Fins (Transformations: Book 2)

“Aria?” Ashley laid a hand on her shoulder, making her jump.

Aria looked around, realizing she had dozed off and class was over. She gathered up her things, quickly, feeling her cheeks flush.

“You alright?” Ashley asked, “I know math isn’t thrilling, but still…”

“I just didn’t sleep well.” She followed the president out the door, willing her face not to be so red. “I’ve just had a lot on my mind.”

“Boy trouble, again?”

Aria considered that. “Not exactly. It’s complicated.”

“It always is with you,” Ashley noted, “Well, you should definitely come to the Christmas party at my house on Friday. It might help to get your mind off things.”

“Maybe,” Aria agreed, although, she didn’t feel confident. She knew she wouldn’t be likely to relax until she found the necklace. She did her best to listen as Ashley gave her details about the party on their way to lunch. She smiled and carried on a conversation as they ate with Megan.

Aria thought about how much she liked these girls. They were good friends and she had fun with them. If she were forced to remain a human, she might be okay with that as long as she still had her friends.

“So are you going to see your dad for Christmas?” Megan asked.

Aria frowned at that. “Probably not.”

“Do you two not get along?”

Aria shrugged, choosing her words carefully. “Well, it’s not like we hate each other or anything. We’ve just never been close. He has his wife and kids, and I have my life here.”

“So he got a new family?” Ashley gave her a sympathetic look. “That sucks.”

“You make it sound so dramatic,” Aria told her, “It’s really not that big of a deal. He visits once in a while and we keep in touch. We just have separate lives.”

“You’re really fine with that?” Megan wondered.

Aria shrugged. “I have plenty of company with Freya, after all.”

“You know, we never hang out with her,” Megan commented, “You should bring her to the party, too.”

Ashley nodded her agreement. “She sounds like a fun person to have around. She’s definitely be welcome.”

Aria smiled at the thought. “Well, she does enjoy a good party. What day is it?”

She collected the information and told Freya about it that night. However, the nymph had some reservations when she heard the date.

“You realize that’s the night of the full moon, right?” she asked.

Aria frowned, having failed to realize that. “I guess I didn’t notice…”

“You should still go,” Freya told her, “After all, you can’t very well turn into a mermaid or even hang around at the full moon party without putting yourself at risk.”

“But it’s a chance for me to talk to the others and see if anyone knows anything,” Aria pointed out, “I can’t pass that up when we’re having so much trouble getting clues.”

“But I can’t promise to keep you safe, if you go.”

“I never asked you to keep me safe.”

“You didn’t have to ask,” Freya retorted, “I am your friend and that’s what we do. If you want to get yourself killed, I have to be the one to stop you.”

“You’re always so dramatic.” Aria gave her what she hoped was a teasing smile. “I won’t do anything stupid and, if I see any guards, I’ll avoid them. I can run pretty fast.”

“Not that fast.”

“I’ll be fine,” Aria promised, “What if I just go there for an hour and ask some questions, then we head over to Ashley’s party. Would that work?”

The nymph frowned, but she could see that Aria was determined and this might be the only chance she had of stopping her from doing anything too crazy. “Fine, but just for an hour and you stay with me the whole time.”

“Deal.”

The night of the full moon found Eric working at the aquarium, diligently taking notes on various fish behaviors for Dr. Grey. He didn’t really understand why the doctor kept focusing on these menial things, but he knew there was no point in questioning him. Dr. Grey probably wouldn’t be able to explain it in a way that made sense, anyway.

“They’re really beautiful, aren’t they?”

“Angela.” He smiled as he turned to face her, thinking she was even more beautiful in the light of the aquarium. “I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Then I surprised you.” She smiled brightly. “I’m glad.” As usual, she was wearing a simple white dress and her dark waves fell freely over her shoulders.

“What are you doing here?” he wondered.

“Aren’t you happy to see me?”

“Of course I am.” His cheeks flushed as he remembered what happened last time they met. “I was just wondering what brought you here.”

“You said you worked here and I thought I would come to visit. Was that not okay?”

“Of course, it’s okay,” he rushed to assure her, figuring he must have mentioned that while he was drunk, “Although, you should really wear shoes in an aquarium.” He gestured to her bare feet.

Angela giggled and shrugged. “Am I going to get in trouble for it?”

“Probably not,” he admitted, “People don’t pay too much attention to stuff like that around here.”

“Good.” She looked back at the fish tank. “I’ve never seen so many different colors of fish before. They’re wonderful!”

“Oh, right.” He forced himself to turn away from her and fixed his gaze on the fish. “I suppose they are pretty.”

“You don’t seem that excited,” she noted.

Eric shrugged. “I spend all day around these fish. I’ve made more notes on their random patterns than I care to remember and it just gets a little mundane before long.”

“How sad,” she commented, “To be surrounded by beauty and call it mundane.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he argued, but he couldn’t think of a nicer way to word it, “I’m just more of a bird person.”

“Can’t you love both?”

