"Once the sea has touched your soul,
life on land will never be the same."
—Unknown
~~~
Ryan, Mira, and I were all quick to make our way to the front door, startling my father. When he saw Mira, his features hardened.
"Mira, what are you doing in my house?" he asked. I stopped at the front door.
"Dad, we have more pressing matters on our hands. Hans has a group of people out there looking for mermaids and Mira's pod is waiting for her just by our docks," I informed him, throwing open our door and marching outside. Sure enough, I saw Hans' suited figure standing on our dock while a small team of people searched the water with special gadgets.
"Nerina, we need to—"
"Stay back, mother," I ordered, giving her a look that told her to stay put by the front of the house. The last thing I needed was for her primal instincts to kick in an attack one of these snooping men. "Excuse me, what's going on?"
Hans turned to face me, something flashing in his eyes when he saw me. "Ah, Miss Monroe. As you probably know, I'm performing my own marine investigation."
"This dock is a private one, Mr. Greefman," I told him, using the same tone he'd used with me. He crossed his arms, looking me up and down. "If you're looking for anything worth your fairytale delusions, maybe go check out our myths and legends store on the other side of the island."
Ryan's footsteps became up behind me and I felt his presence, accompanied by who I could only assume was my father.
"Mr. Greefman, I'm going to have to ask you to take these people and get off of my property," he stated.
"Mr. Monroe, what I am doing here could be revolutionary to the science of marine life," Hans spoke, "and technically, these docks belong to the island, which I own."
"You're a grown man looking for mermaids," Ryan added, "don't you think it's time to grow up." Hans looked us all over again and I fought back the urge to shudder.
"You're all very protective of your precious dock," he mused, "one might think you were hiding something." I had the sudden urge to sweep a wave up onto the dock and knock him into the water. It was so strong that I clenched my hands into fists and then shoved them into the pockets of my sweatpants.
"You're right," I told him, "I'm hiding a mermaid."
"You mock me, little girl," he stated, "but what I've been studying will provide a scientific breakthrough like no other."
I felt Ryan's hand on my closed one and I looked over at him. "Let's just go back inside."
I wanted to scream at Hans. At all of them. Surely the other mermaids would be smart enough to swim away but they were still my people. They were still in danger. I clenched my jaw and took a step forward, causing Hans to raise an eyebrow at me.
"Rina?" Ryan asked, frowning a little. I caught Hans' gaze and held it, wondering how easily I could use my abilities to stop him from ever discovering anything. My hands unfolded and the waves began to react, lapping at the dock with a sudden ferocity that hadn't been there before.
A small hand rested on my shoulder, sending a wave of calm through me. The ocean calmed almost immediately and I blinked, looking over my shoulder to see Mira standing there. I looked back at Hans, who was still staring at me like I was a vermin amidst his shining world.
"Nerina," Mira spoke, her voice smooth in my ear, "let's go inside."
I tore my gaze away from Hans and began to walk towards the house. Mira kept her hand on my shoulder, guiding me back towards the shop.
"What just happened?" I asked her.
"Our species is very protective of our kind," she answered gently, "your abilities were acting alongside this instinct."
"I almost just exposed us," I stated, "and I was going to."
"You haven't had a chance to practice control of your abilities," she explained, "if you wouldn't have been so stubborn when we first met, you may have more control now." We made it to the shop and I shook her hand from my shoulder. My dad and Ryan were still out there, talking to Hans.
"Do you think they'll find anything?" I asked, choosing to ignore her earlier comment.
"No, my pod should know to keep their distance," she answered, "but I fear for what might happen if he does."
"No mermaid would be safe," I muttered, watching Ryan get angry with Hans from my view at the window. "The mermaids need to be careful about who sees them. Hans saw one when he was a child and he's still caught up on it."
"The only humans who are meant to see us drown a few moments later," Mira stated. I turned to look at her, frowning.
"What?"
"It's an initiation for mermaids who are hitting maturity. We choose a human to drown."
