Desdemonia and the rest of the council filed into their respective places around the dais where I sat, holding my tentacular head.

“Seth!” April yelled up at me in Desdemonia’s voice. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea!”

“We need to reverse this!” I said, and everyone held their ears. My voice was rather high-pitched and strident.

“Even if we could, it would just find another way into this reality!” Desdemonia said in April’s voice. “This way, we can at least terminate it upon entry into this realm.”

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

“And now,” April flourished Desdemonia’s hands, “Comes the moment we’ve all been waiting for.” She beckoned to me.

I took a deep breath. This was it.

If I took that step forward, I could be leaving humanity behind forever, doomed to an eternity, or perhaps, many eternities as another being entirely. Something so completely alien, even aliens from another galaxy would be more familiar. In exchange for what?

I saw the scowling faces of my parents. I was happy they were there. Hopefully, they would make sure there was no funny business.

Drying off after the hot tub, I leaned over and quietly asked Ella, “What exactly is a manicure and pedicure?”