“Well, I guess, but…” He gave a helpless shrug. “I just really like birds.”

She gave him an amused smile. “You’re really a strange one, aren’t you?”

He returned the smile with a blush. “So I’ve been told.”

“That’s okay,” she said, taking his hand, “I like strange.”

“One hour,” Freya reminded her friend as they headed to the party, “and are you sure that dress was a good idea?”

“It’s festive,” Aria retorted, looking down at her red dress, “It’s Christmastime, after all.”

“They won’t appreciate that,” Freya warned, “Merfolk don’t have Christmas, after all. That’s pretty exclusively a human thing.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t be in the Christmas spirit. We’re looking for a miracle, so I’ll be happy to take some Christmas magic if I can find it.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Aria drew stares as they walked in and she told herself it was just because of the dress and not because anyone in the room wanted to kill her. She quickly found Kai and made her way over to him, feeling safer by his side.

“Why are you wearing that color?” he asked, immediately.

“It’s for the holidays,” she answered, simply.

“Holidays?”

“Never mind,” she waved the question away, “Is there any news on the necklace?”

“Not yet.” He glanced around before taking her arm. “We should probably get out of here before anyone gets it in their head to turn you in.”

“Would they do that?” she wondered as she allowed him to steer her out the door, “I thought they were mostly Valadorans.”

“Yeah, but Glemorans show up occasionally,” he said, “Better safe than sorry.”

She nodded her understanding and walked with him out onto the beach. “I was hoping to get to talk to them, though.”

“I’ve been talking to them,” he explained, “Nobody knows anything. The general belief is that the necklace is somewhere on land; either in your possession or hidden somewhere. Past that, it’s anybody’s guess.”

“Land girl,” an all-too-familiar voice called. Sapphira walked over with a guard trailing behind. She stopped and stared at Aria for a minute. “What are you wearing?”

“A dress,” Aria replied, hoping her irritation was evident in her tone.

“It’s red.”

“Is it?” Aria feigned surprise as she looked down at the dress. “Well, would you look at that? I hadn’t even noticed.”

“If you’re trying to make some kind of statement…”

Aria sighed. “It’s not a statement. It’s just a dress. Now, what did you want?”

Sapphira continued to frown and it looked like she might want to argue forward, but apparently changed her mind. “Have you had any luck finding that necklace?”

Aria gave the guard a nervous look, but he didn’t seem intent on arresting her. “I’ve been trying.”

“Well, try harder,” the princess commanded, “Do you know how much trouble your delay is causing?”

“I’m sorry you don’t get to run around and do as you please.” Aria’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “I’ve been searching like crazy these past few weeks, but I have nothing to go on. What have you found out?”

Sapphira pursed her lips at the question. “Nobody seems to know anything, yet.”

“Is Rin still locked away?”

“That’s not his name.”

“Get over it and answer the question.”

Sapphira crossed her arms, defiantly. “He’s not locked away in his room.”

Aria breathed a sigh of relief at that. “But he didn’t become human tonight?”

“He did,” she replied, slowly, her expression as unreadable as usual.

Aria immediately looked for him. “Where is he? If he’s not protecting you, what’s he doing?”

“He’s protecting someone else.”

“Who?”

“Your highness,” someone called out.

Aria turned to look at who it was and felt a pit in her stomach. The twins were walking over with Alizarin in tow. Unlike Sapphira, they didn’t seem interested in having him keep a distance. Instead, there was a rope tied around his wrist, which Alexander held like leash.

“We’d hoped to see you here,” Alyssa said with a smile, “I’m glad to see the loss of your usual guard hasn’t stopped you from having fun.”

“It’s certainly inconvenient,” Sapphira informed them, “I would prefer to have him returned to me.”

“But we need someone to protect us with thieves running around,” Alyssa argued, looking pointedly at Aria, “And you always trusted him, so we assume he is adequate.”

Aria noticed that none of them looked at Alizarin during the conversation and he made no attempt to make eye contact with anyone.

“What is this?” she demanded, “You couldn’t get me, so you’re punishing him?”

“Punishment?” Alyssa smiled and shook her head. “It’s nothing like that. The king and queen wanted to appease our parents, since going after you right now seems to be too much trouble, so we reached an agreement. The princess’s favorite bodyguard will protect us until the matter is sorted.”

Aria looked at Sapphira. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“I’m not obligated to tell you anything.” Her tone was cold and she didn’t bother to look at Aria. “If it concerns you, I suggest you find that necklace more quickly.”

Aria frowned and looked at Alyssa. “Why would you want him as a bodyguard? I thought you were accusing him of helping me steal the necklace.”

“Oh, we realized that was silly,” Alyssa replied, “A red-tail would never be smart enough to get away with such a thing, after all.”

Aria wanted to tell her she was full of it. She wanted to yell at the twins and tell them she knew what they’d done, but she had no proof and they had Alizarin. She couldn’t risk them taking out their anger on him. “So if I find the necklace, you’ll let him go?”

