The Savage Blue

After I leave Layla, I head home.

My temples pulse. A whisper fills my head. I don’t know how I quite make it to my bed. Exhaustion blankets me like fog. When I close my eyes, I’m in water.

It’s a cave made of smooth, bright-white stone. Skinny red and black plants sprout from thin cracks in the sparkling walls like bloody membranes.

When I see her, I jump back and hit the wall, hear the crunch of my skull.

Nieve, pale as snow and as skinny as when I saw her the first time, is resting on a bench carved into the wall. Her silver scales gleam, and her cold blue mouth is slightly open, tiny bubbles coming in and out.

Around me, the water turns pink with my blood. It trails across the cave to where the silver mermaid is sleeping. She sniffs at the air and rouses. A thin blanket-like thing falls off her shoulders and onto the floor. Her eyes flutter open. She smiles when she sees me; the sight of her shark mouth pulls at my gut. I can’t move.

She tucks her hair back. The motion is slow, pained. She’s weak, skinnier than ever. But still with the face of a goddess—the refined cheekbones, the sharp slope of her nose, the silver eyes fringed with long blue lashes. Her mouth is a blue pout. Then she opens her mouth at the cloud of blood. She tastes it. Swallows it.

“You’re so gross,” I say before I can stop myself.

“You came.”

“I wasn’t trying to.”

Nieve moves forward off her bench. She starts to sink to the floor and has to kick extra hard. It’s too much for her, and she falls on her knees right in front of me. She undoes the button of my shorts. They’re the same ones I went to sleep in. Yep. I’m dreaming. I don’t remember sleepwalking. I was asleep somewhere in my house. Probably beside Kurt.

She moves her hands over my chest and makes a parting motion. My T-shirt rips away. The cloth floats to the ground.

I have this terrible image of her biting into my ribs and tearing me apart so I say, “That was my favorite shirt.”

“I’m not going to hurt you.” She cocks her head. “Unless you ask.”

“I’m pretty sure I won’t ask.” I’m convinced this is a dream. A gross, twisted dream. I need to wake up right now.

“Why don’t you shift, Tristan? I hate seeing you in these human clothes.” Before she can get a little too close to my goods, I do as she says. There go my shorts.

“Are you going to let go of me now?”

When she doesn’t bare her teeth, she’s incredibly beautiful. Hard to believe she’s a monster. She does that thing with her hands again and the invisible force holding me goes away. She swims back, away from me and onto her bench.

“How did I get here? Where is this place?” I reach at my side and come away empty. What I wouldn’t do for my dagger.

“This place is very dear to me. It is where I go when I’m weak. This very moment, my son is bringing me something special. Something to make me strong. The way I was before my brother put me away. You do look like him, in your own way.”

“You made Archer kill the oracle.”

She shakes her head softly. “The oracles killed themselves, wicked, tricky devils that they are.”

I hate the pressure of her on me. It’s worse than struggling against the currents. “You won’t win, you know.”

“I already have.” She doesn’t smile. “My brother has broken the seas. He started this many years ago. I intend to make it right. We will put the seas back together.”

“How generous of you. It’ll make up for all the people you’ve killed.”

“I didn’t kill you.” She undulates like an eel until her face is right over mine. “Don’t you remember the wave, Tristan?”

I wish she’d stop saying my name. “How could I forget?” I thought I’d gone insane, floating underwater until I saw her in her silver splendor. She cut me with her fingernails. Then the shark attacked her and carried me away.

“I wanted to see your heart. So I lured you. And you came after me so willingly, not even stopping to think that it might not be real.

“The first time I held you was the first time since your birth that you shifted into your true self. I knew who you were just as I knew they were searching for you, my brother’s heir. I wanted to kill you.”

I remember the trace of her nails, the jagged edges cutting across my chest.

“Then I tasted your blood. Blood can tell you so much about a being. It is life. It is your past and future. In it, I could see exactly how invaluable you were to me. I’ve lived so long, and my future is linked to a boy. Funny, aren’t they?”

“Who?”

“The fates.”

I swallow hard. “And how exactly am I invaluable to you?”

“Because we could be great together.”

“You’re a killer.” I hate the way I sound, like a scared, dumb kid.

“You will be one too. Just because you killed a merrow, my child, does that make you better?” She tsktsktsks at me. “What will you do when you have to drive your sword through one of our kind to keep the peace of your new broken kingdom?”

“Shut up.”

“Do you know what happens when you’re alone for ages?” She squeezes my face with her hands, forcing me to look straight at her. The white of her eyes. The blue of her eyelids. “Do you? The pitchblackness of the Caves of Tartarus. The creatures that live there, caged like beasts when far worse lies in my brother’s own court. Whimsical, he is, sitting on a throne that should’ve been mine, entertaining half breeds and stripping our own to pacify beings far beneath us.” She coughs, clutching herself as if there is not enough water or oxygen down here. “I don’t mean you. You’re special.”

She flicks her hand at me again and I’m paralyzed once more. I pull against a force that weighs me down until it pulls me to the ground. Red plants sprout from the ground and weave all over me. Everywhere except my face. She swims slowly, cutting through the water with the elegance of a shark. She props her elbows on my chest, her tail right on top of mine.

“My sons will be here soon. I will drink from Eternity and I will be strong again.” She puts a finger to my lips. My tongue is heavy and fat in my mouth. I can only grunt in protest. “You will see that the only way to keep your loved ones safe is to be with me.”