"So you—"
"No, I got around it," she stopped me, blue eyes catching mine. "I was lucky enough to choose your father as my target."
My heart lodged itself in my chest. I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk to her about this, especially not with my father here to defend himself should she start to bash what happened in their past. Despite myself, I cleared my throat.
"You were going to drown him?"
"Yes," she admitted, "he was no older than you are now and he was out on your late grandfather's fishing boat because it's the only thing the Monroe men find joy in. I set my sights on him and swam up to the boat but when I looked him in the eyes, I couldn't."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because there was something different from that of the merfolk in his eyes," she answered, "I reckon it was his humanity but I wanted to see more of it. I was just as much enchanted by your father as he was by me and it was very unfortunate that our story ended the way it did."
"Unfortunate?" I frowned, "you left him and then you left me."
"Nerina, I never wanted to leave you but I thought that you were human. I was so excited to meet you, I endured the pain of sitting on land to wait for your arrival and then the pain of your birth, only to hold you in my arms and see that look of beautiful humanity in your eyes. I tried to encourage a transition out of you but you weren't showing any signs of the mermaid heritage," she told me.
"You could've at least visited me," I snapped.
"Please, I know you're not foolish enough to believe that," she replied, "I figured that you would have a better life without me in it, especially since I didn't know that you'd inherit anything from me. Not to mention that your father never would've let me visit."
"With good reason." She frowned at me and I rolled my eyes, "be honest with me, what would you have done if you'd come to visit me?"
Mira stared at me for a moment before she blew out a sigh, "I'm not sure. I never let myself consider it." I turned away from her, praying for Ryan and my dad to return. "I admit that it was wrong of me to come ashore and demand that you come to join me in the water but you have to understand that I was watching my people slowly deteriorate. I had helped create the very thing that could save us from total destruction."
"Why is it different now? Why did it go from the mermaids and mermen fighting and wanting me on their side to end this war to the ocean needing me to give up my human life to save the entire world?" I demanded.
"Nothing has changed," she replied gently, "the mermaids and mermen still want you to join their individual causes, but the ocean has one of its own that it brought you into creation for, Nerina."
"Why not Sereia? Why not any of the other half-mer children in the world?"
"I wish I could give you the answer to that," she sighed. She seemed inclined to keep speaking when the door to the shop busted open, making way for Ryan and my dad to enter.
"He's setting up overnight watches," Ryan spat in his anger, "to catch anything in the water off guard."
"And not just at our dock but all over the island," my father added.
"What?" Mira and I both asked in unison. I looked over at her, realizing that this was less detrimental to me and more so to her. With people watching the waters, she couldn't return home.
"He's dead set on finding something," Ryan told us, giving me a worried look. "Rina, I don't think you should be going to work at the aquarium during all of this."
"Normal people don't quit their jobs because there's a semi-evil scientist after them," I reminded him, "if I quit, that'll just be suspicious on my end."
"She's right, Ryan. The best thing for her to do right now is to keep doing things as she normally would. Hans is serious about this investigation so he'll be looking for the little things," my father told him.
"What about Mira?" I asked, trying to ignore the way that she looked at me when I used her name.
"Don't worry about me," she drawled, blue eyes trailing to the window. "I find that I can be persuasive with foolish men like them." She moved to leave the shop and my father reached out, grabbing her arm and making her turn to face him.
"Mira, I can't let you go out there and sing your way past them," he told her.
"I'm in pain, Francis. You can't expect me to stay on land while those people guard the waters!" I knew she was right, especially after seeing that vision where breathing air was nearly impossible for me. I looked her up and down, not understanding how she was able to even stand when she was going through that sort of pain.
"Maybe you don't have to," I offered. They all looked at me and I took in a breath. What I was about to offer was risky but she needed somewhere to stay and even though I wasn't necessarily a fan of her, I had to do something. "You might be able to stay at the aquarium."
