His beautiful voice poured out a ribbon and wrapped my heart up tight, my jolly merman bold. I imagined us in his underwater world, swimming together.
“What’s it like, Fin. Natatoria?”
“It’s beautiful,” he said, breathless. “Not as beautiful as you, but it’s pretty amazing. The mer songs are always being sung and people are very happy there. And the buildings are covered in gems and precious metals. The light bounces around and everything sparkles. You’d love it.”
I hummed.
“I have to go, Ash. But close your eyes. I’ll be thinking of you and wishing you luck on your race tomorrow. I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
Exhausted, I drifted off to sleep.
13
:::
FIN
Saturday afternoon, April 16th
A shiver jolted my skin as I watched a fly wriggling in the web hanging over the RV kitchen window. Earlier it had been buzzing low circles over my head, driving me crazy. Though I felt sorry for it now, I’d never set it free. I wasn’t afraid of much, but man, I hated spiders.
My last conversation with Ash kept playing over in my mind, stabbing me in the chest. I’d hurt her, and I felt horrible about it. The moment she arrived, after I kissed her passionately, I’d show her my brand of idiocy etched in my leg—ironically one matching hers. She’d be getting ready for her race and I wished I could watch her swim. I missed my girl.
We rounded the bend and the Atlantic came into view. I slid open the window over the table to feel the breeze. The salty air clung to my skin and the inside of my nose, healing me in places I didn’t know I’d injured. After driving through ten states in six days, I couldn’t believe we’d finally made it to Florida in one piece.
We rolled past rows of mansions and I salivated at the water sprawled out behind them, anxious to wiggle my toes in the sand before diving in the water. The shush of the waves played music to my merman ears and tonight I’d finally work out the kinks in my muscles, swimming in the warm current.
Dad must have known where to go. Once we’d pulled off the highway, he stopped asking me for directions. Beyond simple navigations, he still wasn’t speaking to me, still angry apparently.
Dad wove down a winding street, stopped in front of a tiny beach house, and killed the engine.
“Is this it?” Mom’s voice hid nervousness as she opened the RV door. “The safe-house?”
Dad came around to her side of the vehicle and took her hand.
“Yes, Maggie.”
They walked up the small path toward the front door. I limped behind, sizing up the landscape.
Mansions on either side pressed in with their lofty intimidation as if the meager structure or its inhabitants didn’t belong. White chipping paint on the siding screamed for attention as weeds staked their claim in the flowerbeds.
How long would we stay here anyway? My parents had said they’d planned to get a house and start up their business again. My only hope was that would happen soon, hopefully before we rescued Tatch.
Dad knocked but didn’t wait for a response before walking in. I peered over his shoulder, curious of what lay ahead. The interior housed typical blue beachy stuff, uncomfortable furniture made of wicker, and white cabinets stuck in the wall filled with books. But at the sight of a girl on the couch, my mouth fell open. A vision. A dream. Her green eyes shone under red hair. Ash. But she looked a few years older. How’d she get here?
“You look like you've just seen a ghost,” the redhead girl said with a thick Natatorian accent.
My shoulders slunk. Am I going insane? I blinked again, wondering if anyone else saw or heard her. Was she actually a ghost?
“Well aren’t you talkative,” the redhead cocked her head to the side and laughed, bouncing off the couch. “It’s Mr. and Mrs. Captain Jack, I presume?” She smiled at my parents.
Dad bowed his head. “Princess.”
Mom followed. “You can call me Maggie.”
The girl took Mom’s hand. “A pleasure.”
“Look at what the crab drug in,” an older woman with long curly white hair said. She rose from the table where an older man sat. A huge smile accentuated the wrinkles of her face. She zeroed in on me. “Don't worry about Galadriel, Finley. She’s having a rough go of it on land.”
“Rough go?” Galadriel’s face turned from sweet to sour. “You think these plastic boys running amuck is my fault? The uncultured sea slugs! Gah!” Galadriel flipped her long red hair over her shoulder and exited down the hall. Within seconds a door slammed.
Mom turned in confusion. “That was abrupt.”
“I see things haven’t changed.” Dad gave the woman a hug and rested his arm on her shoulder. “Son, this is Sissy,” he gestured to the table, “and Hans.”
Mom and Dad had spoken highly of them the entire drive, but they’d forgotten to mention they were human. All the Natatorians I knew were youthful, even the old ones. For that fact alone, Hans and Sissy couldn’t possibly be mer.
“Hello, Fin.” Sissy took my hand. “My, you’ve grown. The last time I saw you, you were a newborn merling. So adorable.” She pinched my cheek with a cold, wrinkled hand.
I shrugged and backed away once she let go. Her hand caught the light and sparkled with the promising mark, same as on Hans’ hand. How could that be? Were they mer after all? This left me with more questions than answers, especially over the coincidence of Galadriel’s resemblance to Ash.
