Chapter 11

As Zac swam away from Rita's house – from Evie, who he did not think he would ever be able to look in the eye again – he allowed himself a moment of self-pity. He had not intended for any of this to happen. Cam had come to him with a half-baked plan about destroying the merman chamber and maybe, if he had paid attention or offered to help, or if he had even stood in the way of the plan, things would be different now. But he hadn't. And they weren't.

Evie was trapped with a tail. Even Rita hadn't looked particularly hopeful that it could be rectified. Not to mention that Ondina, Sirena and Rita were also trapped, on land.

Mimmi – his newly-discovered sister – was missing, as was Erik. He cared less about Erik's wellbeing, although a nagging voice inside reminded him that this was another newfound sibling. He had a sister and a brother, as it turned out. Just great. Most worrying about it was that the visions he had experienced when Mimmi was in trouble had stopped. Maybe their connection was severed, maybe it was not something that worked in such an open and shut way. Maybe Mimmi was dead.

No, he wouldn't let himself think that way. She was alive, and so was Erik. He'd find them both.

As for the man who was the author of all this trouble – some kind of monster who had destroyed the relative stasis of their lives. Somebody who claimed to be his father. The last time he had seen him, he had assured Zac that he would be back for him. At the time, Zac just wanted to get away from him and out of the goddamned chamber. Now, he realised he was going to have to try to find him. And what he had heard about himself in his presence terrified him.

He had been out of control – he had just taken orders and done as he was told.

Zac stilled in the water, and floated, looking out around himself at the fish swimming past in elegant shoals. A few days ago, his biggest problem had been that he knew he was adopted. Nothing else had changed, not really. Now, his world was falling to pieces and he didn't know what to do. He had been on his way to Mako, back to the merman chamber to see if he could find the man – his father. But of course, what use was that right now, when he wouldn't even have a way to get into the chamber without moonlight. The girls' moon rings were spent, and even if they weren't, their powers were gone. Who knew if the chamber could ever be opened again, except in moonlight?

Besides, he wanted more information before he went hunting for a madman. There was only one person he could ask, much as he didn't want to go to him. He needed Cam.

Cam looked up from his lap when Zac walked into his bedroom.

'Your mum let me in,' Zac said lamely, and allowed himself a moment to look around Cam's usually-messy room. It had been tidied, the floor had been hoovered and, to his eternal surprise, he realised that it had probably been Cam who had done all this housework. He really hadn't been here in a long time.

Cam just nodded and made space on his bed for Zac to sit down. Zac remained standing and crossed his arms. It was a nervous gesture, but he realised that he must look angry or annoyed, because Cam was just looking at him as though he was waiting for an explosion.

'I need to find the man from the chamber,' Zac said quickly, and looked away again.

'Your father,' Cam said.

'We don't know that!' Zac quickly replied, but then cooled down again. Shouting at Cam was not going to get him any results.

'We kinda do, dude,' Cam said, although he didn't say it with any kind of anger. He was fully aware that the arguments and politics and broken friendships were petty and irrelevant right now.

'I guess,' Zac replied, looking away again, at the immaculate floor. 'Cleaned your room finally? Did your dad threaten you?'

Cam allowed himself a chuckle.

'Didn't have anywhere else to be and since I was spending all my time here, decided it may as well not be a tip.'

He turned serious again quickly.

'What do we do about Evie?' he said. He didn't voice his concerns for the others, though Erik and even Mimmi were also pressing concerns.

'I don't know,' Zac admitted. 'I don't think I can go in the chamber again until the full moon anyway, and that's weeks away. Even if I get in there, it'll be ages. We have to tell her dad something.'

'Did Rita have any ideas?' Cam asked.

'Sort of,' Zac admitted. 'I don't think it'll work, though. Something about a surprise scholarship. Evie tells her dad everything, he won't buy she would just vanish on him like that.'

He sighed and decided he may as well tell Cam about their argument.

'The thing is,' he said. 'She was going to tell her dad anyway. She had decided. Before we ended up on Mako, I went to see her. I guess what you said stuck with me.'

Cam allowed himself a quick smile before turning serious again.

'She was adamant that she was going to tell her dad everything about herself. She said she'd leave the rest of us out of the story, but I don't know how that would work.'

Cam did look startled then.

'Doesn't she realise that if he reacts badly she could end up –'

Zac cut him off.

'There was no persuading her. Believe me, I tried. And then when I left…'

He described the moment when it felt like his chest had exploded and he had fallen down outside of her house. And then nothing, a blank, until he 'woke up' in the chamber, with horrors raining down on him from all sides.

'I need you to tell me everything, every detail about what happened in there, Cam,' Zac demanded.

Cam nodded.

'I've told you everything, but yeah, let's go over it in detail.'

Zac nodded gratefully and finally sat down on the bed, ready to listen intently.

Evie was listening to Sirena describe just how she should be floating when asleep, although she was only half paying attention. A part of her was desperately wishing that this would all be a nightmare and she would wake up at any minute, but the reality of the water lapping at the grotto walls around her and the harsh scraping feeling as she occasionally ran her fin along the stone outcropping was enough to keep her aware that this was anything but a dream.

She would look up at the stairs leading down to the pool, waiting for Rita to come in and tell her that her friends had solved the problem and everything would be fine. She'd go home tonight, hug her dad, sleep in her bed and prepare her little speech about the mermaid business for tomorrow. She'd tell him and they'd hug but it would be ok, because, she now realised, that being a mermaid part-time was manageable. As long as it wasn't permanent.

'Evie, are you listening?' Sirena interrupted her thoughts.

Evie shook her head.

'Sorry, Sirena, it's just a little hard to focus right now,' she admitted. Sirena nodded sympathetically.

'I know,' she said. 'I know what Rita said about us being back to the way we were supposed to be, but…'

'But you're a mermaid, not a human,' Evie finished for her. Sirena nodded.

'This,' she said, holding out one foot, 'This feels unnatural. And the thought that I'll never have my tail back is just—'

She started to sniffle to herself and Evie gave her hand a quick squeeze. If only they had been reversed. If only Sirena or Ondina had gotten doused with water in that stupid cave, instead of her.

If only Zac had not gone in there and done whatever awful thing he had done to unleash this nightmare on all of them. She had to admit to herself, though, that she didn't blame and she did, in fact, mean it when she told him she forgave him. What use was blame here, anyway? They needed a solution, not blame.

'Sirena,' she said suddenly, interrupting the girl's quiet tears. 'Can you please go find Rita? We…' she sighed. 'My dad is expecting me for dinner and I just want to make a plan for what we're going to do. What I'm going to tell him.'

Sirena nodded and stood up from her seat on the ledge. Her lower half was sodden, as she had been sitting in the water this whole time, and she screwed up her face as if to prevent herself from starting to cry again when she looked down at the water cascading from her.

Evie was about to ask again when she heard voices on the stairs. Rita and… a male voice. But it wasn't Zac, or Cam. It wasn't even Erik.

She knew that voice so well.

'Where is she?' he demanded. 'Where's my girl?'

Doug McLaren walked into the grotto and his gaze immediately went towards the water, and towards Evie. His eyes widened and his knees buckled under him as he looked at her.

'Baby?' he asked, almost a whisper.

'Hi, Dad,' Evie replied, shrinking into herself as she returned his astonished gaze.