Well, here is one more chapter. And once again, it is the longest chapter in this story so far. Most chapters have gotten away from me in terms of size, but I really hope that none of them gets as far away from me as this one did.
As a way of 'kind of' making up for it, this chapter brings up a connection between H2O And Mako Mermaids, by 'establishing' a crossover character. I'm hardly the first coming up with this particular idea (the official wikia mentions it) but I like it enough that I decided to use it.
As always, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 10 – News All Around
On most days, Ondina loved having lunch at the Ocean Café. The seafood they served was delicious, the juices were just as good, the owner was someone they could trust to keep their secret, and the place was close enough to the water that if there was an accident and they got splashed, they could dive in before their tails manifested themselves.
But today, as Ondina saw Carly and Cam approaching the outside table that she, Mimmi, Zac, and Sirena were sitting at, sharing a big plate full of prawns, she felt her whole body tensing up and her heart filling itself with icy wariness. Both of them looked as serious as if they had seen a drowned sailor's corpse returning to life; Cam, in particular, looked as grave as she only had seen him once, back on the day he delivered the trident stone to them so he wouldn't succumb to the temptation of starting up the chamber so he could get a tail. Ondina knew without having to ask that they had some kind of bad news for them.
After Carly went to get Evie from her clothes shop, and the two of them joined Cam sitting at the café's table – which led to a rather tight fit of seven people around the same table – she and Cam immediately shared the news they had. At first, after they told her about Cam's encounter with Gunnar and showed them the picture Cam had taken – which indeed confirmed it was the same Gunnar that Doctor Ross had hired – Ondina couldn't help a triumphant smile at the confirmation that her theory had been right and Gunnar was, like she had suspected, a merman. But the next minute, when Cam told her about his other suspicions regarding Gunnar, every bit of her triumph was quashed by mind-numbing shock, broken only by the bits of all the prawns she had eaten crawling around in her stomach as if they wanted to come back out.
She only had a vague memory of the following moments, during which her mind seemed to be filled with thousands of voices shouting 'It can't be!' and the same strange itch on the insides of her stomach. She only returned to reality when Mimmi screamed at her right in her face. Then, her voice low and numb, she uttered, staring at Cam and Carly, "You two mean to tell me that this Gunnar guy is here because he's working for Erik? And that Erik sent him here to scare us as part of some twisted plot of his to get revenge?"
Cam took a few seconds to reply, apparently puzzled at her words.
"Well, you might be reaching a bit on some parts, but basically, yes. He knew who I am, you said he also seemed to know who and what you are, and I don't think he could have learned either unless someone told him. The only someone I can think of who would tell him that is Erik, and I don't see why Gunnar would be here unless he was performing some kind of task for him."
Ondina gasped, feeling as if she a killer whale had just rammed her in the gut. She already knew Erik was not who she thought he was, but for him to actually have roped a merman into working for him because he was vengeful over not having gotten to control the merman chamber…
The memory of the day she had last seen him returned to her. She remembered as if it were yesterday; she had told him she couldn't start over with him because she would always be afraid he would choose something else over her. Now, if what Cam was saying was true, it seemed that she hadn't even been a true choice in the first place – just an accessory, an extra prize.
No. That couldn't be. She couldn't have meant so little to him. And he sounded regretful. Even if she had turned him down, at least he had seemed to be sorry.
Then why is he sending lackeys after all of you? A voice mocked from inside her. And why didn't that lackey get any sort of instructions on not treating you badly to begin with?
Ondina fought back the urge to drop her head on the table and sigh from the pain. She felt like a toy Erik had played with just because he found it nice only to discard it when it got broken. And it didn't help that the dead prawns on the plate seemed to be giving her condescending looks, as if silently saying 'I told you so.'.
"So… what do we do now?" Sirena asked.
Ondina barely heard the question. She couldn't have answered it anyway. She had no idea even of how to feel, much less on what to do. The only positive thing she could say was that the food in her stomach appeared to have settled down at last.
"Well, for what it's worth, we'll be glad to help, but I think we've already covered all we could," Cam pointed out. "You five are the ones who actually pack enough of a punch to do anything effective to Gunnar."
"We could tell him a few choice words for him to pass on to Erik," Mimmi suggested, her face much icier than it was usual for her. "I have more than a few ready."
Ondina's anger flared up. That was a plan of action she could get behind. And she already had choice words of her own coming to her.
"That wouldn't solve anything," Sirena said. "We need to think of something that actually drives Gunnar off."
There were a few seconds of silence as all of them tried to think of a plan.
"You could tell your pod to catch him in the water and mob him until he leaves," Carly suggested. "Even if he's working with Erik, there are only two of them – three if for some reason that other merman Nixie and Lyla mentioned seeing also is working with them. Your pod has about one hundred and fifty mermaids, hasn't it?" After a glance, she added, "And a merman, of course. You should be able to handle three mermen."
Zac frowned at the suggestion.
"I don't think I could deal with being so aggressive to my own kind," he said. "Even if Erik and Gunnar are bastards, we can't start painting all mermen as such. And besides, for all we know, the pod wouldn't stick to mobbing them and would actually kill them. I don't think slaughter is the best first choice."
Ondina's temper flared up again. "What do you suggest then?"
She regretted the words the second they came out. Of course it was understandable of Zac to not be willing to resort to murder as a first choice. She also didn't think she could handle killing two mermaids in cold blood just like that. But Erik had already proved that works didn't work with him, and it seemed likely anyone he got to work with him was similar.
"We could try to talk to him," Zac suggested. "After all, we already know he is a merman, so it's not as if we have to worry about him exposing us. If he did, he'd face consequences as well."
Ondina, Mimmi, and Sirena all frowned at Zac's suggestion.
"Gunnar doesn't look like the kind of guy who would be very open to dialogue," Mimmi said. "And if he really is working for Erik, he either is under some spell that prevents him from making decisions on his own or whatever Erik promised him pays off much more than anything we have to offer him."
"Maybe not," Evie put in.
At last she made it a point to come to the living world! For most of their conversation, she seemed more worried about looking at the arriving customers than to listening to the conversation about Gunnar, not to mention that she would perk up occasionally as if she had seen someone she was looking for, only to deflate the next moment upon finding out it was someone else.
"You said that Gunnar might be working for Erik," Evie told Cam. "But if that's true, then it seems that Erik either hasn't been keeping him up to date or is outright lying to him. For one, he seemed to think that you two…" she looked both at Cam and at Zac. "…were still on the outs and that you…" she focused on Cam. "…are still interested in getting a tail. One of those is definitely false, and as for the second…" she initiaaly trailed off to allow Cam to fill in the blank himself, but then finished her own sentence before he could. "… it ultimately doesn't really matter whether it's true or not, because we already know the first isn't. If Erik has lied to Gunnar about that, who knows what else he may have lied about to him."
Ondina could see what Evie was getting to, but Sirena beat her to saying so.
"So you're saying that if we can learn what exactly Gunnar knows about us and start poking holes in whatever Erik told him, we may actually convert him to our side?"
Evie nodded.
"It could work," Zac said in a rather pleased tone.
Ondina and all the other born mermaids turned look of disbelief at him; Evie, Cam, and Carly didn't.
