by K. K. Allen
I do as she says and change into the sparkly green bikini, which miraculously fits me perfectly. Arabella is already halfway in the water. She bends down and pulls something up from the sand.
“Come on!” Arabella calls to me impatiently. Smiling, she waves me over and opens her palm, revealing a seashell filled with a white glittery substance. It reminds me of the night Rose, Charlotte, and I cast magic together on the balcony overlooking the bay. They showed me what our energy looked like as we released it into the air—microscopic particles of shimmering vapor. It was beautiful.
Arabella holds out something similar to me. “You just need a pinch. Put it on your tongue, and you’ll transform once you’re under the water.”
I scrunch up my face. “Is that pixie dust?”
She giggles again, making herself appear younger than her twenty years. “Something like that. You can find it all over the bay floor if you know what to look for. It’s energy we emit when we swim. We call it sea sprinkle.”
Staring down at the substance, I hesitate only vaguely before taking a large pinch of it. The second the elements touch my tongue I’m surprised at how easily it dissolves, like sugar. Then it’s like I’ve just taken a hit of energy from the moon. A spark ignites through my body and tingles race through me.
Arabella walks farther out until only her head remains above water, then she dives in. I follow her, though my dive isn’t as graceful as hers. The transition from human to mermaid happens so fast that I barely realize my legs are morphing into a fish tail.
I struggle with my movements at first as I relearn how to use my muscles—side-to-side then up and down.
Arabella flips around and smiles at me as I swim around, trying out my new method of transportation. “You don’t have to move your torso,” she instructs. “Just your fluke.” That’s when I realize I can hear her, but her mouth isn’t moving.
How is she talking?
My thoughts echo in my ears, and Arabella laughs.
“Just like that,” she says. “Think it, and I’ll hear it. But don’t worry—I can only hear the thoughts directed at me.”
I start moving my tail—or fluke—the way she instructed until I’m swimming beside her.
“Do you like it?” she asks excitedly. “I thought green would match your necklace.”
It takes me a second to realize she’s talking about my fish scales. “It’s beautiful,” I say, turning to find that Arabella is ahead of me.
Her blue fluke practically glowing behind her, she swims off, and I follow, quickly adjusting to my movements by mimicking hers. Arabella is fluid and quick, moving as gracefully as a dolphin. I look back and arch my waist to see the fluke that is now attached to my body. This. Is. So. Cool.
I giggle underwater, creating a series of tiny bubbles that escape my mouth. “So is this how you turn into a mermaid? That sea sprinkle?”
Arabella shakes her head. “No. Sea descendants don’t need it to transition. It’s useful to us if we’re lacking energy, but we have been preserving it as of late.”
“Can anyone use it to transition?”
“Just Enchanters.”
“What about Followers?” I should probably help Arabella search for my bracelet, but I’m too hyped up and curious to do much good now.
“No, Followers are great secret keepers, but they don’t possess magic. That’s what makes them such loyal Followers. They have become essential to us as we cohabitate with Normals. They act as a bridge that ties us together.”
I catch up to her again. “How many of you are there?”
“Three thousand along the coast between here and Weeki Wachee. Only a few hundred of us live in the spring, and there are more in the Gulf.” She continues to roam around the water, taking me down along the bay floor, which reaches deeper as we go farther away from shore.
“You’re lucky, you know?” Arabella’s tone changes. I detect a mix of seriousness and sadness. “Enchanters and Normals have evolved together, and things have changed significantly for you all since the beginning of our time. You can fall in love and marry whoever you want, even a Normal. You can even share your secrets with them. It makes life a lot easier.”
“Can’t your people do the same? You live on land too. You’re not much different than me.”
“I dated a Normal once,” she says in a dreamy tone. “We were in love, but once my dad found out, he forbade us to be together. He’s very strict with my sisters and me about dating within our species. He’d disown me if he found me dating another Normal.”
