by Erin Hayes
His words didn’t promise anything. I realized that, yet he seemed so genuine that I managed a small smile. In fact, I might have been teary-eyed, but because we were in the water, I wasn’t sure.
“Now,” he said, frowning, his gaze drifting downward to my silicon mermaid tail. “Can you swim with that thing?”
It took Finn a bit of convincing that the flipper at the end of the fake mermaid tail would help me swim faster than my two feet by themselves. After I made a good case for it, he finally obliged, although he made his thoughts about the fake tail abundantly clear.
“Anything’s better than a fake fin,” he grumbled, not unkindly.
I begged to differ, especially because it did help me blend in. Even though it was nowhere near an accurate imitation of the beauty of a real mermaid’s tail, I was thankful for the camouflage my tail offered. After all, Ponce had been fooled by it; he even said he thought I was an unfortunate mermaid with a bad tail.
That was better than a human with a fake tail in these parts.
“Ready?” Finn asked.
“I’m ready.”
I wanted to prove that I could make the journey, that I wasn’t a human making fun of mermaids. “Thanks for your help, Ponce,” I told the snapper. If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably still be searching for Finn. “I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Are you kidding?” the fish exclaimed. “I’m coming with you guys. Oceanus is going to flip when Prince Finn brings a human to his palace. You know how much they both hate humans, right?”
I glanced back at Finn, both curious and a bit mortified. What had happened to make them hate humans? My eyes drifted down the scars, and I knew. Maybe it wasn’t that particular event that had caused their hate, but I was sure that was a good indication why.
My stomach sank at the thought.
“I don’t hate all humans,” Finn said slowly. Concern flashed in his eyes as our gazes met. “Only the ones that kidnap my people.”
I nodded, although I still didn’t feel right. How many sea creatures were wrongly taken from this beautiful undersea world like Kai?
“You did not kidnap Kai,” he added with a wry smile.
“So you believe me,” I teased.
“I believed you last night. I just had a lot going on.” He looked remorseful for a moment, then he gave himself a little shake. “We should get going. It’s a bit of a long swim.”
“Are you sure you’re coming, Ponce?” I asked, hoping he would. I was starting to like him.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” The snapper looked about to bubble over with excitement.
Hours later, I knew Finn wasn’t kidding when he said it was a “bit” of a long swim. If it hadn’t been for that burst of extra swimming skills that I’d picked up, I would have been left in his wake. As it was, I only barely managed to keep up with him, and I could tell that he was still slowing down for me. We kept going deeper and deeper, yet the pressure didn’t squeeze me like a bug between a shoe and the ground like I had expected.
Ponce swam in wide zigzags in the space between Finn and me, singing songs that were perfect for an underwater road trip. Road swim. Whatever. He was obviously having more fun than either Finn or me.
I took the opportunity to talk with Ponce, who was all too happy to chat back.
“So you knew Finn before this?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” Ponce said with the flippancy of a gossiper. “Everyone knows Finn. You see him around all the time.”
“‘Cause he’s a prince?”
Now in front of us, Finn looked back at us and actually rolled his eyes. “I hate being called ‘Prince’.”
“I suppose,” Ponce mused, unfazed by Finn’s comment. “It’s because he’s the protector of the sea, more or less.”
“What do you mean, ‘protector’?”
“As in protector,” Ponce insisted. “As in, he saves us sea creatures from danger. He’s like a superhero!”
“I’m no superhero,” Finn muttered. I looked at him, and his cheeks were so red with embarrassment, I could see them from about fifteen feet behind.
I thought back to that first instance when I met Finn when he’d climbed up the rocks to save Kai.
“How are you a superhero?”
“It’s not what it sounds like,” Finn said quickly. “I just...look after the ocean.”
“Saved all of us a few times,” Ponce cut in. “Explosions, earthquakes, pollution...”
“It’s my job,” Finn shrugged, swimming further ahead at a faster speed, obviously hoping to outswim the conversation. I pushed myself to keep up with him at a speed where I couldn’t catch my breath enough to keep talking. That didn’t stop Ponce, who was happy to keep singing as we went along.
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 insp
ired 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.”
He understood my hesitation, empathized with me. I thought about my own dad, who definitely wasn’t scary. My mother was, though. Maybe she and Finn’s dad would get along well, not that I could ever imagine my mother as a mermaid. It wouldn’t be sensible enough for her.
“Are you ready to go in?” Finn asked.
