CHAPTER ONE - Meela
Reefs, Rockfish, and Reinas
Three days as a mermaid and all I’d managed to learn was how to not die.
So far, I could swim, breach, and speak. Skills beyond that were taking longer.
Drifting somewhere between Eriana Kwai and the Aleutian Islands and surrounded by empty murk on all sides, Lysi was teaching me about layers and currents.
“Stick to the faster ones, unless there’s something big in your way.”
“How big?”
“Whales. Sharks. Trust me, you do not want to take on one of those.”
I gave a “hmph”, which materialised as a large bubble that I swatted away. I remembered vividly the terror of being nearly capsized by a pod of orcas.
“Also, don’t go below the twilight layer unless you’re prepared to rise slowly,” said Lysi. “It hurts to depressurise too fast.”
I followed her into the flow of a quick, warm current, where the rich taste of plankton met my tongue. Something crackled far below.
“We’re over top of a reef,” she said. “If you focus, you can sense the bottom.”
“Coral?!”
I looked down eagerly. Would the novelty of the ocean ever wear off?
That was when I saw it: the cutest creature alive. I squealed and took off through the water, leaving Lysi shouting behind me.
“Mee, where are you—?”
The creature tried to flee, but I shot out a hand with a speed I’d never known myself capable of and cupped it in my palms.
“Lysi! Look!”
She caught up, pushing mats of coppery-blond hair and seaweed from her eyes. “Mee, would you pay atten—oh, that is cute.”
It was a plum-sized purple octopus—or maybe it was a squid—with overlarge, googly eyes and rows of tiny suckers on each tentacle. If it hadn’t been swimming—and it had a ridiculous way of doing so by flapping little wings on its head—I would’ve thought it was a bath toy.
“What is it?”
“It’s a stubby squid.”
I brought the little thing to eye level and peered at it. “Even your name is cute.”
“Feel the way his suckers are moving?” She placed a hand under mine, bringing my attention back to our ‘How to Be a Mermaid’ lessons.
I closed my eyes. In the cloudy underwater world, I was supposed to rely less on my vision and more on my other senses. I could pick up smell, taste, sound, and feel from incredible distances—revealing the size, shape, and even chemical makeup of everything around me. When I concentrated, I picked up every whirl in the current. At first, it had been hard to cast my senses past the constantly rushing tide and gurgling bubbles, but I was getting better.
My eyes flew open. “I feel his suckers suckering!”
Lysi laughed. Below the water’s surface, my hearing better than I’d known as a human, the sound travelled pleasantly down my spine. My heart thrummed.
She kept her hand beneath mine, holding my gaze with startlingly blue eyes.
“I can also feel your pulse,” I said, noticing the way it quickened when she touched me.
She blushed. I looked down at our hands—mine over hers, brown skin against white—something that, until three days ago, I had thought I would never see again.
