I was fine.
A warm hand caressed my cheek and the world went back into focus, the blackness clearing from my vision and the chaos that was my mind halting.
I looked up to see my bear staring down at me with a soft smile. "Welcome back.”
“I left?” I asked, my body shaking like a leaf.
He gave me a small smile. “For a little bit.”
“Ajax. Is it true? Is Cal really gone?” I asked, desperate and clutching his arm like a lifeline.
He nodded. “I’m sorry.”
The growing dread in the pit of my stomach ceased up for a moment before pouring out and into my heart as I felt the warmth of tears streak down my cheeks.
“And,” I began to hyperventilate. “And am I really a swamp monster?”
“You're not a swamp monster.”
“But I’m covered in scales! And I have webbed hands!” I exclaimed, holding them out for him to see.
“Let’s get you some food and we’ll explain.” His voice was so soft and comforting.
Ajax took my hand and gently urged me to my feet. I looked around and notice all the guys were standing in my room, including Theseus, though I didn’t remember when he got there.
With Ajax’s hand on my lower back, I shuffled passed the guys and out of my room, back to my father's room. On the way, we moved in front of Cal’s open door and I just couldn’t take it. I broke down.
Bending over in stomach-wrenching sobs, I screamed.
I begged and screamed and begged some more. I didn’t want it to be true, I wanted one of them to be lying. Screw being scaly, I wanted my sister.
Someone, I assume Ajax based on the woodsy smell, picked up my curled form and cuddled me to his chest, rocking me back and forth like a child as we made our way down the hall.
We eventually made it into my father's room and with me still in his arms, Ajax sat down on the air mattress. It bounced beneath us causing me to bite my tongue between my sobs, which only made me cry harder.
It felt like hours later that my tears dried up and my already aching body ached that much more.
I wasn’t okay, but I was alright enough to hear them out.
I sat up from Ajax’s tear-soaked shirt and looked around at all the others who had stuck close by through this whole thing.
“Okay,” I sniffed and wiped at my eyes. “Someone start from the beginning.”
It was Jason who went first. "You were right about us. All along.”
“That you're some cult who worships the ocean or something?”
There was a round of chuckles before he replied, “No. We are Merfolk. Or, more specifically, Mermen.”
“That was my other theory,” I grumbled.
And so, they told me. As I sat in Ajax’s lap in the old cabin, they told me about being Merfolk, a fact which I had suspected but never thought was actually true. They showed me their own scaly arms as proof. Watching the multi-colored scales surface on their skin was fascinating to watch.
They also told me the details Percy had omitted about the accident. How Jason had figured out that I was in danger and in their Mer forms, they all came after me, reaching me just after I had jumped in the water. How, knowing I was on the cusp of death, Jason made the decision to give me one of his scales.
“Wait,” I interrupted. “What does that mean? Gave me one of his scales?”
Ajax was the one who replied. “You’re not human anymore.”
“I gathered that.”
“No,” His hand came up and brushed across the scales on my left cheek. "I mean you are not human anymore Atalanta. You are not the same girl who came to Argos. You’re…more.”
His voice was full of so much pain and empathy. Like he understood what it meant to be in my very position. Looking up into his blue and brown eyes and remembering my reflection in the mirror, I thought that perhaps he did understand. Better than anyone else.
“Jason’s scale kind of acted as a parasite. It tore through your system and altered your very DNA. You aren’t some human-Mer hybrid. You are just a Mermaid now,” Theseus said from his position by the door.
I looked down at my hands. “Oh…”
“It saved your life,” Jason’s voice came from somewhere around me.
I sought him out in the room. He was sitting on the floor in the furthest corner from all of us.
Ajax leaned in close and whispered, “He’s been by your side through the whole transition. I don’t know how much he’s slept.”
I nodded and got up from his lap and walked over to Jason.
Crouching down in front of him, I took his hands. “Thank you.”
He didn’t look at me when he spoke. “It was my fault you were out there in the first place.”
“I was planning on going out on that boat.” I shot back.
“No…I said some things that day. Things you don’t remember. And if I hadn’t said them, you probably wouldn’t have gone, and your father wouldn’t be in the hospital and your sister—” His voice cracked, tears welling up in his eyes, making him unable to finish his sentence.
I sighed. “I may not be able to remember everything that happened, but whatever you said it was still my decision to get out on that boat.”
“Yeah. But—”
“But nothing. You saved my life, Jason. So, thank you.”
He stared up at me, his green eyes glistening like emeralds from the tears, full of shame and relief. His mouth opened and then closed a couple of times, as if he were trying to figure out something to say. Finally, he settled into a careful smile, his hand reaching up to brush my now long hair behind my ear.
Epilogue
Atalanta
To say that I was an emotional wreck over the next two days was an understatement. As if I were a pregnant woman with out-of-whack hormones, my mood swung from hysterical laughter at something one of the guys said to sobbing in a matter of seconds.
The guys were troopers, though. One of them was with me at all times while I recovered and had my mood swings, bringing me food and clean clothes when I needed it. Apparently having your very DNA altered was very tiring on the body, as I constantly felt in need of a nap or some kind of food.
The first time I changed out of the enormous T-shirt I woke up in was quite the shock. The scales that covered my arms didn’t stop there. They ran down the whole front and back of my body all the way to my knees. While it was weird, I’m not gonna lie when I say that I looked beautiful, in a sort of exotic, alien way.
I also discovered that I had gills on either side of my neck. Upon inspection, I found out that the guys had them too.
“Why am I covered in scales and you’re not?” I asked on the third day.
Percy and Ajax were in my father's room with me while the others were out. I think Jason finally went to go talk to his parents, same as Hip. Theseus was at the community center.
Percy glanced at me from where he sat on the edge of my father's mattress, a book in his hands. “You’re a little different from us.”
I began to panic. “Does that mean I’ll always have scales? How am I supposed to go out in public looking like a sparkly fish!?”
Percy chuckled. “You’ll learn to hide most of your scales. Though, I believe made Mer can’t hide all of them.”
He looked over to Ajax, who nodded and raised the hem of his shirt. Turning, he revealed a patch of scales that ran from his hips and up his lower back to taper off in the middle of his spine. His scales were black with a rainbow of colors that ran through them. It reminded me of oil slick.