“Are they still out there? I can’t see them,” Bex cries, scanning the water.
“They killed each other,” I hear a young Ceto boy say. “Our prime and prince died in honorable combat.”
And with each passing minute, I start to believe it is true. Bex takes my hand and squeezes it tight, reminding me that no matter what, she is there. My mother stands behind me with her hand on my shoulder, and we wait and wait. Each second feels like an hour as the entire Alpha Nation surrenders to the obvious. Arcade forces her way to the front of the crowd. Her tall friend Flyer stands nearby and watches as she walks down to the shoreline. She lets out a sad, thrumming call, but there is no response. She turns to Flyer, her face full of sorrow, and he joins her. The two of them leap into the water.
“They will retrieve the bodies,” Nor says.
Ghost rushes into the water, and then Luna. Terrance is next, followed by Surf. Dozens more dive in to find the boy I love.
My tears break free. I don’t know how I held them back, maybe from some sense that he would have wanted me to be strong, but now I bury my face in my mother’s shoulder and let it all go, crying until I could make my own ocean. One by one the Alpha return without their prince.
“This is your fault,” Arcade bellows at me. “He had to save you.”
It’s then that I understand that Fathom had this planned. He knew how to save my mother and me. He knew that this thing on my hand would make me valuable. But he was hoping to save his father as well. The only part of his plan he could not see—would not see—was his father’s unbending mania, and he died because of it.
“Come on,” Bex says as she tries to pull me back to the camp.
“No, I can’t. Not yet,” I cry.
Suddenly, I hear a splash. When I look up, there is a spray of water shooting into the sky. On top of the spout, soaring higher and higher, are two figures. One is a young man with blond hair. The other is his father, limp and beaten.
“Fathom!” Arcade shouts.
He lands a few feet from me, making a cloud of sand that rises and falls in the air. He drops his father to the ground in a heap. He’s still alive, but he’s not going to get up anytime soon.
“I held back, Lyric Walker,” he says.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“There are more humans at the wall,” a Selkie shouts to us.
“Doyle?” Fathom asks me.
“I hope so,” I say. Terrance said he could get him a message. If there’s anyone on the other side of the wall I can trust to warn everyone about the Rusalka, it’s him. Luna opens an archway, and Fathom and I step through, only to find Governor Bachman waiting with a small army of paramilitary troops.
“Where’s Doyle?” I ask.
“Mr. Doyle is no longer involved in this program. As it turns out, he had a member of the Alpha Nation right by his side, helping him make choices,” she says. “He’s probably going to be court-martialed for treason. As of now, I have placed all of Coney Island under martial law and have taken command of New York’s branch of the National Guard.”
“You’re in charge of that?” I say, pointing at the missiles still aimed at us.
She smiles smugly. “So, there are two ways we can do this. You and your people can surrender peacefully and give yourself up for arrest and relocation, or, by orders of the governor of the great state of New York, we will forcibly remove you.”
“Understood,” I say. “And we can discuss all of that after you evacuate lower Brooklyn.”
Her eyes pop open in surprise. “And why would I do that?”
“Because you’re not stupid. We met once, and you wanted me to spill the beans. Well, I’m going to do it right now: the Alpha that are on this beach, they’re all that’s left. There used to be millions of them, but they were all wiped out by something much worse—”
“What, Lyric?” Bachman taunts. “More characters from children’s books? You don’t think I’ll fall for that again, do you?”
“I need you to listen to me, please. For one minute in your whole life, just listen to me. The Alpha have a weapon that controls water. With it they can bring a tidal wave that would wash everything away like it was never here. They won’t use it to hurt people, but there is another group who have the same weapon and they are on their way here. If you don’t believe me, then check, if only so that you can prove me wrong again.”