Page 23 of Shifting Tides

Burning with the thrill of my new reality, I looked down at my legs and found a long, magnificent tail in their place. It was the most beautiful shade of pearlescent pink. Tissue-thin fins formed a makeshift skirt around my waist and blossomed from the end of my tail, long and flowing, like silk swaying in the wind.

It was true. It was all true! I really was a mermaid!

My heart sang with a newfound freedom and joy. I twirled in the water, the liquid submitting easily to my will.

I flexed my tail, marveling at the revelation of having only one limb instead of two. Rather than having only knee and ankle joints, it was like my new tail had hundreds of joints, and they obeyed my every internal command, bending backward and forward like a snake’s spine.

I flicked the end of my tail and watched as the water rippled in its wake. For a girl who had never set foot—or any other body part—in water, I felt like an Olympic swimmer. No, I felt like Aqua Man—Aqua Woman?

The sound of arguing echoed through the water from the surface, and I suddenly remembered that I’d been pushed into the pool. I should be pissed.

I spun around and swam to the surface.

In my current form, the dry world felt painfully loud and overbearing, assaulting all my senses. I blinked through the brightness of the fluorescent lights at Celeste sternly chiding Cora, whose expression looked bored.

“Look, she’s totally fine,” Cora said, waving a hand at me. “I did her a favor. It would have taken her all period to get in there at the rate she was going.”

“That’s no concern of yours, and your little act of charity has earned you a week’s detention,” Celeste scolded.

“What?” Cora snapped, stomping her foot in protest.

“Want to make it two?” Celeste threatened.

Corahmphed and scowled at me, then stormed off to the girl’s locker room.

Turning her attention back to me, Celeste knelt at the edge of the pool. “I’m so sorry, she had no right to do that. How are you feeling?”

“Actually, I feel incredible,” I confessed, my chest barely containing my electric joy. “I can’t believe I went my whole life without knowing this part of myself.”

“Well, I won’t pretend to know anything about your home life, but I’m sure your mother had a good reason for keeping you in the dark.” Celeste’s emerald eyes were sincere yet cryptic as they looked down on me.

I looked away, unable to comment. The mention of my mom caused the joy of transforming to evaporate, the buzz in my chest turning into a sour taste in my mouth.

Celeste thought my mom had a good reason for hiding this. I only wished I knew what that reason was.

Chapter 7

Tobias

“Niko,” Brett said, lightly smacking our friend on the arm in his lazy, surfer-boy way—even though he wasn’t a skater or a surfer. “How was your night with Amy?”

He directed his boisterous laugh down the hallway so that it was sure to echo along the silver-steel walls to where Amy and her friends walked ahead.

Niko shot Brett a glare and a silencing hiss, and I just shook my head, cringing inwardly a bit. My friends were idiots sometimes. Or most of the time. And really, it was mostly Brett who was the idiot.

“Dude, let the man have some privacy,” I chided in a lower tone. The way Amy snapped her sky-blue hair over her shoulder suggested that she’d heard Brett loud and clear. “This isn’t a locker room. Have some class.”

Brett threw his hands in the air. “Leave class to the graduates. Just because we’re shifters doesn’t mean we shouldn’t have some teenage fun. Let’s bring a little normalcy back to this school.”

“So, normal to you is being a dick?” Niko folded his arms across hischest.

“If that’s what it takes,” Brett said with a smug smile.

I shook my head. Whatever happened between Niko and Amy was their business. “Why don’t you stop obsessing about everyone else’s sex life and get one of your own? Ask Ashlyn out. She’s a phoenix. I bet she could spice things up for you.”

“Honestly, I’d rather eat lead,” Brett said, drawing out the words with a lazy expression and walking backward so he could face us as he spoke. “She’s a little bit too intense for my blood. That girl is going to burn down the school one of these days.”

“But we’re underwater,” Niko argued.

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