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Sawhim.
A golden tail flopped in the sand, the fin connected to a tiny fish struggling on its side.
As a child, Leander’s tail had been the brilliant color of sunshine, though I hadn’t even known about the sun the first time I saw it. I still remembered how the tendrils at the end of his fin were streaked with a radiant gold that glistened even underneath the waves. Out of all the merfolk in the Atlantic, the color had made him and his father easy enough to identify in a crowd. It was a flashy, regal color befitting a prince.
Although the color was the same, there was nothing regal about how his tail looked now.
The tiny fish bounded toward me, a wave washing it forward a few inches, only for it to be sucked right back with the ebbing of the tide. The current swept the fish into a tiny puddle, and the poor thing rounded quick circles like a caged animal before flopping out onto the wet sand again.
I knew a thing or two about fish, and this wasn’t one that belonged in the ocean. No, bettas were a hardy fish, but they thrived solely in freshwater—a fact that made them a popular pet choice for children.
“Leander?” I choked out, keeping to the tips of my toes. If I got any closer, my legs would transform, and I’d be just as helpless in the water as he apparently was.
The fish kept fighting the tide, springing up the shore in frenzied spurts between waves. Inch by inch he struggled until finally, he flopped close enough for me to reach out to him. But I didn’t.
Finally free from the onslaught of waves, the little betta fish stilled in the sand at my feet.
I loomed over him, watching his tiny gills gape as he struggled to breathe in the open air.
“Pathetic.” I couldn’t help it. I burst into a crazy fit of laughter.
He had just stripped down in front of me so, sodramaticallyand—and this? This definitely hadn’t been what I’d expected from him when he insisted on showing me something.
“A betta fish!” I reeled back on the balls of my feet, tears stinging the corners of my eyes. This time, the tears were not from my emotions, but from the absurdity of it all.A fish.
His dorsal fin flared, but he stayed on his side, clearly exhausted from escaping the pull of the waves. I had to admit it was quite the impressive feat. Leander sure was a spirited little fishy.
“The Crown Prince of the Atlantic is an itty-bitty betta.” I huffed, breathless and struggling to compose myself.
I smacked my forehead, remembering how I’d caught him earlier in my net. “And I thought I’d lifted you.Damn. Well, I did lift you. But not you-you, I lifted fish-you. Man, and I was so freaking proud of myself, too.”
With an abruptpop, a naked man was at my feet.
The force generated from the transformation hit me like a tidal wave, knocking me flat on my ass. Leander gasped loudly for air and shook the seawater from his hair like a shaggy dog fresh from the bath.
“Hey!” I snapped, but the spray of salt water had already landed on both of my bare legs. “Oh…”
My skin shuddered, the flesh ripping and pulling with a sensation that still haunted me in my nightmares.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—” he sputtered out while rising onto his knees in the sand, but I was no longer listening.
Denim split with a loud rip, and my shorts practically exploded off me as my legs began to fuse.Poseidon help me.
Cerulean scales erupted through my skin, sparkling a blinding blue as they caught rays of sunlight reflecting off the water. It should have been painful. It should have torn me apart. But it hadn’t. The sensation of my legs coming together as one gave me a rush like no other, making me feelalive. Another loud snap of my bones, and the long stretch of a mermaid’s tail rested in the sand where my legs had just been.
“Nera,” Leander said, awe transforming his face. “How did you—?”
My ears were ringing. The cadence of my pulse drowned out his voice, making him sound far away. Not that anything he had to say mattered right now.
I’d been so careful up until today. It’d been years since I’d last made a mistake. Terror took hold, paralyzing me where I sat in the sand.
Now I was useless, unable to summon a single muscle that would move my fin. It was beautiful, sobeautiful, but so utterlyworthless. I couldn’t bear to look at it for even a second longer.
Cradling my face in the crook of my elbow, I sobbed.
“Nerida?” Arms pulled around me, dragging me somewhere through the sand, but it didn’t matter anymore, and I did nothing to stop it. I was useless, souselessas a mermaid—
“Claira?”