"Seriously, half of the messes all of us got in could have been avoided if we all had been more communicative with one another, particularly in the early days." Zac went on. "It really seems possible that all we need to sort out this mess is to talk to this Gunnar guy."
Ondina did have to admit it was a logical idea, but that didn't mean she liked it. The idea of interacting with any merman after what Erik had done to her made her stomach churn. For now and for the rest of her life, she figured any merman that wasn't Zac would never get her sympathies.
"Or we could also talk to Erik directly," Evie piped in.
Her second idea was met with baffled looks from everyone.
"How could we do that?" Ondina asked. "We don't know where he is."
"Dad has a few contacts in the foster system," Evie explained. "Erik's our age, so he should still be in the system. If he hasn't faked his death and left land to live in the sea, or done something with similar results, it shouldn't be that difficult to track him down. And now that Dad knows about us, there's no reason not to ask him for help."
That idea also seemed logical, but again, Ondina frowned at it. She didn't know Mr. McLaren that well, and although she trusted Evie enough to believe her when she said her father would keep their secret, this was still a mermaid matter. They should try to sort this out without involving land people.
"Isn't that confidential information?" Carly asked.
Evie shrugged and replied, "I don't think it's confidential enough for Dad not to be able to get it. He just needs to not say that it's because we're worried that the power-hungry merman I told him about is now making a deliberate attempt to hurt us."
"Then see if he can help us," Mimmi said, her voice hard and her features lined with seriousness Ondina rarely saw. "If Erik is the kind of merman with enough power to send spies and goons after us, we need to find out where he is and stop him before it's too late."
Evie nodded, and then gave another look around, again as if she was searching for someone else. This time, Ondina noticed, she merely looked back at them with hints of disappointment in her posture, as if she hadn't found the one she was looking for.
Ondina also noticed that Sirena visibly shivered at Mimmi's words. She couldn't blame her. The last time a pod of mermen had gathered, they had almost destroyed countless mermaids with that trident. And who knew what they would have done if Zac's ancestor had decided to activate the merman chamber. Now neither the trident nor the chamber were an issue, but mermen still had magic and were still more powerful than mermaids as a rule, and if enough of them gathered, they could still do a lot of damage if they wanted to and were given a chance. So the pod couldn't give them that chance.
Then, something Ondina hadn't been considering before popped into her mind as she thought of the pod.
"We'll have to talk to Veridia first," Ondina said. "If Gunnar and Erik are as dangerous as they appear to be, the pod needs to know about them."
The whole group frowned at the words, except for Cam and Carly, who had never met Veridia or the pod. Ondina knew all those who had met both were thinking about the same thing – how the pod, and the mermaid council in particular, would react at learning such news.
"And does Veridia already know about Gunnar?" Evie asked. "And the other merman Nixie and Lyla saw for that matter?"
Mimmi shook her head negatively and replied, "We already asked Rita to tell her, but Rita said she isn't too sure of how to break the news."
"After today, she'd better find a way," Ondina almost snapped.
She again winced as soon as the words were out of her mouth, but unlike with most of her outbursts, this time she was only met with sympathetic glances. The information about Gunnar had everyone on edge.
"Let's just hope Nixie was right when she said yesterday that the pod will be more willing to stay and fight without the trident and the merman chamber," Mimmi added.
"Good luck there," Cam remarked. "If a single fish boy who ultimately didn't mean any harm made the whole pod leave Mako, I shudder to think of what reaction three or more of them with confessed evil intentions would cause."
Ondina glared at Cam for the comment, while everyone else scowled. He wasn't telling them anything new; there was no reason for him to just make them more nervous. Cam lowered his eyes as he realized his mistake.
"I guess I'll just go and get something to eat," he said as he gestured to the café's door. "I tend to run my mouth even more than usual when I'm on an empty stomach."
He raised his hand slightly toward them in goodbye and then turned around to walk into the café.
"I'll go too," Carly said. "Good luck."
Ondina gave Carly a rueful smile. They sure would need good luck, and plenty at that, to deal with this particular problem.
As Carly followed Cam into the café, Zac added, "And I guess I'll tell Rita about Gunnar." He paused and picked up another prawn off of the plate. "After I'm done with a few more prawns, that is."
The twinkle in his eyes and his grin before he started munching on the prawn told them all he was deliberately trying to inject humour into the situation. Although the effort was far from supreme, Evie playfully bumped her shoulder with his', and Mimmi and Sirena both chuckled for an instant, but Ondina couldn't manage more than an eye roll. The idea of Erik now actively trying to hurt them had gotten under her scales too much.
Then, Evie's amused expression vanished in an instant as her eyes locked on something to her right and Ondina's left. After spending a moment rigid as a statue, her posture loosened again, a disappointed look on her face. Ondina glanced to the left, and saw a pale land girl with red hair heading toward the café's door. Apparently, like she had thought earlier, Evie was indeed looking for someone, and seemed to be getting a bit anxious to find said someone.
"Who are you looking for?" Ondina asked, her curiosity finally getting the better of her.
Evie shook as if she had been suddenly awakened.
"For Alana," she replied.
At first, Ondina frowned in puzzlement – she didn't remember hearing anything about this Alana she had never even met being supposed to show up at the café – but then she recalled the invitation that she had heard Evie had extended to the mermaid. Apparently she was still hoping that Alana would show up.
Mimmi smiled reassuringly.
"The day's not over yet," the Canadian mermaid appeased. "She still may show up."
Evie sighed at the words, a worried look on her face. Then she managed to muster a small resigned smile.
"Well, if she doesn't, at least I already know where to find her."
"When are you going to see her if she doesn't show up?" Ondina asked.
Evie hesitated for a few seconds before she replied. "Tomorrow, after we're done waiting for Chris."
Ondina fought back a scowl. Mimmi's idea of waiting for Chris at that airport had probably been one of the worst ideas she'd ever had. She might have never met this Chris, but she knew Mimmi, and she saw how her best friend smiled at the thought of seeing him soon, how much she looked forward to the conversations they had on that laptop thingy, and how she wanted to keep their relationship once Chris came back.
It reminded Ondina far too much of her own relationship with Erik. He might have never been abroad for an extended period, but Ondina could see echoes of what she had felt for him in Mimmi's behaviour when something related to Chris came up. And whenever she did, she couldn't fight off her fear that something comparable to what had happened between her and Erik would happen between Mimmi and Chris. If not something worse. At least Erik had been a merman who couldn't have revealed the secret. Chris was a land boy on whom they would have to rely to keep the secret if Mimmi ever decided to tell him.
But she didn't make any comments on that. She had already given Mimmi every possible warning about Chris, and Mimmi always said that she knew what she was doing and would accept responsibility for whatever happened.
So instead, Ondina returned to the topic of Alana.
"Why are you thinking so much about her? You've only seen her once. I get being worried about her, but why that much?"
Evie let out another sigh. Ondina could tell from the get-go that whatever the reason she thought about Alana so much, it came from the bottom of her heart.
"I'm just concerned for her. She lost her mother, she doesn't have any other family, and she's a mermaid alone in the human world," Evie said.
When things were laid out like that, Ondina could understand Evie's feelings a lot better, even if she couldn't actually imagine all of them. She had also lost her mother, but she'd never had to deal with keeping her tail a secret from land people while she was mourning her, and she had been quickly taken in by the pod after it happened. She couldn't imagine where she would be in Alana's situation, even if this mermaid was a lot older than Ondina had been when she lost her mother.
