The Savage Blue

The street leading to Betwixt, the underground supernatural nightclub, is teeming with people. Everywhere except the metal door with a red star at the top. An invisible cloak makes people cross the street so they don’t have to walk in front of it, keeping unsuspecting humans away.

This is what cold feet feel like.

“Are you sure Princess Violet and Princess Kai are down there?” I ask.

Out of all the mermaids running around Coney Island, Gwen singled out these two. Kai’s father is Keeper of Records and Violet’s father is one of seven council members.

The last couple of days, I’ve trusted my gut instincts. And my gut is telling me that Violet is going to try to eat me like Sarabell. Then again, everyone says your gut, your heart, and your mind have different agendas. My heart says, “Go find Layla and finish that kiss,” because never in my expert years of kissing has a girl kissed me that way. My mind, which sounds too much like Coach Bellini, says, “Get it done, boy. You’re on the right track. Just get it done.”

“They love it down there,” Gwen says, knocking once on the door. “When Toliss comes to shore, it’s the only time we get to see other creatures. Mermen get so boring after a while.”

Kurt and I exchange glances.

“Not you two, of course.” There’s the knock-back and she steps right through the portal.

Kurt and I follow, shivering through the cold door. The girl at the front podium is different from the last time. She’s blond and very human. She smells like candied apples and copper. Her fake wings are doused in glitter and she takes my money. A red-haired giant of a dude lets us in through the second entrance.

Twinkling balls of light cling to the ceiling. Some of them stray away and over to around the long strip of bar. The music is loud and robotic, like the bald guy at the DJ podium is playing a video game instead of music. But everyone shakes their wings, pumps their claws, and sways according to the untzuntzuntz of it all.

I try to look for Marty and Frederik. Hell, I’d even take Rachel and her trigger-happy crossbow just to see a familiar face.

“She’s in the VIP lounge,” Gwen shouts in my ear. “I’ll go bring us some drinks.”

When I turn around, Gwen and Kurt are gone. I’m sandwiched between two elf-looking dudes with glittering skin, who are twirling light sticks between their fingers. I squeeze past and bump into a vampire chick whose deep black eyes make me cold inside despite the inviting perfection of her face. Deep down, I know it’s a trick. That’s she’s dead and her yellow fangs would rip out my throat in a heartbeat. I push past her harder than I mean to until I break through into the less-crowded VIP section.

I spot the princesses draped around guys in black leather with tattoos and long hair that smells like grass and dirt and fur. Princess Kai is the easiest to spot with her shimmering long blond hair. She squeezes into the corner of a plush, scarlet couch, trying to push a guy’s hand off her thigh. I step toward them to help, but she gets up and goes down a dark hallway.

I realize I’m standing right beside Princess Violet. Her smile is forced, almost pained, when she sees me, like I’m holding her at gunpoint.

“Hey.” I can’t even hear myself say it. The electronic song vibrates over everything.

She looks over my shoulder at the crowd, scanning and scanning. I can practically feel the breath she’s holding.

“So…” I start.

“Where’s Kurtomathetis?”

I don’t think I’ve heard her right, so I lean in across the table and shout. “What?”

“Your guardian!” She scratches her head nervously. “I thought I saw him enter with you and Gwenivere!”

I’m not exactly hurt, but maybe yeah. I think I’m hurt. It’s like the time Angelo went out with this girl just so he could hook up with her hot sister. I feel like that girl and Kurt is her hot sister.

It’s the lowest low. So I smile and turn around. I don’t need this. When Kurt and Gwen come back, they can deal with Violet and her purple hair, which isn’t even as amazing as everyone says it is. I weave through the undulating crowd as if I’m getting carried by a wave. Someone bumps into me from behind, a real hard shove. I turn around, ready to fight.

But it’s Princess Kai. Her powder blue eyes are wide as saucers, a hand over her mouth in an extremely familiar way.