“All you have to do is return what you took,” Alyssa told her, “and all will return to normal. The princess will have her bodyguard returned and I’m sure your punishment won’t be too severe.”

“Would you be willing to give me a hint to where it is?” she asked through gritted teeth.

“If we knew that, would we be dealing with this situation, now?” Alyssa wondered, “Surely, you’re not suggesting we know where it is and are simply playing ignorant to cause trouble? Why would we do that?”

“I can’t imagine,” Aria lied, looking at Alizarin, again, “Are you okay, Rin?”

“I’m fine,” he answered without looking at her.

“Rin?” Alyssa laughed. “That’s cute. Could the poor land girl not remember the whole name?”

Aria ignored her and looked at Alexander. “I’ll find your necklace and we’ll settle this matter, but, if you take advantage of this to abuse him, I will make sure land is as dangerous to you as the ocean currently is to me, understand?”

He gave her an amused smile. “If you say so.”

“Princess, would you like to join us on a walk?” Alyssa asked in a sickly-sweet voice that made Aria want to slap her, “We know you are distressed without your usual bodyguard and we’d like to make things easier on you.”

“It is not such a great inconvenience,” she replied, “But I will take you up on your offer. My current guard is definitely not the kind of person I want guarding me.”

“You prefer a red-tail?” Alexander asked.

“I prefer someone who can follow orders.” Sapphira gave an aggrieved sigh. “I may as well walk with you if he’s going to follow me, anyway.” She headed down the beach with the Glemorans, not bothering to say another word to Aria.

“Well, she’s as pleasant as ever,” remarked Kai.

“Yeah.” Aria watched them go, her mind working overtime. “Is Astrid inside?”

“The aurai?” He shrugged. “I think so, but she’s not really someone I talk to, much.”

“Right.” She rushed back in before he could stop her and immediately located the nymph, who smiled at her.

“Aria, you came. You’re really brave, aren’t you?”

“Not so much,” Aria replied, quickly, “But I was wondering if you could help me out with something.”

Astrid’s smile brightened at that. “Anything for Freya’s human.”

“For not being interested in fish, you certainly know a lot about them,” Angela commented as Eric showed her around the aquarium, telling her about each type.

He shrugged modestly at the comment. “I spend a lot of time watching them for my boss.”

“Your boss makes you watch fish?”

“He likes to study them,” Eric explained, “No idea why. His current research isn’t even worth doing, as far as I can tell. I doubt it will get published or anything.”

“It’s not so bad, is it?” she wondered, “You get to spend the whole day watching animals. That sounds like fun.”

“Fish aren’t that interesting.”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” she said, “All animals can be interesting if you look at them, properly. They all want love and they fight to defend what is theirs or improve their station in life. Isn’t that all exciting to watch?”

“I don’t see much of that here,” he told her, “These fish are limited in what they can do, after all.”

“They don’t know that,” she pointed out, “Every creature from the sea to the skies struggles for what they want. That has always been so and will always be.”

“You give them an awful lot of credit,” he said, “They’re just fish.”

“Appearance can be deceiving,” she retorted, “In my experience, nothing is ever just anything.”

“If you say so.”

“I do.” She took his hand again. “There must be someplace you like here. Show me your favorite exhibit.”

“Well, there is one place…” He smiled at her. “How do you feel about penguins?”

“Sapphira, isn’t it?” a young girl with chestnut hair said as she approached the twins, “And Alyssa with her brother, Alexander.”

“Do we know you?” he asked.

“You want to know me,” she replied in a singsong voice, “I’m Piper and we could be good friends. Talk with me a minute and you will see.”

They smiled at the girl, entranced.

“What do you want to talk about?” Alyssa asked.

They were so focused on the girl in front of them, they didn’t notice Kai cutting the rope with a pair of scissors. Alizarin was about to ask what he was doing, but Kai clapped a hand over his mouth and pushed him backwards before he could argue. The Glemorans were still under Piper’s spell and remained clueless to what was happening behind them.

Alizarin struggled, but Kai managed to propel him behind a nearby building where Aria was waiting. She smiled as she saw him and whispered, “Hi, Rin.”

“What are you doing?” he hissed.

She peaked around and saw Piper walking away from the twins. She knew it wouldn’t be long before the siren’s spell wore off and they realized what had happened. She ducked back behind the building and put a hand over Alizarin’s mouth, placing a finger against her own lips. She heard the twins curse as they discovered the severed rope. She heard them talking about where he could have gone.

She moved closer to Alizarin to make them less visible as the twins passed their hiding spot. It wasn’t until their voices receded into the distance that she let him go.

“What are you doing?” he asked, again, “Do you have any idea how much trouble you could get in for this?” He looked at Kai. “Why would you take such a risk?”

He shrugged and gestured to Aria. “It was all her plan.”

At that, Alizarin looked back at her, expectantly.

Aria smiled at him. “Christmas present, Rin; I’m giving you one night of freedom.”