“So you can stick me in a memory hole?”

“So I can look into your eyes.”

There’s pressure at the base of my neck, a force that pushes me

right to her until we’re eye to eye. It’s like wading through hip-high

water while wearing ankle weights. Her rose irises are as hard as

jewels. I can see flashes of lightning, the ground tearing like an

open wound, seas whirling, beasts rising from the depths. I shut my

eyes against it, but that’s no help. It’s in me-the uproar, the

turmoil. The sky rips apart.

Then it’s quiet again. I keep my eyes shut and I’m surrounded by

the sea. Behind me is Coney Island. I’m undressing and Layla is

laughing, holding her hands to her closed eyes. It’s the first time I

let her see me shift into my tail. I let her climb on my back and

suddenly I flip her over. She wraps her legs around me and we fall

back into the water, kissing.

I’m not prepared for the ragged chuckle that wakes me.

“What’s so funny?” I ask the oracle. Closer like this, I can

finally see that the deformity of her legs starts at the hip. The skin

has rough grooves as if the skin were burned.

“Even after everything you’ve seen, everything you are, your most

powerful memory comes from a girl?”

The pressure around me is released some. I scratch at my scalp

where my skin tingles. It’s like she was digging her fingers into me

without actually touching me. “Damn, you people are creepy.”

“I’m not people, Tristan. I am eternal. I am the sky that blankets

you. The sea that is your home. I am the ether between your dreams. So

call me anything you’d like, but don’t call me ‘people.’ I am better

than that.”

“Your top half is pretty people-looking.”

“This is just a body. We are modeled by our makers. As you can

see, my maker didn’t want me going far.” She pats the smooth shell

that holds her.

“Well, if you don’t want anything material, then what can I give

you? I’m kind of in a time crunch. Championship and all.”

The smile that plays on her lips sends a tingle down my spine all

the way to my toenails. Think of anything else. Think of Kurt stuck in

that tube with nowhere to go. Man, he’s going to be pissed when I get

him out of there.

“I will give you a choice. You can give me a memory or make me a

promise.”

“What do you mean a memory ?”

“The one of you and the girl. It’s been so long since I’ve

experienced that kind of happiness from any memory.”

My heart is racing. My first real kiss with Layla. “Like, you

borrow it?”

“No, stupid boy. It’ll be my memory. Mine to keep. Mine to

cherish. It doesn’t do you any good. Human love doesn’t last. All

you’ll have left are hazy images. You hoard them in the corners of

your mind and they stop you from living. No, it’ll better be kept with

me.”

My ears are hot. She doesn’t know the half of it. With the way

things are between us, it’s the only thing I have of Layla. Memories.

If I have to leave her-no. I won’t think that way. But something

snakes its way into my thoughts telling me I will have to leave her; I

will have to go. Even though I know I don’t want to, I have to blurt

out: “ Promise. I choose the promise.”

She frowns, the frown of longing. Maybe I’ve chosen the wrong

thing. But she recovers and calls out, “Mina!”

The laria who led us here emerges from a dark corner. I make note

that she never really left. Mina carries a conch shell. It’s the size

of a basketball with golden patterns. Then I feel the sting of a knife

slashing my arm.

“What the-”

“Words are so willingly spewed, like water from the mouth of a

gorge. Blood, when taken, means so much more.”

Mina hands the conch with my droplets of blood to the nautilus

maid, who accepts it, cradling it against her belly. She brings it to

her lips and drinks from it.

“You will swear to me that the next time we meet, you will kill

me.” Her voice is so alive, grazing my skin, nuzzling a warmth against

my neck. I haven’t felt this way in so long, and I don’t want it to

stop.

I can’t do that , says a whisper in the blackness of my mind. But

it’s like shutting the door of a dream, and the whisper is gone.

“Swear,” the oracle repeats.

“I swear.”

Mina brings the conch to my lips and tilts it back. The copper

drops coat my tongue. They roll down my throat, burning all the way

down.

The nautilus maid sighs, filling the cave with a new breeze. A

cloud is lifting over me. The pressure completely dissipates from my

muscles. It’s like waking up from a long sleep.

“You can’t do that.” I spit on the ground. The burning taste

lingers. “I can’t kill you!”

“Haven’t you ever killed anyone before?”

The memory of Ryan landing splat on the ground, dead, rushes into

my mind. “Stop it! Stop doing that! I didn’t kill Ryan.” There. I’ve

said it.

“Will it make it easier if you remember that I’m not a person?”

“You’re immortal.”

“I’m eternal. There’s a difference. The gods are immortal. They

can’t be harmed. But this? I’m only skin and bones. If no one touched

me, I could live forever. “

No matter what she says about not being a person, all I can see is

the blush of her skin, the sadness in her eyes. People have emotions.

I shake my head. “I won’t do it.”

“Say no all you want. The promise is sealed with our blood. If you

don’t do it, you will be the one to die.”

I want to scream. I unsheathe my dagger and stab it in the ground.

Sparks fly as it cuts a shallow wound into the stone.

“Believe me, Tristan, it will be for the best.”

“If you want to die so badly, why don’t you just kill yourself?

Have one of your laria do it.”

“It has to be you.”

My whole body is shaking. I turn my back on her. “Give me Kurt and

give me the trident piece and pray, just pray that we never meet

again.”

Her smile is sad but pleased, as if she’s the cleverest thing in

the world. It feels like she’s set me on fire when she says, “My

darling Tristan Hart, I do not have any piece of the trident. But you

may take your companion, for soon the day will come when you will no

longer call him that.”

The blood in my mouth makes me want to retch.

The pool holding Kurt splashes like a geyser. Kurt chokes on some

water. His hands grope at the ground until he grabs my hands and I

pull him out. He holds on to my neck for support, reclaiming the use

of his legs.

“Mina will show you the way out.” The nautilus maid turns to look

at me once more before retreating behind her waterfall. “And don’t

forget, Tristan. Don’t forget me.”

The moon hangs low over the Vanishing Cove, the sky speckled with

stars I’ve never been able to see in Coney Island. The church bells

ring in the distance. The drumbeats and singing and laughter are

replaced by the rush of wind and the creak of old houses.

I don’t know how we got back here. We took a tunnel that led out

onto the main road, back downhill the way we came. When we turned

around, Mina was long gone, along with any signs of the door that

slammed shut behind us.

I punch open the doors to the Kraken’s Tooth. It settles a silence

over the remaining patrons, who shrink from me.

Layla’s the first one to ask, “What happened?”

The girls have moved from the bar and are sitting at their own

card game.

“It didn’t go very well.” I pull up a chair.

I try to give her a look that says, Not now. Not here. But right