I swallowed. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
We swam downward, entering through one of the open corridors that connected the various buildings of the palace. I was open-mouthed the entire time at the amount of detail that was squeezed into the place. Every square inch was covered with intricate designs and ornamentation. Shells, sand dollars, and coral were the decorations here, and while that stuff would have been present at a cheap resort on land, it was a work of art here.
“We don’t have to go directly to my father,” Finn told me. “You can rest, get used to being here a bit more. I don’t know what mood he’ll be in. He’s a bit unpredictable.”
I thought about it and then shook my head. With Christine waiting for me and the impending trip to Portland, I couldn’t afford to waste any time. “If he can see us now, that would be best.”
“I’ll be right with you,” Finn said.
“And me too,” Ponce added, although his demeanor had changed slightly. He looked as nervous as I felt.
As soon as we turned a corner, I could see why Finn didn’t like being there. A swarm of gorgeous mermaids descended upon us like a pack of wolves. Descended upon Finn, rather; they had no interest in me or Ponce.
“Finn!”
“Finn’s back!”
“Oh, my goodness. Hello, handsome!”
Apparently, I wasn’t the only girl to notice Finn’s good looks. There were at least twelve mermaids all vying for his undivided attention. He was a celebrity to them. Human girls would have acted the same way around Prince Harry, and for the record, I thought Finn was far better looking.
At least I wasn’t as brazen as they were, getting up in his face and throwing myself at him like they were.
They were all gorgeous, each and every one of them perfect in her own way, whether she was slender, athletic, a bit curvy, or didn’t appear to be human at all.
Their long hair swept all about them in swirls that seemed to be choreographed around their lovely faces. Under the sea, it didn’t matter if your hair was frizzy or thin, because in the water, it all looked gorgeous. While the upper half of some of them could have passed for human, some of them certainly couldn’t be mistaken for humans. Some were definitely humanoid like they were real versions of Ariel from The Little Mermaid, while others were more fishy in appearance. Evidently, the definition of “mermaid” was very loose. Some of them were completely covered in fish scales, their skin reflecting off the glow of the plants that lit the hallways. Some had human skin tones and hair colors, while others were all sorts of different colors, from blue and green to lilac and magenta.
Though I hadn’t been prepared for the sheer variety in their appearances, they didn’t frighten me. If anything, I felt jealous with these beauties throwing themselves at Finn. Not that he was my boyfriend or anything…
Maybe they were just friends, right?
The mermaids were wearing various forms of clothing fashioned from kelp to shells and old, thin sailcloth, which covered up their breasts, thankfully. After everything, I wasn’t sure if I would be comfortable with a bunch of naked mermaids surrounding Finn.
Silly Tara. There’s nothing going on between you and Finn.
I frowned. It certainly did feel like we had shared a moment or two in our time together. My cheeks burned, and I crossed my arms in front of me. It could never work out, so I shouldn’t even get my hopes up.
“See why he doesn’t want to come back?” Ponce said to me. “So much attention from the ladies.”
“It’s to be expected,” I remarked, feeling my blush deepening.
“It’s made even worse because he is the Protector of the Seas.”
I glanced back Ponce. “I thought you said he was a superhero. Don’t superheroes get a secret identity?”
The snapper flicked his fins in what I suspected was his equivalent of a shrug. “Not when you’re the son of King Oceanus.”
I silently agreed.
In the middle of the crowd, Finn looked back at me, his face pleading with me to save him. It would have been comical if he didn’t look so darned desperate.
While I wasn’t comfortable enough here to really do anything or make a scene, I decided I was going to give it a shot.
I swam over to him, which was hard since the mermaids surrounded him in three dimensions. I grasped his hand and pulled him along with me.
“Come on, Finn,” I said, hoping I sounded like a servant or something. “You, uh, have business with your father.”
Thank you, he mouthed gratefully to me, and I smiled at him. I guess my mental Mermish translator can read lips, although anyone could read the gratification on his face.
I thought we were scot-free until a fully-scaled beauty with piercing magenta eyes blocked my path.
“What’s wrong with your tail?” she asked me, distaste evident in her voice.
I froze, unable to think of a good reason as to why I had a fake tail. Finn and Nereia had acted like it was the worst thing ever for a human to be dressed up as a mermaid, so I didn’t want to come out and say it. Was I supposed to be completely disguised? Was it a bad thing if I was a human?
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 wer
e 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.”