Drowned in the Past
I am the youngest daughter of the King of the Sea, the most beloved little mermaid princess.
The man I married is the world's most brilliant marine biologist.
He has a childhood sweetheart who grew up with him, a woman who knows everything about extracting ocean toxins.
The two of them, her brewing poisons and him developing antidotes, spent over a decade happily doing research together.
Until the day she injected that toxin into my body. I nearly died.
When I came to, he was sitting at my bedside writing up a treatment plan.
"Don't be mad at Vicky," he said, still writing, his voice impossibly gentle. "She's just immature. She didn't mean to hurt you."
"She knows I can save you. She just wanted to get a rise out of me."
The moment those words left his mouth, one of Vicky's people came to call for him.
After he left, I looked down at the treatment plan.
He had left out one key ingredient.
He'd been in too much of a hurry. He hadn't even noticed.
That was when the sprite, silent for so long, finally stirred.
The glowing pearl that had traveled with me for over twenty years drifted out from my collar, floating lazily in a slow circle.
"Your Highness, once your human-form energy is depleted on land, your soul will return to the sea, and you'll never be able to come ashore again. This treatment plan is missing deep-sea spirulina extract. Following it will drain your energy even faster. The choice is yours."
I stared at that line for a long time.
Then I passed the treatment plan to the caretaker and smiled. "Let's go with this."