"Nerina," my dad sighed, "I know you want to help but she's more likely to be caught at the aquarium than she is trying to get back in the ocean."
"Not necessarily," I told them, "Harper was thinking of canceling the shows due to the storms that were coming."
"But it stopped storming," Ryan pointed out. I bit my lip and smiled meekly at him.
"Yeah..."
Mira let out a chuckle and I looked over at her. "You stopped a storm... impressive."
Ryan's eyes widened and he turned to look at me. "You stopped that storm? Like, with your powers?"
"Yeah," I nodded, "I stopped it because I wanted more time but if I were to start it again, Harper will stop the dolphin shows until they're over. Its a liability, I think."
"If you stopped the storm to give yourself more time then what will happen if you start one?" Ryan demanded. I met his gaze, knowing full well he understood what would happen.
"No, Rina, why don't we just take her out on a boat and wait until we're out of sight before she jumps off?" He asked me.
"If Hans is as serious as I think he is," my father shook his head, "he'd send someone to follow you out onto the water. Nerina's plan is plausible if she can be sure that Harper would truly shut down the dolphin arena until the storms stop."
I took out my phone, dialing Connor's contact and turning away from them. My hands were trembling as I held my phone due to what lay ahead. Even though I'd managed to stop a storm, Mira still claimed I had about a day before things went south. How quickly would they go wrong if I started one back up?
"Nerina? What's up?" he asked after answering.
"Connor, I need your help with something," I spoke, glancing over at Mira.
"Are you alright?" His tone was suddenly more worried and I sighed. "What's wrong?"
"I'm fine," I assured him, "but Hans has people stationed all around the island looking for mermaids and my mother is on land."
"Hans is what?" he asked, "I wonder if Harper knows..."
"Connor, I need you to convince Harper to shut down the dolphin arena so I can let my mother stay in here," I told him, "it's the only option."
"Harper was only going to start shutting things down if the storms got bad," he explained, "but you stopped them, remember?"
"I'm going to make one," I replied, "but I just need to know if you think it'll be safe for her. Hans barely goes into the aquarium and Harper won't have a reason to if it's closed, right?"
"I can't see why she would go there if nothing was going on," he agreed, "it might be able to work... what do you need me to do?"
"As soon as it starts storming, convince her that it's going to be bad and that closing everything would be the smarter option. After I start it, I'm going to take her to the aquarium," I told him.
"Alright, I'll call you and let you know what she says."
"Okay, thank you. Bye."
After I lowered the phone from my ear, I turned to look at them. "He knows?" Ryan asked me.
"He found me swimming with the dolphins earlier today," I told him, "so I filled him in on everything."
"Don't you think he might just tell Hans?"
"He won't," I said, "I trust him."
"Well, if we're going to start this storm, we might want to get started," Mira stated, interrupting Ryan and I. I frowned, looking over at her.
"We?" I asked.
"You may be incredible, Nerina, but it'll go a lot faster if you have some help."
"I thought ordinary mermaids didn't have any powers," Ryan said, reading my mind. My mother smirked and tossed the dark waves of her hair over her shoulder.
"It's true that we don't possess the same interesting abilities as our half-mer counterparts but we're still capable of a few things and the weather happens to be something I'm extraordinarily good at," she explained. "Shall we?" She gestured to the door and I nodded, leading the way outside. Ryan and my father followed and I looked down to find that Hans was gone but his men were still there.
"Do it around the side of the house," my father told us. I led Mira around and turned to face her.
"Alright, how do we do this?" I asked her.
"You've already stopped a storm, Nerina, don't you know how to start one?" she questioned, lifting her hands towards the sky.
"Not entirely," I replied, copying her movements. "All I've learned is that the weather is connected to my feelings."
"Indeed it is," she nodded, "to create a storm, you've got to focus on an event within your life when you've felt angry and who was involved. Only think about that and how it made you feel, and then channel that anger into your energy."