I want to scream but my voice is gone.

My lips are numb.

She traces the length of my cheek and whispers, “Soon…”

She lowers herself with her mouth slightly open, coming down for a kiss.





The blast of a horn wakes me up.

Kurt is standing over me.

I roll over and realize I’m naked again. “Stop doing that, creep.”

He’s jittery and the energy crackling around him is frantic.

“Get dressed,” he says. “Something’s happened.”

I throw on a pair of shorts off the floor and a T-shirt that smells vaguely clean, and we’re out of the room and into the kitchen.

Layla’s drawing a black X over Tuesday on the wall calendar. When she sees me, she smiles. I finger-comb my bed head before kissing her cheek. The tiles are cold under my feet.

“Where are my parents?”

“Doctor,” Layla says. “Everything is fine with the baby, but it’s her first time going. She’s so scared.”

I splash water over my face in the kitchen sink and use a paper towel to dry off. The last thing I remember is Nieve’s blue lips coming down on me. Why does everyone try to kiss me? There should be rules against that.

“Kurt, spit it out. You guys are freaking me.”

Layla opens the window, letting the cool air out and the warmth of the overcast day in. Curry, sea air, and smoke—the neighborhood smells waft in with something else. The horn blast. “What is that?” A thin strand of lightning crackles on the horizon. “Adaro,” Kurt says. “He’s here.”

I whip around. “Like here, here? Coney Island here?” “That’s what the call is,” Kurt says. “This place is too noisy. I didn’t think it could be one of our calls. There are too many sirens in this place.”

“But why is he here?”

“He’s requesting an audience with you.” Kurt takes his arm knife and checks the blade. “It seems he’s acquired the center staff of the trident.”

The front door cracks open and we jump, even Kurt. “It’s just me,” Thalia says.

Kurt’s voice is like thunder. “Where have you been?” Thalia’s face is hard, greener than usual. She ignores her brother and runs right up to me, pointing at my chest. “You’re bleeding.” When I look down, beads of blood bloom through the white of my shirt. I take it off and rinse it in the sink, then clean the wound. “I want to show you guys something.”

I go into my backpack and bring out the water bottle. “Gatorade has a new flavor?” Layla laughs unevenly. I pour just a single drop on the cut. The skin grows back, stitching itself back together. “The effect doesn’t last long. It’s from the springs…which are now gone.” I retell them about the Hall of Records, the channels, and the springs. Even though Layla only heard it hours ago, she still nods along enraptured until I get to the dream of Nieve when they all share a grimace.

Thalia takes the plastic bottle in her hand. “To think, eons are reduced to this container.”

“I want you guys to drink it.”

They stare.

“Why?” Kurt asks.

“Nieve.” Even saying her name makes my tongue feel like lead. “She’s more than just an angry mermaid with a grudge. She wants to be queen. When Archer brings her the spring water, she’ll be strong. She can make more merrows.” I think of Adaro waiting for me out on the beach. I punch the wall.

“Now she needs the trident and we’re making it easy for her. Two of the pieces are right here. Me and Adaro. She can march up the shore with her mutant mermen and pick us off. To prevent that, we have to do a few things. Step one is you all have to drink this.”

“What about you?” Layla asks.

“Don’t worry about me.”

“What the hell do you mean?” She follows me to the window and gets in my face. “I have this necklace. I—”

“What if it’s not enough?”

“Tristan, all of us know the risks,” Kurt says. “We’re still here.”

The conch horn blasts again.

“What the hell is up with this guy?” I ask. Come to think of it, that horn’s been blasting since we got back on Monday. Sarabell knew he was here when she came up to me at Luna Park, when we were out on our date. I feel so used.

Thalia shrugs, setting the water bottle on the table. “If we were on his land near the Galapagos, he would have to return the favor.”

“What, I go to him and make nice?” Then I think of the army I need to form. Having Adaro as a temporary ally wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. “The last time we heard of him, we had just missed him at the Vanishing Cove. Now he has the Staff of the Seas. Why hasn’t he made himself known until now?”

Kurt buckles his sheath around his waist. “That’s precisely what we are going to find out.”





A few weeks ago, on a day like this, I would’ve been sitting on the lifeguard tower. I would be in my uniform—an orange Speedo with orange trunks over that, which is the least flattering color on anyone who isn’t a lifeguard. The circumference of towels below would be full of girls baking in the sun, each asking stupid questions like, Hey, Mr. Lifeguard, if I drown, will you give me CPR? I’d even be playing along.

Today I’m on a political mission with Kurt as my ambassador. Hell, before they explained it to me, I wasn’t sure what an ambassador actually did. It helps having the girls along. Thalia said a champion shouldn’t go anywhere without an entourage. I guess this is the closest I’ll ever get to feeling like a rock star.

“Don’t pout,” Thalia whispers to me.

“I’m not pouting.” But I know I am. This is the way I felt when I lost my first meet—helpless and angry and stupid because I hated the idea that someone could be better than me. I press my hands on the waterproof nylon of my backpack as a reassurance that I am the king’s champion and I have the Scepter of the Earth. But then Adaro has the staff. We’re equals, and I have to make him see that.

“Hey, Tristan,” Layla says dryly. “I’ll bet you twenty bucks you can’t guess where on the beach Adaro is.”

“That seems like a perfect waste of bucks,” Kurt says.

“How come I didn’t get a celebration tent?”

