I stepped onto the waterfront near my house. It was a private beach meant for the neighborhood to use, and despite how perfect the day was, hardly anyone was there. Which ultimately worked well for me, given what I was about to do. 

I left my beach bag and towel partially obscured under the sea-grass, so no one would go rooting around for my keys or sunblock. Not that anyone would, anyway. But it was always better to be safe than sorry. 

I stood on the shoreline, let the water kiss my toes as I wiggled them into the sand. I was wearing a new swimsuit, my first bikini since ever, I was pretty sure. The top was brown with a natural sweetheart neckline and straps that criss-crossed in the back, the bottom was a baby yellow skort with little brown polka dots, and both had frills and ivory lace details on them. Another extravagance that Lena insisted on—and this was the point where Mom had agreed to helping.

Buying a couple of nice swimsuits were only practical, given how we lived on the waterfront and were often at the beach. 

And the beach was a great place to fall in love—both Lena and I agreed on that. 

I closed my eyes, felt the warmth of the sun on my skin, the sea-breeze in my hair as I heard the gulls caw overhead. I took a few steps back, and then—

I took the plunge. A running start, a few steps into the shallow and then I dived into water. 

I’d always felt a connection to the ocean, perhaps in the way that every beachside girl does, or every weird girl in the back of her class. It was the way it sparkled, the way it flowed, the way that time seemed to slow down when you dipped beneath the surface. But I felt especially so, even if I knew that made no sense. After all, I wasn’t the kind of girl who was special or exceptional. I knew that. But being in the water again, this time by choice and not surprise attack of the monster of the deep reminded me of that feeling. 

I propelled myself deeper and deeper, farther out into the water. I resisted the instinct I’d developed to return to the surface, and instead took my second breath underwater. 

With the relief of air in my lungs, I couldn’t help but laugh, a sound still garbled by the water. Giddy, I swooped out further into the deep blue, turning and rotating with the total freedom afforded to me. I didn’t have to come up for air, not if I didn’t want to! I could explore so much more of the ocean!

Colorful fish I’d never seen before swam in front of me. In the distance I could see a pod of dolphins bobbing up and down, closer to the surface of the water.

A part of me wondered if I should be more careful—after all, I didn’t want to get the bends. Just because I could breathe underwater didn't mean I could withstand the pressure. I continued down. I didn’t feel the pressure change at all. In fact, I started to feel something new pulsing within me, not my heart, but that same light that had come from it with a rhythm of its own. I dropped down past the drop-off, and that’s when it happened—the pink light returned. 

It started with the warmth of sunlit shallows in my heart, then it spread outward, like translucent magenta ribbons. They embraced me, wrapping around me and shaping my legs together. Then they vanished, leaving me with an iridescent pink mermaid’s tail.

I gasped—then I turned around and around, somersaulting in the water just to catch a glimpse of it. I had a large tail fin like a koi fish’s, with pink and orange translucent mesh that shimmered as it caught the dappled pattern of filtered sunlight. The scales were primarily pink, but shifted to colors of orange and white and turquoise as it moved.

“Well, I’ve never seen a human girl do that before!”

I froze. Then I looked around, just in time to see a girl emerge from a patch of sea-grass.

No, not a girl—a mermaid.

She was beautiful, with wide amber eyes like a Disney Princess. Her hair floated all around her, platinum blonde that faded into turquoise blue, with thick strands of solid turquoise blue framing her ethereal face. Iridescent white markings like runes glowed on her sun-bronzed skin. Her tail was a deep cobalt that shimmered like there was starlight within, her fins the same turquoise as her hair. 

“You’re a mermaid.” I blinked as I realized that my voice sounded clear now, as if I were speaking in the air instead of the water.

The mermaid laughed. “So are you now, I guess!”

“Am I?” I tilted my head. “I guess I have the tail—but I’m human, I’m pretty sure.”

“I know, you don’t seem like a tide-dweller.” The mermaid tilted her head back. “There haven’t been many of those in the last few centuries, since we’ve been banned from going on the shore.”

“A tide-dweller?”
“Half-mer, half-human.” The mermaid shook her head, tossing her long hair everywhere. “I’m forgetting something!”

She blinked, trailing off, only to spark back to life again. “Right! My name! I’m Lumi. What’s yours?”

