Quince reaches me, and instead of wrapping me in a hug like I expect, he reaches for my hair. I try to swim back, away from the near-desperate look in his eyes, afraid that he’s going to fail the test. He tugs something from my hair. I look down and see a Padina antillarum—a beautiful little seaweed shaped like ginkgo leaves—in his hand. And it’s glowing. “You,” he says with an explosive grin. “You are the sixteenth object.

— Tera Lynn Childs

#just-for-fins #tera-lynn-childs #beauty