They laugh, stepping off the boardwalk and onto the sand. Amid the early beachgoers setting up camp with towels and blankets stained in the wash, Adaro’s celebratory tent is glaring. All silks and shimmering threads, the canopy shields him and his entourage from the gray brightness of the day.

Kurt pulls me back, suddenly apprehensive. “Let me introduce you.”

“I’ve already been introduced! Remember that big ceremony on Toliss with the introductions?”

He ignores me, stepping right in front of Adaro’s makeshift court. He holds his hands at his back and bows his head with a smile. I don’t want him to bow to anyone.

“Hello there!” Adaro says. “What a pleasant surprise.”

“Hard to ignore all the conch-blowing action,” I say, eliciting a nudge from Thalia.

“Adaro, son of Leomaris and champion of the Southern Seas,” Kurt flourishes in my direction. “I present to you Tristan Hart, son of David Hart and champion of King Karanos.”

Freaking Adaro with his shiny golden staff and wind-tossed black hair. The white of his teeth is blinding against his cinnamon skin. He’s loud and maybe a little drunk. He’s in full human mode, though right at his ankles are a leftover spattering of red and yellow scales. I realize they’re there on purpose, letting him wave his family colors like a flag. So I let my blue scales surface on my wrists.

He sits up, sloshing white slushie down his chest and abs, and soaking the hem of his golden Speedo.

I start cough-laughing and Kurt gives me a few good smacks.

“I didn’t peg you for a piña colada kind of guy,” I say.

“It’s a piña colada kind of day!”

“Here we go,” Layla mutters behind me. Despite the tension in her body, she keeps her chin up.

“It’s wonderful to see you!” Adaro opens his arms wide toward me. Does he expect me to hug him? He pulls me into a bear hug, lifting me way off the ground, then kissing me on each cheek. He looks Thalia and Layla up and down with drunk golden eyes and kisses the back of their hands. Then, looking down the beach, he does a double take. Gwen in a long, white dress, stark against the grayness of the beach.

“I didn’t realize Princess Gwenivere was here,” Adaro whispers, patting my back too long.

Her eyes twinkle the closer she gets, and she smiles, letting me take her hand for a kiss. I hope she’s not still mad about this morning. She bows to Adaro, offering congratulations, before joining the others in the tent. Adaro drinks his piña colada faster. “Is it getting warm here?”

A mermaid close to him draws out a fan and starts batting it at him.

“Please, sit!” Adaro gestures to his makeshift court. “Make room for our welcome guests.”

Every princess, except for Sarabell, does as she’s asked. They trade wicked glances, like they hope any moment Adaro and I will just start going at it. Right, court politics. It’s not like I haven’t played this game before. Angelo calls them “faux bros.” Guys from other swim teams that we hang out with even though they’re our competition.

“I must tell you,” Adaro says, taking a tiger-shell plate of oysters and passing them down my way. “I’m not much for cold seas, but this shore is rather charming. It’s like a parade of foot-fins! Look, look at that one!”

A jogger passes by. He’s muscular and has a lion tattooed over his chest. He lowers his sunglasses to get a better look at us but doesn’t stop. I catch Sarabell gazing after him, and when she sees me staring, she scoots away from me as if my very presence offends her.

“I should be congratulating you.” I try to match his enthusiasm, but it’s hard to keep up with.

“And I you.” His golden eyes are happy and wet. He combs his hair back coolly and opens his mouth, accepting the golden grape Princess Violet of the loveliest purple hair feeds him.

I lean over to Kurt and whisper, “She got over you really quickly.”

I don’t give him time to react. I lean forward to Adaro and ask, “So what’s the story, man?”

“The story?”

“Yep, the story.” I take the tray from Sarabell, despite the nagging looks from Kurt and Gwen as I do so, and suck down an oyster. The salt wakens up my taste buds, and the meat is tender so I take another. “Every adventure comes with a story.”

Gwen leans back and says, “Everyone knows how Tristan found the quartz piece.”

Sarabell eyes me. “Yes, the youngest sightless oracle deemed you worthy.”

My eye twitches when she says that, but I keep my smile frozen.

“Tell it, Addie,” Violet says. Her voice is like pressing the belly of a doll that sings back to you.

Addie, I mouth to the bronze merman, who doesn’t like his girlfriend’s nickname coming from me.

“Sit back, cousin. I will tell it,” says Sarabell. She stands with her back to the water. Her skirts are the color of sunset, the material sheer and threaded with gold. It has the effect of a great flame. Her smile is wicked, marring the smooth, chiseled lines of her face. “Our family is descended from one of the original kings of the sea, Ellanos—he carried the staff. Wielded it to shape the caves beneath the sea, the hidden places where we would seek shelter. It seems fitting that it would fall into our family again.”

Layla moves closer and leans against my chest. The look I get from Gwen brings a memory flash of her trying to kiss me. Even when her lips hovered, it didn’t feel right. Cold. So cold compared to Layla. My heart is running laps, and Layla is looking up at me, pressing her hands right over it. She whispers, “Relax.” “Where was she?” Thalia asks. “The oracle.”

This time it’s Adaro’s turn to shine. “She was in plain sight. In the tunnels beneath the Glass Castle.”

Somewhere in my memory of the crash course Mer History 101, I remember them mentioning the Glass Castle.

“For the foot-fins, I’ll clarify,” Sarabell says to me. “It’s the most wondrous of our homes. Our home beneath the sea. Far lovelier than Toliss. Our most prized kin live there—the keepers of our histories, our musicians who train for court, even our guard and the bigger armory.

