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 Dominique 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 pale with brown eyes with golden markings around them, her most striking feature being her wavy lavender pink hair. The waves were almost curls, with cerulean streaks and sections pulled into little braids fastened with glass beads. Her tail was a light 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. 

I blinked—I'd seen him before. Where—

Then it hit me, as I looked into the prettiest teal-green eyes I'd ever seen, surrounded by shimmering scale-like freckles of pale aquamarine. 

He had been the boy who had saved me the night I fell off the Sirena.

I opened my mouth to speak, and he shook his head ever-so-slightly. 

The second mermaid had sharp facial features, and highly-contrasting coloring with russet skin, dark hair, and bright turquoise eyes, with a magenta tail. She might've passed for normal on the land if it weren't for all the pearls in her extremely long hair, black with a reddish sheen except for streaks of deep orchid purple. 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 lavender pink hair narrowed her brown 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 Dominique 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 Dominique. 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 Talu, by the way. This is Jewel—" he pointed to the mermaid with the pearls. "And this is Evie." He gestured to the mermaid with the purple hair. "We came to help Lumi gather ingredients, but got tied up with shipwreck site."

"How's that going?" Lumi looked concerned. "Find anything interesting?"

Jewel shrugged. "The usual."

"Which means nothing other than wooden planks and some metal screws to melt down," Talu teased, then sobered as he looked to me. "Sorry, Mika. We don't mean to make you feel unwelcome or anything."

"I do," Evie cut in.

Talu continued as if she'd said nothing. "These are just uncharted waters for us—no pun intended."

"That's okay." I avoided looking at Evie. "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!" Evie 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." Evie 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?" Talu's question was as pointed as the look he gave Evie. "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. 

Talu 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 Evie merely narrowed her eyes more. I could read the writing on the wall, so I followed Talu 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 Talu 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—Talu 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. Evie was mean, though, and Talu 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?