“Wait—no—”

She hiccups and lurches forward, vomiting all over my feet.

The crowd splits around us, forming a neat path to the exit.

“Lord Sea.” She keeps hands over her mouth.

“Come,” I take her by the hand and lead the way. Kai hesitates before pushing out the silver door. “Shhh. Don’t worry.”

And we reappear on the Coney Island street.





We clean ourselves at the shower stations on the beach.

Out in the distance, the grayness cloaks the sky. Unwillingly, I flash back to the day the storm appeared. The sky changed. The wave came. And then I was inside out.

“I’m so humiliated.” Kai drops onto the sand. Her clothes are wet and her face is red from scrubbing. “I hate it here.”

“What are you talking about?” I hand her a piece of gum that was squished in the bottom of my backpack. At least it’s minty. “This is the best place on earth…when you’re not getting messed up at a supernatural bar and barfing on people.”

Her voice is high pitched but she laughs all the same. “You clearly haven’t been to many places.”

“That’s true, but no matter what, Coney is still my favorite place.”

Her face is skeptical so I ask, “What’s your favorite place, then?”

“The Hall of Records.” She licks her lips. “My father’s an elder of the court. A historian. I’m supposed to be his apprentice, but he wants me to be here and—”

She doesn’t let herself finish the sentence. I’ve never been around so many girls who find me this repulsive. I’m almost humbled, except I’m pretty sure they’re the crazy ones.

“Your dad wants you to court a champion?” I say it as suggestively as I can because I like the way she blushes, from the tip of her chin to her big blue eyes. My gut, my heart, and my mind seem to be cooperating. I wonder if it’s not having the pressure of Gwen and Kurt breathing down my neck. Then again, when I was captain of the swim team, I ate pressure for breakfast.

She gets up and dusts sand off her butt. “I didn’t think it’d be so exhausting.”

“What? Talking to me?”

She smiles. “No. Being with those girls. I’ve seen better behaved piranha. I told them I don’t like that fizzy stuff but they get nasty so I drank it and it made me sick—on you. I was trying to find a basin to wash my hands. Everything in that place was covered in slime. And when I opened a door, I saw Menana doing something—let’s just say that her father, King of the Rockies, would find a way to kill that demigod. So I turned and ran right out. Why are you laughing at me?”

“It’s not you.” I take my empty soda bottle and dunk it in the closest garbage can. “It’s all of this. Everyone is acting crazy and they use this championship as an excuse, you know?”

“I suppose so.”

“Come on. I’m going to prove to you that this is the best place on earth.” I hold out my hand to her, and to both of our surprise, she takes it.

•••

I get two tickets to the Wonder Wheel. The thing makes all kinds of creaky noises that let the fear of falling linger in the back of your head. But once you’re up, you can see the whole park, the black line of the horizon, and the winking Brooklyn streets.

Kai twirls her hair and glances at me every now and then, like she’s never been alone with a guy before. Her powder blue eyes remind me of those Precious Moments figurines you get at communion parties. When Layla had hers, Mrs. Santos bought about a hundred of them, all depicting a little girl in a white dress with doe eyes staring up to heaven. Layla drew a mustache and little devil horns on half of them, which got us both in trouble even though I didn’t do anything. Even now, as our car climbs the Brooklyn sky, my thoughts come back to Layla. Kissing against the locker. Her hands—

“I’m not used to heights,” Kai says, scooting closer to me on the cold metal seat. “My father said if the gods had intended us to fly, they would have given us wings instead of tails.”

I put on my best reassuring smile. “This thing looks old, but I’ve seen two guys the size of boulders get on it without falling.”

She takes in the new sights and sounds as we get higher and higher. I wish I’d bought her cotton candy or some strawberry-sugared popcorn. The thing about me is that I love making girls happy. There are just so many of them that I never know where to start. Plus, Kai is sweet and isn’t trying to eat me.

“You said your dad’s a historian?”

