Shadows of Longfin by J.A. Culican & Cassidy Taylor

Author:J.A. Culican & Cassidy Taylor [Culican, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Realm Press
Published: 2020-05-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

I had shifted. On dry land, inside a human home.

My tail flipped nervously. It was the full shift, tail, scales, and all. I knew it was gruesome, knew Sofi and Nico were horrified by the way they couldn’t look away. To make it worse, I couldn’t move. I was a fish out of water. Literally.

“Mischal,” Sofi said again, her hands fluttering over me, apparently afraid to touch me. “What do we… What do we do?”

I gave up trying to sit and collapsed back onto the hard floor. “Nothing. There's nothing you can do.”

Nico was standing over me, but his eyes were on the looking glass. “What did you see? In the mirror?”

It was strange to know the answer without ever being told. “My mother.”

My. Mother.

My mother, who looked just like me. Who had sent me away. Who had promised to find me when it was safe.

What did it mean that she never had?

I slowly returned to my human self, and when I did, Sofi brought me a pair of my father’s trousers. I used a rope she’d found to keep them in place around my waist. Only then, when I felt at least a little like myself again, did I let myself think of the other piece of the puzzle. The crown, which was still in Nico’s hands.

He sat across from me in the parlor, both of us staring at it in his lap.

“So, you’re a mermaid princess?”

I groaned. “Don’t say it like that.”

“Daughter of the mermaid queen?”

“That’s not much better.” I took the crown from him and placed it gently back in the box. It couldn’t hurt me from in there.

Sofi stood at the window again, her arms crossed over her chest. “Do you know what this means?”

“That we have to call her ‘Your Highness’?” Nico guessed.

Sofi rolled her eyes at him. “No. That she’s the one the Librarian is looking for.”

I sat up straighter, looking between the two of them. “You can’t tell anybody anything about this. Nothing.”

Nico mimed locking his lips, but I got a sick feeling in my chest.

Just then, the front door burst open, banging against the wall behind it, and Tomas scurried inside. Behind him was Madn, his face somber.

Tomas dragged me up from the couch and presented me to Madn. “Here she is,” he beamed proudly.

Madn did not even crack a smile. I wanted to tease him about enlisting the help of one of my urchins, but he didn’t seem to be in the mood.

“What is it?” I asked.

He looked around the room then at me. “We need to go to the dock. It’s Guillermo.”

Guillermo was the last person I wanted to talk to right now. I shook it off with a wave of my hand. “That can wait. Madn, I need to tell you something.” I could feel Sofi and Nico look at each other behind my back and willed myself not to gawk at them.

“It can’t wait,” Madn said. “Guillermo is seizing your next three shipments.”

I froze, all thoughts of my mother, the crown, and telling Madn the truth wiped from my brain.

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