INTRODUCTION
A Note from Your Editrixes:
Let’s just start with the obvious: Who hasn’t spent hours sitting on the bottom of a pool pretending they were a mermaid with a gorgeous tail and the ability to breathe underwater? Or, in Zoraida’s case (because, spoiler alert, Zoraida can’t swim), staring at the glorious expanse of blue and dreaming of what lay beneath? Just us? We don’t think so.
Natalie was so enamored of all things aquatic that she started begging her parents for scuba lessons at eleven years old (though they held out, citing something about “being too far from the ocean” as if that would stop her); and Zoraida received a VHS of Disney’s The Little Mermaid when she was three and watched it on repeat so many times she taught herself English, and came away with a lifelong love of mermaids.
When we started thinking that maybe, just maybe, we could turn our first cryptid collection into a series, we knew that mermaids would be our second installment. Mermaids, like many folktales and legends, have taken on a life of their own. These beings change from culture to culture—sometimes there are fins and sometimes tentacles, sometimes they sing you to the bottom of a cold sea, and sometimes they fall in love with lonely sailors who most definitely weren’t hallucinating. No matter what, stories about merpeople are an invitation to dream about the mysteries of our own world.
With each story, our authors invite you to imagine mermaids in a wide variety of ways. There are mermaids who dream of being on land and mermaids who dwell in the deepest waters. There are stories of transformation and magic and of yearning to belong. As you read, we hope you will explore these endless, magical possibilities, because, let’s face it, the ocean is big enough for all of us.
Cheers,
Zoraida & Natalie
STORM SONG
Rebecca Coffindaffer
To feed the magic, you must first yourself know hunger.
It is your turn to call down the storms tonight.
The waves are wild already, white fingered and clawing at the rocks that line the coast. Above you, the star-scattered sky is clear and waiting.
No moon, though. That part is important. The magic is at its most powerful when she is hidden, and you’ve watched carefully every night, tracking her as she slipped farther and farther into shadow.
She is at her darkest now—right now. And the current brings the ship you chose closer every moment.
You’ve timed everything perfectly. You had to.
You need every advantage you can get because your song …
Your song. It isn’t ready. It may not be strong enough.
You’d wanted more time to find your melody, to hone that power that sits deep in your stomach. But the season already grows late. The elders—those sirens who’ve been around the longest, who know the seas best but no longer travel so far to join the singing—told you it cannot wait any longer. If you don’t call down the storms tonight, the cycle will break. Everything will suffer.
Abalone slips up beside you, curling gracefully around the rocks. Even in these waters—darker and colder than the warm, tropical currents where the elders hold the heart of your people’s power—she stands out, vibrant as a flower. An ombré of rich blue and gold, touched with streaks of pink, from the bright yellow tips of her billowing hair all the way down to the deep navy ends of her fin. Everything about Abalone is provocative, shimmering.
You, on the other hand, blend in up here along the jagged coasts of the northern seas. Your scales and skin and hair are mottled dark gray and brown and rust orange. The ends of your fin are bristly and sharp, and long, thin, venomous barbs line your spine.
Abalone twists her arms, her hands, her delicately webbed fingers in a smooth series of movements, signing to you, “Everyone is ready. We wait on you.”
“Don’t worry,” you sign back to her. “They’re coming. Can’t you feel their wake?”
“Storm Song” copyright © 2023 by Rebecca Coffindaffer. “We’ll Always Have June” copyright © 2023 by Julian Winters. “The Story of a Knife” copyright © 2023 by Gretchen Schreiber. “The Dark Calls” copyright © 2023 by Preeti Chhibber. “Return to the Sea” copyright © 2023 by Kalynn Bayron. “The Deepwater Vandal” copyright © 2023 by Darcie Little Badger. “The Nightingale’s Lament” copyright © 2023 by Kerri Maniscalco. “Sea Wolf in Prince’s Clothing” copyright © 2023 by Adriana Herrera. “Nor’easter” copyright © 2023 by Katherine Locke. “The First and Last Kiss” copyright © 2023 by Julie Murphy. “The Merrow” copyright © 2023 by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker. “Shark Week” copyright © 2023 by Maggie Tokuda-Hall. “Jinju’s Pearls” copyright © 2023 by June Hur. “Six Thousand Miles” copyright © 2023 by Julie C. Dao.
