Hours later, I crawl under my covers, giving up on Gerardo returning tonight. Whatever way he came up with for staying human involves me, or he wouldn't have shown up at Han's this afternoon.

My lamp on my nightstand reflects off the wood paneling on the wall, casting shadows. Overhead, my ceiling fan clicks as it whirls, the fan off-balance. It's a sound that used to be familiar, and from familiarity came comfort, but after living in dorms without ceiling fans, the clicking is jarring.

I reach across my nightstand and switch the lamp off.

My eyes are closed for only a few minutes before a soft rapping comes from the sliding glass door leading out onto my balcony.

It causes me to sit up as if jolted out of a dream.

I pulled my curtains shut before climbing into bed and now can't see onto my balcony.

It's possible to get onto the second-story balcony from the ground, but a person would have to grab the ladder from the shed. They'd need to know the code to open its door. All things Gerardo would know.

I slip out of bed, my bare feet sinking into my fuzzy rug.

I did this many times during that month. A mer-boyfriend—I was the luckiest girl. Only he was barred by magic from divulging the details of what he needed to do to stay on land. Like marrying me.

I step off the rug and onto the wood floor, the boards creaking with each step.

Pulling back the curtains brings in moonlight blocked by Gerardo's form. I unlatch the lock and slide the door open. He wears only swim trunks, the same he had on earlier. The t-shirt is nowhere to be seen.

In his hands, he holds a scroll.

I hit the light switch, illuminating my room and the water limning the muscles on his stomach and arms.

Holy Poseidon ... or at the very least, Triton.

Water drips from him onto my balcony. Nevertheless, I motion for him to step inside.

I'm suddenly aware of how my bottoms are too short for company.

"I was beginning to think I hallucinated you."

He flashes a grin. "Why would you be dreaming about me, Kingsley?"

"Exactly what I was wondering." My gaze settles on the scroll. "What's that?"

He moves to my desk, pushing a pile of books to the side and unfurls the scroll. Not even a single droplet of water stains the scroll. "This is from the Sea King's library." The Sea King. Gerardo only mentioned him briefly in the past. He rules the Caribbean, but he's not the only Sea King.

"How does he have a library full of paper?"

"They're enchanted." Seven years later and magic still isn't any easier to hear about.

"And he was okay with you taking one of his scrolls?"

He gives me a puzzled look. "It's a library, Kingsley."

The scroll is written in a language I've never seen. The alphabet is completely unique.

"Have you heard of the children of the air?" His voice is soft.

"Like cherubs? Baby cupids?"

"A type of angel. The mer in the water with their tails for swimming. The humans on land with their legs for walking. The angels in the air with their wings for flying. This scroll details how a creature can give themselves to the children of the air and, in exchange, become the creature they long to be."

"What do you mean, give themselves?"

He steps back from the scroll. "Five years of being a child of the air and doing good deeds means a lifetime that I get to live out as human."

"What about your friends? Family?" I rub my face. "Won't you miss them? They'll miss you."
"They know I want this more than anything, and they'll be able to visit me after my years of service are done."

I study the text on the scroll as if staring at it long enough will turn the words into English. He said the scroll's enchanted. Shouldn't it have a spell to make it readable to anyone? That seems practical. "Why did you come here? What do I have to do with this?"

His eyes meet mine, and there is nothing soft about the passion that lies in them. Passion that has nothing to do with me but with his desire for a different life. He steps toward me. "Be my sponsor, Kingsley."

"Sponsor?"

"I wish to be human, so a human must vouch for me. And if I fail as a child of the air, for five years you have to become what it is that I want to escape being,"

My throat constricts, and I grasp hold of the desk to keep from falling. "Become a mermaid?"

"Only if I shun my duties. And that won't happen. You know how much I want this."

For all the years I've known of him, I've only known him for a month. He's determined; I'll give him that. He's never stopped wanting to be human, but who determines what shunning his duties means? Could one little slip up cost me five years as a human?

