Evergreen (Mer Tales, Book 2) (4 page)

:::

ASH

Wednesday afternoon, April 13
^th

“So, Colin, huh?” Georgia said between sips of her Sprite as we sat together in the cafeteria. “Maybe you could set up a double date… after you make up with Callahan of course.”

My heart sputtered, jolting me from my daydream. Colin had become my worst nightmare. And last night, while Georgia and I were working on homework, Fin had left a frantic message for me to stay away from his house. It was as if he knew what had happened.

Georgia nudged my arm, dislodging my fist from my chin.

“What?” I said after scrunching my nose.

“Didn’t you hear what I said? About Callahan?”

“Yes.” I crumpled up my chip bag and threw it at her. “We were never together. Okay?”

I peered over Georgia’s shoulder to the other side of the cafeteria. Callahan sat with his back to me, his arm wrapped around Jaime’s waist. Ironically, she was an employee at Gran’s shop on the pier. Though I thought it might bother me, relief covered my guilty conscience instead.

My eyes snapped back to Georgia. “I’ve been horrible to him and honestly, he deserves better.”
And I prefer blond mermen anyway
.

I withheld my smile and gently squeezed my phone, my lifeline to Fin.

“Seriously?” she shook her head. “No way. I know you still care. Technically, you’re still together. I mean, he never officially broke things off. And you’re going to let Jaime move in on your turf?”

The last phone message he’d left played through my mind. “Ash. I don’t know why you aren’t returning my calls, but I can take a hint. Don’t worry. I won’t bother you anymore.”

I cringed. I’d been such a coward.

“He’s better off without me and besides, he’s going to Stanford to play ball. Jaime’s nice—” I lifted my chin toward their location. “All I want to do is get my grades up and leave this drama far behind.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Georgia’s shoulders slumped down in defeat, then a smile pushed up her lips. “That reminds me, do you know where Colin is going to college?”

I chuckled and almost said, “Natatoria University.” But when Fin said he’d fishy mojo Georgia a boyfriend, I’m sure Colin wasn’t on the list of suitors. “Why? Are you going to switch schools if he’s not going to FAU?”

“No. I thought if he was going also, that would be a crazy coincidence. Right?”

“He’s going to UCLA,” I lied, hoping she’d stop talking about him.

“Really? Bummer.” Her eyebrows rose. “Well… you’re so right. FAU is going to be totally awesome and there will be much better guys for both of us—”

So, true. You don’t know the half of it
.

“—so for the meet on Saturday, did you see what heat you’re seeded in?”

The vision of Fin and me reuniting with a passionate kiss crashed and burned at the thought of the swim meet Saturday. “No.”

“Seriously? It’s championships. You’re slated against Meredith again.”

My back stiffened. Visions of the last race played through my mind: the tie, the broken record, Callahan sitting on the bleachers with my dad. I massaged the scar on my leg as it tingled.

“You swam pretty good at practice yesterday.”

My teeth clamped onto my lip to hide my smile. I’d purposefully tried to swim slower, but the water exhilarated me for some reason. I ended up swimming my best split with little effort. Maybe the mer blood still pumped in my system from when Fin healed me. I hoped it would last until Saturday. Beating Meredith Hamusek would be worth all the trouble.

“Yeah… taking a break must have recharged me.”

“I’ll say. Completely opposite of what happens to me. I stop swimming for even a few days and get all slow and mushy.”

The whole time, the perfect excuse stared me right in the face. How could I have forgotten the meet? Though no-showing Colin seemed like the best way to dump him on his dorsal fin, I wasn’t sure if the persuaded had a choice once they were commanded to do something. But I could always leave him a note.

As I contemplated my next move, Callahan and Jaime walked by, their laughter filtering through the noise of the cafeteria. He hugged her tighter as his glance caught the corner of my eye. I looked away, suddenly engrossed in the fraying hole in my jeans. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier he’d found someone else, but he appeared hurt. I needed to apologize, somehow.

:::

The note shook like flimsy butterfly wings in my cold hand. Fin’s explicit warning last night not to come near the house rang in my ears, but my feet moved forward anyway, creaking along the wooden boards of the porch. His memory hugged every square inch, haunting me. A deep longing for him to pull up in his Jeep grabbed me, turning my legs to JELL-O. Energy to keep myself from falling apart moment by moment rendered me emotionally exhausted, but finally being here, facing the past, I had to shove the pain further under that barrier I’d locked him in.

As I looked for an actual place to leave my handwritten excuse for Colin, I contemplated the mailbox next to the door. Would mermen know about the postal service? I gave up the idea and squeezed the paper into the door jam when the door popped open with a creak.

“Colin!” I heard a man say.

My blood turned to ice.

“What?” Colin barked.