"Okay." I watched as she closed her eyes to think about whatever made her angry. I realized at that moment that she was what made me angry. This unrealistically beautiful woman who stood before me, who'd made my father fall in love with her even though she knew she could never live on land forever. She had never even bothered to come to meet me and only showed up when she needed my help for something. The way that she treated my father and me was unacceptable and yet, I couldn't help but feel suddenly thankful for her. Without her, I would've exposed all mermaids to Hans and his meddling. Without her, I wouldn't have known the dangers that I was truly a part of involving my heritage.
I was angry with myself for wanting to forgive her. What was more, I was angry that I would be hurting everyone I cared about in order to save them and I wasn't smart enough to figure something else out.
"Nerina." I suddenly felt hands on my arms and they were pulled down from the sky. It was like being knocked from a trance, where I found I was soaked to the bone with rain. Thunder cracked overhead and the wind whipped my hair around me. I looked around, feeling stunned from the sudden snap back into reality.
"We did it!" I shouted over the rain and wind. Mira smiled at my excitement and turned me, escorting me back into the shop.
"This is insane," Ryan commented, "you really created an entire storm."
"Nerina did most of the work," Mira stated, giving me a little smile.
"Now what?" My father asked me, "what do you need Ryan and I to do?"
"Make sure that Hans and his men don't catch anyone," I told them. "Mira and I will head for the aquarium."
"It would be nice if we had a ride," Mira stated, "as you probably know, mermaids don't do entirely well with rain."
"Oh, we know," Ryan breathed.
"It didn't affect me as much the last time," I argued.
"But this is a storm," Mira pointed out, "and not all of us have the privilege of only being half mermaid, my dear." I look at her for a second before turning to look at my dad.
"Can we borrow your car?" I asked.
"Rina, you don't have your license," Ryan reminded me. I rolled my eyes as I coaxed the car keys from my father.
"We're about to face a lot more than a ticket for driving without a license," I reminded him, "including the potential end of the world."
"Be careful," my dad told me. I nodded and Mira and I made quick work of running to the car. I took a deep breath as I started it, trying to remember all of those times when my dad would let me drive.
"You don't have your license?" Mira asked me.
"Having a driver's license is overrated," I told her as I pulled out of the parking spot. Even with the wipers on high, I could barely see through the rain. The thunder was so loud that I could feel it shake through my bones, doing my best not to shiver in both fear and cold. "My boyfriend Connor will help me hide you."
"Your boyfriend," she mused gently, "the boy you were with at the beach the other night?"
"Yes," I ground out, recalling my failed date. "The beach that you shouldn't have been at the other night?"
"I wasn't there," she shook her head, "but my sisters were."
"Yeah, well they tried to lure him into the water with them."
"He must be quite the catch then if they deemed him handsome enough to drown," she commented.
"Okay, let's just stop talking about this."
It was silent, except for the thunder and rain, as we slowly drove to the aquarium. My phone began to ring and I answered it, finding Connor's voice at the other end.
"You're telling me that you created this storm?" he asked as soon as I answered. "It came so quickly... Harper agreed to close the arena for a little but you and I are still expected to go in and take care of the dolphins."
"Perfect, thank you so much," I told him. "We're on our way to the aquarium now."
"Alright, be careful. There's a hurricane warning right now," he told me. "You know what, I'll come over there and make sure everything's in place."
"No," I said, "it's pretty bad out, you should stay there."
"Nerina, nothing is going to keep me from helping you, alright? I'll see you in a little." With that, he hung up on me, as if he were already rushing out the door. I sighed and set my phone down as the aquarium came into view. I pulled right up to the employee door and gathered everything I needed.
"For what it's worth," Mira stated, stopping me before I could get out. "I'm very proud of you, Nerina. And I'm very sorry that I wasn't there to watch you grow up."
A lump formed in my throat and I took in a big breath. "I would have benefited greatly from having a mother in my life, but dad did an amazing job raising me and now I wouldn't have it any other way."