"My dad." Fear freezes the blood in my veins. I couldn't leave him for five years. What would I do? Have him fill the tank with seawater, and I become a finlancer? Spending hours every day being ogled? Then again, the finlancers do bring joy to each and every patron.

I could do that, couldn't I?

Didn't I dream of being a mermaid before I met Gerardo?

"After my service is up, we'll tell him the truth about what I . . . was. I'll have my family bring mer artifacts for him to see. He'll know mer are real. You and I can give him that.

"Even if I were to fail, I'd take care of you. I've loved you since we were fifteen. Even if I were to lose my dream, I wouldn't stop. I'd show you the Sea King's library. All of the libraries of the kings. The coral and cave palaces. The northern lights reflecting off the water. What it's like to swim with whale sharks and blue whales."

"Why give all that up?"

"Because your world is larger than my own. I don't mean in terms of size. But spirit. There's so much. Canyons and skyscrapers. Automobiles and roller coasters. Horses with legs. I want to ride one and feel the wind on my face."

I have the power to give all that to him. The little merman who opened my eyes to the world around me. "What do I have to do?"

His legs give out, and he lands on his knees before me. "You mean it?"

"You better hurry before I change my mind."

He asks for a pen and signs his name at the bottom of the scroll on the top line of two.

He holds out the pen, his face timid. His throat bobs.

I sign the bottom line before I can hesitate.

The space around our signatures glows, and the paper absorbs the ink.

It's as if the air sizzles. There's a metallic taste in my mouth.

"What—" The sight of Gerardo extinguishes the words on my tongue, like water to a flame. An amber glow, the same as the one on the scroll, encompasses his body. The longer I stare, the more I can see out to the balcony through him. He's fading.

Fear seizes my heart.

"Is this supposed to . . ."

He nods. "I'll see you again, Kingsley."

Right before he winks out, I think I spot a pair of great white wings. He's gone before I can be sure. So is the scroll.

***

I've spent the past five years rightly paranoid that I'm going to wake up with a tail and not be able to explain to my boyfriend Peter why I no longer have legs. We've only been together a few months; it's too early to deal with supernatural occurrences.

I sip on my beer as Dad and Peter chat, the three of us gathered on my balcony overlooking the beach. This is the first time Dad's met him. He doesn't dislike Peter, who I dragged out of the city and to Haven Beach this morning. When Gerardo returns today, I want him to be able to find me immediately and reassure me that I'm in the clear.

The three of us watch as the water's horizon deepens from a grayish blue to black as the sun finishes setting behind us. I turn down their offer of a second beer. My stomach can't take it.

He'll come. I know he will.

Besides, if something had gone wrong, wouldn't I be a mermaid by now?

***

Gerardo never comes.

***

My latte sits cooling in a white ceramic mug while rain beats the pavement outside the coffee shop. I flip my phone over, so the screen faces the table. Dad just called to say he's going to expand his boat tour business and to ask if I've been seeing anyone. The answer is no, like it has been every day for the past two months since I broke up with Peter for cheating on me.

Gerardo's service ended a year ago. He must have passed because I'm still human, commuting around my city on a bus and not through the sewers. Sometimes when I sit at my desk at work, I wonder what he would think of the skyscraper I get to be in five days a week.

I thought he would have come to see me, and Dad's made no mention of him if he tried looking for me at Han's.

Isn't he thankful?

Over those five years, there were times when I thought I spotted a pair of wings hidden in the shadows of rooms. I never saw his face to be sure if they were anything more than my imagination.

The door chimes and I raise my latte to my lips, planning to make this cup last to avoid the rain for as long as possible. The bus stop outside doesn't have any sort of covering.

"Kingsley."

My eyes snap up. None of that slowness that I exhibited the last time that voice startled me.

Gerardo stands over me, hair wet as usual, water dripping off his suit onto the cherry wood floors. He's wingless, and that suit fits his human legs so perfectly it should be illegal.

He did it.

"I told you I'd see you again."

~ The End ~