Emerge (41 page)

“Yes,” Clay says. Our eyes lock. Then he looks away.

“And when your blood poured out into the ocean, that’s when there was an explosion of light and a seaquake?”

This time, we both nod.

“Right before sunrise, when we all regained our youth,” she murmurs to herself. Then, to the room at large, she says, “It’s as I suspected.” She points to Clay and me. “Their sacrifice broke the curse.”

“But the curse can’t be broken,” I say. “Clay isn’t dead.”

“He was willing to die for you and you for him. That’s what matters. Ancient spells are about balance. The Havelocks wanted to control the curse by killing Clay in place of the prince who they thought should have died, and by taking another human life every century to balance the immortal life of the Little Mermaid, who let herself die. They saw the curse as a spell about death.”

“Isn’t it?” Caspian’s mother asks, her kind face a picture of bemusement.

“If it were, Clay here would need to be dead for a ninety-four-year-old like me to have my cleavage back.”

“Niiice,” Lazuli says, appreciating the humor. My father stifles a laugh behind his hand. Clay just mouths the words “ninety-four?”

“The Havelocks would have succeeded in taming the spell with all that death,” MerMatron Zayle says, her tone serious again, “but they could never have broken it.”

“Why not?” Leomaris asks, his attention focused on her words even as his hand strokes Emeraldine’s hair. Em’s gleaming green tail twines with his topaz one under the water.

“Because the curse isn’t about death. It’s about love.” Now she looks at me. And at Clay. “The Little Mermaid accepted death so the one she loved might live. Both of you did the same. Your true love balanced the curse and broke it.”

“True love?” I whisper.

“Yes. Only true love—free of uncertainty or hesitation,” she pins Clay and me with a knowing gaze, “free of any type of magic—could have broken that spell and given us our immortality back.”

But that means … I look at Clay. That means he loves me.

Clay loves me.

Even after finding out what I did to him—that I lied, that I’m a Mermaid, that I sirened him—he still must love me like I love him, or we wouldn’t have broken the curse.

I stand there, stunned into silence, as my fellow Mer rejoice.

“So we really have our immortality back?” my father asks. “This isn’t temporary?”

I’m barely listening as MerMatron Zayle gives her confirmation, and everyone cheers and hugs. I need to talk to Clay, but he won’t look at me. He’s giving everyone else his rapt attention.

“Oh, Edmar,” my mother says to my father, “once things settle down, we can travel home. Back to the ocean.” She buries herself in his embrace. They must be thinking of the family they haven’t seen in decades.

“I can see my parents!” Amy shouts, pulling me into a fierce hug. No sooner has she pulled back than Staskia pulls me into another—and squeezes tight. I’ve never hugged Staskia before, and I wonder if she’s just caught up in the excitement, until she whispers in my ear, “Thank you … now we can … just thank you,” and squeezes again. When she lets me go, Amy grabs her hand. The two of them share a look that puts a shy smile on Amy’s face and makes her blush. Oh! Now that immortality’s back and procreation isn’t the only way to ensure our population survives, same-love will be viewed like it was before the curse—it’ll be accepted instead of shunned. That means Amy and Stas will be accepted … whenever they’re ready to be. They’re both practically bouncing in the water, their shining faces trained on mine, expecting a reaction. I give them a giant smile, but it doesn’t quite reach my eyes. I’m happy for them. So truly happy. I’m happy for all of us. But right now, I need to know how Clay’s feeling.

He’s talking to Caspian’s family, thanking Caspian’s grandmother for the potions that saved him.

“Thank
you
,” Caspian’s father says to him. “Because of what you did, my wife and I, Caspian, even our little daughter Coralline—all of our kind—are immortal, as we were always meant to be.”

My parents swim up to him next. My mom gives him a lecture about how vital it is he doesn’t tell anyone about us. After he’s sworn up and down he’ll keep our secret, they thank him, too. Thank him for saving me.

“I’m glad I could help. I’m glad we survived,” Clay says. “Now that you have my statement against Mel and Mr. Havelock, I think it’s time for me to go home. Return to the human world.” He says it like a joke, and my parents laugh, but I hear what he’s really saying. This isn’t his world. Even if he loved me, really loved me in that moment when he saved my life, he doesn’t want to be with me now. He’s human, not Mer. He doesn’t belong here, and he can’t wait to leave.

Without saying a word to me, Clay turns and walks out of my life.

“There’s still one thing I don’t understand,” my mother says to me after Clay has gone, after I’ve let him go. “How did you track that human boy all the way out to the palace?”

I gulp. It’s time to tell them. So far, I haven’t mentioned anything about sireny or the bond. I said I broke Clay’s heart by confessing I’d lied to him. Everyone assumed I meant about being a Mermaid. Well, everyone except Caspian and his grandmother. I told myself I was waiting until I was alone with my parents to tell them; really, I was just putting it off so I wouldn’t have to see their anger, their disappointment. But I’m ready to face them and accept my punishment. I guess now’s as good a time as any.

“I found Clay because—”

“Because I’d taught Lia what the symbols meant,” Caspian interrupts. “When I first deciphered them. She found Clay the same way I found her. By following the symbols in his room.” His voice stays steady through the lie.

I open my mouth to argue, but Clay’s grandmother drapes an arm around my shoulders and whisks me away.

“I need to tell them,” I say.