Her eyes brighten. “He’s quite famous actually. He’s the eldest of the elder historians, which sounds funny but it’s a great accomplishment to have served under two sea kings. Three, once the championship is over. I’ve grown up cataloging and organizing scrolls my whole life. He’s forced me to come here. Thinks now that Brendan’s champion, I have to do it for the family.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of that going around.” I hook my finger on the side of the car and lean my head back. Below us, some girls in the swinging car shriek at the top of their lungs. Kai looks horrified, and I’m glad I opted for the stationary seats. “How are you related to Brendan?”

“I’m his aunt.”

Just that sentence makes me retract the arm that I’ve slung around her shoulder. “I don’t think I’ll get used to this age thing. You look sixteen.”

She seems relieved that I’ve put a little space between us. “My brother is the herald of the North. I’m the youngest at forty.”

“I guess you and I are related by marriage, then? Brendan’s mother is my aunt. Never met her, though.”

“I’ve read all about your mother, Lady Maia!” She laughs giddily. “Bit scandalous when it happened. Even more than Lady Maristella eloping with my brother, a lowly scroll keeper. My brother wasn’t herald of the North yet when that happened. He had to fight for that title.”

“So you’re a lady of court who really wants to be a scroll keeper? Are there rules against that?”

She doesn’t laugh at my ignorance, which is nice. “Our people are changing slowly. A thousand years ago, merfolk with magic couldn’t marry into the court families. They were sent away. Our stations have changed, but slowly as does everything we do.”

“No wonder Sarabell’s having such a hard time finding a husband.” I almost feel bad for her.

The breeze around us picks up, and a thin fog comes in with the sunset. There’s a strange horn blasting in the distance. I wonder if that means more accidents.

“It seems to me that mer-people aren’t that different from people-people. Everyone just wants to be on top of any kind of pyramid.”

“I don’t think you’d be that kind of king.”

“I’m not even sure what kind of anything I am lately.”

She offers me a smile. “Had I…done that”—she can’t bring herself to say vomit—“to Adaro, I’d be missing a head right about now. No, you’ll make a just king.”

She sounds so sure when she says it that now I feel sheepish. If Kai believes in me, then maybe she can help us figure out how to get to Eternity.

“I mean, I feel like I’m at a disadvantage in all of this. I wasn’t raised on the island, and up until a few days ago, all I did was swim and hang out with my friends. Now, all of a sudden, I have a piece of the trident and I’m carrying around a dagger in my backpack that would get me locked up—sorry. I shouldn’t be dumping this all on you. I mean, if you’re going to help anyone, it’s going to be Brendan.”

“Really, Tristan?” A surprising laugh comes from deep in her belly. She dabs at a tear falling from her long, fringy eyelashes. I can tell she digs me even if it’s just in a friendship kind of way. “First of all, if you’ve met Brendan, you know he isn’t taking the championship seriously. He’s always had the heart of an adventurer—not a king. My father blames it on the fact that he’s read too many of our scrolls depicting pirates and ladies in towers and islands full of treasures. Even among our kind, we take pleasure in new worlds. It’s why we travel on Toliss.”

“He can’t blame the books,” I say. “You’ve probably read the same ones and aren’t off looking for the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.”

“I’ve also read enough that makes me want to stay hidden away in my family’s caves.” Her smile falters. “There’s a lot more in the sea to be wary of than on land. Don’t you feel you’d be safer if you kept to your human life? I don’t mean to put doubt in your mind. I really, really do believe you’re brave. You’ve got the heart of the heroes I’ve only read about.”

“You’re going to make me blush.” And I do. I feel the heat and confidence flooding back to me.

“I’m going to tell you this.” Her eyes flit from side to side like she’s feeding me answers of our history final. “From the last tournament I read about, the champions didn’t hunt the oracles. The sisters are secretive, even for our kind. It’s almost cruel the things they can do. Don’t make them any promises. It always backfires. I read about one champion who was asked for his heart in exchange for the Trident of the Skies. He agreed and then she ripped out his heart.”

