Breathless: A Little Mermaid Retelling Read online

  “Hey girl,” Shelly said, ignoring Harbor’s rudeness, though she was staring at Isa’s blue hair, too. “We came looking for you. You said we’d get ready together!’

  Isa had never said such a thing, but she said, “It’s the morning. The ball isn’t until seven. It’s too early to start getting ready.”

  “It’s never too early to start looking good,” Harbor responded. “Isa, you promised you’d come! Are you really going to back out now?”

  Isa turned to look at Adrian. He stared back at her. “I’m okay with whatever you want to do.”

  Adrian truly meant it, but the pressure of what everyone else wanted got to her, so Isa gave up what she desired and settled. “Okay. I guess I’ll go.”

  Harbor and Shelly squealed and did a little dance, but the person inside of her was rotting. The voice inside screamed that this was a mistake.

  “Come on,” Harbor said. “I want to get a new lipstick. The shade I’ve got now doesn’t match my dress.”

  “I’m busy today,” Isa lied. “I’ll meet up with you guys at four.”

  Her friends grumbled and groaned, and Harbor mumbled something under her breath about Isa being obsessed with her new boyfriend as they walked away, but Isa tried not to hear her.

  Adrian came up beside her and nudged her shoulder. “So if you’re going to the ball later, what do you want to do in the meantime?”

  She turned toward him and threw her arms around his shoulders. “How does brunch sound?”

  * * *

  Isa and Adrian spent the entire day playing volleyball and chasing after the ice cream truck on the beach. It was fun, blissful. She almost forgot about the ball.

  But when she returned to her house at three, she felt like a ball and chain were being fastened to her ankle. How had she let her friends talk her into this?

  “I’ll stay down here and get ready,” Adrian said, smiling at her. “I can’t wait to see what you look like.”

  Isa smiled. At least Adrian was going to see how pretty she looked, and she was going with him as her date. A ball was supposed to be romantic, right?

  An hour later Isa was looking for every excuse to get out of this, but as Shelly piled her hair in a crown at the top of her head and as Harbor dotted her face with makeup, Isa forced a porcelain smile.

  As she looked at herself in the mirror, she felt confident in her dress. But Harbor and Shelly immediately tore it down.

  “There are so many sequins on this thing I think I’m gonna go blind,” Shelly said as she examined the blue dress that was Isa’s favorite. “Don’t you think it’s a bit… tacky?”

  “What are you trying to be, a mermaid?” Harbor laughed. She threw a plain A-line dress in a light purple color at Isa. “Try this on. It was my prom dress, but anything’s better than that thing.”

  Isa did as she was told. She stood in Harbor’s prom dress in front of the mirror, staring at herself. Her green eyes looked dead.

  This isn’t me, she thought. This is who everyone wants me to be.

  Isa took off the spare, threw it aside, and said, “No. I’m wearing what Adrian bought me.” If she was being forced to go to this stupid thing, she was at least wearing what she wanted.

  Harbor and Shelly made faces as Isa slipped her blue mermaid dress on, but Isa didn’t care. She shoved her feet in white heels and made her way down the staircase.

  Adrian was dressed in a slim navy tux that fitted to his form. He grinned broadly as he watched her come down the staircase and took her by the arm. “Ready to go?”

  “Let’s get this over with,” she breathed, glad of the feel of Adrian’s arm on hers.

  The Seaside Ball was held at an actual castle on the beach, on the far side of town. The castle had been a house for a general after the Civil War, but once the South lost the general moved on and left the castle to Coral Bay. It was used now mainly for conferences and weddings, but its biggest event of the year was always the Seaside Ball.

  Everyone from Coral Bay was there, young and old. Children and elders alike mingled with the adults in the grand ballroom, which had a ceiling made of glass and and fixed with crystal chandeliers. The house was decorated with typical Southern class, the best handkerchiefs and china, round tables fitted with silk covers and ornate centerpieces of blue and green stones.

  No expense was spared when decorating for the ball, and the citizens of Coral Bay knew it. Even Adrian seemed impressed.

