Page 73 of Midnight Waters

Dad only had a handful of the answers I needed. If anyone on this island would know, surely Janeira would. Perhaps she had even known that Mum was a mermaid.

I clambered inside and waited.

My phone vibrated against my leg, and I slipped it out of my pocket to check who was chasing me. Kira wanted to know where I was.

Shoot. I really needed to tell them what was going on. But I had to do this before anything else.

Another five minutes went past, and nobody appeared. I leaned over the side of the boat in search of movement, but nothing.

Had I offended them, somehow? Had I done something to blacklist me from the good graces of the merfolk?

Mylania popped out of the water and stared up at me, no smile.

“Hey,” I said. “Is everything okay?”

She didn’t answer me, her face stony. Instead, she glanced at the gem in the boat’s helm before disappearing under the water again.

I leaned over the edge in time to watch her disappear with the flick of her tail.

What was that all about?

I looked at the gem. Had she meant something by indicating it to me?

Then it hit me. Did she… want me to operate the boat? Could I?

I reached toward it with a shaking hand, and the moment my fingertips brushed the gem, it glowed. The boat lurched forward and with a squeak, I tumbled into the footwell.

For a second, I lay there, listening to the waves lapping against the boat.

The merfolk knew I was a mermaid too? Okay, this brought up a whole new encyclopedia of questions.

I clambered back onto the bench and held on to the edges as the boat took me to the island. Before it had properly washed up on shore, I jumped into the shallows and waded onto the beach.

Janeira watched me, in her human form, from the top of the beach among the reeds, almost as if she was waiting for me. The sideways glances of the merfolk lounging on the beach burned into my back as I strode across the sand.

“I wondered how long it would take you to visit again.” Janeira smiled with one side of her mouth. “We should talk in private. Come.”

She linked her arm through mine, and we strolled along the verge where the sand met stone.

Janeira didn’t say a word until we reached an outcrop of rocks and she climbed up on top of them, patting the space next to her.

I clambered up next to her and looped my hair behind my ears as the wind teased my strands.

My skin prickled, but not with the breeze. Why did I feel like I was about to get a dressing down?

“Did you know you were a mermaid?” Janeira asked, leaning her chin into her palm.

I scratched my neck. How had she found out when I barely knew it myself?

“I literally just found out the other night,” I said.

“The same night my scout saw you swimming around in the sea, by any chance?”

So that was how she knew. Her scout must have seen me the same night I had transitioned for the first time.

“Almost definitely,” I said.

“You were unconscious, according to my scout,” Janeira said. “She approached out of concern, but you woke up before she could get to you. Is there something you’d like to share about how you ended up in the ocean that way?”

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