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But how this had happened got pushed to the back burner when I realised I didn’t know how to change back.
I swore under my breath, running the very tips of my fingers along the scales around my hips.
The way Janeira and her coven transitioned from human to mermaid form looked effortless. Yet, I didn’t even know how I’d gotten into this state.
I scrunched up my face and whacked my tail against the beach a few times, smacking the sand in the hopes it would turn back into legs.
Chewing my lip, I considered my options. Did I go in search of Janeira and ask her how she did it? No, I couldn’t show up in the middle of the night like this. I had no answers for the questions she would inevitably ask.
I shuffled into a sitting position, but with the lack of a bum, it wasn’t easy. How did mermaids even go to the bathroom? I grimaced. Did I even want to know?
“Gods above, Maeve, will you focus?” I muttered.
I was alive, and in one piece—technically in fewer pieces than I had been before—and I had to figure out how to transition back.
The wet sand that had slipped up my jacket arm grated against the faintly tingling mark there. I wrenched my sleeve up. Still there, though faded from when William had first gifted it to me, the good luck mark might just have saved my life. Falling off a cliff that high with jagged rocks below…luck was the least you would need to avoid them.
How many more near-death experiences did I have before it disappeared completely?
Closing my eyes, I tried to envision my legs returning. How, I didn’t know, but they needed to come back.
An odd sensation rippled down my legs and my eyes snapped open to see the scales receding and the skin returning.
“Yes!” I pumped my fist, only for the scales to pop up again. “No, no, no!”
I gritted my teeth and envisioned the skin returning. Inch by inch, the scales melted into skin. The moment my thigh gap reappeared, what was left of my tail snapped apart into two legs.
“Ugh.” I flopped back onto the beach.
How in the hell had I ended up here, like this?
“Oh, gods!” I didn’t have any underwear, trousers, or shoes on.
Not that I remembered, but they had probably torn off when my tail emerged. How was I supposed to get home in the dark, half-naked?
“This is just great,” I muttered as I staggered to my feet.
On my second step, the sand came racing up to meet me and I slammed into the beach. Was finding your “land legs” a thing?
I spat a wad of sand out of my mouth. Ugh, I’d taste that for days.
After a couple of wobbly attempts, I stood and yanked my jacket off to wrap around my waist.
I had a bum again, and I was in no hurry to let anyone see it.
I cursed the gods under my breath as I hobbled toward the tree line. Why had everything gone tits up since I returned home?
There was no way in this life or any other that I would have walked in the front door in my state.
Scraping my legs all the way up, I scrambled over the back wall into the graveyard and picked my way between the graves to the trellis outside my window. I clambered up it, wincing as a splinter stuck into the sole of my foot.
I rolled in through my open window and limped to the bathroom, jaw clenched. This was ridiculous.
It wasn’t until I landed on my shoulder bag that I realised it had stayed wrapped around my torso the whole time.
“Nooooo.” I plucked my phone out of it and pressed the “on” button.
Nothing. Just great.
