Everblue

Chapter 18 - Fin

FIN

 

The day couldn't have ended better. I rushed home to find Mom in the kitchen cooking dinner.

"Mom!" I briskly walked toward her and held out a golden cup filled with rubies. "Here."

"What is this?" she asked with knitted brows, dusting her hands on her apron.

I smiled proudly. Only after a few weeks of training, I'd managed to defeat Badger in the first round and then took out the subsequent fighters with ease. "I won the tournament today."

She blinked back at me, confusion crossing her face.

"This was the prize," I said, lifting my eyebrows to convince her. "And I want you to buy back your diamonds with it."

Mom gulped as she looked at me, then back at the cup. A tear spilt down her cheek—not the reaction I'd expected. I could count on one hand the times I'd seen her cry.

Needing a distraction, I tipped the cup to the side, ready to spill out the contents. "You better hold out your hands."

She dropped her dish towel as the blood red stones piled into her trembling hands. Once the last gem fell, her hands formed a ball over them like they were a life saving rope.

"Fin, I can't take these—"

I put my free hand on top of hers. "This isn't an April Fools joke. And if you don't use them to buy your diamonds back, I'll be upset. Just think of it as my gift to the family—that I paid for the stove and air bubble. And that's what we'll tell Dad when he comes home."

Her voice hiccupped. "This is too generous."

"What else am I going to do with them? Save for college?" I laughed under my breath and thought of the solitary ruby I'd put aside for the future in my sling pack. "It's what I want to do."

She put the stones in her apron pocket and enfolded me in a hug. "Thank you, Fin," she whispered in my ear. I puffed out my chest. Dad would be proud.

: : :

Still on a high from the tournament win and Mom's surprise, I rushed off to collect Tatch at the palace.

"You're late," she said, punching me in the arm and swimming ahead, this time decorated from head to fin in blue.

"Sorry. I had things to do." I raced to catch up with her.

"Nothing can be more important than saving me from the palace and Azor's claws, so it better be good," she said with a sneer.

I smiled evilly and watched her smirk vanish as I filled her in on what really happened with the win and the rubies.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. I guess that's kinda important, but next time, please come get me first. I can't stand being there any longer than I have to."

"Yeah, sure."

"Today was exceptionally grueling." She slowed her pace, lengthened her neck and stuck her nose in the air, wiggling her tail in small precise movements. "We learned how to swim proper, like a merlady," she said, complete with an English accent.

I laughed. "What?"

"It seems the only thing mer-matrons care about is beauty—not education or any type of real accomplishment. Their only goal is to teach us how to be a pretty thing for the mermen to enjoy—oh—and to make merlings with. That's it. And amazingly enough, the maids all seem cool with it, anxious to be paired to the one their parents have picked out for them."