Chapter 21

TWENTY-ONE

Jesse

I thought once I was back in my house, that I’d feel better. That the solid land under my feet would help put all my problems into perspective.

Instead, I couldn’t stop thinking about Merrick. And also Caspian.

“Jesse, you’re going to wear a trench in the hardwood floors,” Javi remarked casually, but his eyes were worried as he watched from a stool at the kitchen bar. “Are you sure I can’t call the police? If those guys are still hanging around, we don’t want them to attack anyone else.”

I huffed in frustration. How could I tell Javi that they were looking for someone very specific?

My friend was smarter than most, though. He pursed his lips, crossing his arms over his chest. “They’re looking for someone like you?”

I hesitated, then nodded .

His eyes narrowed. “My family won’t stop raving about sirens and Chalchiuhtlicue and—”

I blinked, taken aback by the strange names.

“Sirenas,” Javi shot back impatiently. “You know, sirens .”

I shook my head, twirling my fingers in a backward circle.

He raised an eyebrow. “Chalchiuhtlicue?”

My head nodded.

Javi rolled his eyes so hard I thought he might fall off his stool. “Chalchiuhtlicue, or sometimes called Tlanchana. You know, mermaids and shit,” he clarified quickly, seeing my confusion.

Alarm shot through my body. His family thought I was a mermaid? I tried to play it off with a silent laugh, but my face twisted and my fear likely showed through.

Javi wasn’t laughing. He wasn’t even smiling. “All they could agree on was that you shouldn’t have survived out in open water that long. It’s been days, Jesse.”

My mouth went dry. There wasn’t any way I could lie my way out of this. Nor did I want to.

“Jesse. I don’t require an answer from you, even though I know you can’t exactly give it right now. My family was more than happy to help you because I asked them to, and it’s what family does. I just ...” He paused, running a frustrated hand through his hair. “Jesus girl, I thought you were dead. Mike thinks you’re dead. What the fuck happened?”

It’s what family does.

And that was a kick in the teeth, wasn’t it? Where was my family? The grandparents who owned this house would kick me out the moment they got a whiff I’d been expelled, and my mother (the only one who might have answers about any of this) was far away in freaking Ohio.

I needed to call her.

I’d never met my bio dad .

Why was my family so … I don’t know, fucked up?

Then again … which family wasn’t?

Even Javi’s seemingly perfect family had issues–an uncle constantly in prison, and a fifteen-year-old cousin who’d gotten pregnant.

Maybe family isn’t about what you do or what happens–but how you all respond to it.

I went to the freezer and yanked the door open, grabbing the rocky road ice cream and a spoon from the drawer. Plopping down next to him at the bar, I stabbed the spoon into the textured cream and took a large bite. I’d probably burned off enough calories flouncing about in the ocean to earn it.

“I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume this ... mermaid stuff is true,” he tried carefully, eyes tracking the movement of the spoon to my lips. I slurped up the mint chocolate chip with a flourish.

I snuck a peek at Javi, whose face was still tight with apprehension. I offered him the spoon, but he harrumphed, crossing his leg over his knee.

“Well, that would explain why all of them disappeared in the water miles out from shore, with no bodies washing up. They were all … mer people too, then. Do you know how insane Mike went, thinking we’d killed an entire boat of guests? He’s taken a sudden vacation down the coast, waiting for me to give him the all clear. Wait until he hears this!”

My lips parted in shock. He believed it, then?

Javi threw his hands in the air at my surprise. “You’re the most sensible person I know. You wouldn’t lie to me about this. And something was definitely off about those guys. Mer people, huh?”

I nodded and he put his hands behind his head, leaning back against his hands, whistling .

“Wonder if Archie might be one of these ... mer people? He’d fit right in, after all …” he murmured darkly.

I shook my head vehemently. Some people were just pieces of shit. Not everyone needed a valid excuse to be one. I’d already discounted this possibility.

“So ... Can you like ... transform and shit?”

I rubbed my face with my hands tiredly, then nodded. Javi clapped his hands in excitement, and I cracked a grin despite everything. His child-like wonder stirred something inside my chest—the same something that kept me working at the museum and with the children who fell in love with the sea like I did. It was the same something that had pushed me to come out here in the first place, and dedicate my life to the ocean.

Javi stared at me for a hard second before putting one finger in my face, breaking my reverie. My brow furrowed as he hopped off the stool and rummaged around my kitchen, shouting in triumph as he found a pen and a notebook. Primly he arranged himself back on the stool, holding his notebook and pen like a journalist ready for the big press conference.

“I’m going to ask a lot of questions. Yes or no. Tell me everything.”

Two hours later, I was exhausted from an interrogation that wouldn’t have been out of place by an FBI operative. Using yes or no questions, I think Javi got the gist of what was going on. I was just thankful he believed me.

“So lover boy is one of these mer guys, but a good one. That’s a relief. I liked him.” Javi paused, his pen hovering over the heavily marked notebook paper. “And he’s in some kind of trouble, but trouble that’s more dangerous than the other mers being on his ass? And your ass, for that matter?” His eyebrows waggled suggestively.

I nodded, weary, slumping on my stool over the counter. I rested my head on my arms and closed my eyes.

