I hesitated, then nodded. “My voice. I can live without it.” Then I quickly added. “Will I get it back if I win the prince’s heart?”
My aunt nodded solemnly, then retrieved a small glowing vial of blue. My heart raced. Was the answer to walking on land here all along?
“I love you, Aulani.” She gently touched my cheek, and I could see she was crying. “I wish it didn’t have to be this way.” And it was then I realized… I would never see my aunt again. Because if I succeeded, I wouldn’t swim all the way to this underwater world. And because my aunt was imprisoned down here, she could not come to the surface to see me.
The tears flowed from my own eyes as I hugged her goodbye. I wished she could feel my deep gratitude for all she’d done for me and been to me.
And now, she was giving me the chance to take my life into my own hands. I wouldn’t be confined to the deepest part of the sea.
The potion was warm in my hand, the liquid swirling with an otherworldly blue glow. It was everything I had hoped for. This would allow me to leave the ocean, to walk on land as a human, to experience the world I had only seen from the surface of the water.
Finally!
My aunt’s words echoed in my mind, ones she’d spoken before:You don’t have to run away to belong.I quickly dismissed it.
“Thank you, thank you!” I said, and Aunt Lorelei held me tight before letting go.
“Hurry, child,” she said.
As I reached the mouth of the lair, I froze.
Someone was there. Waiting for me.
“Mo?”
Humu swam faithfully beside me, a nervous look on his face.
Mohala paled when she saw me, her eyes darting from me to the potion in my hand.
Mo had always been the one who understood me best, the one who never called me strange or freakish, the one who had always smiled when I expressed my yearn for something more. Yes, she scolded me too, even when she understood.
But now I wasn’t so sure.
Fear clouded her eyes, like murky water after a storm.
“Aulani.” Her voice trembled. “What is that?” She pointed at the blue, glowing vial.
“It’s my choice, Mo,” I said. “I can’t marry the man of the brine.”
My heart sank, sensing the shift in my sister’s gaze.
“No,” Mohala interrupted, her voice sharp, almost panicked. “You don’t understand what you’re doing. Once you drink that, you’ll be…” Her voice cracked. “You’ll be lost to us. Gone.”
“I won’t be gone. I’ll still be me. The world out there is waiting for me. Besides, I don’t fit here, Mo. I’ve never fit in, and you know that. But in the human world… maybe I could belong.”
My sister’s face twisted in anguish, and she swam forward. “You don’t belong there, Aulani! You don’t know what that world is like. They’ll hurt you. They’ll see you as a thing, amonster!Don’t throw everything away! Stay with us!”
The words hit me like a wave crashing against the rocky cliffs. I wasn’t naïve.
I wasn’t justthrowing my life away.The human world called to me, and there I would learn. Grow. Explore. But Mo’s fear twisted in my chest like a cruel knot, tightening the more she spoke.
“I understand you better than anyone,” Mo said, and straightened out, steely resolve in her eyes. “That’s why I can’t let you make this mistake, Au.”
Before I could reply, Mo’s eyes flickered to something behind me, a shadow lurking on the edge of the rocks that made up Aunty Lorelei’s lair. I turned just in time to see our mother, her face edged with stone coldness, and my father, now appearing tall and imposing, his triton in hand. His eyes narrowed at me as if he already knew what had happened.
My heart stopped.
Mo betrayed me.The moment I had waited for all my life… and Mo betrayed me. My parents hadn’t just found out–they had beenwaitingfor me to slip up. They knew I’d leave. They knew I’d go to the surface, and they knew Mo would tell them.