Poor Arabella. “Wow. I didn’t realize your father was so strict.”
She laughs. “All Elders are strict, but King Isaac takes the cake for sure.” She winks at me. “Even more so than Rose.”
I cringe, finding that hard to believe. “Why do you think your dad is so against dating outside of your… species?”
Arabella frowns. “He feels like it’s his duty to ensure a healthy population of our kind. I know his intentions are good, but the fact that I can’t have something only makes me want it more.”
I pinch back a smile. “Sounds pretty typical, if you ask me.”
I’m still daydreaming about Arabella’s long-lost love when she swims off in another direction then reaches frantically into a bed of wild green plants.
“Come.” She waves me over without glancing in my direction. Her eyes are transfixed on something. “My sisters and I already scoured the floor near Summer Estates. I thought you and I could look around here. Objects shift many miles when tides disrupt the water. It could be anywhere.”
I move toward her as she points to something. “Look, in the turtle grass.”
“The what?” It’s impossible for me to stop asking questions. Arabella’s world is fascinating.
She giggles. “It’s a type of seagrass. We call it turtle grass because turtles feed on it.” She turns to me. “Just as trees keep your air clean in your world, seagrass helps us improve our water clarity, which keeps underwater life healthy. After the disaster almost two decades ago, the seagrass was steadily dying. We were sure that it would be gone by now and that our time was limited. We put a lot of work into purifying the water, and things quickly improved.”
Her strong shoulders, confident tone, and matter-of-fact expression gives me the understanding that she’s proud of her contributions—and she should be.
“All of that pollution, that was all because of the Equinox?” It seems hard to believe that anyone would try so hard to poison innocent life.
Arabella frowns. “They were the catalyst of it all, yes, but there are many things that Normals bring into the world that work against us too. The growth in population alone works against us. More people means more garbage, sewage, and air pollution—especially from those wretched cars they drive.”
“Charlotte drives that massive SUV, though. I’m surprised you haven’t yelled at her yet.”
But instead of the anger I expect, Arabella grins. “That SUV is the best thing for this environment.”
“Huh?” How is that possible?
She laughs. “Rose would never abuse the environment by driving around an actual motor vehicle. That SUV runs off pure magic—Solstice energy.”
I’m in awe. “What about the Normals? Aren’t cars unavoidable?”
“Yes, but we do what we can. We try to keep the population numbers low in Solstice communities, but there are politics involved. It’s getting harder and harder for her to fight the battle with the city.”
Remembering that we approached this subject for a reason, I look down and see the shiny gold object lying in the grass. I can see immediately that’s it’s not my bracelet, but I pick it up to examine it. It’s an old twenty-dollar coin.
“Can I see that?” Arabella has already snatched it from my hands, and I shrug and swim off. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the bright smile on her face as she tosses it into her net. I imagine that she’s just discovered treasure—at least to her.
I begin
to examine the floor of the bay, but obviously, we won’t be searching every inch of this in one hour. “Do you actually think we’ll find my locket?”
She catches up to me. “Yes. We have to.” She grabs my hand and squeezes. “What do you remember about that night after I brought you to the surface?”
I shake my head, hating how foggy those few precious moments feel to me now. “I remember being placed on a hard surface, like a boat. I remember someone standing over me and the feeling like I was still drowning. And then I remember waking up on the shore.”
Arabella’s movements are so naturally beautiful and confident as she swims through the water. “Let’s get closer to the marina. We need to stay low, though. My father would kill me if he knew I got anywhere close to a boat.”
I follow her while peering up toward the night sky. The longer we swim and the darker the sky gets, the more my eyes adjust to the seafloor. I look back down toward where Arabella is searching, and something in the seagrass catches my eye. I jolt into action and swim toward it. Pulling the object out of the tall grass and into my hands, I call to Arabella, “It’s here!”
My heart beats faster when I recognize the gold chain, then my hope evaporates instantly when I realize the locket is missing from it.