“When the Glass Castle was destroyed in the first war with the fey thousands of years ago, its destruction was devastating. But we pulled through. We always do. Kurtomathetis and Thalia’s parents helped rebuilt it the second time.”

“Hold up,” I say. “This thing was destroyed twice?”

The mermaids and merdudes nod sadly. Thalia says, “We were forced deeper and deeper by our enemies. The first time by the land fey. The second time during our civil war.” She says “civil war” like it’s made of glass itself. I wonder where Adaro’s family stood in all of this.

“If you would,” Sarabell says. “Now it stands stronger as a fortress instead, the Glass Castle, more beautiful than ever. Am I not correct, Kurtomathetis? You would come over to our wing and play. So little you were, always in a corner with your scrolls and tablets, the odd one of your bunch.”

Kurt’s jaw tightens. I don’t like the way she says this. Some of the girls trade glares. What did I miss? Might as well be at the school cafeteria.

“Maybe one day, you’ll visit.” Adaro tells me. As much as I’m trying to not like him, to put him on my shit list for being a natural rival, I can’t. He’s kind of a cool guy. He’s kind of like me.

“How did you find her?” I ask.

He looks up to the drifting clouds playing hide-and-seek with the sun. “She came to me in a dream…I couldn’t see her face but she whispered my name. It echoed in the halls of the castle. My father told me I was mad. He swears on augurs, but they led us nowhere, and after the third night of the same dream, I knew to trust myself. I swam beneath the castle, where the last circle of dragons is said to be kept. Only, it was empty. The dragons were gone, replaced by a ring of blue combat fire. As if the oracle wanted me—”

“Dragons,” I repeat. “The sea dragons were gone?”

“It is what he said,” Sarabell snips.

Behind her, Gwen shakes her head from side to side. She presses the top of her finger to her coral lips.

“Sorry,” I go, “bad ear.”

“The fire was a mirage. So I swam through the tunnel, so deep I thought my insides would burst. That’s when they came. They were shadows at first, slithering around my arms and my tail until they were solid black vines. We use those for prisoners.”

Thinking of the black vines that bind Arion to the ship, I say, “I know.”

“The vines pulled me in different directions. It was the most painful moment of my life. All I could think of was my limbs ripping right off clean.”

“How did you fight it?” Kurt asks for me. He can tell I don’t want to sound eager. In a way, I don’t want to know. Could I have done it? Could I have found that oracle without my friends? The only one who comes to me in my dreams is Nieve. No oracles, and I can’t help but wonder.

“I didn’t. It released me. I could barely stay afloat. There was a deep grumble and the ground moved. It took all my strength to swim into the tunnel. The ground kept moving. Not until the wall closed behind me did I realize I was inside a giant eel. I was too big and it was choking on me. With the little strength I had left, I picked up my sword and cut myself out.

“There she was before me, the oracle. What happened then, I will not say.” He holds the Staff of Eternity in a powerful fist. The symbols etched all along the shaft are the same ones along the hilt of my scepter. “This is what matters now.”

“And now you’re here.”

“I know it’s too soon for celebrations,” Adaro says. “The trident head is—”

“Adaro!” Sarabell yells between gritted teeth.

He holds his hand up to her and she’s instantly quiet. “If I am to be on Tristan’s land—”

“Technically,” Layla says, “some of it belongs to the State of New York.”

Adaro offers her a tray of pink wiggly stuff. “I like you. I wish the rest of court were as funny as you!”

She reaches for the cube of jellyfish brain and knocks over a drink onto one of the princesses beside her. I pick up the glass and use my own T-shirt to dab at the princess’s dress by way of apology. Besides, it’s too hot to wear a T-shirt. The makeshift court shoots Layla dirty looks, like if I weren’t here, they’d drag her into the surf and drown her. I sit up a little straighter, wrapping my arm around over her shoulder, because no one looks at Layla like that.

Then Adaro gets stone faced, eyes shifting from side to side. I see a spark of fear, and I know his journey has been just as rocky as mine.

“Come,” I say, taking him by the arm, away from Sarabell’s prying eyes.

“Cousin,” she says, reaching out for his hand, and he pulls out, but Gwen makes her sit back down.

“Oh, leave them to their champion talk,” Gwen says. “Tell me, has anyone heard of the others?”

Note: Thank Gwen later.

Adaro and I walk down to the shoreline. This late in June, the water is still cold. It wraps around our ankles in frothy white bubbles, washing away the smallest trace of scales on our ankles.

“Is it true?” He squints and blocks the sun from his eyes. I’m trying to picture him as the sort of guy who’d set fire to Greg’s home, but I just can’t.

“You have to be a tiny bit more specific.”

“There have been whispers that the silver witch has escaped her prison.” He leans in closer, voice hushed. “That she’s alive?”

I bend down to scoop up some water and splash it on my face. The mention of Nieve makes my entire body hot. “Yes, Nieve is out there.”

It’s a physical reaction for him too. He’s shaking out his legs like he’s cramping up. “My father always said King Karanos should’ve killed her when he had the chance. Sarabell says this shore was attacked by full-grown merrows. That’s partly why I came.”

“What’s the other part?”

He looks back to the laughing girls. Gwen is telling some story and they’re all enraptured by her—the way her face shifts from emotions, the fluid movements of her delicate hands. Even Layla joins in. There’s something twitchy and nervous about Adaro. It’s not the booze and it’s not his fear of Nieve and merrows. He twirls the staff with expert fingers.