"I know we only spent one day together, but it seems we've known each other for a lot longer. I can't really explain how, but we just… we just connected. In a sense, she's like the little sister I never had," Evie again looked right, the way her eyes seemed to focus on a certain point suggesting she was looking at a specific direction. "I would just like to know if she's alright."
Having already finished chewing his prawn, Zac wiped his mouth, put his right arm around Evie's shoulders, and kissed her left temple. Again, Ondina could sympathize, to a degree at least. She also had grown fond of Neppy unexpectedly fast, and considered her a little sister of sorts. Even if the age difference between Evie and Alana seemed to be smaller, it could still happen.
"I'm sure she's alright," Ondina reassured. "And I'm also sure she'll love seeing you tomorrow."
Evie smiled gratefully, and then started giggling as Zac, in what appeared to be a deliberate effort to keep her from worrying about Alana, picked up another prawn off of the dish and pointed it at her while saying silly words about how tasty it was, which caused Evie to burst into a fit of giggles and the three born mermaids at the table to make jokes about them going home.
Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, Sedna used her super speed to the fullest extent she possibly could, doing her utter best to keep up with Hydrurga on the very long swim from Grim Island to the waters close to Mako Island.
It was a gruelling task – besides being faster, Hydrurga was not sympathetic to the fact Sedna swam more slowly than her. She seemed to be restraining herself a bit, in that at least Sedna hadn't lost her yet, but on the few times they had been close enough to one another for Sedna to see Hydrurga's expression, she could tell that the other mermaid was not satisfied with Sedna's performance.
As always.
Sedna figured she should be happier. After all, the spells they had put on the land boy had worked well enough for them to see that he was already inside one of those giant metal cylinders land people used to fly through the air, and for them to confirm that, even at a distance, they could force him to do or say whatever they wanted him to, as long as they focused on the task. Granted, it would be some time before they could use those spells to their fullest potential, as for some reason the land boy had to be at least tolerated by the Mako Pod before they could use him in their plan, but at least things were going well.
Granted, things could be going better, Sedna acknowledged as she and Hydrurga made a sharp turn downwards to avoid a pod of dolphins. It would be much better if Nerissa's son was not – what were the words? – romantically involved with that land girl who had become a mermaid, or at least if said land girl hadn't become a mermaid before Sedna and Hydrurga managed to get their hands on her?
Really? Sedna told herself. Given that by all accounts, Nerissa's son couldn't have deactivated the chamber without the land girl turned mermaid to help him get there, not to mention she couldn't have gotten there on time if she wasn't a mermaid, it was probably better that way.
Sedna shuddered at the thought. If that merman chamber ever had been fully activated, it would have been the end of every mermaid in the world. So yes, it had been better for the land girl to be a mermaid after all.
It did inconvenience them now, as the fact she was already a mermaid meant they couldn't enchant her like they wanted to, but they already had a plan on how to circumvent that point. It wasn't as foolproof as if they could just seize the current paramour of Nerissa's son and enchant her, and it would take a bit longer, but they did have some time to wait until they could make proper use of the land boy Nerissa's daughter fancied. Until then, they could try to make sure Nerissa's son would start fancying someone else.
And even if he didn't, it wouldn't take much to make the Mako Island Pod grow mistrustful of him again. After all, he was a merman.
Sedna briefly smiled at the thought.
Then her smile was replaced by eyes wide with alarm as she realized Hydrurga was right beside her, giving her a furious look. She must have slowed down too much while she was absorbed in her thoughts.
Not wanting to get anything worse than a glare, Sedna sped up as much as she could, hoping she could make it to their destination without Hydrurga dishing out any physical punishments along the way.
Like Zac promised, he went to talk to Rita as soon as he was done with his share of the prawns, and told her of their new discoveries and suspicions regarding Gunnar. By the end of the conversation, Rita was doing a rather poor job of repressing very clear fear, but she also seemed determined to handle the situation, and promised to apprise Veridia of the facts after Zac renewed the request for her to do so. She didn't seem all that thrilled at the idea, but Zac figured that was hard. Although he and Veridia now got along, she still wasn't his favourite person – or merperson – to be around. So he apologized for having to be the bearer of bad news, thanked her for doing them a favour, and then went to his bungalow to think about the best way to have a conversation with Gunnar.
Unfortunately, he couldn't make any concrete plans, as he'd never even seen the guy, the information he'd gotten about him left very little idea of what he was like as a person, and Rita had advised him to wait for word from the pod before doing anything, so that their attempts to handle the problem wouldn't crisscross and get in the way of one another. In the end, it came down to the same basic principle he had decided on the café: the best way to handle the issue would be to poke holes in whatever Erik had told him. And in the meantime, to hope that Gunnar wasn't actually under any sort of spell that forced him to obey Erik no matter what, because not only would it make that issue impossible to handle, but it would mean they could have a truly big problem on their hands.
In the end, after several hours without his work bearing any actual fruit, he went to meet Evie at the café, both to walk her home and to learn if she had been any luckier than him regarding her main concern.
It turned out she hadn't been.
In spite of Mimmi's reassurance at lunchtime about how the day wasn't over yet, the rest of it still had gone through without Alana showing up at the café. Evie had said it was understandable, because after all they had still been basically strangers even after their day together, but she was still worried about her.
However, unlike yesterday, she now could take reassurance in the fact that she knew where Alana was. As a result of that, a good chunk of their walk to Evie's home consisted of planning their visitation to Alana on the following day. Zac still intended to go with Evie, but at the same time he couldn't help but be a tad apprehensive at the idea. It had been a long time since he had interacted with a mermaid who was wary of mermen, and Alana sounded like she could be frail enough already without him needing to upset her further. While Evie kept reassuring him that Alana wouldn't mind he was a merman once she got to know him, she also kept being worried about the possibility of that happening, so they both agreed it would be better not to tell her about that until they were sure of what she thought of mermen. Ideally, Zac knew he shouldn't go at all if they had so many doubts, but he was curious to meet Alana himself, and he worried that it would be difficult for Evie to give the Irish mermaid support on her own. While the wounds she'd gotten from the time her mother was sick hadn't left anything worse than a few scars, Zac was concerned that prolonged interactions with Alana might stir them up. He'd rather be there for Evie until he was sure that wasn't the case.
Besides Alana, they also ended up talking of other things, such as Evie's day at the café, Zac's ideas on the best way to talk to Gunnar, and what kind of measures the pod might decide to adopt to deal with this new threat.
And once they approached Evie's house, they started talking about a very unusual sight they found there.
"Who are those three?" Evie asked, her eyes locked on the three people standing with her father on her house's back porch.
Zac narrowed his eyes to focus his look on them, in an effort to figure out who they were.
"I have no idea," he replied. "But as far as I can tell, it looks like they're all women, and quite young ones at that."
Evie frowned. "Women? Why would my dad have women at home?"
It was a good question, but Zac didn't have a good answer.
