The door bursts open and Damarian and Kyle rush into the baby room.

“Quick, help me get her to the tub!” Leah nearly shrieks, catching me before I fall over again. I cry out when I feel another sharp pain in my stomach.

“She requires water?” Damarian gathers me in his arms.

“Water,” I moan. “Please…water…”

“Yes, my love. It is all right. Your body must require to shift into a child of the sea.”

I’m in a half-sleeping state when Damarian hurries toward the bathroom. I see doors and the floor. This feels exactly like when I shifted into a mermaid for the first time.

“The baby…” I croak. “Merbaby…”

He pauses outside the bathroom door. “The fry? You believe she’s…” His hand goes to my stomach and his eyes widen.

I groan as another wave of pain takes over my stomach. That knocks Damarian out of his frozen state, and he quickly and carefully lowers me into the tub. “Please, Kyle,” he calls over his shoulder. “Can you get the synthetic sea salt from the hall closet?”

He nods and dashes away.

“What’s going on?” Leah asks from outside the bathroom. “Do you also sense the baby is a child of the sea?”

Damarian turns on the water. “It does not make sense. I have touched Cassie’s stomach many times and have felt the fry. I did not sense a child of the sea.”

The only thing on my mind is the baby. Is she or he okay? I hope nothing will happen to him or her during my transformation.

Kyle returns with the sea salt. He peels of the lid, and together with Damarian, they tip the bucket over the tub, letting the salt drop into the water. We’ve kept buckets of sea salt in our closet for moments like this. Every organ in my body yearns for the sea water, needs the sea water. I know that if I don’t change, I won’t make it.

I don’t need to make myself change. It happens as soon as the water is filled with salt. I try not to flail or writhe in agony. I force my body to remain completely still, because I don’t want to do any damage to my unborn child. Thirty seconds feel like thirty minutes. But eventually it does stop, leaving me weaker than I’ve ever felt before.

“Cassie?” Damarian asks.

I slowly open my eyes and find his face panicked. My eyes dip to my sapphire tail. It feels like forever since I’ve seen it. “I’m…okay.” My eyes move from Damarian to an equally panicked Leah and Kyle. “I’m okay.” My hand rests on my stomach. “The baby feels okay, too. But, Damarian…”

He cups my cheek. “Yes, I sense she is a child of the sea as well.”

“So…” I swallow. “Our baby isn’t human after all. She or he will be a merperson.”

The room becomes silent. Leah and Kyle exchange glances, not knowing what to say or do.

“I do not understand,” Damarian says after a short while. “When I felt her earlier today, I did not sense a child of the sea. I am very concerned, Cassie. We should travel to the sea and speak with my parents. We have not seen them since we discovered you were to have the fry. Perhaps they will tell us what is occurring.”

“Okay. Just help me out of here.”

He stares at my tail, an anxious expression on his face.

“I can’t go to the ocean like this, Damarian.”

“But if the fry is indeed a child of the sea…”

“What am I supposed to do? Remain here until the baby’s born?”

He shakes his head. “Of course not, my love. It will be all right.”

Damarian sweeps me into his arms and gently lowers me to the ground. I wrap a towel around my waist. Closing my eyes, I tell my body to shift back into a human. Like before, I try to remain as still as possible. When I open my eyes, I find three pairs of worried eyes staring at me.

I hug my stomach, like I’m protecting my baby from all harm.

“Do you feel ill now that you are out of sea water?” Damarian asks.

“I feel fine.”

“Nonetheless, I wish to speak to my parents.”

We don’t have time to pack a bag of essentials. Leah and Kyle walk us to the beach, asking us over and over if they can do anything to help. By the time we get there, a headache is starting to form and I feel thirsty. I don’t tell Damarian, though, because he’s wasted enough nerves. But I can’t hide anything from him. He tightens his hold on my hand and quickens his pace a bit, stopping by the large rocks.

“Are you all right?” he asks.