My own heart clenches when she says this. I rub my chest. “That’s pretty harsh.”

“The oracles are harsh. Their duty was supposed to be to interpret the word of the gods. Now, I don’t know. They’ve always been a mystery. I know the king only calls on them when important war decisions have to be made. I’ve never met one. You’ve met at least one.”

“Shelly’s cool. She hasn’t got any voodoo or whatever.” I don’t want to talk about the nautilus maid or the terrible thing I promised to do.

“She must be the youngest.” Kai bites her lip. I can tell the oracles are as much a mystery to her as they are to me.

“You called it the Trident of the Skies?”

She shakes her head and takes on a new air—the confidence that comes with everything she knows. “Our people aren’t exactly spending their eternity reading, which is a shame. Once the trident was pieced together, no one seemed to care what the separate pieces were called since its power is strongest as a whole.

“The quartz piece is called the Scepter of the Earth. Quartz is the most common mineral in the world, but this kind is ancient, from the deepest depths of the earth. Poseidon was called ‘earthshaker,’ and one legend says he shook the earth so hard that a great mine of quartz opened up for us to use in making weapons.

“The staff is the Staff of Endlessness. The symbols etched on it were burned with the blood of the oracles that forged it. Even if you’re a regular witch, it magnifies your powers. But for most, it’s really best to give someone a beating with. The trident tip is simply Trident of the Skies. It pulls on all the elements to create thunder and lightning and whirlpools. When I was little, it was always my favorite part of the whole trident.”

“Scepter of the Earth.” I enunciate it in different voices—voiceover hero, evil villain, even a badass Russian accent. It all sounds kind of silly but I like the sound of it, strong and powerful and, most importantly, mine.

Bonus points: I make serious, bookish Kai laugh. It’s a lovely sound until it’s followed by a scream.

We’re halfway back down to the ground when something bangs into our car and we fly back against the hard metal door. There is nothing like getting crushed by your own backpack full of weapons to end a date. Kai grabs on to me, and even though I want to make her feel safe, I need to see what the hell is happening. The bang leaves a shapeless dent where our door should be. I try to pull it open but the metal is warped and the lock is stuck.

“Come on!” I rattle it with my hands. “One time I saw a guy climb out of these things when it was stuck.”

“I thought you said this was safe!”

“I said it could hold our weight! I never said anything about safety.”

Kai gives me a good shove, which I guess I deserve. Then again, I can’t control external forces, now can I?

Down below, the crowds are mob-like, running out of the park. The other cars on the Wonder Wheel are in full panic, their occupants screaming and trying to punch their way out. The shaky technicians let out the people closer to the ground.

A screech echoes through the park. It fills the air in a swoosh. I unzip my backpack with sure fingers.

“Did you see it?” I ask her.

The ride jolts, like the lever is hitting stop and go at random. There’s one guy left manning the station, because the others are running the hell away.

Kai isn’t freaking, though. Why isn’t she freaking out? Instead, when she sees my dagger in hand, her eyes go wide and she smiles. “Triton’s dagger! I’ve never seen it so close. I have a profound affinity for ancient swords.”

“It’s always the quiet ones,” I say. My dagger makes a terrible scratchy noise as I try to cut our way out. There’s another bang! The Wonder Wheel strains against the pressure, and for a heartbeat, we fall. A shadow flies over us. Our car swings. We’re not supposed to swing. I paid for the stationary seats. But our car swings back and creaks and screeches, and I know we’re breaking away from the rest of the rise.

I shut my eyes hard. “Please tell me I’m not seeing what I’m seeing.”

Kai gasps, elated. “Oh my goddess!”

“Don’t. Move.”

She takes a step forward toward the shadow perching at the center of the Wonder Wheel and ready to pounce on us. “It’s a sea dragon.”