Maybe they wanted to book a dive – but Zac could count on one hand the number of times Mr. McLaren had brought customers home. Maybe they had stopped to ask for directions – but in that case, there should be no reason for them to have stayed long enough for to go to the back porch. And them being Mr. McLaren's dates was pretty far out of the question. He of course had a right to date, but he wasn't the kind who would be dating three women at the same time, and even if that was the case, things wouldn't look so peaceful.
Then Zac's musings were cut short, as Mr. McLaren, who was in the midst of talking to the shortest woman in the trio, noticed them and raised his hand in greeting.
"Well, I guess we're about to find out, seeing as your dad just spotted us."
Evie's frown started to deepen, but then she composed her expression into a neutral one, and the two of them approached her home.
As they got closer, Zac could see that the three women were rather similar in appearance. They were all relatively short – none of them was taller than Evie – and had tanned skin, black hair, and brown eyes. The first, who looked like she was the oldest from the few wrinkles around her eyes, wore a blouse with a flowery pattern, beige trousers, and low-heeled shoes, and had her eyes trained on both of them. The second, a few centimetres taller than the other two, wore a purple top, white short shorts, and flip-flops, and seemed to be looking specifically at him. The third, who had large almond eyes, wore a white sundress with a dark-blue flower pattern and strappy sandals, and had large eyes with a fearful look in them.
"Good evening, kids," Mr. McLaren greeted them as they climbed the steps up to the porch. "You arrived right on time to meet our new neighbours."
Evie's eyes widened, as the word rang a bell in Zac's brain. He had indeed heard that they were meant to have new neighbours several times over the last two weeks or so. He'd been rather curious for a while, but with all that had gone on over the last days – Evie's concern for Alana, the idea of Mimmi meeting Chris at the airport, knowing of a potentially dangerous merman, getting to visit Doctor Thomas, and now the fact that Gunnar seemed to be working for Erik – he had put them out of his mind, and he could tell Evie had done the same.
The oldest-looking woman in the trio – who looked to be around her mid-twenties at the latest – surveyed them both and then turned to Mr. McLaren.
"Are they both yours?" she asked in a very clear American accent.
Mr. McLaren chuckled. "In a way, I guess you could say so."
The woman turned to give Zac a questioning look; he just shrugged bashfully. He had never been mistaken for Evie's brother, but both Mr. McLaren and his parents had been calling them 'kids' for years, as if they were already part of one another's families, even though they had only been actually dating for a year and a few months.
He was saved from answering to that when Mr. McLaren stepped forward and stood between them so that Zac and Evie were to his right and the three women to his left.
"I guess I should be making proper introductions," he said. "This is my daughter Evie, and her boyfriend Zac."
The older woman smiled and said, "I should have known."
Ignoring the comment, Mr. McLaren turned to them and said, "Kids, this is Mrs. Kapule…"
The woman raised her hand and interrupted, "Please, call me Kailani."
"…and her daughters Hali…" Mr. McLaren indicated the one in the purple top and white short shorts. "…and Kopi." he finished as he gestured to the one in the sundress and strappy sandals.
Zac's eyes doubled in size. Daughters? But the three of them looked like sisters! The two younger women shouldn't even be twenty, and Zac wouldn't give the older one thirty. How come she could have daughters that looked as old (or as young) as her? Sure, certain older people could look decades younger, but there were limits!
Mrs. Kapule smiled again, this time knowingly.
"I know," she said. "We get that a lot."
A light shiver crept up Zac's spine. Both the woman's smile and tone seemed genuine, but there was something underlying in her eyes that he didn't like.
Beside him, Evie extended her hand.
"Welcome to the neighbourhood," she greeted with a polite smile. Mrs. Kapule returned it, but her eyes ran over Evie as if she was sizing her up, which caused Evie to frown when she noticed.
Once their handshake ended, Mrs. Kapule turned to Zac, who also shook her hand.
"I hope you enjoy living here," Zac said in the most polite tone he could muster.
"I hope so too," the woman joked with a chuckle, but the reply was belied by the way she ran her eyes up and down him just like she had with Evie.
Only with him, her gaze seemed much more intense and focused. Not in the way girls scrutinized a handsome man in the chick flicks he sometimes watched with Evie, but as if she was assessing a potential threat and trying to determine how to deal with it.
Mrs. Kapule must have realized Zac had noticed, because she pulled her hand from his' and stepped away. Then Hali strolled forward confidently, her hips swaying like a model parading down a carpet. Deliberately ignoring Evie's extended hand, she instead extended her own to Zac and batted her eyelashes at him. A bit at a loss, Zac shook her hand, but only out of manners; he couldn't even bring himself to smile at her. Hali didn't seem to have that problem, as her own smile showed a row of bleached teeth.
"It's wonderful to meet you," she said in the same American accent her mother had.
Zac settled for a nod, unsure of what to say. Mr. McLaren had basically spelled out that he was Evie's boyfriend, and yet she made these moves on him?
He pulled his hand free from hers as quickly as possible, but she squeezed just a tad as if she wanted to let it linger. Beside him, Evie stepped forward and put her arms around him, while he gratefully put one over her shoulders. She made it a point to give Hali a very stern glare, but the girl simply looked at her as if she was a squashed fly she had to wipe off of the bottom of her shoe. Then she turned around, her hair swaying toward Evie as if she wanted to use it to swat her away.
Relieved that Hali was a bit farther from him, Zac looked at Kopi to see if she would also step forward for a handshake, but instead, she raised her arm to wave at them both and didn't utter a word, her eyes still wide and scared as if the two of them were somehow intimidating. Zac raised his arm in return, and Evie did the same, while both of them gave her calming smiles. Neither seemed to have any effect.
A woman who looks at me like I'm a potential serial killer, a girl who's treating me like a tasty piece of meat, and another who seems to think we're part of the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Zac assessed. We certainly got interesting new neighbours.
"I'm sorry," Mrs. Kapule said. "Kopi can be really shy around new people."
Zac waved the apology away and Evie shrugged.
"It's alright," Zac replied.
"We understand," Evie added.
"I'm always telling her to loosen up, but it always goes in through one ear and comes out through the other," Hali added in a tone that must have been meant to be playful, but came across as condescending.
Kopi frowned at her older sister.
"It's the way I am," she murmured, the words clear in spite of the low volume.
Hali looked like she wanted to reply, but Mrs. Kapule cut in before she could do so, "And it is time for us to get going." She turned to Zac and Evie, and added, "It was a pleasure to meet you, but like I told Mr. McLaren here right before you arrived, we really have to get going."
Hali seemed to fight back a scowl at her mother's words, while Kopi didn't even bother to mask the relief flooding her face.
"But mom…" Hali started to say.
"Now, Hali, we can't impose on Mr. McLaren any longer," Mrs. Kapule interrupted. "We already took up quite a lot of his time, we don't need to take Evie's and Zac's as well. Let's get going."
Without even saying goodbye, Kopi scurried down the stairs and started getting away with jerky moves that suggested she was trying not to run. However, after a few steps, she turned around and said, "Goodbye."
Before Zac, Evie, or Mr. McLaren could even wave in return, she went on with a hasty walk. Hali went after her, but as she walked past Zac she made it a point to saunter just a tad closer to him and make deliberate eye contact while giving another smile that was apparently meant to be seductive. Zac instinctively pulled Evie closer to him, and she in turn glared at Hali, but again she acted as if she hadn't seen the gesture and kept walking, still with that slight sway of her hips that suggested she was meant to call attention.