I didn’t dare move or breathe. He sat right there, on the couch beyond the wooden door that separated us.

“Azor is coming here tomorrow, so get off your ass and pick up your crap. He wants to know what’s taking us so long, and inspect the house. And don’t you dare tell him about the girl.”

“Of course I won’t! I’m not an idiot,” he yelled with a huff. “She’s not coming over until Saturday anyway.”

At the squeak of the couch cushions, I willed my reluctant feet to move, to get me the heck away from there.

The unknown voice interrupted my descent. “She better come, but before you do anything, I want you to check first and see if she has the mark. I don’t want you making a fool of us with the wrong girl.”

“I know.” Colin tsked. “What do you think I am, a merling?” he said in a low tone.

Approaching footsteps pinched my lungs. I pressed myself up against the siding, trying to blend into the topiary next to the door. How did they know I was promised to Fin? If they caught me eavesdropping, what would they do? Turn me over to Azor?

“In time, it’ll all work in our favor and we’ll see who’s barking orders at whom,” the man said within practical touching distance. “Why is this door open?”

A white haired bearded man peered outside. I held my breath and pinched my eyes shut. I was caught.

“Remember, it’ll be me on the court and not you,” Colin said from inside.

“Hmmm,” the man mumbled.

I kept my eyes shut, praying he didn’t see me.

“Well not now!” he yelled and the door slammed shut.

Something inaudible boomed from inside. Amazed I’d adverted capture, I let loose of my breath and snuck down the porch to the driveway. Once my feet hit the gravel, I ran the rest of the way home.

“What’s wrong, Ash?” Dad asked as I darted inside and slammed the door.

I turned in a panic. “Nothing.”

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“It’s… nerves for Saturday.” I managed a smile.

“That’s this weekend.” He nodded his head in sudden understanding. “Well, your mom is on her way home and dinner will be ready soon. I hope you’re hungry for tacos.”

“Yeah.” I took the stairs two at a time.

“Wait!” Dad said from somewhere on the bottom floor. “What am I, chopped liver? Where’s my hug?”

“Sorry, Dad. Gotta pee.” I disappeared around the corner.

I flung my gym bag on the floor and took off my wet sweatshirt. The scent of chlorine infused the room—a scent normally comforting to me, but I couldn’t stop my heart from racing. They knew. Should I tell Fin? Or maybe a better question was could I tell him? Either way, I needed to get to Florida as soon as possible before Colin and Mr. White Beard cornered me and verified my promising mark.

I reached into my pocket for the note. It was gone.

Crap.

Sweat dripped down my cheek as I pawed through my bag. Did the man find the note? Did he guess I was there the entire time listening in? Maybe in the scuffle, the note blew away.

I looked out the window at Fin’s house filled with dread. I couldn’t be alone with Colin, not after he’d been charged to confirm the truth. Not now. Not ever. Especially with Azor coming to the house. The thought of meeting him face-to-face, the merman who stole my best friend’s promise, terrified me. He was coming here this week, looking for clues to find Fin and his parents, and maybe me.

Fear for Fin and Tatchi twisted in my stomach. What if there was an accident? What if Azor never returned home? Fin had said that only through death or mer-to-human conversion would the promise break. What if I made one of the two happen somehow? Then Tatchi would be freed and Fin wouldn’t have to risk his life to try to force her home. She’d be able to leave.

But how? Could I even get close to him? The fact he’d stolen Tatchi from me made me hate him more than anyone in the world. But I could never hurt anyone.

The ringer on my phone filled the silence of my plotting, and I shook my head at my insanity. I’d overheard Colin’s conversation for a reason, and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by. I took a deep breath and answered the phone on the last ring.

Whatever I decided, I couldn’t tell Fin.

:::

FIN

Wednesday evening, April 13
^th

Discouraged, I hung up and headed for the lake with a few minutes to spare. Ash’s persistent questions about the conversion from mer to human didn’t sit right with me. I’d told her what I knew, that they drained the mer of their blood, typically in a bathtub. Then the magical properties healed and brought the body back to life, regenerating new blood void of mer essence. Once complete, the supervising merman was to erase the mer memories and fill in a back-story.

But she’d continued on, asking if it hurt, if the person had to have their mind erased totally, or only certain events. But most important, she asked if I knew anyone who’d successfully converted. To her disappointment, I didn’t.

My lack of answers made me wonder why I hadn’t asked before. Did she expect me to convert? Had her longing been so horrible that she had no other choice but to subtly beg me to put her out of her misery? Though I’d let on I contemplated losing my fin, watching Mom slip further and further into a depression missing Tatchi
,
and her incessant talks of rescuing her put a halt to that idea. I couldn’t now. Not yet.

I stepped into the slime at the waterline and stopped, sickened by the smell, when my parent’s heads popped up one after the other.

“Don’t,” Dad said from the muck. “You shouldn’t go underwater.”

“It’s filthy,” Mom said behind him.

They came to the water’s edge and sat on the bank, morphing out of their tails, covered in strings of algae.

“We need to find something cleaner for the night.” Dad motioned to the RV. “Go get the phone. Quick!”

I ran back and grabbed the phone, but scales had already formed on my legs. We didn’t have time to find, let alone drive to someplace else tonight.

I grabbed a bunch of bottled waters and took them with me as I bolted the rest of the way to shore before the sunset. My parents sat together in the muck, finned up once again. I gave them both a few bottles each.

“Thanks.” Mom took a few sips and then splashed the rest over her arms and body. Dad did the same.

I joined them reluctantly, sinking three inches into the mud. Fire burned across my scales as I finned out after the initial plunge.

“Sorry,” I finally said after no one spoke for several long minutes. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s alright.” Mom smiled weakly. “The lake looked good from the road. Next time, we need to arrive earlier so we can investigate and have a backup plan if it’s not suitable.” She pointed to my phone. “Where are we headed tomorrow?”

Still tired from the craziness of the night before, I opened up the map and waited for it to load. This had been our backup plan. If the drunken fishermen at the last lake hadn’t been throwing explosives in the water to fish, we wouldn’t have needed to rest during the daylight and had plenty of time to find a better location.

Through hazy eyes, I watched the circling ball inform me we were too far off the network for cell service. I turned off the phone. The fact the bog was missing a name should have tipped me off it was a dump. Aerial satellite shots were so deceiving.

“I’ll stay awake. If someone comes, we’ll have to go under the water,” Dad said.

Mom shuddered in response, but I doubted anyone would visit this horrible place anytime soon. “No, Jack. I’ll stay up. You need your rest to drive tomorrow.”

“I’ll drive tomorrow,” I mumbled as I leaned against the dry ground, unable to keep my eyes open.

“I’m driving,” Dad said, “and we’ll take turns.”

With no more strength to fight, I finally gave in. After an hour of tossing and turning, Dad slammed his fist in the water, splattering Mom and me with mud. “I can’t stand this. I’m looking for the inlet.”

Mom watched as he slithered away in the stagnate current.

“We should have bought a kiddie pool for times like these,” I joked.

“That’s actually a good idea—well, we’d need more than one.” Mom laughed as she put her arm around me and squeezed. “Here, take a small sip of essence. That’ll help.”

I hesitated, staring at the precious vial she’d promised to give Ash when the time was right. I shook my head.

“It’s okay,” she said quickly. “I’ve got more packed away for emergencies.”

The sparkling blue liquid came alive in the moonlight, singing a faint song of our people, when the guilt hit me. What if I drank the potion and when Ash needed it in the future we’d run out? Though uncomfortable, sitting in a dirty bog wasn’t something I’d call an emergency.

“It’s okay, Mom. I feel fine.” I gave her the precious commodity back and took another swig of water instead.

“No, seriously… we don’t know what’s in this sludge. It’ll strengthen your blood.”

She nudged me again, holding out the liquid.

“I’m good,” I finally said.

She grimaced before corking the vial, not drinking any either, and put the necklace back on. Seeing the vial on her neck daily reminded me of what I was and what Ash was not. And for some reason something inside compelled me to take it from her as if I didn’t trust her judgment.

Mom placed her hand on mine. “I know what you’re thinking.”

I looked up, caught in her curious gaze. “What?”

“You’re afraid there won’t be any when it’s Ash’s turn.”

“Well,” I looked away.
True

“I promise you, when Ash is ready, I’ll give her this one. You don’t need to worry.”

I hated the way Mom kept ownership of the essence, as if she didn’t trust me. I’d never trick Ash into drinking the essence—ever. That would make me no better than Azor.

“It’s fine.”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you. I’m trying to keep you both from pressuring one another. It’s a big decision.” Mom’s eyes bored into me as grief stretched across her face—a worry I couldn’t understand.

“Is there something wrong?” I finally asked, but already knew the answer. She worried about Tatchi.

“No.” She looked away.

I skipped a rock across the water. I missed her, too. “Are we going to Natatoria as soon as we get to Florida?”

“I’m not sure. There’s a lot to plan first.”

Though I wanted to know more details, I was too tired to ask. Obviously the mission wasn’t as easy as we’d all hoped. We couldn’t just bring Tatiana home with us. We had to break the bond she had with Azor, and that meant one of two things—his death, or either of their conversions. Too much to think about and something heavier weighed on my mind.

“What was it like when you changed from human to mer?”

Mom let out a long, pained sigh. “Excruciating, like breaking all the bones in your legs at once, but it doesn’t last long—”

Painful?

“—all good things come with a little pain, like childbirth.”

“I guess,” I said with a grimace.

Silence filled the space as we watched the other end of the bog for signs of Dad. He’d better come back soon, otherwise I’d have to figure out where he went.

“Was it an easy choice to convert?”

Mom chuckled. “Up until I finally decided, no. I struggled with what to do everyday.”

“Why?”

Mom turned toward me. “I didn’t want to abandon my parents.”

I wanted to ask why Dad didn’t change for her, but obviously there was something else going on. Maybe he was afraid he wouldn’t survive.

“So what finally changed your mind?”

Mom flipped her tail in the water a few times. “Your father’s continued acts of unselfish love. Before the promise, he’d sacrificed so much to rescue me from a life of servitude to Phaleon, and then after, he had undying patience with me. How could I not do the same for him?”

“You’ve never told me this.”

“You never asked.” Mom smiled and looked wistfully off into the distance. “When it came time for Prince Phaleon to choose a mate, he wasn’t happy with his selection in Natatoria. So he came to Florida to stay with Jack’s parents to find a human girl instead. And since Jack knew the ways of humans and could guard Phaleon on land while he chose someone, the King agreed. So, Leon and I met soon after he arrived, and unbeknown to me, he wanted me to be his mate.

“I have to admit, at first I was flattered with his attention. He swept me off my feet with his accent and charm. I didn’t know for sure what he was exactly, until I caught Jack calling him prince once, so I became giddy with the possibilities—a royal life as a princess. I hadn’t a clue where though.

“But, after a while, I tired of Phaleon’s ego. I found myself drawn to your father. Though he was very proper in the Prince’s presence, he was so attractive to me.” Mom giggled like a schoolgirl—something I’d never heard before.

I shrugged it off as she composed herself and continued.

“But, unlike Phaleon, it was your dad who asked me about my goals and dreams, and the things that mattered most to me. He shared similar desires and we connected on a deeper level. Once Phaleon planned the big date to kiss me, Jack broke protocol and warned me not to go. At first I was shocked at his boldness, and thought he was saying so because he’d fallen in love with me. But when I flat out asked him, your dad said it was best I didn’t get involved with either of them. I didn’t understand and his rejection hurt. So when I told Leon I only wanted to be friends, they both disappeared the next day, and took my heart with them.”

Though I knew this talk would be coming sooner or later, the timing sucked. I needed to turn off my brain before my own depression set in, but I continued to listen.

“Of course, your father had fallen in love with me, and a few years later when he rescued me from drowning, we were promised. I finally learned of the mer and exactly what Leon had planned for me. And your sweet father never wanted me to feel obligated to choose the mer life just for him, so he told me I never had to choose. We’d make it work no matter what. And we believed we could.”

Mom swayed and put her hands back to catch herself.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah.” She rubbed her forehead. “I’m tired from last night I think.”

“Why don’t you sleep then?”

“No… I want to tell you—”

If only Dad would let us know he’d found fresher water and she could rest.

“The thought of Natatoria suffocated me,” she continued, almost as if in a trance. “A lonely place where women harvested merlings and the men supervised their every move. Everything was planned and provided for, right down to the rays of sunlight. But instead of seeing a blessed utopia, I kept telling Jack I wanted a career, a picket fence, and selfishly a home with an oversized bathtub for Jack to sleep in at night. But still, he never put pressure on me.

“But when Jack would leave me to visit Natatoria, I was the one alone. I worried he’d never return, or that if something bad happened, I couldn’t go to him. I hated how the water separated us, so after my parents passed, I decided your father’s love was greater than anything this world had to offer, and I became a mermaid.

“Then our lives fell into place. I had you kids. We were happy in our own world in Tahoe. But once King Merric became ill and Phaleon was given the kingdom, things changed. Phaleon began to do things that suggested he never forgave Jack for stealing me from him. And your father, so filled with guilt, continually allowed Phaleon to treat him like a servant.

“And when your father was sent to find Galadriel and bring her home, I thought it was the end for us. Though Phaleon doesn’t seem to truly love Deidre, he wouldn’t jeopardize his kingdom to steal another’s mate—not in public eyes. The entire scheme was put in motion only to please his son, the future king. I believe Phaleon allowed us to stay away from Natatoria so Tatiana wouldn’t have opportunities to meet merboys her age. And then conveniently, Galadriel runs away right before the coming of age festival. Phaleon had his perfect excuse. And I was afraid for Jack’s life if I didn’t comply. I should have insisted we stay in Tahoe. We should have discussed the situation as a family first before letting your father go, but he worried about discovery of the safe-house if he didn’t. It’s all my fault.”

“No, Mom,” I said, interrupting her. “It was my fault. I kept getting in trouble.”