“Okay, so that wasn’t going to be my first guess. I was going to go with flying dinosaur of unusually small size.”

“I’ve never seen one before.” Her eyes are like mirror balls, spinning at the creature.

In the catalog of my childhood storytelling, I always pictured dragons to be the size of Godzilla. This thing is iridescent blue and green, hard and slick at the same time. It huffs into the air and takes off again, undulating through the sky. A row of ridges starts at the dragon’s neck, like a Mohawk, and gets smaller and smaller toward the tip of its tail. The head is what surprises me the most. The sea dragon’s face is soft with eyes that shine golden and glossy, even in the diminishing lights of the park. Until the creature opens its mouth to growl.

“Well, it doesn’t seem to like us, so I say we get out of here.” I stab the door. The blade slides through the metal with some resistance, but there’s good give and I shout, “Stand back!” The lock on the door opens with my second strike. I kick hard, and the door falls and slams into the cement ground, just missing a group of kids running away.

It’s probably not a good time to tell Kai that I’m not a fan of heights either. I stare at the open space below. It’s not that far, but landing without a cushion will hurt.

“You’re not saying we jump?”

“Unless you’ve got a magic portal to get us out of here, the only way is down.”

For a moment, the sea dragon vanishes into a patch of thick fog before making a circle toward us. This close, I can see the barnacles growing around the pink slits of his gills. Of course. All the princesses and pirates and evil sea witches want a piece of me. Why wouldn’t some nearly extinct dinosaur want in on it? I ready my dagger to stab at it, but Kai pushes my hand away.

“Don’t hurt it!”

“It’s trying to eat us!”

The sea dragon bangs into our car once again. We tumble back in. The metal hinges creak and finally break apart. Kai falls into me and holds on. I hold on to her with one hand and my dagger with the other, but we never hit the ground. Talons break through the ceiling to clutch the car, and the dragon starts to fly away with us.

“I think we’re too heavy!” I shout, not at Kai but at the dragon.

It struggles to fly while holding us. We’re barely skimming above the ground, and if he dips below a foot or two, we’re going to ram straight into the carousel. I let go of Kai and ready my dagger to take another stab at the sea dragon.

“No!” Kai yells, pulling me away. “Tristan, please!”

“Kai! I don’t care. I’m trying to protect us.”

The beast screams. I didn’t touch it but it screams and releases us. I get that familiar tickle in my stomach as we fall like a rock straight into the large seat of the teacup ride. We lurch forward as the car hits the ground. Kai is injured. The dagger’s cut her arm. The skin is singed where the blade touched her.

Blaring sirens wake me up. When I move, my shoulder is burning up. I’m nauseated and dizzy, and there’s a pulsing in my head.

“Hurry,” a strange voice tells me. He’s poking me with a stick. Holds out his hand. My first thought should be to smack his hand away with his own stick. Instead I wonder: Why is Salvador Dali wearing a pink tie? That’s the thing with concussions. But he’s real and he says, “Hurry now!”

I shield my eyes against the light that creates a halo around him and take his hand.

Then voices around me tell me not to move and that help is coming soon. They wonder if it’s a terrorist attack. They scream about the apocalypse. They say it’s the thing killing all those boys. Sirens are whooping nearby.

Salvador Dali catches me as I wobble forward and says, “Quickly, before the paramedics want to get their hands on you.”

That sobers me right up, and I fight through the pain in my shoulder. I find my dagger, sling on my backpack, and take my princess by the hand. “Kai, are you okay?”

She nods, holding her arm where the skin is burnt and bleeding. Her first step is a limp that nearly sends her to the ground.

“Carry on, young prince,” Salvador Dali says.

I sling Kai around my shoulder. We push past the throng of people that encircled us after the fall. We run down the ramp and cut through a passageway I’ve never seen before. We come out on the side of the sideshow by the seashore entrance. And there, as we enter through a red curtain into a dark corridor, Princess Kai sighs and faints in my arms.