She nodded as if in understanding and I got out of the car, racing for the door and quickly using my key to unlock it. I let her in first before following and turning on the hallway lights. Quietly, I led her through the halls and into the back rooms of the arena. As we passed the lockers, I flicked on some more lights. Wind blew against the building outside, causing a gentle whisper to echo through the huge room. When we came to the water, which was empty due to the dolphins being shut in their other tank, I stopped and turned to look at her.
"So, this is where you've been working?" she asked, kneeling next to the water and sweeping her hand through it.
"Yeah, because I stole a boat and then trashed it while trying to save dad from a storm almost as intense as this one," I told her. "I have to pay for the boat, not that it matters anymore." I watched as she swung her legs into the water and looked over her shoulder at me.
"I'm sorry that things must be this way," she stated, "but if it's any consolation, even though it hurts you can still come ashore to visit."
"But it'll eventually become too much, won't it?" I asked her, moving to sit on the edge as well. "Because you eventually left dad and never came back."
"I know there's nothing I can do to fix what I've done, but I want you to know that when all of this is said and done, I will help you in whatever way I can with whatever you need."
The bigger lights of the arena turned on and I jumped, looking up to see Connor enter through the far doors across the room. He was quick to make his way over to us and I stood to let him wrap his arms around me in a hug.
"Are you alright?" he asked me.
"I'm fine," I assured him as I had earlier, "thanks for coming all the way over here."
"Of course," he replied, pulling away. I saw him glance over my shoulder and I sighed.
"Connor, this is Mira. Mira, Connor," I introduced. Mira inclined her head to him and kicked her legs.
"It's nice to meet you," Connor said to her. "You're Nerina's mother?"
"That I am," she replied, looking at me with a pointed look as if to remind me that she was my mother. She then slid into the water, quickly disappearing into the depths of the pool.
"I think she might be bitter that I'm refusing to call her mother," I told him. "Are you sure Harper won't come and try to like, look things over?"
"She doesn't care that much," he replied. "Are you going to stay here with her?"
"Probably not," I said, "there's a lot that I need to be worrying about right now and she isn't really one of them."
"Like what you told me earlier?" he asked. I sighed and looked away from him, instead turning to the water as Mira surfaced.
"This water is filled with depression," she stated.
"I know," I breathed, "but it's your only option right now so why don't you give your lungs a break and swim under?"
"I'll stay here with her," Connor commented. I whirled around to look at him, shaking my head.
"No, Connor, she could drown you or—"
"I wouldn't do that to the boy you care about," she voiced behind me. I looked at Connor pleadingly.
"It's fine, really," he assured me. "You go do whatever you need to do and I'll stay here and make sure no one discovers her." I looked between them and he grabbed my shoulders.
"Thank you," I whispered. He gave me a quick kiss and a gentle shove towards the door.
"No worries." I hesitated only briefly before I left him with Mira. Once back outside, the rain only seemed to be coming down harder than before. I quickly shut myself into the car and turned it on, letting out a breath. The oceans were being guarded, where was I supposed to go? I began to drive, moving super slowly due to the fact that I couldn't see a single thing.
Out of nowhere, a figure appeared in front of the car and I hit the breaks, thankful that the lights had illuminated them. I leaned forward, identifying Ryan's face through the rain as he made his way around the car and got into the passenger's seat.
"Ryan, what are you doing out in this weather?" I demanded. He wiped the water from his eyes and turned to look at me.
"Rina, they caught Taron."
My heart dropped into my stomach and my mouth fell open. "What?"
"Hans. His team caught Taron. They fished him out of the water and injected him with some type of tranquilizer before shoving him into the back of a truck and driving him somewhere."
"Where are they headed?"
"I have no idea, but we also have another problem," he stated. I looked at him, unable to grasp how anything could be as problematic as Taron's capture. "The water is rising quickly. The streets are flooded."
"The ocean is starting to swallow the island," I breathed, feeling like my throat was closing. "It's time."