“I’m fine. Let’s just get inside.”

Leah wraps her arms around me. “Feel better. I won’t stop worrying over you.”

Kyle hugs me next while Leah hugs Damarian. “Same here.” Then he claps Damarian on the back. “Take care of Cassie and your baby.”

He inclines his head. “With every fiber in my being.”

Kyle and Leah turn away as we strip out of our clothes and enter the ocean. This time, the change doesn’t happen automatically. When Damarian and I are in our merpeople forms, he gathers me to his chest and searches my face. “How do you feel?”

“Much better.”

He lays his hand on my stomach. “I fear something might be going on with our fry. I will not rest easy until I speak to my parents. Do you think you can travel in such conditions?”

“No different than any other pregnant mermaid, I guess.”

“They swim normally, yes, but at a much slower pace, and they rest a lot when they are close to giving birth.”

I take his hand. “Let’s go.”

We wave goodbye to Leah and Kyle then go under. Damarian travels at a slow pace for my sake, but that’s not really necessary. Still, I don’t want to cause any strain on the baby, so I don’t ask him to speed up. It takes forever when we finally reach the entrance to the merpeople colony.

Fiske bolts over to us. I sensed something was amiss. Are you all right, Damarian and Cassie?

We hope so, Damarian tells him. I must speak with my parents.

Please inform me if you need my help.

We thank him and swim to the Sapphire colony. The place is basically deserted, since it’s in the middle of the night. But when we get to Damarian’s family’s cave, we find Syren waiting outside.

“Father?” Damarian asks as we swim up to him. “What are you doing awake?”

“Mother and I have sensed you and Cassie in the sea. I thought you stated that Cassie would not enter the water. What has happened?” he asks as we enter the cave.

Kiandra is pacing around. As soon as she sees us, she dashes over and wraps her tail around me and Damarian. “Is everything all right?”

“We are not certain.” Damarian brings his eyes to me.

“Please touch my stomach,” I say. “What do you feel?”

Kiandra’s eyes dip to my stomach. She gently lays a hand on it. A second later, her eyes widen. “You carry a child of the sea.”

Syren does the same and his face also fills with shock. “I do not understand. You stated you were carrying a human fry.”

“That’s what we thought,” I say. “And we saw a human baby on the ultrasounds. I have the photos as proof.”

Syren rubs his chin. “Perhaps it has been a child of the sea all along but has only begun to develop a tail.”

I guess that would make sense, but I’m pretty sure I saw the baby’s legs numerous times.

Kiandra touches my face. “You appear exhausted, Cassie. Please rest. We shall speak more of this in the morning.”

She’s right, I’m way beyond exhausted. I thank her and Syren, and Damarian and I leave to his room. He helps me settle down in the oyster shell and holds me close in his arms. “Fret not, Cassie. All will be well.”

“I guess we’ll have to live in the sea for the rest of our lives and not land,” I say.

He looks into my eyes. “Does that upset you?”

I shake my head. “Of course not. I will always push my child over myself. I will do anything and everything to make sure she or he is happy and healthy and safe. It just sucks that she or he will never know my family.”

The merpeople can always come to land, but it’s impossible for humans to survive in the deep ocean.

“I apologize, my love. Truly, I am sorry.”

I put my finger over his lips. “Don’t be. I’m ready to sacrifice everything for our child. And living in the ocean has its perks. We don’t have to worry about money and all that other stuff humans have to deal with. I think we’ll have a really great life here. I’ll just need to travel to land twice a month or so. And maybe when she or he is old enough, we’ll take them to land so they could meet my family.”

Damarian nods. “That does not sound like a terrible future.”

I kiss him. “Not terrible at all.”

I have no idea how long I sleep, but it seems long enough. Damarian and I are woken up by Zarya, who is zooming around the room.

“You have returned! Father and Mother informed me that you would raise your fry on land because she will be human, but now they have informed me that the fry will be a child of the sea! How exciting.”