“I think we’re better in numbers,” he says. “We’re competitors, you and I, not enemies. Elias hasn’t surfaced since you two—and Dylan is way up north.”

“Brendan is south. Our ships passed each other, but he’s safe.”

“Good, good. My men are on my ship, ready if another such attack happens.”

“Adaro,” I say slowly, testing the waters of our camaraderie. “Have you been attacked by those creatures?”

He bites his lip. Then, as if his body is a balloon losing air, he holds on to my shoulder and presses his fist to his mouth. Really, I can’t stand someone else puking on me.

“I’m okay,” he says. “But I lost over a dozen of my guard. They were great mermen, all of them.”

Despite the strength of his body, when his amber eyes look at me, I find the fear, the helplessness. And I know, even though we’re fighting for the same throne, right now we need each other. I have to make him see that he needs me too.

“I think I can help,” I say. “Is there somewhere more private we can talk?”





Adaro’s ship is so elaborate that it makes Arion’s look like a cardboard box with sheets attached.

A giant eel, similar to the makara but with the head of an ancient lion, is etched into the mast. It has red jewels the size of my head for eyes, and the body is washed in gold, just like the mast. A red flag waves. There’s a golden octopus right at the center to match the medallion around Adaro’s neck.

When we reach the ship, I turn back and there it is: Coney Island. Adaro’s men hoist us up. Layla lets go of my shoulder and I let her go up first.

The deck is a flurry. Dozens and dozens of men swab the deck, tend to sails and ropes. A group of girls fuss over Adaro, dressing him in traditional merman armor—a chain-link skirt and an elaborate breastplate to befit his station. He purses his lips and I suspect it’s because he misses the golden Speedo.

He motions for us to follow him into his captain’s quarters, and then he takes a jar of a familiar fizzy green liquid and drinks deep. My crew—Kurt, Thalia, Gwen, and Layla—wander around, admiring everything from the massive candelabra with its long taper candles to the sailing trinkets strewn about his table.

Adaro only lets Sarabell remain.

The door bursts open and a tiny old man runs in. He surveys the room, stopping only to bow to me and Adaro.

“Sire, your father would not approve. This is the king’s champion.”

I smile. “Thanks.”

Adaro rolls his eyes as well as any teenage girl I’ve ever known. “I know very well who he is. See the quartz scepter tucked in the harness between his shoulder blades?”

“But—”

Adaro looks at his nails as though examining his cuticles. “You are dismissed.”

The man thunders back out, unceremoniously slamming the door.

“I think he’s right,” Sarabell says.

“Then you, Cousin, are welcome to leave.”

But she doesn’t. She makes sure the windows are all shut and there’s no one at the door. A slight burning smell is coming from a tiny hearth. The soot and cinders are slightly red with embers.

“It seems,” Adaro says, “that we have a mutual enemy.”

“Nieve,” I say, as he shudders at the name.

“Are you sure you’ve seen her?”

“A few times, actually.”

Adaro’s thick black eyebrow arcs suspiciously. “Then why are you still alive?”

“She thinks I’m cute,” I say, annoyed. Then I answer as honestly as I can. “She’s playing with me. It’s what she does, isn’t it?”

“How?” Sarabell asks.

“Gee, I don’t know, let me give her a conch call and see if she answers. The point is, she’s going to kill us for our trident pieces.”

Adaro and I pace the room, leaving our respective entourages dizzy. Adaro bites his cuticle and I tell them of the centaur oracle, leaving out some important details like the water of Eternity and the prophecy.

“The merrow who speaks killed an oracle?” Adaro sits down on his golden chair. He looks to Sarabell as if for guidance, and I realize this is his life. His father telling him what to do. These men reporting back to him. His family hovering around like vultures awaiting their return to power.

“The oracle in my dream,” he says. “She told me I would find what I was looking for here.”

“Adaro!” Sarabell hisses.

He squares his jaw and takes on the most commanding tone I’ve seen of him today. “If you are going to question my decisions, you are free to leave, as I already said. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

She sits back and crosses her arms.

It makes sense. The secrecy from Sarabell. Adaro’s shiftiness.

“You mean an oracle,” I say. “Here.”

“Another?” Kurt is incredulous.

“The other reason you’re here,” I point out.

Adaro laughs nervously, trying to maintain our friendship. “I think we’re stronger in numbers, don’t you?”

Yes, I do. That’s why I wanted to talk to him. But with this new information, it’s hard not to walk away and scour the city for the next oracle. The trident head. The centaur must have sent it to her sisters, which is why Adaro hasn’t found anything.

“This presents a new problem,” I say. “You and me, here. We each have our own winnings. This makes us targets. And now we’re on the same shore. The third trident piece means Nieve will come for us, faster and stronger.”

“What do you propose?” Adaro asks.

“Numbers, just like you suggested. Nieve has numbers. You have numbers.”

“It seems you’re the only one who doesn’t,” Sarabell says. “Have numbers, that is.”

I shake my head, keeping my face as even as that of Frederik, the High Vampire of New York. “I have people on this shore. The Thorne Hill Alliance is loyal to me. I just have to pick up a cell phone and they’ll help.”

It’s a lot to bluff. But like poker night with Shelly, I have to bet it all.

“Vampires? Werewolves?” Sarabell is about to scream. “The very fey who pushed us deeper into the earth? You would side with them?”

Thalia stands forward. “Don’t forget the landlocked.”

