land. On occasion, it’s been said that some fishermen would steal the skins and make the selkies marry them. Once the selkies found their skins, they would return to the ocean and never look back, not even if they had kids.

  When I first heard about that, about the selkie women returning to the sea and abandoning their children, I was furious. I would’ve loved to know my mom, but she died. They could have returned to the sea but visited their children. They could’ve and should’ve stayed around long enough to see if any of the children are selkies too. No. They just listened to the draw of the waves.

  I get it to some extent. The call of the ocean is powerful. And the selkie women had been peaceful. Some might’ve fallen for the fisherman after all, but even if they didn’t, they never sought revenge against the man. Like I said, they’re peaceful.

  Except recently.

  I lift away some of the seaweed to peek at Dad’s tail. It’s so terribly wounded, and I don’t see how it can possibly be healed enough that he’ll be able to swim again. A merman who can’t swim? I never would’ve thought that feasible, but I can’t deny what I’m seeing. Chunks have been removed somehow, and there’s bruising. I can’t bear to look anymore at his wounded tail.

  Does this mean he won’t be able to walk either? Would his human legs be lame now? I’m so worried and afraid for Dad and our future.

  But I’m also shocked and horrified by the very thought that we were attacked and some of our own injured and even killed that I don’t think I can handle another second in this place. Especially since all I can hear is merfolk crying and wailing and worried whispers and angry shouts.

  It’s too much, far too much. As much as I want to be here when Dad wakes, I just can’t handle this.

  With tears burning my eyes, I dash around the others in the medical center and head as far away from the kingdom as I can as quickly as I can. The guards shout at me to return, but I ignore them, and I don’t think they follow. All I want is some space. I need to clear my thoughts.

  Why? Why did this happen? How could it have been prevented? Could it have been prevented?

  At least a guard hadn’t been sent to the academy to tell us to remain during the break. I wouldn’t have listened.

  My rage and hurt and horror and anguish explode out of me as I swim. Without warning, something else explores out of me, something far more physical. Whatever it is, it steals my breath away, and a shockwave ripples through me. I can’t swim anymore. It’s as if I’m entangled in seaweed, but it’s my own body that’s impeding me. My tail. It’s growing thicker, and legs burst out of it, my arms they’re changing too. My entire body.

  I’m shifting and not into a human.

  What in the world? No merfolk has ever been a shifter. By the tide, some can’t even turn into humans!

  But what am I?

  Now, fear of the unknown is what keeps me in this spot, but then a small fish swims nearby. He takes one look at me, squeaks, and turns right back around.

  “Wait,” I say. “Come back here.”

  He swims away, and I dart forward, able to move even faster in this form than ever before. With ease, I block his path.

  “What am I?” I ask desperately.

  The fish gapes at me, his tiny mouth open wide.

  “Don’t make me ask again,” I say, more upset and anxious than angry. What in the world is going on with me?

  “You’re a… a… a sea dragon!”

  Chapter 3

  The fish swims away as fast as his tiny tail can take him, but he doesn’t have to worry. I’m not going to go after him. I’m too shocked and appalled to even know what to think.

  Me. A mermaid… and a sea dragon? How is that even possible?

  Mom. Maybe? Could she have been a sea dragon? But that’s impossible! Dad never would’ve kept something like that from me. Neither would Aunt Mishell. Is it possible that my a
unt didn’t know this about my mom? But how could she not know? Unless my mom was a sea dragon shifter…

  Did that mean Dad wouldn’t know either? I’m so very confused about all of this, and I can’t even tell how or why, but I’m slowly shifting back to myself. Well, to my mermaid self. I don’t even feel comfortable in my own tail.

  How am I supposed to handle my being a shifter on top of everything with Dad and the attack? This is crazy. Beyond crazy.

  Can I have a do-over? Can I go back and wake up this morning? No. Can I go back in time to before the attack and prevent it? Or at least prevent Dad from getting injured? Yes, I’m selfish. I don’t even care.

  I don’t want to be a sea dragon shifter mermaid. It’s too much, and it’s not me. I refuse to accept this. All I want is to be able to be normal.

  But grief isn’t exactly normal, is it? It robs you of joy, of your very will to live, and right now, my dad isn’t dead, but it also feels as if he has. Or maybe a part of me has. I don’t know. I’m not sure of anything right now.

  “Rillia?” Talise calls.

  I don’t react to my friend. Instead, I drop through the water and land on a rock. Yes, I’m sitting, but it’s just as well because I don’t have the strength to swim right now. Because of shifting into my sea dragon form and back to my mermaid? Or because of my worry over my dad? Maybe both.

  “Do you know why there are so many guards about?” she asks, coming over to me. “They won’t tell me, and I can’t find my mom. I thought about going back to the academy. I’m a little freaked out.”

  “Go ahead.”

  “Go ahead and what? Return to the academy?”

  Even though I’m staring straight ahead instead of at her, I can still sense her tilt her head and eye me suspiciously.

  “What is going on?” she asks.

  “Do you know any selkies?” I ask.

  “Just a few, the ones who go to the academy. Why?”

  “Are you friends with them?”

  “Bleish is a friend, but she’s the only one. Rillia, seriously, what is going on?”

  “Has she seemed different to you lately?”

  “Different how?” Anxiety and frustration cut through her words.