  When she was younger, Isa used to love the Seaside Ball— it was her favorite party of the year. But once people kept prodding her that she would soon be the next Queen, it became something she hated.

  People were staring. They were whispering about her blue hair, her outlandish dress. Isa caught a few girls she used to go to high school with laughing at her behind her back.

  Adrian tugged her onto the dance floor. “Don’t look at them. Look at me,” he said.

  She did. Isa fixated her eyes onto Adrian’s and pretended not to notice anyone else.

  “It’s better to be the center of attention than to blend in with the crowd,” Adrian whispered. “They just don’t like you because you have the courage to be different, and they don’t.”

  The music started. Adrian had two left feet. Isa was okay at dancing, but Adrian kept stepping on her feet and making a bigger scene. They weren’t going along with the dance properly, and people were hating them for it.

  “I don’t think they approve,” Isa said to Adrian quietly, privately delighted.

  “I’m better with my fins,” he whispered, and Isa laughed.

  Her eyes flickered from Adrian’s face to her high school friends, just for a moment. The laughter was gone now, and irritation had taken its place.

  “They’re pissed off I’m having a good time.”

  “Good. Let’s make them angrier.” Adrian kissed her on the lips deeply, in public. Isa could almost hear the shouts of outrage from here. Public displays of affection at the Seaside Ball were definitely not allowed. She loved breaking the rules.

  Isa danced with Adrian until she could no longer, and dinner was served. She sat at a round table with Adrian, Harbor, and Shelly. Isa noticed her friends hadn’t gotten any dates, and seemed sour that Adrian was there.

  They were served lobster, steak, and asparagus with mashed potatoes. Isa and Adrian didn’t stop talking all through dinner, but Harbor and Shelly were unusually quiet.

  Isa reasoned this wasn’t so bad and the ball wasn’t going as terribly as she thought it would. She was even having fun. Maybe it was a good decision to come here and her earlier worries had been nerves.

  During dinner, Shelly accidentally knocked over a glass of wine. It went spilling over onto Adrian’s jacket.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” Shelly said, and she dabbed at the spot on Adrian’s jacket with a napkin. “I can fix this.”

  “Don’t mind.” Adrian smiled at her kindly. “I’ll take care of it. Be back in a bit.”

  Adrian got up and went to the bathroom. Isa’s eyes followed him longingly as he left, and she wished he’d never gotten up.

  “Finally, he’s gone,” Harbor said restlessly as she threw down her fork. “We can talk.”

  “What do you mean?” Isa asked. “Anything you can say to me, you can say in front of Adrian.”

  “No, we can’t,” Harbor started. “Listen, Isa, we get that he’s hot and all, but you’re different since you met him.”

  “Different?” Isa asked.

  “You’re not the same. You barely hang out with us anymore, and when you do, it’s like you’re somewhere else,” Shelly said. “It’s like you’re avoiding us!”

  “Adrian and I just met. We’ve only been together a few days,” Isa said slowly.

  “Exactly!” Harbor burst. “You’ve been dating less than a week and it’s like you’re a completely different person. You’re not the Isa we know at all.”

  “He’s changing you,” Shelly said. “We don’t like it.”

  At that, Isa
felt a steely ball of nerve rise up in her, and she said, “You don’t have to like it. I do. And I’m not sorry if I’m not the person you expect me to be.”

  Isa got up with such force from the table that it shook and her chair was knocked backwards. She stormed off to find Adrian, angry that her friends could say such things to her. They thought she was different? This was who she really was! She was trying to be better at being herself!

  …Maybe that was her fault for being a fake around them. They didn’t know the real her, the person Adrian forced her to become when he was around, because there was no way possible for her to be fake while around him.

  Isa went toward the bathrooms, but before she could enter she ran into someone in the hallway.

  “Dad?” Isa said, gaping. There her father was, all dressed up in his military uniform. His expression was completely shocked as he took in her blue hair, her attention-grabbing dress.