"Have a good evening," Mrs. Kapule told them. "See you tomorrow."
"Likewise, Mrs. Kapule," Mr. McLaren replied.
Then she walked off after her daughters. Unlike either of them, she walked normally, but just a tad faster than it seemed normal, as if she wanted to get away from there but was trying to hold herself back.
Once they were far away, Zac couldn't help a sigh of relief as he removed his arm from Evie's shoulders. Her stance loosened as she also let go of him.
"And that, kids, is another lesson about not going for looks alone," Mr. McLaren proclaimed.
Zac wondered exactly how much of the women's attitude Mr. McLaren had noticed. Hali's advances wouldn't have been ignored by a blind man, but had he also noticed Mrs. Kapule's examination?
"I'm sorry about that," he added. "I was just trying to be a welcoming neighbour, but it looks like at least one of them isn't shy about abusing hospitality."
Zac waved the gesture away with the most tranquilizing look he could. He knew Mr. McLaren hadn't meant any harm.
"Don't worry, dad," Evie told him. "It's not your fault those three moved close by or that they decided to push your welcome."
After a moment of silence, Evie added, "So, how was your day?"
"It was fine," Mr. McLaren replied. "There are a few new customers interested in a repeat trip, so I'll be setting up bookings for them soon."
He could sense Evie's happiness at the idea, and fully understood why. The diving business was entirely dependent on clientele, so it was always good when it decided to return.
"And I also got to talk to Jonas about the girl he asked us to take in," Mr. McLaren added. Evie stood straighter, and even Zac gave him an interested look. "He thanked us both for the help, and tomorrow we'll start getting the last bits of paperwork ready. He said that by his estimations, she should be here next Friday morning."
Zac blinked in surprise. That seemed awfully quick to get something as important as sending a girl to a new home ready. But Evie didn't seem surprised at her father's words, so such fast placements should be, if not common, at least not unheard of.
"I'll be here," Evie promised. "And I'll clear up my Friday afternoon so I can get to know her."
"The file Jonas lent me is still inside, if you want to get an idea of what she's like before we meet her," Mr. McLaren informed.
After thinking about the issue for a moment, Evie replied, "I think not. It might be better if I go into it with an open mind. It's the way I went when I was little."
Zac remembered that. Of the few arrivals of Evie's 'temporary siblings' he could recall, she had always known next to nothing about them before they arrived. It usually worked out pretty well. Although Evie hadn't become particularly close to any of her foster siblings, they had generally gotten along well, and there had been none with whom she got along really badly.
With an accepting nod, Mr. McLaren asked, "And what about you two? Did you have a good day?"
Evie's gaze shifted away from her father, and Zac gulped at the question. They both wished they could give an affirmative answer, but all things considered, what they had come to suspect about Erik had put quite a dampener on their day. Now that Mr. McLaren knew about the merpeople secret, lying to him about anything that took place there had become more difficult. And although everyone had agreed with the idea of Mr. McLaren using any contacts he might have to see if he located Erik, neither Zac nor Evie were thrilled about breaking the news to him.
"It could have been a lot better," Zac finally replied, as Mr. McLaren started to frown in concern. "It could have been worse, but it could also have been a lot better."
Mr. McLaren blinked in confusion. "Why do you say that?"
Zac and Evie shifted in their spots and exchanged a nervous look. They both knew they couldn't ask him to find Erik without telling him why they wanted to, but the idea of telling him there was a potentially vengeful evil merman on the horizon didn't sound appealing to any of them.
This time, Evie was the one who spoke first. "Do you remember Erik? That merman I told you about?"
Mr. McLaren's eyes narrowed. "What of it?"
"It turns out he may not be as willing to leave us alone as we hoped." Zac replied.
As Mr. McLaren frowned in confusion, Zac gathered himself, and then he and Evie started filling him on what they had learned regarding Erik and what looked like an incoming plot for revenge.
Their arms extended in the typical stance merpeople assumed when they swam, the two mermaids entered the moon pool on Mako Island, under a circle of dark-blue sky specked with twinkling stars. Once they were at the centre, the leading one, with a slender profile, turned right, while the other, with a fuller figure, kept swimming forward. Once they reached the underwater ledge that almost completely circled the moon pool, the two mermaids surfaced and turned around so they could support themselves on it.
"Alright, Rita," Veridia told her. "We are at a private place, away from prying eyes and eavesdropping ears. What is it that you needed to tell me?"
Rita hesitated before she replied. The news she had gotten were worrisome indeed, particularly the ones Zac had given her this afternoon. She still wasn't sure of how to break the news to Veridia, but she had known since learning about the merman that was collecting venoms with the help of two mermaids that the pod had to know about them for its own sake. Learning about the new suspicions regarding Gunnar and Erik had been the final push. She still wished to not have to be the one telling Veridia, but she understood why the younger mermaids were reluctant to do so, and she had wasted enough time already.
"Well, Rita?" Veridia insisted. "What is it?"
Rita took a deep breath to steel herself, and then asked the most important question that came to her, "Is everyone in the pod accounted for?"
Veridia blinked at the question.
"I think so. Other than Zac and Evie, everyone is here and asleep," Veridia frowned inquisitively. "Why?"
Rita took another deep breath, trying to bring the words out of her as she let it out. Then, she explained.
"Apparently, there are some potentially dangerous mermen in the area. Mimmi and Ondina told me that Nixie and Lyla saw one yesterday, several hundreds of kilometres from here, collecting all kinds of venoms. There were two mermaids with him."
By the end of her explanation, a strange noose seemed to have started to tighten around her throat. But to her surprise, Veridia remained remarkably look. No widening of the eyes, no scared gasp, nothing that suggested she was as scared as Rita thought she would be upon learning such news. There was a rather fast pulsing in her throat, but it ceased after a second or two.
"What kind of venoms?" Veridia asked, her voice as even as her expression would have suggested.
Her whole posture loosening up at Veridia's calm, Rita said, "I don't know exactly. But Mimmi said that only a few of the ones Nixie and Lyla told them about don't match any potion that even she knows about. And of those they remembered by the time they talked to me, only two were part of any potion that I know, and none of them was part of a dangerous potion."
Once more, Veridia's eyes didn't widen, but by now there seemed to be a strange stiffness to her face, one that Rita recognized from their young years whenever Veridia was trying to force herself to stay calm.
"You said 'mermen'," Veridia at last said. "So far you've only mentioned one."
Rita temporarily glanced at her tail as it swayed up and down in the water. This was it.
"There is another one who started working at the marine park two days ago," Rita explained. "Mimmi and Ondina told me yesterday that they thought he might be a merman, but it was only today that we got confirmation that he is one."
Veridia glared at her, her fingers digging into the ledge underneath her.
"Why wasn't I informed directly, and why did you wait so long before telling me?"
Rita winced. In a sense, she knew that a day was not 'so long', but at the same time, it would still have been more than long enough for plenty of things to have happened to many mermaids in the pod. Her only source of relief was that apparently it wasn't the case.
"They were a bit nervous about having to be the ones to inform you," Rita explained. "You know you're not exactly known for being an approachable mermaid."
Veridia's gaze softened just a tad, but the bulk of her glare remained in place.