“Mika.” It was still so strange, to speak underwater. All of this was starting to feel like a dream. Had I ever resurfaced from the monster in the first place? Or was this some kind of dying dream, stretching on infinitely as I ran out of air?
“Well, it’s good to meet you, Mika.” Lumi giggled. “That light was so cool—I didn’t know humans could do magic too!”

“Magic?” I must’ve sounded so stupid, just repeating the words back at her. 

“You know, with the pink lights?” Lumi made a few pew-pew type sounds with energetic hand gestures. “Although I’m not familiar with that style!”

Her expression turned contemplative and she tapped her chin. “I’ll have to ask Aunt Rhine about that.”

“I don’t know what it is,” I admitted. “I didn’t know about mermaids or magic or monsters until last night.”
“Last night?” Lumi suddenly turned serious. “What do you mean?”

“I was at this yacht party, and I—“

“Lumi, who are you talking to?”

We both turned to see three more mermaids approaching. Well, two mermaids and a merman. 

The first of the mermaids was olive-skinned with blue eyes, her most striking feature being her bright purple hair. It was in what I’d seen called a jellyfish cut, with the strands in the back being pulled into braids fastened with glass beads. Her tail was a matching purple, fading in an ombre to lilac with lavender-pink fins. 

The merman had a long green tail, and dark brown hair streaked with teal and a brighter green. He wore a shell necklace, ivory against his tan skin, and had an armband of markings like the ones on Lumi’s skin on his left bicep. 

The second mermaid had delicate facial features, and highly-contrasting coloring with russet skin, dark hair, and bright turquoise eyes, with an aquamarine tail. She might’ve passed for normal on the land if it weren’t for all the pearls in her extremely long hair. Like, she could’ve given Rapunzel a run for her money. 

One of the girls had been the one to speak, the mermaid with the pearls in her hair.

“Oh, this is my new friend, Mika.” Lumi pointed at me with her thumb. “She says she’s a human girl, but she can do this pink magic and get a tail! I just saw it!”

The mermaid with purple hair narrowed her azure eyes at me and raised an eyebrow. “A human girl?”

I didn’t know what to say. “I guess so?”
The mermaid with purple hair and the merman exchanged a look. 

“This isn’t good,” the merman said. He then looked to me and his sea-green eyes softened. “No offense. This isn’t on you or anything, probably. One of your parents must’ve messed up big-time.”

“I don’t think she’s a tide-dweller though.”

“Some of us can look pretty similar to humans,” the mermaid with the pearls pointed out. “She might just be.”

I considered this. As far as I knew, it wasn’t likely. My mom had come from Hawaii, her father was Native Hawaiian and her mother was Japanese. My dad came from Canada a few generations back, after his ancestors had fled there in the wake of the Revolutionary War since they’d been loyalists. They both had moved to Wilmington for their careers, and ended up together. Their family histories were too well-documented to allow for it.

Unless someone was lying, and was really good at forging the evidence.

I ended up just shrugging. “I don’t know.”

“But what if she isn’t a tide-dweller, and she’s telling the truth?” Lumi was insistent now. “Something’s different about her, I can see it! You know, how Aunt Rhine taught me to do?”

“Then that’s really not good,” the merman said. 

“Well, that’s cheerful,” I muttered. “I guess I’ll just head back, then—“

“Oh, no, stay, please!” Lumi attempted to glare at her friends. “They’re just being mean—“

“We’re trying to keep you safe.” The mermaid with purple hair folded her arms over her chest. “You would befriend any mermaid or human you came across.”

“You never know if a stranger is just a friend you’ve never met yet,” Lumi said earnestly. “I think Mika is one of those friends!”
The merman’s face softened again. “We should talk to Madame Rhine. And we should keep Mika out of sight. There’s been some strange stuff out lately. Talu says he saw a Fathom last night.”

“Mika said she saw some monsters too.” Lumi looked more uncertain now. “Maybe she also saw the Fathom?”
“What’s a Fathom?” I couldn’t help myself. 

“A really old monster of the deep,” the merman explained. “They’re supposed to be sealed away, but they’ve been showing up again.”

He then sighed. “I’m Kei, by the way. This is Jewel—“ he pointed to the mermaid with the pearls. “And this is Dominique.” He gestured to the mermaid with the purple hair. “We came to help Lumi gather ingredients, but got tied up with shipwreck site.”