  She tried to gather herself as much as she could. “Dad, what are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to surprise you. I didn’t want to miss my daughter winning the Coral Crown,” he said. “But I didn’t expect you to look like this. Your hair is blue! And what in God’s name are you wearing? It’s embarrassing.”

  Isa swallowed. “I like how I look. I think I look pretty.”

  “You look like a clown,” her father shot back. “If I had known you’d wear something like that, I would’ve never given you the money to pick it out yourself. It’s disgraceful.”

  “You didn’t buy this. My boyfriend did,” she said lowly. “And for your information, he thinks I look beautiful.”

  “I don’t want to hear about another one of your boyfriends, Ria. They never last. His opinion doesn’t matter,” her father said angrily. “You’re coming home with me this instant, and you’re going to wash that blue dye out of your hair! Your mother would be ashamed you went out looking like this.”

  Her mother would be ashamed of Isa looking like herself, who she wanted to be? No. That was wrong. It crossed a line.

  “My mother’s the one who should be ashamed. She’s the one who left me, so I don’t give a damn what she thinks!” Isa yelled. “She’s not here. And you should be ashamed too, yelling at me when this is supposedly my night!”

  “Come with me, now,” her father growled. “This isn’t who you are.”

  Isa shook her head. She backed away slowly, feeling horribly betrayed.

  “This is me, Dad. This is who I am. It’s just too bad you weren’t around enough to notice.”

  “Ria!” her father roared, but Isa took off. She didn’t know if she wanted to scream or cry, but she did know she wanted to find Adrian.

  She found him coming of the men’s room just outside the grand ballroom. The stain was gone, but water soaked the front of his jacket.

  He noticed something was wrong as Isa flung herself into his arms.

  “Izzy, what’s going on?” He held onto her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “What happened?”

  Isa let one tear fall as she asked, “Adrian, do you love me?”

  “What?” he gaped at her helplessly.

  “Do you love me?”

  This was something Isa had never done before. She’d never been vulnerable in this way. Guys always told her they loved her first, but it was just a way to get into her pants. She’d never said it back to anyone, not even Adrian. And Isa knew in that moment she loved Adrian, but that she needed to hear him say it first. She needed to hear that someone out there actually cared about what she wanted, cared about who she was and not just what they created her to be.

  She needed to know this was real, and not just a fairy tale.

  But Adrian didn’t give the answer she expected. He let go of her arms and said slowly, “I… I can’t say that.”

  The floor dropped underneath Isa’s feet, and she fell so far that she thought she was sinking into some sort of hell. “Why not?”

  “I… I just can’t.”

  “You don’t love me?”

  Adrian gazed miserably at her, void of any response. Isa took it as her answer.

  It didn’t make sense. How could Adrian come on land for her, give up being a merman, give up everything, if he didn’t love her?

  Maybe everything he said to her was a lie and he didn’t mean any of it.

  Maybe this was all a prank and he wasn’t a merman at all.

  “You’re a liar, Adrian,” Isa whispered. She tore herself away from him, freely crying now.

  “Izzy, wait!” Adrian cried, but it was too late. Isa had heard enough. She needed to get out of here.

  This night was nothing short of a disaster. Isa was about to leave. But as she was pushing her way through the crowd she heard a voice call, “And this year’s winner of the Coral Queen crown is… Isamaria Davis!”

  Isamaria stopped cold. A million hands were on her back and there were a bunch of smiling faces congratulating her. She noticed the expressions of many girls steaming with envy. People pushed her toward the stage, and Isa’s legs betrayed her as they obeyed willingly. Isa was forced to climb up on stage to accept the crown, forcing back tears.

  “Told you,” Brently said beside her. “I knew I was going to get Coral King. Where’s your boyfriend?”

  Isa had to turn her back on him to wipe away tears. “Not here.”

  She left the stage before Brently took that as an invitation, and before she had to give a speech. Several people tried to stop her but she covered her face and ran out the door before they could.

  Isa ran to the beach. She kicked her heels off at the doors of the castle and left them there, running as fast as she could in her dress toward the place where the ocean met the shore.