"And I wasn't very sure of how to tell you this myself, especially after what Zac has told me this afternoon," Rita added.
For the first time since the conversation began, Veridia's eyes actually widened in alarm for a split-second. She clasped her fingers into the ledge with so much force that Rita feared they would shatter.
"What has he told you?"
Again, Rita took a deep breath before replying. "Apparently, the merman working at the marine park – Gunnar – is here because he is in league with Erik."
Once more, Veridia's eyes widened – and this time, it lasted several moments.
"The merman who almost started up the chamber?" Veridia uttered in a voice louder than her usual one.
Rita gave a clipped nod. "There is no actual certainty of it, but Gunnar seems to know who we all are, and the assumption so far is that he knows because Erik has told him."
There could be other ways, granted, but any of them would reveal some kind of obsessive interest in them, the kind of interest Rita didn't really picture anyone with good intentions to have. Not to mention that the way Gunnar had spoken to them didn't suggest good intentions at all. Even Doctor Ross had picked up on his hostility, in spite of only seeing it once.
"And what about that merman with the two mermaids?" Veridia demanded. "Is there anything else you want to tell me about them, or do you intend to hold it back for a later time?"
Rita looked her best friend squarely in the eyes. "I already told you everything I know about them. And I tried to tell you everything as soon as I was sure of how much exactly I had to tell you." She tried to end on a firm note, but it faltered thanks to her hesitation of whether she should share the last part of the truth. After a few seconds, her honesty won out and she added, "And as soon as I had convinced myself that things can actually become very bad in a near future."
At last, Veridia's glare faded completely, and she gave her a sympathetic nod.
Still, Rita realized she had made a mistake in waiting for so long before sharing the news. But she hadn't been lying about trying to convince herself things weren't as bad as it now seemed they could be. She had spent hours reliving the stories about the war she had been told about when she was young, and conjuring a whole multitude of scenarios in which mermen could retaliate even though they no longer had the trident or the chamber. Although mermen hadn't been seen in years before Zac – before him, even the fact Nerissa had a son hadn't been more than a rumour – the fear of them was still instilled in mermaids from a young age. And now that more of them were appearing, it seemed there might be a good reason for that.
Still, Veridia seemed remarkably calm, as if she knew something Rita didn't. Perhaps she did; Rita knew that there were things the mermaid council kept from the lower-ranking members of the pod.
"What are you going to do?" Rita asked.
"I'll inform the pod first thing in the morning," Veridia stated. "Then we'll be on the lookout for those mermen and ask them for a few explanations once we catch them."
Part of Rita was relieved at seeing Veridia calm, but the rest of her couldn't help a shiver of wariness.
"That is not another way to say 'we're going to hunt them down and kill them' is it?" Before Veridia could accuse her of being too soft, Rita added, "Granted, it doesn't seem like they're friendly, but perhaps we ought to talk to them before we actually take up arms. You said yourself that Zac has shown mermen and mermaids can live in peace."
Veridia did not flinch or falter.
"Zac may have proved himself, but that does not excuse the rest of his kind from whatever evil deeds they do. If they turn out to be as aggressive as we fear, we'll respond in turn."
"That other merman had two mermaids with him," Rita pointed out. "He may very well not be aggressive."
"He may also have them under a spell."
Rita wanted to refute that, but she had no true arguments against it. It was certainly possible that that merman had the two mermaids under a spell. If mermaids knew siren songs that had the power to enchant, mermen certainly could know them too.
"Maybe," she acknowledged. "But I still suggest you try out a peaceful solution first. The feud between mermaids and mermen is meant to be ancient history."
"And it will stay that way as long as mermen don't try to start another war," Veridia replied.
Rita sighed, considering her case lost. Veridia seemed to be just too determined to an aggressive approach.
"Just remember not to be pre-emptively aggressive," Rita couldn't help to say. "Otherwise, any chance there still is to solve things peacefully may be lost."
To Rita's relief, Veridia did not object this time, and there was a flicker of agreement in her eyes. Hopefully she would stick to it, because Rita shuddered to think of all the lives that could be lost if another war like the one from thousands of years ago took place.
For the next seconds, the two of them remained in silence, their tails floating horizontally with regular sways. Then, Rita pushed herself off of the ledge.
"That is all I had to tell you," she said. "I'll be going home now."
She started breast-stroking toward the tunnel until she had enough tail space to dive away, but right as she started to lean forward for a dive, Veridia spoke up.
"Rita, wait."
Rita looked up at her friend.
"Have you thought any more about my offer?" Veridia asked.
Rita forced back a burst of frustration. If there was any subject she wouldn't have wanted to discuss with Veridia, it was this one.
"I have," she replied. "And things still haven't changed."
"But why?" Veridia pushed on, frustration in her entire inflection. "You know you could come back to the pod now."
Yes, she did know that. But in spite of herself, of how much she knew that clinging to old grudges was not healthy, there were too many reasons for her not to leave land and join Veridia's pod.
"Is there another land person?" Veridia shot at her.
Rita briefly glanced down. She might not have actually believed there was any chance of that, but she had unwittingly guessed one of the reasons Rita felt reluctant to return.
"Maybe," she replied, thinking about Doctor Ross, and the way she, as of late, in a way, found herself looking forward to the meetings they had.
Veridia's eyes bugged out in astonishment at the message Rita had conveyed by not replying.
"I can't believe this," she breathed.
"Neither could I," Rita replied. "But it's the way things seem to be going."
At the time, it was a bit difficult to say. While meetings with Doctor Ross were becoming more frequent, there always seemed to be a legitimate reason behind them. Sure, Doctor Ross sometimes made playful moves on her, usually in a similar manner to how he'd told her that he loved a mystery on the day she helped Heidi, but that was it. For all his flirting, he had never asked her out, or tried to call her by her first name, or told her to do the same to him. She knew that his given name was Mitchell, and that he had gone by Mitch before becoming director of the marine park (even though he'd already had a doctorate by then) but she'd never addressed him as such, just like he hadn't ever called her anything less formal than 'Miss Santos'.
But she found herself looking forward to the meetings with him. She found herself enjoying being with him. She appreciated how he always listened to what she had to say and how he took her words into account. She liked his gentlemanly mannerisms, such as the way he held the door open for people walking into buildings behind him. She liked how respectful he was of everyone who worked at the park, from the dolphin trainers to the janitors. She liked his compassion and empathy for the ill or injured animals the marine park took care of, the way he always tried to get to the bottom of whatever was wrong with them, and the way he always believed there was hope.
Rita might not know his feelings for her, but she was starting to entertain the thought of being more 'up-to-date' and asking him out if he took much longer to do it herself.
She returned to reality with a start at the sound of a frustrated huff. Her thoughts must have somehow been visible, judging from the way Veridia was scowling.
"Why are you setting yourself up for another potential heartbreak?" Veridia insisted, looking about to raise her hands in hopelessness. "You know how many things can go wrong in a relationship with whoever that man is, don't you?"
Rita did everything she could not to roll her eyes. Veridia might mean well, but this was one thing she had never managed to even try to understand. It had been exactly the same way with Harry; Veridia had thought she was demented and done everything she could to talk her out of it, until she eventually gave up. Now she might not be doing those things yet, but it seemed like that would not take long, particularly the part about thinking she was demented.