“The banished folk?” Adaro says, more thrilled than repulsed. “I’ve never met one, but if they’re willing to listen and die for my—our—lives, why ever not?”

Kurt interjects. “I doubt it’d be that simple.”

“You may be surprised, Brother.” Thalia says. “Perhaps you should speak to them before casting them aside.

“Let’s hear what they have to say,” I suggest. “Thalia, you know the way.”





We trek down the dark and foggy Brooklyn streets until we reach the kind of alley that gives this city a bad rep. Sarabell turns her nose up at the moldy couch where a family of rats is taking a nap. Adaro is fascinated by the graffiti. He sounds out all the letters and has a good laugh, followed by, “How charming.”

When Thalia finds the manhole she’s been looking for, I say, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

I volunteer to go down first and no one stops me. I regret wearing flip-flops the moment my feet hit the ground. The water is thick and slippery like chicken soup, which I now think I can never eat again. “Is it okay if I throw up on you?”

“This is nothing,” Kurt says. I can see the faint outline of his smile. “You’ve never swum near Biscay Bay.”

“Follow me,” Thalia says. Her yellow-green eyes glow like headlights down the sewer tunnels. Layla keeps her fingers hooked on the loops of my cargo shorts, and I keep my hand close to my dagger. I lose track of the turns, right and left, and another left, and straight on ’til morning. The rattle of the subway accompanies us the whole way until we reach an open door.

I blink hard against the fluorescent brightness of the room. When my eyes adjust, I realize there’s only one flickering fluorescent tube. The rest of the ceiling is covered with fat fireflies. A couple of them break away from their feeding frenzy and waddle through the air around us.

“They brush honey on the ceiling,” Thalia points out. “Otherwise they’d be flying all over the place.”

“So this is where you’ve been spending your time.” Kurt snatches a lightning bug from his ear and crushes it in his hand. He smears the green slime on his cargo shorts. She avoids Kurt’s stare and turns to me.

“Is this a bunker?” I ask.

The walls are lined with all kinds of books. There’s a small stage centered against the back with uneven rows of chairs facing it. Open cabinets are stuffed with boxes and cans of food. A dartboard and a pool table that look like they’ve had their last games take up a corner, beside a couch coming apart at the seams.

I feel a set of arms wrap around my leg.

“Tristan!” the little boy squeaks. It’s Timmy. I bend over and pick him up, patting the hard shell of his back.

“What’s up, little man?”

He shrugs in that exaggerated little kid way that makes all the girls smile, except for Sarabell, who looks like she’ll catch the plague from touching anything.

Penny isn’t far behind, hand in hand with her boyfriend, who I’ve only seen from afar. Little suction cups pop out at her wrists as if coming up for air. They’re both still wearing their aprons like they ran out in a hurry. She’s surprised to see me, but when she sees Adaro and Sarabell, she doesn’t seem happy.

I shake both of their hands and Penny asks, “What are you doing here?”

“We come to enlist your services,” Adaro says matter-of-factly.

I hold out my hands and say, “Actually, we want to talk.”

As the landlocked file in, some realize who we are and sneer in our direction. It reminds me of the time Gaston Guerrero threw the soccer game and everyone walked past him with looks of disgust. I feel like freaking Gaston Guerrero.

“Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea,” I whisper.

Layla and Thalia flank me.

“No, Tristan,” Thalia says, “this is perfect. They need to know what you have to say.”

Some are kinder than others. I recognize the man I gave my food to on the boardwalk and he gives me a smile. A few bored college-aged girls lift their sunglasses with blue webbed hands. One winks a big blue eye at me. Her friends elbow her and they break into giggles. Their lives seem pretty good to me.

There’s a man with a sallow face lit up by the lantern protruding from his head. It casts ghoulish shadows all over his features. There’s a man who takes up three seats that sink beneath his weight. He clears an entire section, running his hand over his face, trailing green mucus.

There’s even a guy in a suit who tosses his long, blond hair back every couple of seconds. He hesitates before sitting down and then gets the brilliant idea to place his newspaper on the seat.

These are the landlocked. I wonder what they’ve all done to get banished from the Sea Court. I can’t imagine any of them being all that powerful. Our presence has them all unnerved.

“Is that the son of the king?” someone whispers.

Another replies with, “That’s the grandson. The king only has daughters.”

The last person to walk in doesn’t even look around the room. He walks slowly, straight toward me, like he knew I was here even before he started weaving through the tunnels. His face, arms, and legs are all wire thin. His shoulder-length hair is bleached blond. The roots are black and greasy. He uses the cuff of his sleeve to wipe at his raw, red nose.

He holds his arms out, and at first I think he’s going to hug me. Adaro takes it as a threat and draws his sword. Instead, the bleached blond pulls a dart from the board and uses it to pick his teeth. When he’s done, he twirls the silver dart between his fingers.

The landlocked fidget and whisper among themselves.

I grit my teeth and say, “Adaro, put that away.”

When the bleached blond smiles, it takes up his whole face. “So the Sons of the Sea have come slumming.”

“I’m—”

“I know who you are.”

I hate the way he cuts me off. And from the way his body tenses and his face grimaces in my direction, he doesn’t think much of me, either.

“And who are you?” I say, minutes away from losing my patience.

“This is Jesse,” Thalia says.

Jesse lingers where we stand, like he’s sizing up his opponents or avoiding dog shit. He proceeds to take center stage, a preacher welcoming us to his church, extending arms wide. “Welcome to our weekly community meeting.”

