Chapter 15

FIFTEEN

Jesse

When I’d finally come back around, I was just floating listlessly in the darkness of a tunnel. Pitch dark. I’d thought I’d known what darkness was, but this was inky blackness on another level. At first, I wasn’t even sure my eyes were open as my arms flailed through the water helplessly. I frantically tried to orient myself, then realized I didn’t need to breathe. Three slits had opened up along my neck, fluttering when I touched them. It was pitch black, so I wasn’t able to see myself, but I could feel the difference in my lower body—inside of kicking with two legs, there was one singular, solid muscle pushing me forward.

No. Way.

Merrick’s scent was in the water around me like a beacon. I gave into my urges and followed it, erupting from the tunnel and into lighter waters. I raced toward the surface and broke through it on instinct, immediately regretting it when my gills spasmed in empty air. I tried to take a breath through my lungs but only threw up sea water.

In pain, I backed up underneath the water. I blinked a few times, and my eyes cleared, giving me perfect vision under the sea.

My hands were different, with harder black nails instead of my human ones. Tiny, iridescent webbing stretched between my fingers, and fangs stuck out from my gums.

And the tail.

It was gorgeous and reminded me of sunset; the base color was purple, but the scales flashed and danced with bronzes and golds where the sun hit it. It was a powerful, tightly coiled muscle. I was obsessed.

I was a fucking mermaid.

Why? How? What made me change this time? I’d be in the water and the ocean my entire life, and nothing had ever happened before … So why now? Did that mean my mother was a mermaid? Unsure what else to do, I followed Merrick’s scent to what I assumed was his home. I marveled at the stone palace and city stretched out in front of me, like fucking Atlantis. But I was more interested in the large group of mermen standing around, looking like they were about the shank Merrick.

I propelled myself forward, enjoying the panicked squeaks and looks of shock.

“You guys talking about me? Super rude.”

Merrick and his men stared at me like they were all considering jumping me. Bile worked its way up my throat. The stench of my fear flooded the surrounding water, turning the taste acidic. Merrick’s eyes cleared, and he hissed at the other men, forcing them to back up and give me space.

Right, maybe this wasn’t my smartest idea. Merrick had told me to stay in the cave for a reason, and these other mermen were the reason.

Stupid Jesse.

“Stay behind me,” he growled at me, but I knew the ferocity of his voice was meant for the other men—er, mers—and not me. With how feral the others looked, I had no problems with this order.

“Merrick,” began one of the older mers, his voice croaked and thick with longing. A long, white beard floated behind his shoulder, braided intricately with sea glass beads and shells.

“I—I’ve never seen one before. She’s …” he choked up, looking ready to cry.

Drawn by this man’s awe, I moved closer.

Until another older mer pushed in front of him. “This differs from the spring break ritual. This is a real siren! He can’t be allowed to have her to himself. If we shared—”

Anger flashed through me, and before I knew what had happened, I raced forward and struck Mr. Salt-and-pepper Beard on the face. Or I tried to. Instead, new instincts guided my fingers as they dug into his skin and pulled, leaving long lacerations that bled freely into the water around us. I drew back, shocked but trying not to show it.

The merman screamed as if I’d just yanked his balls off, but it knocked the others out of the zombie lust they’d been staring at me with. One with greenish-brown hair and the same nose as the old guy I’d bloodied up shot me an angry look and ripped a bunch of those healing jelly packs from the small bag strapped to his back.

I automatically moved toward the older merman with the long dark hair and beard—the one who still looked at me like I was the most precious thing in the world. That one, I trusted not to do anything too stupid.

“Father, back away. ”

Oh shit, black-beard was Merrick’s father ? I supposed I saw a few similarities in the nose and the eyes. And they were both kind.

Part of me paused, and I just stared.

A father. An actual father.

“Come here, siren,” cajoled one of the younger ones, snapping my concentration on Merrick’s dad.

My eyes narrowed, and I hissed at him, since it seemed to work well with the others.

It didn’t work with him.

I raised my new claws in front of me threateningly, but his eyes pinned to mine. “I never dreamed I’d see one …”

I was regretting this whole mermaid thing. There were sixty other mers, and they were all inching in toward Merrick and me, pinning us against a rock.

It was Archie all over again, but this time Merrick couldn’t beat all their faces in.

Merrick jerked as my fear tinged the water again, and one desperate thought cycled in my head over and over again: I don’t want to be here. They frighten me.

Suddenly I couldn’t breathe, and my hands shot to my neck. My gills disappeared. My tail split into two legs, and I had to squeeze my eyes shut as harsh salt water blurred my vision and everything went dark.

Panic shot through my body as the world around me exploded. I flailed uselessly as Merrick cried out, but I barely heard him through the thickness of the water. He hooked an arm around me and shot toward the surface, or I hoped he had. I couldn’t see. I had no sense of direction.

All I could feel was the burning in my chest as my body strained and pulled. I fought the urge to breathe in, knowing it was the quickest way to kill myself.

Merrick will save me. He always has .

There was another explosion, then nothing.