She’s by my side in a flash, reaching for the tiny string of jewelry and examining it up close. “Where did it go?”
I peer at the chain, and I look around, expecting to see my locket nearby. “I-I don’t know.”
“Oh no.” She deflates. “The chain is broken.” Arabella starts frantically searching the floor of the marina, a hunt that feels so desperate because I know nothing will turn up.
After we’ve searched the same area for what feels like hours, I finally call out to her, “Let’s just go.”
“No,” she pushes. “We can’t give up now. We need to keep looking.”
My heart is too broken to think straight. All I want to do is get home and crawl under my covers. My locket is gone. I know it. “I want to go home.”
I start to turn away, but Arabella grips my wrist, stopping me. “Wait. What is that?” She speaks in a hushed voice like she’s afraid someone will hear her thoughts.
I look in the direction where her eyes are focused to find a dark cloudy substance streaming into the water from the marina dock. A sensation strikes me in the gut, telling me that something is very wrong again. I break out of Arabella’s hold and swim to the surface.
“What are you doing?” she hisses.
I ignore her, lifting my head above water to find the source of the substance. I’m not sure why I expected to see a broken pipe or an engine spill from a boat, but when I see a shadow running under a streetlamp toward the parking lot, I know it was dumped on purpose.
“Any luck?” Rose asks with a clap of her hands when we enter the Summer Manor great room.
Arabella and I exchange a glance then shake our heads. “No. I found this, though.” I hold up the gold chain, which is still clasped in my fist.
Long, strong fingers reach out. Rose pulls it toward her and stares at it for a long time. “Where is the locket?”
I shrug while a sick feeling swirls in my stomach.
“We’ll find it.” Arabella says stubbornly. She’s still hopeful. “It might be near where we found the chain.”
Rose narrows her eyes. “Where was that?”
“The marina.” As if ashamed, Arabella bites down on her bottom lip. “Please don’t tell my father. If we hadn’t gone there, we wouldn’t have found anything.”
Rose gives a wave of her hand like that’s the least of her concerns. “How would it travel as far as the marina?”
Arabella shrugs. “You’d be surprised how fast and far things carry underwater. It’s not impossible.”
I sigh. Someone needs to tell Rose what else we discovered tonight. “Rose, when we were at the marina, we saw something.” I hesitate, not sure if this should come from me or Arabella. When Arabella encourages me with wide eyes and a nod, I go for it. “A black cloudy substance was being dumped into the water.”
Rose’s expression darkens considerably. I don’t need to tell her our suspicions. She already knows. She’s already experienced this.
“Kat tried to see who did it,” Arabella says. “But they were gone, and by the time we saw what they were doing, it was already spreading. I diffused what I could, but we had to get out of there. Who knows how long this has been happening or where else they’re dumping?”
Rose nods. “Thank you for telling me. I’m so happy that nothing bad happened to you out there. I don’t want you swimming around the marina again, especially at night. I know you both are smart and careful and strong, but everything about that place is unpredictable. The water, the traffic. There are so many abusive Normals who go out and cruise around the waters, throwing out fishing hooks, anchors even, without understanding who or what they might be hurting.”
Arabella reaches over and rubs Rose’s arms. “Can I do anything, Rose?”
“Yes, you can set up a meeting for me and your father. It seems we have some business to discuss.”
Carnival preparations have ramped up over the week, which has been a positive diversion from the evil lurking around every corner. Rose continues to tell me that it’s important to carry on as we normally would and to not attract attention to our worries. I agree with this. However, I’m certain the tension could be shattered with a simple tap of a fingernail. The entire town, not just the Solstice community, is on edge.
Today, I’m stocking the game booths with prizes before my shift at Island Grille. I wasn’t scheduled to work today, but Roy called me last night to see if I could help set up the catering for Trisha’s birthday party since I can’t work tonight. I guess her parents ordered an abundance of food, and the setup alone is a two-person job. I’ll take all the distractions I can get, so I agreed without a second thought.