His arms go slack and he groans. “Yes, Ben, what is it?”

The guy in the suit has his hand raised. He’s got scars all across his knuckles. When he tucks his hair back, I notice his ears are shaped like fins. “I’d just like to say that I’m confused. I thought we were going to vote on when we brought the champion in. I mean, we are still a voting group, right? I’m just saying.”

Jesse’s smile is tight, annoyed. Even though he’s a skinny, oily, grungy little punk, he leads them. “Don’t worry, Ben. No one is changing any rules. I knew the champion of the sea would come to us eventually. Didn’t I say that? What I didn’t expect was two of them.”

Adaro crosses his arms over his chest, his dagger gleaming in one hand. The air is getting denser. Everyone sweating. Nerves sizzling like crossed wires.

“Thalia, it is good to see you again,” Jesse says, cocking his head and squinting way too hard at Kurt. “I look forward to the day we can count you in our ranks. Now. Let the champion come forward. Come, come. I’m sure you’re brimming with kind words for us.”

I move from the back of the room to closer to the raised stage. Sweat runs down my back and my mouth is dry.

“Do you know what we are, Tristan?” Jesse asks me.

“You’re Sea People,” I say.

“Were. We were Sea People.” Jesse smiles with his red, raw mouth. “Now, we are the landlocked. Excommunicated. Discarded. Unwanted. Untouchables.”

Jesse paces, weaving that silver dart between his fingers. The flickering bulb gives his hair an orange glow and deepens the shadows of his face. His lips look swollen, but they might just be big. His teeth are too prominent. I kind of hate him.

“For some of us,” Jesse says, “it wasn’t our choice to be here. Unlike your mother, not all of us fancy being on two legs. Clumsy, ugly, nasty things. Foot-fins, you call us.”

He hops off the stage and passes through the crowd, and they follow his wiry body, snake-like in the way he turns his neck. I wonder if his tongue is forked. I make a note to punch him the next time he talks about my mother.

“You broke the law,” Kurt says. “That’s why you don’t have your fins anymore.”

Every eye turns to him. The volume in the meeting hall shoots up. Their voices are a mixture of curses and explanations of how they were wronged. But mostly curses. Jesse uses his hands and shushes them like children.

“Don’t mind the young soldier,” Jesse says. “He was raised to lead the Sea Guard. He could never understand us.”

Kurt’s head looks like it might pop right off his head with how angry he is. “What is there to understand?”

“That we were once sea creatures, like all of you. Some, like Penny and her little turtle boy, were born on land. Her mother was a cephalo-maid. Her father human. Her mother, ripped of her ability to shift, was left on land to raise a child she could never explain. She died when Penny was only twelve, and Penny’s father left her in an orphanage. It wasn’t until she found some of us that she could truly know what she was, who she came from.

“Ben, over there. His parents were part of the first rebellion. And now he’s banished from court. As his children will be. And their grandchildren and so on, until the blood of the sea is no longer in their veins.”

Ben crosses his arms. His muscles strain against the fine tailored suit. “I’ve got too much invested in my firm to have kids, anyway.”

Jesse murmurs a curse under his breath. “Really? I’m trying to prove a point here.”

He swipes at his watery nose with the back of his hand. Despite my really casual pose, I force myself not to recoil as he walks up to me, twirling that dart. He smiles with his horse teeth. “Do you know how your grandfather punished me? He took his trident and stuck it right in my spine. The pain was ghastly. I could barely swim to shore. I was lucky. Some of the others got eaten up by the shark guard who, by the way, weren’t fed for a week just for that purpose.

“They never had a chance. Sitting here, underground, we still don’t have a chance. Up there, we’re deformed, forever bartering with tricksy court fairies for their glamours because we have no protection of our own.”

“You have protection,” Kurt says.

“The tithes? Giving what little we have for safety from each other?” Jesse laughs. The sound is brittle, broken, like taking a hammer to glass. “Do you suppose all of us can survive as humans? Ben, he can hide his ears with that mop of his. Penny can shift back and forth from her tentacles. What about the rest? Jim and the flashlight on his forehead? Alice and her crocodile eyes?

“It’s time for a change. I’ve watched us dig our way deeper and deeper under this city, and the tunnels are giving out. How much farther can we burrow?”

“What is it you want?” It’s my turn.

“We want what the Sea Court has.” He walks back to the center of the stage. “We want a fair chance.”

The wood sinks under our weight. When I’m this close to him, I can see the eternity in his eyes. They’re black as oil slicks. “Don’t forget my mother was just like the rest of you.”

“Princess Maia knows nothing of our suffering. The Sea King made the change easy for her. He gave her gold. She had her beauty. Her human lover. She had you. We didn’t have the luxury you’ve been given, and yet you’re technically still one of us.” He puts an arm around me and I suppress a shiver. His skin is clammy and cold, but there’s a spark at his fingertips. “How do you suppose you’ll rule at court and not know the Rites of Summer? The way to control the island? The names of every merman and maid that breaks themselves to build your castles, your thrones, your weapons. How will you know?”

My heart is racing. His voice has swallowed all our breaths as he inhales steadily, calming. I look out at the motley crew of the landlocked. There’s hatred in their eyes and I know it comes from Jesse. This is what he’s good at—filling people with hate.

“I have no way of knowing what your lives are like,” I say, “and Jesse’s right. In many ways, you have been forgotten.” In the back, Adaro and Sarabell don’t like that I’ve said that. “But in a couple of days, there might not be a Sea Court to go back to.”