“They’d be obligated to report you to the board, Aurelia. Even if by some miracle you weren’t imprisoned, your whole family would be mired in scandal, the way mine has been for generations. They don’t deserve that. They’ve been through enough. And so have you.” She speaks slowly, as if urging me to see reason. “The Community needs to look up to them right now. All Mer need to. Do you realize now that the curse is broken, your family is next in line for the throne?”

I hadn’t realized. My mother is such a distant cousin of the old ruling family that I’ve never thought of us as real royalty. “You think the Mer Below would want my parents to rule?”

“I don’t know,” she answers, “but it is your parents’ right, and we’ll all need strong leaders after what we’ve endured. We need leaders who can piece our civilization back together. Seeing how your parents have led the Community, I have faith they could do it.”

I do, too. I know they could.

“But they’ll never get the chance if sireny stains the Nautilus name the way it’s stained the Zayles’,” she tells me, her voice quiet but intense.

I look over at my parents, at my sisters. At their happy smiles. “So, they’d just never know?”

“You know. That’s enough. It’s over. Let it go.” With that, Caspian’s grandmother turns to swim back to the group.

“MerMatron Zayle?” I say, stopping her. “How did I track Clay to the palace? Shouldn’t the bond have dissolved with the siren spell?”

“A siren spell uses powerful magic to join a Mermaid and a human. I’ve never heard of any other case where a victim outlived a siren spell, so I can’t be certain, but my guess is that even though the spell is over—even though your hold over Clay is gone—the two of you will always be able to sense each other. You’ll always be connected.”

The weight of her words pains me. “Even if that’s true,” I say, “Clay wants nothing to do with me.”

Everything’s changing. My parents (who I still can’t stop staring at) have sent emissaries Below to explain what’s happened. They made an announcement themselves to the Community, and I’ve received more bouquets of flowers and baskets of seashells than I know what to do with.

As soon as it’s safe, my mom and dad will take us on a trip Below. We’ll see where they grew up and visit family we’ve never met. They haven’t mentioned the whole reclaiming the throne thing, but they’re thinking about it. They’ve appointed Emeraldine as an executive on the Community board, and I think it’s so she can run things up here in case they need to spend time Below.

In the meantime, the entire Community has exploded in celebration. Parties, bonfires, parades. My parents have had to tell the human neighbors it’s a Danish holiday and hoped they wouldn’t Google it. I guess there’s no better reason to celebrate than finding out you’re going to live forever.

Forever. I keep trying to wrap my brain around that, but it’s so unreal. I don’t even know what I want to do when I graduate. What am I going to do with forever? Talk about possibilities. Do I work at the Foundation someday, like my parents have always expected? Will there even need to be a Foundation? Will everyone eventually move back Below? That scares me; the human world is the only one I’ve ever known. Should I go to college and pursue a career here on land? Should I go Below and spend all my days letting the call of the ocean guide me through the waves? The thought both exhilarates and terrifies me.

There’s only one person I want to talk to about it. I want to sit on the flannel bedspread in Clay’s room and stay up half the night telling him how I feel and listening to what he has to say. I want to fall asleep in his arms, surrounded by the cinnamon scent of him.

But I can’t. He hasn’t talked to me since he walked out of the grottos six days ago. With the changes in the Community, the normalcy of school should comfort me, but it doesn’t. All I can think about while I’m there is Clay. Will this be the day he talks to me? For the last six days in a row, the answer’s been no. Jaclyn and Genevieve throw me pitying glances in the hallway. Kelsey keeps grilling me about our apparent breakup, and all I can say is I don’t want to talk about it.

Now it’s Saturday, and I won’t even get to see him. I want to rush to his house and make him talk to me. But I don’t—for the same reason I haven’t approached him in school. It can’t be about what I want. Not anymore. I’m through pushing myself into his life if he doesn’t want me. I have to let it be his decision. I have to let him come to me this time. Without any song compelling him.

But I’m losing hope that he will. I need to distract myself today. I could go to Caspian’s, but he’s probably busy. Since our story got out, he’s gone from being a social pariah to a Community hero. Helping restore everyone’s immortality must trump the hundred-year-old stigma of sireny. His sister has as many play dates as she could ever want, and Caspian, well, he’s not doing too shabby in the dating department himself. Now that girls have stopped interpreting his natural reserve as proof he’ll turn out evil, they’re getting to know the real him. And the real him is awesome.

He’d still spend the whole day with me if I asked him to, so I don’t. That leaves me with a big, empty Saturday. Em and Leo are meeting with Mer wedding planners, and Staskia’s parents have taken Stas and Amy shoe shopping as a fitting reward for their leg control. I smile at the thought. They haven’t told anyone else about their relationship yet—I think they’re just finally enjoying spending time together without feeling guilty, without feeling like they’re doing something wrong. Even with my mind so preoccupied with thoughts of Clay, it makes me feel good to know I played some part in their happiness. Since they’re not here now to help distract me, I’m just about to head downstairs and see what the twins are up to when I get a text.

It’s from Clay!

He wants to talk. He’s coming over.

I rush to my closet. What I wear won’t change whatever he plans to say, but I obsess anyway. It gives me something to focus on, something to keep my mind from spinning into a whirlpool. Four outfits later and nothing feels special enough. Then I have an idea. I pull down a box, lift the lid, and brush back the tissue paper. The gold heels glimmer up at me.