princesses following them around, and I have Layla, Thalia, and Gwen.

But I like it that way. I do.

Whatever she’s said has broken the spell. Reggie stands up

straight again. His face is stony, defensive, and pissed off. It’s the

same realization Felix had in his tent when he figured out we were

merpeople without tails. Only, Reggie isn’t quite as excited. It’s the

look of the owl-faced woman who shooed us away. Fazya’s scorn.

“Yeah, they was here. Pain-in-my-asses.”

Thalia snorts. “Plural?”

I stand in front of her and hold my arm out. “Were they really

that bad?”

He thumbs at the beast of the ceiling. “Tried to take down Daisy

up there.”

Layla giggles. “You named your giant octopus Daisy?”

“She’s a kraken! There’s a difference, dontcha know? Was a right

fine golden color when we caught her. Pity what the years is done to

her.” Then as if remembering why he was angry at us for being

merpeople, he frowns again. “Thought it’d be funny to set it back in

the wilds of the sea! Don’t care for sea folk, I don’t. Wreaking havoc

all over the cove with their ships and tricksy devil girls. ”

Gwen scoffs and Layla sniggers at the implication.

But Reggie’s not done with the mer hate. I’m starting not to care

for it, either. He looks down at my drink, which is untouched, then

back at me. It’s not my fault all the other merpeople didn’t exactly

behave.

I’m like, “Yes?”

He picks up my drink and sets it back down. “Not good enough for

you?”

I can’t handle my drink. Not even one, so I try not to do it. But

I’m not about to tell Reggie the troll man that. “Just watching my

carbs, dude.”

He wants to smile but he doesn’t. “Which one is you, then?”

“What do you mean?” I say, imitating polite Kurt as well as I can.

“Did I stutter? The champions. Which. One. Is. You?”

“What makes you think I’m one of the champions?” Though I can’t

help but puff out my chest and straighten my back. You better believe

I’m a champion.

Now Reggie lets himself laugh. “Your ass reeks of your glittery

mermaid shit.” He spits on the floor.

Layla lets out a booming laugh, which no mermaid or merdude

present wholly appreciates.

“I’m all mer man , Reggie.” I start to point at him but think

better of it. I think I’ll need the use of my fingers in the future.

“How many?” Thalia asks sweetly at the same time Kurt briskly

asks, “Do you know where they’ve gone?”

The troll man smiles with surprisingly perfect teeth. He shakes

his head and busies himself drying chipped glassware. “You’re all the

same, you know. Mum always said the sea folk are responsible for their

own downfall. Said your concern is about your secrets. That’s what’s

important to you. In the end, the secrets are what’s going to do you

in.”

My temperature rises. I haven’t been a merman for very long, but

no one dogs on my people. “Do you always listen to what your mom

says?”

“It’s why I’m still alive,” he says proudly.

Just then we all start thinking of our mothers, or something,

because we get real quiet. What did my mom say to me? She said she

wasn’t going to stop me from choosing this. She didn’t exactly plead

for me to stay home. Did she think I didn’t have a choice? Maybe I

remind her too much of the life she was trying to get away from. I

think of her kind eyes. Her lullabies that sang me to sleep until I

was too cool for it, and suddenly I don’t mind this music so much.

Reggie scoffs at me and starts walking away, and I realize if my

mom were here, she wouldn’t be a dick to him. She’d be his friend.

Like Gwen is doing now. Minus the flirting. I hope.

“Wait. I’m sorry.” I reach over the bar to touch his hand.

Note: Trolls don’t want their hands touched.

I retract it immediately.

“What is it, then?”

I push the drink away. “If I drink this, I’ll pass out. Got any

orange juice?”

That sends him rolling back with laughter. It booms above the

hushed conversations, the makeshift piano, and the chorus of dogs

barking outside. Reggie digs in a bin of ice and pours me a pulpy

glass, which I chug thirstily. I wipe my sticky mouth with the back of

my hand and set the glass on the bar top.

“So you’re the mutt, then,” Reggie says. “Shoulda guessed it.

Human spirits dehydrate the sea folk. And sea spirits make humans

hallucinate. I predict a life of weak beer ahead of you, Mermutt.”

I shrug, not denying it. “I guess I am a mutt.”

“So am I.” He shoves a fat thumb into his chest, all you bet I am

. “Got a special place in all three of me hearts for our kind.”

Kurt’s eyebrow cocks all the way up to his hairline. “Our kind?”

“Mutts. Halfsies. Neither here nor there, but everywhere. Call us

what you will.”

Kurt puts his hand on my shoulder, friendly. “He’s not like the

other champions, that’s for sure.”

“Cheers to that,” Reggie says, raising a glass of brackish liquid.

“The other, the serious one, he practically had a scavenger hunt with

forty men looking like some lost army of conquistadors. Didn’t realize

you can’t find her, the oracle.”

“Because all the paths are sealed?” Thalia asks.

Reggie takes a big gulp of his weak beer. “’Cause she ain’t

wanting to be found. She has to find you.”

Just then, something startles him. The smell I’ve been trying to

figure out surrounds us. All merfolk turn their faces up to the air as

if we can suck it all in. The scent is lonely and thin and winding its

way inside.

“Tears,” Kurt whispers.

Reggie’s large body shivers. He knocks on the bar top. Backs away

slowly and tells me, “Fair seas to you.”

The bit of white at the corner of my eye sends my heart jumping.

At the door it’s just a girl. She’s so translucent that, for a

heartbeat, I wonder if this is my first time seeing a ghost. There’s a

rawness at the corners of her eyes and under her nose, like all she

does is cry. I’ve never felt this way before, like she’s rubbing her

sadness all over my skin. Kurt’s right: she smells like tears.

Something inside me is twisting, changing slowly. There’s a wonky bit

of glass across from me. It’s cloudy and speckled, but I can see

myself in there somewhere and that in itself is a relief.

Like Reggie, the patrons that glance at her busy themselves with

pretending she’s not there. Others tap crosses over themselves. One

man covers his ears and leans his forehead on the table.

She’s staring at Kurt.

I nudge him. “Friend of yours?”

“Not at all.”

When the girl in white turns around, she exposes the white ripple

of her vertebrae, the blue spiderweb of veins. She looks back over her

shoulder once.

“Think she wants us to follow her?” I say.

“She will lead us to the oracle,” Kurt says, taking one foot

toward the door.

“Or, with our luck, to a dark pit of despair.”

He’s trying to compose himself, leveling violet eyes at my blue

ones. “You heard the barkeep. She will come for you. I will be by your

side.”

“Right. Time to grow some claws.” I draw out my dagger. Then I

remember the girls. “I don’t think we should leave them alone here.”

Gwen pounces off her chair. “Hardly. We can take care of

ourselves.” She holds my face in her hands so I can feel a tiny

electric hum that threatens to fry my face off.

“Okay, I get it.” I take a step back.

“We must go now ,” Kurt says.

Beside me I can feel Layla’s heartbeat racing, the panic in the