Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
AULANI
Isat on the beach crying for so long that the sea salt had dried and my clothes and hair felt sticky and stiff. I wiped my eyes and sniffed, looking up at the stars and the moon.
I traded my underwater life for a sight I could see from the sea. I didn’t need a telescope to see more. I could enjoy the view I had…
But I’ve always wanted more. I felt I was meant for greater things, and being different from the other mermaids didn't help. None of them communicated with the animals and living plants as deeply as I did. So it seemed right that I had to leave.
I thought I belonged in the human world. And now I knew that I did not. Ezra had kept his promise and brought me here, but even he could do nothing for me. I had tangled myself in this mess, thinking I could belong here.
I’m only going to turn to sea foam now…
Pili swooped down and landed on my shoulder.
He let out a soft sound, as if aware that I was sad and grieving.
He nudged his soft head against my cheek and I stroked his red feathers.
Now that he perched on my hand, I couldn’t help but admire just how beautiful he was.
All of the songbirds were beautiful, and their songs? Even more beautiful. I would miss them.
I’ll miss everything. I’ll miss him. Because soon, I’d be nothing.
For another long moment, I listened to the waves breaking on the shore. The sea was loud, but it wasn’t annoying or pesky like the coqui frogs from the nearby forest.
They don’t belong here, I thought. They were an invasive species, causing endless noise pollution and eating all the bugs so the native birds starved to death. And then it dawned on me… the coqui frogs did not belong here, yet, somehow, I did.
Because of me, the songbirds were thriving again. Because of me, we’d find Cressida’s magic ball and stop the leeching of the island’s life. I also thwarted Tavo and his crew's attempt to steal the throne from Ezra.
I remembered telling Aunty Lorelei that I wanted to come here because maybe–just maybe–it was my calling. She said curiosity was not the same as calling, but it was not just curiosity. Perhaps I did have something to offer here.
I looked at the forest in the distance, and my eyes narrowed. A thin pillar of smoke rose into the sky, a sign that someone was setting up camp there.
And I knew who it was.
Tavo said he was going to start chopping down trees. He even had the crew ready to do it. He even had his fleets ready to ship off the wood…
I can’t let him do that.
My fists clenched at the thought of him destroying the forest. Ezra would never do such a thing… and my heart skipped a beat.
It’s why I love him so much.
Love? I almost laughed aloud at myself. Of course I love Ezra! But I was terrified to admit it because, well, I was supposed to fall in love with Prince Ryker. I never really wanted to from the beginning.
He was a means to discovering the human world, and I hated that I wanted to just use him.
I couldn’t do that to him. And I wouldn’t. Besides, I had no access to my world.
As if a whisper from the sea, I heard a voice: You will need to win the right prince’s heart to stay.
The right prince’s heart? That was the terms of the spell that transformed me.
I gaped.
Prince Ryker was not the right prince for me.
He never had been.
But with Ezra, it was different… vastly different.
I wanted to fall in love with him so I could stay…
not just in his world, but with him. He was everything I wanted and needed: grounded, rooted, steady.
I moved and bubbled with every current of emotion and whim, but he did not move, and I loved him for that.
And, in that moment, I realized that if I was going to die and turn to sea foam, I might as well show my love for Ezra by doing everything I could to help him save his kingdom, once and for all.
I might as well do what I could to help eradicate the frogs, revive the birds, and bring the trees back to life. My time was running out.
As I stood and dusted myself off, I smiled at the sea, grateful. Happy, even, despite my doom coming for me faster than a tsunami, swallowing the shore whole.
There was a time I despised being a mermaid, especially being me, but now I knew better, and my aunt’s words came into my ears. It felt as if I were in her arms now as she comforted me after receiving the news of my betrothal to the king of the brine.
You can stay, use your gifts, love bravely, and be exactly who Akua made you to be — both ocean and land, past and future.
Yes, I was all of those things! All of those wonderful things.
I gasped.
Now I had work to do. One last way to use my gifts, love bravely, and be exactly who I was meant to be.
I was not just ocean, but I was land. I wasn’t just my past, but the future.
And if I wanted Ezra to know how I really felt, and if I was going to use my gifts in the calling I never realized I had, then I had to act now.
I hiked up my skirts and began running across the sandy beach, towards the nearest forest and the plume rising into the air.
I’m going to stop Tavo and help the island, I thought. Even if it was the last thing I did.
As if in response, the sea surged and a wave rushed past my feet. The saltwater was refreshing, warm, and comfortable. Perhaps it wasn’t my sea, but I was grateful for it.
This is not how I thought things would end, I told myself, then smiled because in the end, I got to choose the new tale–the transformed tale.