Jesse’s eyes light up.

“This right here,” I say, “is the city you’ve called your home. Imagine it all gone. Swallowed up by an army of merrows that won’t hesitate to destroy you. Because this is your home, just as much as it’s mine. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I ask you to stand behind us.”

They talk among themselves. Some call me crazy. Others call me worse things.

“We want to be part of the sea again,” Jesse says. He doesn’t consult them. He doesn’t let them speak. “We offer our support in exchange for yours. Our wish is simple.”

I hold my hands up. I can’t let him corner me. “Easy, isn’t it? Standing up here and telling them what they want to hear. Promises are easy. My dad, who is very much human, taught me a few things. Other than how to tie my shoes, that is.” Penny and the girls around her laugh, which is a comfort in the tension of the room. “He taught me that I’ll never get anywhere by making false promises.” Granted, I’m pretty sure he was talking about girls, but it stuck with me.

“Your lives have pretty much reached a level of suck that I will never know. Jesse’s right. I’ve lived my whole life with everything handed to me.

“But when my grandfather handed me this championship, I could’ve backed out. I could’ve gone right back to high school. I’d probably be with the girl I care about instead of wasting time with princesses who want to bite my head off.”

Ben pumps his fist in the air and shakes his head. “Been there, bro.”

“I’ve seen the kinds of things—punishments—that I would never want to see done to anyone. Especially people like me, because you guys are like me. Right now, the only promise I can give you is that your voices will be heard.”

“Hear my voice right now, land prince.” Jesse studies my face. “Will you restore me once you are king?”

Adaro steps forward. “This isn’t about kingships. This is about protection.”

But Jesse is thrilled. He turns to Adaro and says, “And what of you, champion of the Southern Seas? What will you give us?”

Adaro backpedals and Sarabell stands in front of him—like she’s his body armor—and I realize this is why she’s the only person he trusts. “Our family doesn’t negotiate with the banished. You can either acknowledge that you will need our guard to protect this shore, or not.”

The landlocked are up in arms despite my attempts at quieting them down. Jesse does that best. “Here we have it, two champions who will offer us nothing.”

He lets the words sink in and we don’t deny them. Adaro won’t and I can’t.

Jesse takes the dart in his hand and throws it at Adaro.

Adaro recoils and Sarabell stands in front of him. Everyone jumps out of their seats, scrambling for an exit, but Jesse claps his hands and laughs. The arrow has turned into a slick blue bird. It flies around the room in a swift circle and lands on Jesse’s open palm where, in a flutter of wings, it vanishes. There’s a regular old dart in his hand again.

“How did you do that?” I demand, resting my hand on the hilt of my sword.

“It was a gift from a very old friend.” Jesse shrugs, all, Who, me? “Nieve, the first daughter of King Erebos and true queen of the seas.”

The landlocked do everything from shouting and whispering to demanding explanations to storming out. The sisters with webbed hands are texting.

“She has come back for us,” Jesse says. “This time around, her power will be so great that she will cast a shadow over the sun.”

The landlocked watch us with anxious eyes. There are those who scurry out of the room. There are those who get up quietly and form a cluster behind Jesse. “What have you for us now?”

I unsheathe my dagger and point it steadily at him. “This doesn’t turn into a butterfly when I throw it.”

Jesse smiles with delight. “I think I can see why she likes you after all.”

Ben cocks his eyebrow. He shakes his head and rolls up his newspaper. “Screw you, Jesse. What about some glamour for the rest of us, huh?” He pushes his hair away and cups his hand behind his ear so he can make sure we get a good look at it. It’s iridescent and wiggles with him excited like this.

“In time, my friend.”

“I am not your friend, Jesse.” Ben picks up his briefcase and turns to the door. “You seem nice, Tristan. One piece of advice? Let the Sea People destroy themselves. It’s what they’re good at. In a few years, I’ll be in Acapulco with Miss Universe on my lap and enough money that she won’t even care about my little ear problem. Toliss will be under the sea where it belongs, and the rest of them?” He throws his newspaper in the air, and it comes apart in a mess in Jesse’s furious face. “Poof, just like that.”

Poof, just like that, the landlocked resume their shouting with each other. Old rivalries surface. A water bottle flies over my head and spills everywhere. They crowd the room, reaching for Adaro, who pushes them away and makes a run for it with Sarabell. I grab Penny and say, “Take Timmy and go.”

“We won’t follow Jesse,” she reassures me. She’s the only one.

“Right now,” I say, “just think about your family.”

She nods, letting go of my hand. With her boyfriend pushing people out of the way, they leave.

“Let’s go,” Kurt says. He takes Thalia by her arm and shoves one or two guys on the way out.

“You have nothing to offer.” Jesse stands beside me, watching the discord he’s created. Feeding off it. “Make the smart decision for yourself. Together we can help these people.”

“From where I’m standing,” I spit, “all you want to do is help yourself. Turning darts into birds isn’t going to help you.”

“I could show you the full extent of my gifts.” He turns his greasy face to me. “But that would ruin tomorrow night’s fun.”

Thalia and Layla grab at my hands before I can punch him. I shout, “You don’t know what Nieve is capable of.”

And then his voice is in my head as I walk away from the pandemonium of the meeting hall. It’s an echo, forcing its way into my thoughts. Jesse, speaking to me. “I do know, Land Prince. I know exactly what she’s capable of.”