“Has it been that long, Sissy?” Mom asked.
“Too long, my dear friend.” The women embraced.
Dad stepped to the side with Hans. “Has there been a report?”
Hans lowered his eyes and tilted his head. “Yes and no. There’s been an uprising—”
Dad clapped Hans on the shoulder, interrupting him. “Why don’t we speak on the porch.”
Sissy flicked her head in the direction of the hall where Galadriel had just escaped. “Good idea, Captain.”
I followed behind the crowd toward the door. Dad turned with a glare. “We’ll only be a moment, Fin.”
What?
Sissy frowned momentarily until Mom took her arm and led her outside. Dad ignored me and closed the door. I stood alone, rejected and angered, with only my demons to comfort me.
I limped over to the island counter and pounded my fist. How long would Dad fume over what happened? I’d already apologized. Didn’t he see it was an accident? I’d never intended to fin out on the beach, especially in front of a group of toothless freaks.
If he intended to replace me with the washed-up mer couple, and leave me to tend to the house, he had another thing coming. I’d rescue my sister with or without his blessing.
“They’re always doing that, but I can hear them most of the time.”
I turned around to meet Galadriel’s piercing green eyes. My heartbeat sped up. A part of me desired to kiss her right then and there, but her voice and demeanor revealed she wasn’t Ash—an evil older twin messing with my head.
“Old, aren’t they?”
I narrowed my eyes in confusion.
She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. “I’m talking about Sissy and Hans. It’s what happens when you stop swimming in essence filled waters. You get all old and icky.” She moved to a bar stool and crossed her long tan legs. “It’s something you and I have to look forward to if we stay here. We’ll sprout grey hair and wrinkles, living unhappily never after.” She leaned her cheek into her hand and produced a sappy smirk. “Speaking of which, why the limp?”
She gestured to my leg. Part of her hand though, where her ring and pinky finger should be, was missing. I frowned.
“Don’t look at me like I’m a freak. You’re the silent one over there with a limp. Do you talk, boy? Hook got your tongue? Or have they warned you not to speak with me—that I’m the enemy?”
I stopped staring at her deformity and gained composure. “I was shot.”
Her eyes lit up. “Like with a gun?�
� She froze momentarily, her mouth gaped half-open. “You have to tell me what happened. Every detail.”
Galadriel’s innocent reaction tore away the illusion she’d wanted me to see earlier. She wasn’t some evil spy for her father. No. She was a curious mermaid kept under the sea from a vast world with so much to offer.
I limped around the other side of the island and retrieved a cup from the drainer. “May I?” I said, gesturing to the tap.
She pursed her lips. “Yes, by all means.”
After her snippy comments, I wanted to toy with her for a bit. Slowly I filled the glass. “It was really nothing. Just some locals thinking they’d poach me for sport.”
“How did you get away?”
“I almost didn’t. The one with the gun was deaf.”
Her eyes grew. “That’s incredible. What did you do?”
I smirked. “They planned to stuff me and mount me on the wall. Somehow I made it to the water and we waited until he fell asleep, then snuck away.”
“Did you save the bullet?”
“Um….” I scratched my head and Galadriel gasped.
I froze, trying to figure out what freaked her out. She pointed at me with huge eyes. If a hairy spider was crawling on me, I’d scream like a girl and run from the room.
“You’re promised?” she whispered.
My lips clamped shut, surprised that that was what freaked her out. I didn’t answer.
“Oh.” She brought her deformed hand to her lips. “You’re separated—must be killing you.” She shot me a conflicting look, one mixed with glee and sorrow, like she understood.
“I'm managing.” I drained the glass in one long pull; something to stop the questions. I could still feel her eyes on me. I couldn’t stay here, not with Ash’s twin.
“So what’s your story?” she asked.
I washed and rinsed the glass before I turned around. “There’s no story.”
“Everyone has a story.” Her conniving smile lit up her face in an eerie way. “Come on,” she held out her perfect hand, “…spill.”
Her eagerness sparked a warning from Dad. He’d said to be careful. She’d get Cliff Notes with a pointed edge.
“Because you ran away, my sister had her promise stolen by your spineless mollusk of a brother. So now we’re stuck here and are planning to get her back.” I flashed a patronizing smile. “Your turn.”
She looked away in disgust. “Not fair.”
“Well, it’s the truth.” I shot an arrogant smirk.
She pouted her lips. “I never intended for that to happen to your sister, but good luck with my… brother. He’s a self-important sea sack and he won’t relinquish your sister without a fight.”
“I’m not afraid of Azor.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “You should be.”
I stared her down. My sister suffered because of her actions. She owed my family. “So?”
“So, what?”
“Why did you run then?”