“Is Talu doing okay?” Lumi looked concerned.

Jewel shrugged. “The usual—he disappeared the way he usually does, once the job’s done.”

“He’s a mysterious guy.” Kei smirked, then sobered as he looked to me. “Sorry, Mika. We don’t mean to make you feel unwelcome or anything.”

“I do,” Dominique cut in.

Kei continued as if she’d said nothing. “These are just uncharted waters for us—no pun intended.”

“That’s okay.” I avoided looking at Dominique. “I probably should get going anyway, I don’t know how long I’ve been out here.”

“Aw, you have to leave already?” Lumi sank a little in the water. “That’s too bad—you’ll have to come back tomorrow!”

“Lumi!” Dominique chided. “We don’t need to be inviting her back here! What if she blabs to her human friends that she’s seen us?”

“I don’t really have many human friends, so you don’t have to worry about it.” A thought sparked in my head. “How do I turn back?”

Lumi shrugged. “However you got your tail in the first place, probably.”

I felt my face warm up. “I wasn’t really trying to do that. I was just swimming around and then got to here, and there was this pink light and—“

“Just swim back up, you’ll be fine.” Dominique was curt, and she avoided looking at me.

“No, she has a point, what if she can’t get her tail off and she shows it to other humans on the beach?” Kei’s question was as pointed as the look he gave Dominique. “I’ll swim to the surface with her, and I’ll make sure her tail disappears.”

“What if it doesn’t, though?” Lumi bit her lip. 

Kei shrugged. “Then we’ll come back here and ask your aunt for help.” He looked to me. “Is that okay with you, Mika?”

“Yeah.” I’ll admit, I was a little taken aback at finally being addressed in this conversation, instead of being talked about like I was a semi-interesting rock. “Thanks.”

“It’s no problem.” He grinned and offered me his hand. “Ready when you are.”

I accepted it. “Let’s go then.”

I glanced over my shoulder. “Bye, Lumi—I hope I see you all again!”

Lumi’s head bobbed rapidly as she waved. I think there might have even been tears forming in her eyes, but it was kind of hard to tell. Jewel at least managed a smile, but Dominique merely narrowed her eyes more. I could read the writing on the wall, so I followed Kei back out of the open blue. 

Luckily, as we passed closer to the shallows, I was enveloped by the pink light again and had legs. I still couldn’t feel the pressure and I could still hear Kei speak, however.

“That’s good, I was worried about what was going to happen if you were stuck,” he said once I was done transforming. “I’m sure you’ll figure out how it all works after some practice.”

I hope so, I tried to say, but my voice was gone.

“It’s okay, I get the idea,” he laughed good-naturedly. “Really, don’t take it personal from Dom or me. Lumi doesn’t exactly have many friends, but she wants them—so sometimes she doesn’t think too much about it.”

I wasn’t too different from her in that respect, I supposed.

“It’s okay if you come back,” he continued as he guided me back towards the beach. “We’ll try to find out why you’re able to do all that. Just wait until you see one of us, okay? I’m not sure what somebody else might do.”

I tilted my head, a silent what do you mean?

He sighed, exhaling a million bubbles. “We have a long history with humans. It never ends well.”

Well, that was reassuring. 

He peered up at the water. “This is as far as I can take you—are you good from here?”

I nodded.

He smiled more warmly this time. “Great. See you around, Mika!” 

He let go of my hand, and I kicked up to the surface. 

The air of the surface greeted me, rushed through my lungs, albeit with less of the relief than I was used to. I tread water as I looked around. The sun hadn’t progressed too far, although it was obvious late afternoon. I probably had only been down there an hour or so. That meant that I could go back without too much trouble. I knew I would—if just for Lumi alone. But there were also the mysteries of the monster I’d seen, the magic that supposedly lived within my heart.

I glanced around, then ducked my head underwater—Kei was already gone.

He was nice enough, I supposed, even though he wasn’t as friendly as Lumi. And Jewel hadn’t spoken enough for me to get a good read on her. Dominique was mean, though, and Kei definitely didn’t help the vibe as nice as he was after. 

I resurfaced and padded back to the beach. I was already plotting my swim the next day. As I retrieved my bag and dried off with my old used towel, a question hit me.

What was I going to tell Max?