Damarian laughs and pulls her arm to slow her down. “You carry too much enthusiasm this early in the morning.”

“I will be the best aunt to her, I promise!”

“We know you will be, for you are fine aunt to Dorin, Kyteria, and Saelia. Am I not correct, Cassie?”

I’m moaning under my breath, rolling back and forth in the shell.

“She does not seem well. Shall I fetch Mother?” Zarya asks, her voice holding the same unease as Damarian.

“One moment.” He cups my cheek. “Cassie?”

“I…I can’t explain how I feel…I…” My eyes stare up at the ceiling. “I need to get out of the ocean.”

“Pardon?”

My body forces me to a sitting position. “I can’t be in the ocean, Damarian. I need to get to land.”

His eyebrows crease in confusion, but he shakes his head and nods. “Yes. Right away.” He gathers me in his arms. “Please inform Father and Mother that I am taking Cassie to the surface,” he calls to Zarya as he swims swiftly out of the room. We pass the twins, Ryter, and Kiandra and Syren on the way to the exit. They all stare after us with bewilderment and concern.

“I can’t be here,” I keep muttering under my breath. “Please. Get me out of here.”

He brushes his lips against my cheek. “I am swimming as fast as I can. I will bring you to the closest sandbar, my love. Please hang in there.”

I don’t know if I can. When I glance down at the lower half of my body, I see my tail still there. Every part of me is still mermaid, not a hint of my human side taking over. Why do I desperately need to get to land if I’m not changing into a human?

Now my breathing has gotten laborious. When I touch my neck, I see my gills are still there. How can I be losing oxygen when my gills are still intact?

“Cassie?” he nearly shouts when I gasp for air. “Cassie! There is no air here. You have your gills. Use them!”

I am, can feel my gills expanding and contracting, but my lungs aren’t getting the oxygen I need.

“We are almost at the surface,” Damarian says, pumping his tail. “Breathe in air the moment we reach it.”

I don’t know if I’ll make it. I see the surface, can almost reach it. But it’s still too far.

“Cassie! Do not close your eyes. Remain with me, my love.”

His voice sounds so far away.

“Think of the fry, my love.”

My baby. If I die here in the ocean, so will my baby. I can’t let that happen. Hell no. Not my child. I open my eyes and pump my tail. I’m not longer deadweight but help Damarian. We break the surface in no time.

I gulp in air and that helps my breathing, but it’s not enough. I need to get out of the damn ocean. I’m so desperate that I push against Damarian, using his chest to launch me onto the sandbar. I make sure to land on my back. I immediately shift into a human.

Bending over, I cough out water as though I nearly drowned.

“Are you all right, Cassie?” Damarian asks. It seems that all he’s been asking these past few hours.

I nod, then touch my stomach. The baby is moving around. “Do you still sense a child of the sea in here?” I ask him.

He holds his hand a few inches off my stomach, scared to touch me in case I’ll shift back into a mermaid. He shakes his head.

I wipe away tears that are gathering in my eyes. “Something is wrong with our baby, Damarian.

He wipes away his tears, too.

I should have known it wouldn’t be so simple to have a child with a merman.

“Perhaps…perhaps there are two babies,” Damarian says.

My eyes snap to his. “What?”

“One is a human and needs to be on land. The other is a child of the sea and requires the sea.”

I shake my head. “The doctor only heard one heartbeat.”

“Perhaps she did not hear the other because she is a child of the sea.”

I shake my head again.

“Twins seem to be common in my family,” Damarian says. “Syd and Syndin. Dorin and Kyteria. Children of the sea are not aware they will have multiple children until the actual birth.”

“I love how hopeful you are, but there’s only one baby in here.” A baby I don’t think will survive. I cover my face and weep.

“Cassie, please do not cry.”

“How can I not? Clearly something’s wrong with the baby. It won’t be long until I’ll need to get back in the ocean. We’re going to lose our child.”