She slumped onto the counter and blew out a gust of air, blowing her bangs off her forehead.
“Mr. Darcy.”
“Is this someone I should know?"
“Don’t you read, pretty boy? The books… they’ve ruined me. I thought those men existed but apparently they don’t, and ironically my own pride and prejudice prevents me from stooping to their level—I should have known that mermen aren’t anything different than the land dwellers. There’s no one here that is chivalrous or romantic. They’re all a bunch of frat boys. They look at me with dreamy eyes and promise me the world; anything to get me in the sack. It’s so pathetic.”
She laid her head on the counter, her red hair within touching distance of my hand. I splayed my hand flat to keep from yanking it.
She continued, “now I’m stuck here. Sissy won’t let me leave and I refuse to be made human after what I’ve experienced. It’s a living nightmare.”
Living a nightmare? I couldn’t believe my ears. What about Tatch? “I’m sure my sister’s in paradise.”
She looked up at me, water rimming her eyes. “Stop blaming me for something Azor and my father did. They have nothing to do with me.”
I could barely control my rage to hear my sister suffered over a search for her quest of fictional book characters. I wanted to choke her neck. Galadriel turned her back to me and faced the large bay windows. Her hand rose to wipe her face.
I stood there, my fists shaking. She cried because the men in books didn’t compare to the men in real life, how insane.
“Your little lass is lucky to acquire such a catch,” Galadriel said before she turned and slid her arms forward on the counter, looking deep within my eyes. I caught a glimpse of her cleavage pressed into the countertop. I glanced away. “Maybe I wasn't looking in the right place, or for the right land dweller. Maybe I need to trade in big metropolises for small lakeside towns—for boys like you. Will you take me to your lakeside town, Fin?” She flitted her long eyelashes. “I'll tell you all my secrets.”
My stomach lurched. I was ready to chew her out good when Mom and Dad returned with Sissy and Hans behind them. Dad watched us with a questioning frown. I looked away like I’d done something wrong. Galadriel snapped her body upright as if we’d only been discussing the weather.
Galadriel was worse than a spoiled princess. She was a manipulative witch and I had to find another place to stay. I knew if we kept having conversations like this one, I’d lose control and who knew how far I would go. For her safety, I needed to leave.
Everyone had mistaken Galadriel to be the fly, but in all reality she was the spider.
14
:::
ASH
Saturday, late morning, April 16th
My heart thrummed as I looked at the stands. Dad, Mom, and my sister all watched with rapt attention. The day had finally come for the championship meet, the biggest day of my swimming career, and I’d missed almost all of my practices the past few weeks. I was going to make such a fool of myself.
As I stood on the block, water dripped down the backs of my legs from my suit. The glistening oasis below called silently, beckoning me to wash away my cares in its goodness.
“Swimmers take your mark,” the announcer called.
Here goes.
I took one last look at Meredith before we both dove in at the starter. Heaven enveloped me into her watery weightlessness as I glided in my underwater home. My body flowed through the current, my skin tingling over exhilarated muscles. I pushed the water down my sides and naturally sucked in a breath of water. I choked. My head emerged and I coughed through the next few breaths between my strokes.
Whoa! What was that?
I peeked to the side and instead of everyone passing me by, I still held a lead against the pack. I put my head down and developed a rhythm with each stroke, zoning out into mindlessness. Before I knew it, my hands hit the wall. I pulled up my head to find I’d finished almost a full lap ahead of everyone else. The crowd leapt to their feet in applause.
I checked the board for my time as Meredith finished next to me.
“Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time ever, with a time of 53.44, Ashlyn Lanski has tied the NCAA record for the women’s 100-yard butterfly.”
My mouth fell open as my time lit up and flashed. I’d told Fin of my new abilities, but this was ridiculous. He’d promised his blood would have long escaped my system by now, but this? How did I swim so fast? Did the promise secure one foot, or should I say fin, into the mer world and give me the ability to swim like a fish?
Whatever it was, my elation was out of this world. I wanted to swim backflips.
“Lanski, you did it!” Coach Madsen hoisted me out of the pool like a fish on a hook. She clasped herself around me in a hug, unconcerned that I soaked her sweatshirt.
The sea of congratulations continued when I caught Meredith’s beet-red face from the poolside. She faked a smile. I pushed through the throng of people and helped her out of the pool.
“Goo
d race,” I said.
She nodded back. “Yeah.”
I wasn’t sure what else to say. Guilt set in. Had I really won the race fair and square?
:::
The hubbub continued on the way home from the meet in the car.
“Ash,” Mom turned around from the passenger seat, “I can’t believe it. Even after your accident. Did you hear your coach? The Olympic trials are in June. Maybe you could qualify.”
Evergreen (Mer Tales, Book 2) Page 8