My volunteer shift at the carnival is almost over when I hold up a stuffed toy manatee and examine him with curious eyes. The gray pug-nosed creature in my hands is oddly cute. Before moving to Apollo Beach, I had never heard of a manatee, but the species is adored and protected by the city. There are signs everywhere warning boaters and beach guests to be aware of the endangered mammals.
Without a second thought, I stick the stuffed animal in the back of my jean shorts.
“I saw that,” Johnny says dryly as he struts by, scowl intact.
I swivel to face him and lift my arms while adopting my best innocent expression, batting my eyelids. “What? I won him fair and square.” I pick up a red dart and throw it toward the balloon-covered board, my eyes never leaving Johnny’s. Hearing a pop, I grin. “See?”
Johnny just shakes his head and continues walking. “See you at work.”
I make a face behind his back and proceed to tear down the last box. Four game booths are now stocked and ready to go.
I hop on my bike and head for Island Grille, where I park in the back lot. The catering van is sitting behind an open set of double doors, so Johnny must be inside already. The mere idea of having to work with the grump all day ties my insides in knots. So far, I’ve done a good job of scheduling myself for the hours Johnny isn’t working. But I can handle the guy for one day as long as I follow through with my plan—ignore him and avoid all eye contact.
When Johnny walks through the back entrance, his thick arms are wrapped around a clear plastic bin, and I take a good look at him. He’s wearing black athletic shorts and a light-gray shirt that contrasts with his darkened skin tone. His stubble has thinned out some, and his electric-blue eyes seem brighter than ever before. My heart stutters a little. It’s a ridiculous reaction to a man I’m trying so hard to despise, but while my mind is screaming to stay strong, my heart is clearly a stupid fool when it comes to Johnny Pierce.
With my hands securely trapped inside the pockets of my jean shorts, I rock back on my heels, adopting a casual expression. He spots me there, our eyes lock, and I’m
already failing at my own plan to ignore and avoid.
He walks past me and tosses the plastic bin in the back of the van. “Thanks for filling in today.”
My eyes widen. To say I’m shocked by his greeting is an understatement. “S-Sure. Just tell me what you need.”
He looks toward the storage room. “There are some party tubs in the back that we need to load. Let me know if they’re too heavy to get on the hand truck, and I’ll help.”
I nod and pass him on my way into the building. The tubs in the back aren’t heavy at all, so I carry them two at a time to the back of the van and place them inside.
“What are you doing?” Johnny’s voice is loud and anxious as he runs up behind me.
I swivel around, eyes up at him, brows semi-furrowed. “Huh? What? You wanted those bins, right?”
“Geez, Kat. Those bins are heavy. I told you to use the hand truck, not carry them. Are you trying to kill yourself?” He stares at the bins then shakes his head before walking away.
I stare back into the van, trying to understand what the big deal is, then my insides begin shrinking. I forgot about my abnormal strength. I shouldn’t have carried them both. Instinctively, I reach for my back and moan in fake agony. “Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking.” I rub it a bit and hope he’s fooled by my amazing acting skills, but he’s already buried somewhere in the storage room.
When I go back inside, I find that he’s already placed the next set of bins on the pulley for me. “There, use this.”
I push the hand truck to the van, and where Johnny appears beside me. He silently picks up the bins one by one and places them into the van.
I think of saying something smart to him, something to let him know I’m not the weak girl he thinks I am. Instead, I bite my tongue. I don’t want to fight. I just want to get through my shift.
“What’s next?” I ask him once the equipment and supplies are loaded.
He gives me a sideways glance but doesn’t turn toward me fully. Maybe he doesn’t want to make eye contact with me either. “I just have to grab some papers. Hop in and start her up.” He tosses me a set of keys, and I climb into the van, taking in the scent of heated leather mixed with vanilla, probably from the air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror.