Chapter Text
The wind coming off the bay had that crisp, late-autumn bite that usually meant the ocean was churning up something miserable, but inside the house, it was pure comfort. Dad was sitting at the kitchen island with a mug of black coffee as he scrolled through some sort of research paper on his laptop, while Mom was set at the stove, doing her best to make some blueberry pancakes. It was a rare, lazy Saturday morning, something I desperately needed after the chaos of the last two years. It felt nice to be a family again, to have my mom back home, no threat of freshies or the Tidal Law; it was just us three spending our morning together.
I was halfway through drawing a maple syrup smiley face on my stack of pancakes when Dad’s phone buzzed against the granite countertop.
It wasn’t his usual work ringtone. It was the frantic, double-pulse ring he only assigned to a handful of people in town. After all the Mer drama, he wanted to make sure he could pick up the phone immediately, in case something dangerous was brewing.
Dad answered on the second ring. “Hello? Eddie?”
Mom paused with her spatula mid-air, glancing over at him. I froze, my fork hovering over my plate.
A second passed; Dad’s fingers went still on his keyboard while his eyebrows shot up towards his hairline. “Eddie? Whoa, slow down. What’s wrong?”
At the name Eddie, my fork dropped from my hand, clattering onto the plate with a chunk of pancake still attached. Eddie was Luke’s grandfather. If Eddie was calling us at ten in the morning on a Saturday, it meant one thing: mer-trouble.
“Wait, today?” Dad asked, his voice dropping into that intense, concentrated tone he used whenever a high-stakes engineering project went sideways, or whenever he found out I was up to some mer-trouble. “I thought Luke wasn’t supposed to come back up until Sunday night.”
I sat up straight, my pulse racing. Luke was down in the deep water visiting his biological mer-parents for the weekend. He had only met them a few months ago; sixteen years after being separated, he had started visiting them every other weekend to get to know them. This weekend was supposed to be a routine visit, but he wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near a phone, let alone heading back to dry land early.
“He’s already at the beach?” Dad echoed, his knuckles white around his phone. “Understood, I’ll load it up right now.”
Dad hung up and turned around, his eyes wide.
“What is it, dear?” Mom asked, setting her spatula down with a soft click.
“That was Eddie,” Dad said, already moving toward the hallway closet to grab his jacket. “Luke’s biological parents sent him back to the surface unexpectedly, but he’s stuck in mer-form at the beach. Eddie needs the Merlin 3001.”
The Merlin 3001. The custom-built, high-tech contraption Dad and Eddie had labored over two years ago; a machine designed to simulate the conditions of a tidal pool to force a quick transformation.
“I have to drive it over to the docks right now,” Dad said, kissing Mom on the cheek as he zipped his windbreaker. “If anyone sees a teenage boy with a tail hanging out on the shore, we’re going to have a major international news story on our hands.”
“I’m coming with you,” I blurted out, jumping out of my chair so fast my juice glass rattled.
Dad paused at the front door, shaking his head. “Jade, no. Eddie sounds rattled, and we don’t know why Luke was sent back early. It might be dangerous. Stay here with your mother.”
“Dad, Luke is my friend,” I insisted, careful not to use the term boyfriend; Dad still wasn’t completely on board with me dating, and this was definitely not the time to spark a debate about my love life. I grabbed my sneakers from the rug and shoved my feet in without untying the laces. “If he’s in trouble, I’m not sitting here eating pancakes. Besides, you need someone to help you haul a heavy mermaid out of the water!”
Dad looked at Mom, who gave him a subtle, approving nod, and then he looked back at me. He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
“Fine,” Dad relented, holding the door open. “But you stay in the van until I give the all-clear. Deal?”
“Deal,” I said, brushing past him into the crisp morning air, already knowing there was a zero chance I was staying in the van once we hit the beach.
The smell of saltwater hit us before Dad even brought the truck to a complete stop near the shore. Thankfully, this part of the beach was always empty due to the dangerous rocky currents, easy for a Mer to navigate, but treacherous for humans. It was the same spot where my best friend, Cori, had discovered I was a mermaid last year after she fell in and I rescued her. As a Mer, I was driven by instinct to rescue humans in danger, but I would have saved Cori regardless of my DNA. She was my best friend, and we looked out for each other.
It also helped that the tourist season had ended months ago, making the autumn cold far too bitter for any locals to go swimming or sunbathing.
Near the water’s edge, I spotted Eddie standing alongside Mr. and Mrs. Martin, Luke’s adoptive parents, who were crouched by the shallows as if talking to someone in the surf.
“Stay in the truck, Jade,” Dad warned, throwing the gear shift into park.
“Dad, you need help with the machine,” I said, unbuckling my seatbelt anyway.
Before he could argue, I scrambled out into the chilly sea air. Eddie was already hustling over to us, looking utterly ragged. His flannel shirt was misbuttoned, and his gray hair stood up in wind-blown tufts.
“Thank goodness, Darlymple,” Eddie panted, grabbing Dad’s arm. ”He’s down by the rocks; let’s get the Merlin 3001 started.”
“Is he alright, Eddie?” I asked, stepping up beside them.
Eddie blinked at me, startled, before offering a weary sigh. “Jade… glad you’re here, kiddo. He’s safe for now, but he’s exhausted and stressed out. His parents sent him back up in a hurry; he’s been here since late last night.”
Dad opened the back doors of the van, firing up the laptop control panel for the Merlin 3001. Meanwhile, Eddie and Mr. Martin began hauling out the wooden ramp to assist in moving Luke out of the sea.
Luke lay resting in the cold, murky shallows, his upper body propped against a large, barnacle-encrusted rock. His face was pale and slick with salt spray, his breath ragged as his gills strained to filter oxygen. His skin had taken on a faint blue tint from the autumn air, and his shimmering indigo-and-silver tail lay limply in the tide, its scales dull with stress.
“Luke!” I dropped to my knees in the damp sand, reaching out toward him.
He looked up, his eyes bloodshot and wide with panic. The moment he recognized me, he reached out a freezing hand to grasp mine. “Jade… you shouldn’t be here,” he rasped, his voice raw. “It’s bad. It’s really bad.”
“Save it till you’re back on two feet,” Dad said softly as he, Eddie, and Mr. Martin waded into the water to lift Luke into the tub.
“Filters are set,” Eddie confirmed, twisting a pressure valve. “Salinity ratio set to point-zero-four. Fire it up.”
Dad yanked the starter cord. The Merlin 3001 sputtered once before humming into a steady, rhythmic vibration. Mineral-rich, hyper-oxygenated water began pulsing through the hose over Luke’s tail, replicating the chemical signature and the conditions of a natural tidal pool.
Luke groaned, leaning his head back as the engineered current enveloped him.
I leaned over the edge of the tub, squeezing his shivering hand in both of mine. His skin felt freezing; colder than the ocean itself. “Hang on, Luke, it’s working.”
He winced as the transformation process began, his tail straining beneath the foam. For full-blooded Mers like Luke, shifting back to human form using the Merlin 3001 took hours, far faster than the days it took in a natural tidal pool, but still grueling. For half-humans, Mers like me, the shift happened in minutes, though the compressed agony usually left me throwing up or passing out. Watching him suffer through the slower, aching process was no easier.
Dad stepped out of the van with Eddie and Luke’s adoptive parents, trying to piece together why his bio parents had sent Luke back so abruptly. None of them seemed to have answers.
As soon as Dad was out of earshot, Luke used his Mer voice, a high-pitched frequency ringing that humans had trouble hearing and understanding, to speak to me. His voice trembled as his tail began the painful process of splitting into two legs. “My parents… they didn’t send me back because of school or homework.”
“We know,” I said gently, brushing the damp hair away from his forehead. “Eddie told us it was unexpected.”
“No,” Luke rang out, his eyes shining with a sudden, terrified intensity that made my chest tighten. “They sent me up because Petra’s gone. My sister went missing last night… and they think whoever took her tracked me to the surface.”
My chest felt as though it had been squeezed by an anchor chain. Petra was missing. Luke’s younger sister who had only just moved back with her parents back to the rest of the pod after the mermaid council was overthrown, she was so young, and only just getting the chance to learn where her real home is; was now gone.
I leaned closer to the rim of the Merlin 3001 tub, focusing my energy on sending back a response in the same frequency. Pitching my voice into that high Mer register always felt like vibrating a violin string at the back of my throat, an annoying ringing to human ears, but clear to another Mer.
“Who took her, Luke?” I asked, “Did your parents see anyone? Was it a rebel mermaid, or maybe another pod?”
Luke winced from the searing, slow-burning pain of his tail beginning to restructure into legs. “I don’t know,” he rang back, his frequency wobbling with exhaustion and panic. “They didn’t tell me much. One minute we were sharing an evening meal, and the next, my father pulled me out of our cave system and started swimming towards the surface at full speed.”
“They didn’t give you any details at all?”
“There wasn’t time!” Luke’s eyes flickered towards the back of the van, ensuring Dad and Eddie were still out of range. “On our way up to the surface, a fast-moving vessel appeared right above us. Dark hull, no surface lights; a human boat, or at least a human design. My parents had to split off to lead it away from me. They shoved me toward the coastal rocks and told me to wait for Eddie.”
A human boat tracking a Mer? Goosebumps broke across my arms, colder than the autumn sea spray blowing off the bay.
“Luke, we have to tell our parents,” I urged, shifting back to an urgent whisper in plain English before catching myself and reverting to the silent Mer frequency. “If a boat was following you to dry land, this isn’t just an underwater problem anymore. They need to know what we’re dealing with!”
“No! Jade, please, you can’t!” Luke’s Mer voice sparked into a harsh, frantic pitch that made my teeth ache. His fingers tightened around mine so hard his knuckles turned stark white. “If your dad or my family thinks I’m being hunted by someone on a boat, they’ll lock me in this town and never let me go down into the ocean. I’ll never see my parents or Petra again!”
“Luke, but…”
“Jade?”
Dad’s voice cut through our conversation like a foghorn. I practically jumped out of my skin, pulling my hands back from the edge of the tub. Dad stood at the open rear doors of the van, holding a bundle of towels and a fresh pair of sweatpants, with Eddie and Mr. Martin standing right behind him.
“Give Luke a little space, kiddo,” Dad said gently, waving a hand toward the open bench. “The Merlin 3001 is moving faster now. It’s going to take him a lot of energy to transform within the next few hours.”
He glanced at the tub, then gave me a pointed, slightly awkward look.
“Besides,” Dad added, clearing his throat and rubbing the back of his neck, “when he finishes shifting back to legs, he’s not going to be wearing anything. That is definitely a view my teenage daughter does not need to see.”
Heat instantly rushed to my cheeks, burning away the autumn chill. “Dad! Gross! I wasn’t… I’m leaving!”
I scrambled backward away from the van, my face burning as hot as a flare. Luke let out a weak, raspy laugh from the tub, though his eyes remained heavy with concern. Just as I turned to head toward the sandy trail, Luke reached his arm over the edge one last time, his fingers brushing against my wrist to grab my attention.
He didn’t use his Mer voice this time, just a low, pleading whisper that stayed between the two of us.
“Visit me at my house later?” he asked, his eyes searching mine. “Please, Jade. We need to figure out what to do.”
I looked at his shivering frame, then back toward my dad and Eddie, who were already busy adjusting the temperature settings on the Merlin 3001.
“I’ll be there,” I promised softly.
I waited about two hours on the cold park bench, seriously regretting that I’d left my phone at home in my rush to leave the house. At least the quiet gave me a chance to process everything Luke had told me about Petra.
When Luke finally finished shifting back into human form, his adoptive parents had to support him on either side as they walked him to their car. He was still shaking uncontrollably, even wrapped in a thick towel and two fleece blankets. We didn’t get a chance to speak before they drove him home, but maybe that was for the best; he looked so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open, let alone stand on his own two legs.
Dad and I climbed back into the van as soon as the Martins pulled away. Dad rubbed his face with both hands, the sheer tension melting off his shoulders as he leaned back against the headrest.
“I can’t believe he put himself in danger like that just because he forgot he had plans to study with a friend,” Dad complained, shaking his head. “Thank goodness Eddie got him that replacement tracker watch, or else he might have gotten seriously sick from the autumn air.”
He turned to look at me, his expression hardening into full parent mode. “And remember: no ocean swims in late autumn. I know as a Mer you can handle the cold ocean water, but sitting near the shore wet with this wind cutting through is dangerous. You saw the Martin boy. He was practically blue by the time we got here.”
I stared at him in disbelief. Leave it to my dad to find a way to turn someone else’s near-disaster into a lecture directed at me, especially when I hadn’t even done anything wrong!
Well… other than keeping Luke’s secret and not telling Dad that his cover story was a complete lie.
The drive home went by in total silence. Once we got back, Dad settled onto the couch next to Mom to watch TV, his arm wrapped tightly around her shoulders. It was good seeing them like that. When we all thought Mom was dead, it had completely broken him; seeing him this happy and in love again was incredibly healing. I had missed seeing my dad like this.
How could I deny Luke that same chance at happiness? He had risked everything to help me rescue my mom and bring her home, back when we weren’t officially dating. He risked his life and even got kidnapped by the Mermish council, who mistook him for a mermaid poacher, all just to stand by me.
Mermaid Poacher.
Something clicked in my brain, like two puzzle pieces snapping into place. Who else would track a Mer all the way to the surface if not a poacher? But as soon as the thought crossed my mind, another question took its place: how could anyone track Luke through deep water? The frequency Mers emit is practically invisible to normal human radar and fishing equipment.
I wanted to rush straight over to Luke’s house to tell him my theory, but Mom and Dad insisted I sit down to finish my breakfast; not that I’m complaining about cold blueberry pancakes at that point. And to take a scalding hot shower so I wouldn’t catch a chill from my damp, sand-caked clothes.