Brianna doesn't know exactly why she decides to go out to a hidden little corner of the beach that day, the one Kendall showed her so many years ago. It looks like it should belong by a lake rather than the sea, with a tree beside the water and a small patch of land just big enough for one (maybe two) people to rest comfortably as the leaves shield them from the sun.
But it's here that she first feels the change in the wind, a brush of magic against her skin, the whisper of something more.
The feeling lasts for an eternity, and yet it's as if time passed far too quickly when the waves suddenly still, and her eyes are drawn to a shadow in the water. It watches her, just as she watches back, waiting, testing. Then a young woman with hair the color of sunshine and a dusting of pink scales across her shoulders rises from the water, and a forest green tail appears for just a moment.
A mermaid. Brianna breathes, though the words don't leave her lips. She feels like she's dreaming, like everything around her is fantasy brought to life, and yet she knows what she sees is real.
Because even mythical beings can't look like the dead brought back to life.
"Princess," The mermaid says, and Brianna feels like her very soul is cradled in that one word. "I'm here to warn you."
Brianna opens her mouth to speak, but once again no words appear.
"Beware of the song that drifts from the sea, for a melodious voice will call for a crimson heart lost in grief, and it will overwhelm and entrap until revenge is another lost to the deep."
The mermaid holds her eyes for a moment, a gaze so familiar it's heartbreaking, then Brianna blinks and finds herself staring at the night sky in this little corner of the beach.
Kaia breathes heavily, hands shaking as she barely finds the strength to pull the dagger from the ground and drag herself back to the sea. She's not sure if this spell is already difficult to begin with, or if it's her unstable magic, but it feels like she could sleep till the next blue moon and still not recover.
She allows the sea to cradle her in its embrace, giving her comfort as she comes to terms with what she found out this morning, and what she has just done.
It's hard to know if Jazlee will ever forgiver her, but Kaia knows she would've never forgiven herself.