"I'm well aware, Veridia. But I'm old enough to make up my own mind. Whatever happens, happens. And whatever happens, it's still a long way ahead."
She might fancy Doctor Ross, but she wasn't a lovesick youth just out of mermaid school, and she certainly wasn't an idiot either. She would only tell him the mermaid secret when (and if) she both felt she was absolutely sure she could trust him with it and when (and if) she gathered enough bravery to do it. It had taken her about a year and a half to share it with Harry; she expected it would take at least as long to do it with Doctor Ross. Probably longer. Not because she found him more likely to blab than Harry, but just because she thought it would be much harder to build up the bravery to do it for a second time.
"And even if there wasn't any other land person, I have a whole school to look after. I can't leave them."
Especially not when it seemed that the most likely candidate for her replacement was Mrs. Trumble. If someone fit for the job showed up, she'd be perfectly willing to step down (although she was by no means eager to do so), but just the idea of leaving it with Mrs. Trumble made her skin crawl whether she was in human or mermaid form. How the school board found her a suitable enough candidate to even accept her application, Rita would never know, but she certainly wasn't going to quit her job while that cross between a sea snake and a blue-ringed octopus who did not even try to appear harmless was next in line for the spot.
"I'm sorry, Veridia," Rita said. "But as you said, I made my choice long ago."
Veridia nodded, a composed expression on her face that seemed like a mask she had put on. She did that from a young age whenever she had to mask any emotion, especially sadness.
"But if you ever need my help, don't be afraid to ask. I'll help you with anything I can."
Veridia didn't react to that statement, although Rita knew she had heard her.
Unsure of what else to say, Rita raised a hand in farewell, dove toward the tunnel, and swam out of the moon pool.
Doing their best not to miss any important detail, Zac and Evie explained to Mr. McLaren what they meant, from Gunnar's sudden arrival to the marine park to the deduction Cam had made about Gunnar having learned about them through Erik, which seemed to mean Gunnar was working for Erik. They also told him of their idea for him to help find Erik, so they could know where they had to go to put a stop to whatever he was up to. Both took the care to emphasize that neither Gunnar nor Erik had actually done anything particularly nasty yet (discounting Erik's failed attempt at starting up the chamber), but that seemed to be as poor a consolation to Mr. McLaren as it was for Zac and Evie.
"Crikey…" it was all Mr McLaren could mutter.
Indeed. Zac thought. That word did fit their situation, although it also was quite weak given the circunstances.
With that looked like considerable effort, Mr. McLaren put himself together and said, "Of course I'll help. If that boy is up to what you suggest he is, he needs to be found." His look turning more serious that Zac ever remembered him seeing, he added, "I should be able to find him if he is still on land, but it will at least be a few days, so be very careful during that time. Don't go to deserted spots, try to keep an eye out for suspicious people, and don't get confrontational with anyone who looks like he might be working for that Erik. We don't know what they can do."
Zac couldn't help but be impressed. After everything he had learned and the dangerous situation he had found himself in by association, Mr. McLaren still managed to step into the parent/parental figure shoes and hand out advice instead of giving in to the fear he must surely be feeling. But even more impressively, he didn't go into a denial phase or simply forbid them from doing anything related to their merpeople side as if it was all it took for the Erik-problem to disappear.
"To think he seemed such a nice kid at your party…" Mr. McLaren told Evie.
Zac and Evie nodded in compassion.
"Believe me dad, it turned out to be a much bigger surprise for us." Evie replied.
And the worst part was that it shouldn't have. Given Erik's constant obsession with the merman chamber, it shouldn't have been that big a surprise that he'd go so far to start it. All the same, looking at Mr. McLaren's stricken face made Zac grateful for one thing: his parents still didn't know. While it was true that Mr. McLaren knowing was making things easier in this regard, it was hard enough for Zac to burden him like this. He didn't want his parents to endure the same thing.
And speaking of his parents, he needed to meet them, as he'd promised to have dinner with them tonight.
"I should get going," he said. "My parents are probably wondering where I am already."
Evie nodded, and she and Zac exchanged a peck before he left. He raised his hand at Mr. McLaren and turned around to leave. But he only made the first step before he was stopped.
"Zac?" Mr. McLaren spoke up. "A word before you go, if you please?"
Surprised, Zac shook his head in assent. Mr. McLaren turned to Evie.
"Alone?"
"Sure, dad."
He and Evie exchanged a look, silently agreeing that he'd fill her in tomorrow, presumably while they waited for Chris at the airport. Then she went inside.
As Mr. McLaren gestured to the table on the porch, both of them sat, Zac facing the door and Mr. McLaren with his back to it.
"So, what is this word you wanted to have with me, Mr. McLaren?" Zac asked.
The first response he got was a deep breath. Then, as if Mr. McLaren had finished gathering himself, he said, "I think you should tell Rob and Lauren about your tail."
Zac's heart sank down to his feet. This was it; the one moment he had been dreading since Evie had told her father about him. She had promised Mr. McLaren wouldn't tell his parents anything – and so far that had clearly been true, because he hadn't gotten any strange questions from them yet – but she had also warned him that her father would try to talk to him about the issue himself. Zac trusted him not to blab, but he didn't think his resolve to not tell his parents would withstand anything Mr. McLaren had to say. He had been able to get Mimmi and Evie to respect his decision, but Mr. McLaren would be much more stubborn on the topic for sure.
"I can't," Zac stated from the get-go, with every bit of firmness he could bring forth.
"Why?" Mr. McLaren asked. "They are your parents. You may not have their blood, or even be of their species, but they are your parents. They love you, and they are having a hard time with this secret. They deserve to know the truth."
Zac looked down. Mr. McLaren's words were nothing new, but hearing his thoughts echoed by another person somehow felt like the guilt he felt over keeping the secret was being jabbed with a hot poker.
"I know," Zac murmured. "But I can't tell them."
Mr. McLaren was silent for a few seconds, a thoughtful look on his face as if he was trying to figure out the exact source of the problem.
"Are you afraid they will reject you just because of your tail?" he asked. "They wouldn't do that. Rob and Lauren aren't that kind of people. They may be a bit confused, and hurt, and I acknowledge Rob at least may have a much harder time believing it than I had – and it was no picnic for me either – but they'll still love you."
"They'd learn that the son they looked after for sixteen years wasn't even human," Zac stated. "How can you be so sure learning that wouldn't change anything?"
There. He'd said it. That was the source of all his issues with not telling his parents about his tail. It was something Evie didn't have. Even though she was now technically a mermaid (though many in the pod still addressed her as a land girl because she had been born as such) she had been born as a human, and as Mr. McLaren's biological daughter. No matter how much he wanted to pretend otherwise, both of those things had an impact. And even though she believed he should tell his parents, Evie understood that as much as someone who didn't share the predicament could. Hopefully Mr. McLaren also would.
"Do you think I treat you differently just because I know that you're not human?" Mr. McLaren inquired.
Zac sat straighter, a confused frown on his face.
"No, of course not."
How that was possible, he didn't know, but for how little time had passed since he'd learned the truth, Mr. McLaren hadn't treated him any differently since then – which might actually be even more incredible, as it showed Mr. McLaren had needed very time to come around to the whole idea.
