How to be a Mermaid: A Falling in Deep Collection Novella Read Free Page A

fishing net and separated from his pod. The little guy is lucky to be alive. Mr. Stevens wants him to start training for shows within the next few weeks.”
    I’ve met Mr. Stevens twice before. As the president of the Houston Aquarium, he was Neptune’s counterpart, though it sure didn’t seem that way. I could tell from the way the two men interacted that they weren’t on good terms with each other. Based on those two meetings with him, I didn’t like Mr. Stevens because he treated everything like a business venture. He wasn’t in this because he loved animals; he wanted to make money off them.
    My heart broke for the poor dolphin. I wanted to reach out and touch him, to tell him that he was going to be with new friends soon.
    “Hey buddy,” I whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”
    “I miss my mama... I miss my friends...”
    I froze at the words. They were in a childlike voice I didn’t recognize. In fact, they hadn’t even been audible. I had heard them inside my head. The aquarist was still flitting about the edge of the pool, acting like he hadn’t heard anything.
    “Did you hear that?”
    He blinked up at me. “Hear what?”
    I hesitated. It was so weird, like a young boy was speaking to me right in my ear.
    “ ...Mama...Daddy...”
    A surging sense of heartbreak imploded my chest, making my ribs feel like they’d crack under the force. The air was sucked out of my lungs, and for a few terrible moments, I couldn’t breathe, and an overwhelming sense of desolation overtook me. Tears pricked the corners of my eyes.
    These aren’t my own emotions.
    As suddenly as it happened, it was gone. Bewildered, I looked down at the dolphin. Kai was watching me with one eye, keen intelligence bearing down on me in that gaze.
    Did that dolphin just speak?
    He moved slightly and when my gaze followed him, he stopped.
    “ Can you hear me? ”
    As crazy as it was, I opened my mouth to answer, then I heard my name from across the landing and I completely forgot what I was going to say.
    “Tara!” Christine yelled. “Are you coming or what?”
    Torn, I made my decision and called out, “I’m coming!”
    I gave the dolphin one last mystified glance before turning away.
    I’m going crazy .
    I sucked in a deep breath, glad my chest seemed to be in working order again. I shook off the last remnants of that dreadful feeling and jogged over to the other pool, feeling mostly normal by the time I arrived.
    The other mermaids were already in the water and checking their breathing hoses before going on stage. Our breathing hoses were nothing special. They were long tubes that we carried with us that allowed us to stay underwater for the entire performance. The tubes fed us air from tanks on the side of the pool, and a trigger at the end released air when we needed a breath. It took a bit of getting used to, but after two months of using one with my performances, it came natural to me.
    “I’m here,” I announced, slowing my jog as I got close to the edge of the tank.
    I gave myself a shake, wanting to immerse myself in the world of mermaiding and brush off the crazy thought that the baby dolphin had talked to me.
    Luckily, I can get into my tail pretty quickly. I grabbed it from where I’d left it by the side of the pool and pencil-dove into the water. I pulled it on, glad that I hadn’t gone a size down when I ordered it, otherwise this would have been really hard. Alaina was already having trouble fitting into her tail with the little that her pregnant belly showed.
    “Where were you?” Christine asked me. She was treading water, testing her air hose. It made hissing noises as she squeezed the trigger to see if air was flowing normally.
    “I wanted to see the new dolphin.”
    I held onto the wall, tugging up the last bits of the tail with my free hand. Inside, my legs were strapped tightly together to create the body while a large flipper at the end camouflaged my feet. I loved this tail. With its silicon green