“Well, do you think you know where he is? I could probably bully Dario into taking his boat out on a Sunday, though our mom would give us hell for missing church. Sounds like it’d be worth it, though?” Javi eyed me skeptically, and I lifted my head up to think.

Could I find Merrick?

If I still had access to my abilities, I knew I could. I’d be able to scent him and follow it. But now? If I couldn’t shift, I likely couldn’t access anything else either. I was just another human on the surface, deaf, dumb, and blind to everything going on underneath the waves.

My head dropped back to the counter in frustration.

“OK, so that’s a no,” Javi began carefully. “Do you have any other allies that are … er, under the sea to help?”

I went to shake my head no, then realized that wasn’t quite true. Caspian had saved my life by yanking me away from Calypso and getting me to the surface. The sea witch certainly hadn’t ordered him to do that.

Hope flared in my chest. If Caspian had free will, that meant all might not be lost with Merrick.

“You’ve thought of something,” Javi pointed out.

I nodded before I put my hands out for his notebook. Hurriedly, I scribbled down the basic details.

Another mer captured by the sea witch. He helped me escape. He might help me.

I shoved it back at Javi who spun the notebook around to read. His brow furrowed. “Are you sure you trust this Caspian guy?”

Exasperated, I threw my hands in the air.

Javi sighed. “Yeah, I get it, girl. Not much choice.” He tapped the notebook with his index finger twice, deep in thought. “If you get in the water, do you think he’ll come?”

I pulled the notebook back and scrawled one sentence:

We have to try.

Javi blew out a puff of air and raked his hands through his hair. “Right. OK. Sounds like we have a hunting expedition to plan.”

I snagged his wrist with my hand, giving him a worried, anxious look.

Javi covered my hand with his free one. “It’s not a hunt. You know what I meant. Dario would think it’s all awesome and mystical and woo and shit. No one is going to tell the authorities or try to capture your friend for science.”

Logically, I trusted Javi, but hearing him say it aloud helped. I nodded.

“OK. I know you’re worried about your boy toy, but it’s too late to get the boat out now. Eat and get some rest. I’ll stop by first thing in the morning to get you and we’ll head out. Unless you don’t want to be alone tonight?”

It was sweet of him to offer, and though part of me was still afraid, I waved his offer away. I had to get back on this horse myself.

“All right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I threw myself off the stool and into Javi’s chest, wrapping him in a massive hug. His arms came around me, and it felt so good to have someone on my side that I fought back tears.

Javi gave me a final pat on the back. “I’ll help you, Jesse. I’ll always help you.”

I pulled away, sniffing, and waved as he left.

For a while, I stayed just like that, standing between the hallway and the kitchen like I was on the precipice of something life-changing. And maybe I was.

I marched directly out to the back porch and down to the water’s edge of the intercoastal waterway. I eyed my kayak and reluctantly got into it. I wasn’t afraid to swim in the open water anymore; it seemed laughable to be afraid of what floated near the surface when I knew what truly lurked down below.

I paddled hard down the waterway, past the spot I’d first met Merrick. Tears blurred my vision, but I kept going even as dusk settled around me like a coat. My arms burned with exertion, but it felt cathartic. I didn’t stop until the point of my kayak was at the mouth of where the waterway emptied into the open ocean. I pushed myself up onto the sandy shore and shoved the kayak up so it wouldn’t move.

Descending back into the water, I closed my eyes and tried to relax. My entire body submerged, and I desperately wished I could call out to Caspian.

Darkness filtered in from the sky, the last rays of the red sun clinging onto the horizon, but stubbornly I waited. I knew how good a mer’s sense of smell was from my brief time in my other form. If he was nearby, he’d scent me.

Shit, what if the other mers scented me too?

Well, I’d have to just deal with that if it happened.

When it happened.

If Caspian truly wanted to help, he’d come.

Hopefully.

Long, agonizing minutes went by, and my legs went numb from being in the cold water for so long. I should have put my wetsuit on before coming out here, but it didn’t feel right to wear anymore. Every rustle of the wind in between the long grasses caught my gaze as I scanned constantly for alligators. It would be harder and harder to spot them the darker it got.

Don’t be an idiot. No one is coming.

My hands balled into fists at my side. I didn’t want to leave, but it was getting unsafe to stay. One last glance, then .

That’s when the water rippled just slightly, out toward the open ocean. I watched closely, but it didn’t move like a gator. Hustling out of the water, I grabbed an oar just in case, though I knew it was a laughable defense if it was one of the other mers.

Relief flooded my body as Caspian’s head broke the surface of the water, his eyes so dark I could barely see them in the waning light. A grin broke across my face, and I hopped into my kayak. He frowned at it, a question in his eyes. I waved my arm in the universal gesture for ‘follow me,’ then took off down the waterway.

I made it fifty yards before he bumped the back of the kayak, grabbing the back of it with both hands. The front of my kayak lifted out of the water for a moment at the sudden shift of weight, and I held on as he propelled us forward at twice the speed I’d been going.

Memories of Merrick doing the same overwhelmed me.

When my house appeared in the distance, I turned around and tapped Caspian on the head, pointing. He nodded and slowed his pace. Together, we got the kayak tied back up again, and I sat on the edge of the dock.

We stared at each other.

Then he lunged, launching his body at the wooden dock and pinning me to the wood.