"Then why do you think they would?" Mr. McLaren insisted.
Zac's posture sagged again, and a tired sigh left his lips. Like a lot of things Mr. McLaren had said, those words echoed both Evie's and Mimmi's. And he kind of got where they were coming from. But it didn't mean that his fear was any less real.
"You're not my father," Zac tried to explain. "They are my parents. How do you think they will feel by knowing they have a not-human son? It's as if a baby left on someone's doorstep suddenly took off a suit to show a cat underneath, or as if someone's brother suddenly turned out to be an alien in disguise."
He might have gone for the outlandish approach, but it conveyed his point well enough. But Mr. McLaren didn't seem deterred by it, as he also had a reply for that.
"You may not be a human, but you have a human heart. You have a human soul. As far as I can tell, all merpeople have hearts and souls that are just like humans'. Of course, that's not always a good thing, as your former friend Erik is currently showing, but you are a good kid. You don't love your parents any less just because they're human and you're not, do you?"
"Of course not!" Zac explained without hesitation.
They may not have been his species, but it didn't make them any less his parents, and he didn't love them any less in spite of knowing he was adopted or that he wasn't human.
"Then why do you think the opposite will be true?" Mr. McLaren insisted.
Any words Zac might have were silenced on the spot. As much as he wanted to say otherwise, he had no true rational reply to that. Mr. McLaren was right. If merpeople had human hearts, human souls, and human feelings, then real humans, especially kind-hearted humans like his parents, would have them all the more. Both Evie and Mimmi had made this point to him, and Zac had also agreed then, but somehow hearing it from a human who didn't have to contend with keeping a tail secret made it all the more real.
One would think he's been planning this conversation from the moment Evie told him the secret. Zac thought.
For all Zac knew, he might have. Mr. McLaren was friends with his parents, understood how they felt about the secret, and was a compassionate man. It made sense he would also want them to stop going through what he had endured. And when all was said and done, Zac truly wished he could just bring himself to telling his parents. But there was one reason he didn't.
"I just can't tell them," he said. "And that's all I have to say."
This time, Mr. McLaren had no reply. He looked downcast, and a tad disappointed, but he was silent. That was all Zac could really ask for.
"I'm sorry," he said, hoping that would somehow make a difference.
His heart back in its normal spot, but still heavier than usual, Zac stood up and turned around to leave. He walked away and got to the bottom of the steps leading to the grass without any problem, but after a few paces, he heard Mr. McLaren approaching behind him.
As Zac turned around to face him, he spoke up, "If you won't tell them for any other reason, at least think about this."
After giving him a probing look, as if to make sure he had all of Zac's attention, Mr. McLaren spoke up. "If this Erik and whatever goons he has turn out to be as dangerous as we all fear, Rob and Lauren will also be in danger. Not only that, they will be in even more danger than any of us, because they don't know, so any merman could get close to them under false pretences and do something to them just to get to you or to ensure your cooperation. You wouldn't want that to happen, would you?"
The words hit him like a punch to the heart.
In all his considerations about Erik and what he might be up to, he had never once considered that Erik might actually be willing to hurt his parents as part of any plot for revenge. And yet, now that it had been spelled out to him, it seemed as obvious as a blue whale right in front of his nose. Zac had been one of the main reasons Erik had so many problems starting up the chamber, not to mention the reason the act had failed. If Erik really wanted revenge, his parents would make an easy target, especially if they didn't know about the secret.
No. Zac told himself. Erik can't be that far gone.
Couldn't he? If Erik was at the point of sending henchmen, how could Zac be sure he wasn't at the point of telling them to carry out kidnappings, torture sessions, or whatever other things his mind came up with?
It can't be. He's not heartless. And he wouldn't want to expose himself, not when he goes as far to commit sabotage to keep the secret.
But what if the chamber had done something to him while he was in it? Like Zac had told Cam, magic was unpredictable. For all he knew, it had done something to Erik's personality. That might even be the reason he was acting like that, sending henchmen and getting revenge. Maybe being in the chamber had somehow affected his mind. Zac might have been good as new since he had gotten his magic back, but things could be different with Erik. Maybe the fact he wasn't a descendant of the merman who built the chamber made a difference. Or maybe it was the fact his attempt at shutting down the chamber had ended with him expelled from the water pillar; perhaps something else had gone awry.
It made no difference. The danger Mr. McLaren had brought up was too real. And if his parents remained ignorant of the truth, they would be far too exposed.
"Just think about it," Mr. McLaren added. "I still promise I won't tell anything, but I do hope you end up doing so yourself."
With a wordless nod, Zac turned around and kept his way. He didn't know what to say to Mr. McLaren. Part of him wanted to get angry at him for bringing it up, but most of him knew that wasn't Mr. McLaren's fault. Even if he hadn't thought about it, Erik might well have. And if he had thought about it and kept quiet, then, if Erik ever carried out such a plan, Zac would be angry at Mr. McLaren for not having pointed it out. As painful as it was to say, it was a good thing Mr. McLaren had warned him about it.
A strange burden starting to build up in his heart, Zac looked down as he walked. Mr. McLaren had told him to think about it, but there was really nothing to think about. He couldn't let his parents be exposed to a danger like the one Erik seemed to be posing. As difficult as it was, he just had to tell them the truth so they could protect themselves. There was no way around it.
Tomorrow morning, at the time he was supposed to meet Evie, Mimmi, and Ondina for them to wait for Chris at the airport, he would tell them of his decision, and then they would readjust their plan, depending on whatever the three of them said. Ondina would likely be pissed off about more land people learning their secret, but Zac would take it if it meant his parents would be safe. Evie and Mimmi likely wouldn't be that happy themselves either; while they wanted him to tell his parents, they wouldn't want him to do it for such a reason.
But maybe the time to do so had just come. Most secrets could last forever, and while Zac hoped with all his strength that this one was kept from people at large until the world ended, by now his parents just had to know.
With a sigh that sounded louder than an elephant's in his ears, Zac kept ambling toward his home, the weight of having to tell his parents the truth worse than the weakness he'd felt when the trident stone drained him dry.
Well, this was it. The longest chapter of this fic ever. I hope you enjoyed it.
As I said last chapter, here is a return to fancasting.
Kailani Kapule - Emmanuelle Chriqui (who plays Sergeant Raphaelle Veracruz in Murder in the First)
Hali Kapule - Victoria Justice (who played Lola Marinez in Zoey 101 and Tori Vega in Victorious)
Kopi Kapule - Nicole Muñoz (who played young Lily Page in Once Upon a Time and Christie Tarr in Defiance)
And as I said in the beginning of this chapter, a 'crossover character' was established, in a way at least, as per my use of the, to my perception at least, relatively common fan theory that Mitch from Season 1 of H2O - Just Add Water and Dr. Ross from Mako Mermaids - An H2O Adventure are the same character. So technically we've already had an H2O character featured in this story.
As I said, I won't be putting this story in the crossover section, due to to both universes already having been confirmed as one and the same officially (even though it happened in a season this universe's canon disregards).
To those of you who want to see more H2O characters, two more will make their first apperance next chapter. Neither of them will be any of the girls or their boyfriends, but if it's any consolation one of them is, I believe, quite beloved (the other, as far as I know, isn't really beloved). I hope you enjoy seeing them.