A child distracted her, but I sensed her coral walls strengthened, which meant one thing: she was hiding something from me.
The starsabove Kaiora scattered like kalo in a lo’i, brilliant and numerous. I sat cross-legged on the flat stone of the terrace garden, my cloak tossed to one side. The night wind movedthrough my hair, carrying with it the musty scent of earth and stone.
I didn’t turn when I heard the soft thump of sandals behind me.
“You always came here when life got unbearable.” Kalei plopped herself beside me and handed over a carved wooden mug.
“I ran here because the palace walls have ears,” I said.
She chuckled, folding her legs beneath her. “True. But also because this is where you think best. Here. On the earth. Surrounded by the wise old koa trees and cracked lava rock.”
I took a long sip, the warm tea calming. “I’m supposed to be a good king, but I feel like I’m just rearranging coconuts in a sinking canoe.”
“Coconuts float,” Kalei said with a wink. “But I know what you mean.”
We sat in silence for a while, the wind carrying with it the echoes of the songbirds music that day. Pili swooped overhead before settling in the twisted branches of a nearby banyan tree.
“She’s not like the others,” I said finally, revealing what I’dreallybeen thinking about.
“Aulani?”
I nodded.
“She’s not from your world,” my cousin said. She sighed. “But she sees it better than most who’ve lived in it their whole lives.”
My voice was soft, maybe because I was afraid the wind might hear it and carry it to Aulani’s ears. “I was a frog. She kissed me, saved me, helped me… and I keep thinking: what if I have to lose her to keep the kingdom?”
Kalei touched my arm. “Maybe this time, you don’t choose what’s expected. Maybe you choose what’s right.”
I didn’t answer right away, just lifted my gaze to the stars and whispered, “If only I knew the difference.”
CHAPTER TEN
AULANI
Ialways thought being a mermaid was confining, and that it set me apart from the rest of the world negatively. Ever since I was born, I’d always been able to communicate with animals and the world around me in a much deeper way than any other mermaids I knew.
The mermaids looked at me differently after that. They thought it was odd, and anytime I danced with the jellyfish, leaped with the dolphins, or sang to help the royal gardens grow, it set me farther and farther apart from the others.
Perhaps that’s why I explored the surface world. The humans wereotheredby the mermaids, just like me. So perhaps that’s where I belonged… with them.
I couldn’t help but miss my little fish friend, Humu, and his loyalty even to my last splash in our world. And then Mo, my sister. She betrayed me, but what other choice did she have? I missed her, even as thoughts of her still stung bitterly.
But Aunt Lorelei thought differently of me.
When she saved me from the fisherman’s net, she asked a nearby shark for help.
Mermaids mostly avoided sharks.
But she knew them.
She knew all the sea creatures and connected with them deeper than any mermaid I knew. I confessed to her about my strange connection to animals, and she said, “You have a gift, Aulani. Don’t hide it.”
And now that gift could bless this land, maybe even save it.
As much as I missed Humu and Mo, I knew I wouldn’t be seeing much of them whether in this world or our own.
And now that I’d been human for a few weeks, I was feeling more confused than ever before.