“No. We will not lose her. We will seek answers.”

He dives into the ocean and produces seaweed to cover me with. Then he touches the surface of the water. “Fiske!” He calls. “Please come. I require your aid.”

A few minutes pass before the large great white comes to the surface.

Please ask Father, Mother, and Ryter to join us here.

He nods and goes under.

Damarian lays his hand on the sandbar like he wants to touch my hand. “All will be well, my love. Please do not despair.”

I can’t allow myself to hope for the best, because if I lose my baby, I don’t know what I’d do. I have to prepare myself for the worse. It’s the only way to survive this.

Damarian continues to give me encouraging words and false promises. He’s trying hard to mask his own fear with courage. All for me. Because he thinks it’s his job to protect me. But nothing can protect me from the reality that I might lose my baby. Damarian and I will not be able to have any kids. It’s as simple as that.

Kiandra’s head pops out of the water, followed by Syren and Ryter. Then another creature comes to the surface. Shoney. She hurries to the sandbar and shakes her fins.

“She wishes to know if you are all right. She could not see you earlier, for she was on a mission with the Scouts.”

I just look away, tears blurring my vision.

“What has happened?” Syren asks. “Why is Cassie a human?”

Damarian tells them all that’s happened since yesterday. “Can you help us, Mother, Father, Grandfather? We fear the fry will perish.”

I look at them and see them exchange blank faces.

“A human has never become pregnant with a child of the sea,” Ryter says. “Not ever in our history.”

“Honestly, I feared it was not possible,” Syren says. “You are of two different species. I thought it would be impossible to breed.”

“Nature forced Cassie to shift into a child of the sea,” Kiandra says. “Surely it can accommodate a fry.”

“Perhaps not,” Syren says, glancing at Ryter. He shrugs helplessly.

Every part of me begins to shake. Damarian and I have had to jump over many obstacles these past two and a half years, but I don’t think this is a hurdle we can overcome. If I lose this baby, nothing will be the same. I can’t lose her or him. I can’t.

“She is cold,” Damarian says. “I will seek a vessel and bring her to land.”

“Don’t bother,” I say. “I bet I’ll have to shift into a mermaid in the next few minutes.”

“Father, Mother, Grandfather, my mate has lost all hope. Please tell her that she must not despair. There has to be an answer.”

They are all quiet.

“Please?” he begs.

“I do not think there are any answers,” Syren finally says.

“Not from us,” Ryter mutters.

I turn to him. “What does that mean?”

“You have sought answers from another being in the past. Perhaps it is time to seek her out once more.”

“The Enchantress?” Kiandra asks. “No, not again.”

“My daughter—”

“They nearly died the last time. Perhaps she will not be as lenient this time.”

I sit up. Of course, the Enchantress! She should know what’s going on. When Damarian, Flora, and I sought her out last time, she told us our child would have great amount of power. Maybe that’s why all this is happening, just like what happened with Flora’s baby. Maybe she’s too powerful for me. And the fact that she stated I will have a child means I actually can have a baby.

“Let’s go.” I slide to the edge of the sandbar to get into the ocean.

“Wait, Cassie,” Damarian says. “Are you sure it is your wish to visit the Enchantress?”

“Do you remember what she told us when we saw her?”

“Of course, but—”

“She said we’ll see each other again. Maybe she was referring to now.”

“But what if she spoke empty words? She is a witch, Cassie. We cannot trust her.”

“We have no one else to turn to.”

Damarian looks from me, to his parents, to his grandfather. “I will seek her alone. I do not wish for you to travel down to that horrible place while carrying the fry.”

“No, it needs to be me.” I drop into the water and change into a mermaid. “I don’t know how much time I have until I need to get back to land. Let’s go.”

He doesn’t move.

“Damarian, let’s go.”

“Cassie, she will force us to do something terrible.”

I swim over and take hold of his face. “Do you trust me?”

“For certain!”

“Then trust me that this is something I need to do.”