Page 106 of Mermaid on Heels

Aeira returned the smile tenfold.

“You did it again,” she cheered with the excitement of a small child in her adult eyes. That made Liriya laugh silently. She reached for her hand and led them up to the surface.

Aeira was silent on their way, glancing around them either eager or alarmed. Liriya still had to figure outwhatthis girl was. She was more like Luke—a human who could breathe underwater. Was her mother a mermaid like Luke’s? Curiosity got the best of Liriya but she decided to wait until they were safe.

In no time, they broke through the surface. Strange relief flooded through Liriya as she finally breathed the air. The sea, once her home, had now turned into a place she least wanted to be.

“My home is that way.” Aeira pointed towards their right after taking time to recognize their surroundings. “It is a little far from here, but we can make it. Come on.”

Aeira began swimming towards the said direction, grabbing Liriya’s hand and pulling her along. Extremely relieved to have confirmation that they were in Garbia, Liriya took the lead, sparing a knowing grin at Aeira.

“Right,” Aeira said with a laugh. “I would never challenge a mermaid into swimming a race with me.”

Liriya remembered the swimming challenge she had promised Luke before their first kiss. Her heart clenched suddenly. An image of him kissing her duplicate surged to her mind and the clenching tightened. He wouldn’t know he was kissing her evil sister who had stolen her form. How bad would Luke feel when he realized that?

Liriya’s heart pained for the both of them, but the vengeance in her mind grew tenfold. She shoved the sickening image away and clenched her jaw. Faelina would pay for her crimes. Liriya would return, and now, she was confident that she would have help with it.

“I suggest we should swim beneath the surface,” Aeira said once they covered a long distance. “We’re nearing the cliff where the city stands. If the people see us—you,they’d freak out. I mean no offense, though. Our citizens don’t believe in the existence of Merfolk and Sirens like my family do.”

Liriya glanced at her over her shoulder and nodded with a smile, trying to tell the kind princess that she knew it very well and understood. She then dragged them beneath the surface and swam lower, to avoid anyone glimpsing her mermaid form from above.

“Speaking of which,” Aeira continued hesitantly, “I’m only half human, which is why I can breathe underwater. I hope you won’t abandon me if I tell you who I am, given you’re a mermaid—though an extremely kind one. And because of the kindness you’ve shown towards me, I feel like I have some confidence in your judgment—that youwon’tjudge me for who I am. Oh, I’m rambling! Dyran shouldn’t hear me.”

She laughed musically, slapping her forehead with her free hand.

Liriya glanced at her over her shoulder with a silent laugh and squeezed her hand, trying to assure Aeira that she could tell Liriya about herself.

“I’m half-siren.”

Liriya paused swimming. Her jaw slacked.

Aeira bit her lip, and then hurried to explain, “My mother is a siren, but I promise, our theory is entirely different from the majority of the sirens who hate Merfolk. I can prove that to you. And my family is going to love you, especially for saving me,” she paused and huffed. “Ifthey even realized I was gone. But that’s alright; you and I are going to give them a shock and make that evil siren pay. Speaking of which, I can’t wait to hear your story and learn your name. You know how to write, right?”

Liriya nodded, barely recovering from the shock. She resumed swimming, and Aeira continued with a pleased smile, “Splendid! You can write to me what you can’t talk aloud, and we’ll communicate like that until we get back your voice. I promise you, I’m going to help you get back your voice.”

Ironically enough, hearing these words from Aeira’s lips, in Aeira’s voice, felt surreal. Liriya had to keep reminding herself that this was therealprincess Aeira of Garbia. Not the one Faelina had been impersonating.

Apparently, Faelina had made the opposite impression of the true Aeira.

That built Liriya’s hope. What if Faelina failed to play Liriya’s role perfectly and her sisters started to notice the oddness?

Liriya grinned wide at Aeira.

Before long, Aeira announced that they had reached the shore connecting her home, pointing towards a significant rock where someone had carved the namesDyranandAeira. Aeira explained that she did it when she was younger, when she and her older brother used to come down here every weekend.

They broke through the surface.

Liriya’s eyes traveled to the magnificent castle sitting atop the cliff connected to the secluded shore, in awe. It glowed in the sun and was an impossible beauty.

“I may have forgotten to mention that I’m a princess,” Aeira said, with a sly smile in her voice. “Welcome to my home, the castle of Fortura.”

Liriya turned her beaming face to the princess and mouthed,I know.

“Youknow?” Aeira asked, in pure astonishment. “How? Have you been here before?”

Liriya shook her head and pointed her index finger towards Aeira.

“You knowme,” Aeira guessed, still astonished. When Liriya nodded, Aeira asked, “How?”

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