  She only stopped when she could feel the soft waves brushing up against her feet.

  Isa took the crown off her head. Then she tossed it as far as she could into the sea, pitifully crying and letting out a painful scream.

  Her eyes caught that horizon line. Isa wanted to sink into that thin line and hide away, forever and ever.

  The sea called to her. Not caring what happened to her dress, Isa wandered into the waves and closed her eyes.

  Then she felt something. A pair of hands closed over her mouth. Isa’s eyes snapped wide open as a pair of tentacles wrapped themselves around her legs and arms, pinning them to her sides.

  Isa tried to scream, but nothing came out. She heard a dark chuckle, and a sinister voice whispered in her ear, “Got you.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Adrian

  Adrian had never felt more miserable in his life. He’d been so close. He could see it in her eyes when they were dancing earlier. She loved him. She loved him, and she was about to tell him, but she wanted to know if he loved her first.

  Someone had upset her, that much was obvious. It wasn't like her to act that way. Isa was always composed, never revealed how she felt, never lost control.

  Tonight was different. He saw something sickening in her eyes. She'd been wounded by someone she cared about, maybe a few people. Adrian wasn't sure how she could go from being fine to being completely devastated in the span of less than a few minutes.

  But her rejection had done worse than break his heart— it had broken the mating bond. Isa refusing his love felt like a sharp board being snapped in half on top of his chest. Before Adrian could feel her happiness, her joy, and then the sharp change into pain and sadness.

  Now there was nothing. He could no longer sense her, and that frightened him. He was free to choose another.

  Despite the mating bond being broken Adrian was still madly in love with her. His feelings hadn't changed. He still felt like he would die without her. He’d wondered if his heart would choose differently once the mating bond was broken, and refused to think about it, but he had nothing to fear. Adrian's heart would always belong to Isa, no matter what magic did or did not bind it.

  Fated mates or not, Stavros' spell was still holding. Adrian had some time before he would be forced
to return to the sea. He had to find Isa, make her change her mind.

  "Sorry," Adrian said as he bumped into someone, a man much larger than him. The man was wearing a Navy uniform and instantly snapped when Adrian accidentally knocked him over.

  "Watch where you're walking, boy," he growled. "You ought to be taught some manners."

  Adrian was about to bite back a comment before the man's eyes struck him. They were light green and churning like the sea.

  Like Isa's.

  It was him. He'd upset her. Her father had shown up and ruined everything. “Do you know where Isamaria is?”

  The man's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "I don't know. She ran off. Are you her new boyfriend?"

  Adrian shoved him aside. He looked through the ballroom frantically, scanning the hundreds of faces in the crowd. Where was she?

  Then Adrian looked out a window and spotted Isa standing on the shoreline. He ran outside onto the beach and called her name, but before she could hear him a figure rose out of the water.

  "No!" Adrian screamed, but it was too late. Stavros wrapped his tentacles around Isa and yanked her downward, swimming out to sea. Adrian watched Isa's head bob along the top of the water as Stavros took her farther and farther into the ocean.

  Adrian ran into the sea. He jumped against the waves and started paddling, swimming after Stavros with all his might. But the waves were too strong for a human to master, and Adrian was forced to turn back and watch as Stavros carried his love far away.

  "No," Adrian said again, but he was crying this time. He knotted his fingers into his hair and pulled. Stavros had Isa. Who knew what he would do to her?

  There was a bump against his leg. Adrian looked down and saw Moona's black eyes. She huffed a bit and nibbled at his calves.

  "I'm sorry, Moona," Adrian said mournfully. "I can't understand you."

  Moona rammed herself into Adrian's side and he nearly fell over. That got the message across. "Right," he said. "I need to go after her."

  Isa had given Adrian her car keys to hold onto, since he was the only one with pockets. Adrian got into her car and drove to the docks. He broke a window to get into her uncle's office. Adrian grabbed the keys for the boat he and Isa had taken out yesterday, hauled up the anchor, then drove the boat out to sea as fast as he could.