Emerge Read Online Free

“Why don’t you two go get ready?”
    “And just what are you going to wear?” Lapis asks, folding her arms across her ample chest.
    “Um … this!” In an effort to end the conversation, I pull out the most risqué siluess I’ve ever purchased. Like today’s golden heels, I bought this because it was too beautiful to part with, but I haven’t had the courage to wear it. It’s a shining midnight blue fabric dotted with small mother of pearl pieces. When I saw it, it reminded me of stars glittering in the night sky above the ocean. It’s low cut and reveals the entire expanse of my abdomen, so it should be enough to satisfy the twins.
    “That’ll work,” they say in unison.
    What have I gotten myself into?
     
     

     
     
    Once the twins leave, I change into the dark blue siluess , a simple wrap-around skirt, and flip-flops. I put on a bit of Mer-made waterproof makeup and head downstairs. Now it’s my turn to play big sister.
    When I reach the entrance hall, I take one last longing look out at the ocean before I walk to a door behind the main staircase that’s disguised as a coat closet and open it. The row of coats that usually stands a foot or two back from the door has been removed in preparation for tonight, leaving a long corridor in plain view. I walk along it until I reach another staircase at the end. It winds down, down, down and opens onto an antechamber.
    Shelves and hooks line the walls, and a deep canal filled to the brim with satiny salt water cuts across the floor, starting in the middle of the room and flowing out around a bend. The rest of the floor slopes downward, toward the canal. I step around the water, slip out of my flip-flops, and push them to the very back corner of one of the higher shelves. Tonight, this room will serve as the shoe-check it was designed as, and I want to be able to find mine easily. I untie my wrap-around skirt and hang it on a hook, then sit at the smooth edge of the canal. Normally, Mer wait to use this room one at a time so we’re not all hanging out together naked from the waist down. If any other Mer did happen to be in the room with me, custom dictates they’d turn politely away during my transformation, offering me privacy while I temporarily reveal my human body. But since I’m alone, I take the time to relish what comes next. With a deep breath of damp air, I close my eyes and let my tightly-held control slip away.
    Transforming creates the familiar sensation of ocean tides pushing and pulling against my legs. I’m connected to the sea, connected to its magic, connected to the generations of Mer who have come before me. The bones and muscles shift and fuse and it feels so good. Like I can finally stretch out. When the mystical tide recedes with a final tingle, I open my eyes, look down, and see my golden tail shimmering in the light of the wall torches.
    One push of my arms and I’m sliding down the slope and into the canal. Water reaches up to my waist and runs over the gilded scales of my tail like liquid silk. I shiver in delight. Now that I’m in the water and in my true form, the call of the ocean thrums through my body like a heartbeat. It makes me want to swim.
    With a flick of my fins, I’m down the canal and swimming around the corner, past the walls that hide the antechamber from view, and into the main ballroom. Like all the rooms that comprise the hidden grottos underneath our house, the ballroom is a cave formation with seating and tables carved from the rock. The walls shine opalescent, like the inside of an abalone shell.
    My chest remains above water while my tail wades beneath. Toward the center of the room, the water is deep and I’m just dying to do a backflip into the cool, welcoming ripples. I want to dive down as deep as I can, feel the skin below my ears open into gills, and let the water flow through me—become a part of me. But Em would fillet me if I ruined my hair before any of the guests got here, so I’m careful to