We laugh together and it’s the best I’ve felt all week. Except for

yesterday in the locker room, but this is an inside kind of good. I

remember Kai singing underwater for her father, the way it made me

long for something more. That’s why I couldn’t kiss Gwen. That’s why I

can’t kiss anyone but Layla.

“That’s horrible about Kai’s dad.”

“They’re weird about death. It’s like they take a moment to see it

happen and then they move on. It doesn’t feel natural. And he

literally turned into coral.” I sit up. “I wonder what will happen

when I die, since I’m half and half?”

“Don’t,” she whispers. “Don’t say that.”

“There’s a chance,” I admit. “I was so close to that trident. But

I hesitated because I wanted to help the oracle. In the end, she died

anyway. Nieve is stronger every day and she’s coming for me.”

“Then you just have to be stronger than her.” Layla makes it sound

so easy.

I hold her tighter. “When I’m with you, I feel like I can do

anything. I don’t want to mess this up.”

“Us? Or the championship?”

This sounds like one of those girl trick questions that I

shouldn’t answer. I’m too quiet. Every part of me hurts. I should

drink some of the spring water but I want to save it for something

more important, not just wimpy pains I can get at the gym.

“It doesn’t matter,” she says. “There can’t be an us anyway.”

“Shut up, dude,” I scoff. “You’re so totally my girlfriend. You’ve

been dying to be my girlfriend since we were in the sandbox. Marked

your territory by peeing on me and everything. I’m just going to tell

everyone that you’re my girl, and then you’ll make me look like a

loser when you try to deny it. Can you really do that to me?”

She punches me in the ribs and I kind of exaggerate the pain so

she’ll rub it. “Seriously, Tristan. This is fun, admittedly. But we

shouldn’t do that to each other. Not now, at least.”

“Why? One,” I count my fingers in front of her face, “you like me.

You know how I can tell? You keep feeling up on me all over the place.

Don’t act like it’s my mer thing because you like my mer thing just

fine.”

I brace for the next jab in the ribs, harder than the first.

“I knew Angelo shouldn’t have taught you to fight.”

“Are you done?” She sits back. “Was that the one reason?”

I pop my lips. “Yep.”

“My turn,” she says. “One, I’ve known eighty percent of the girls

you’ve ‘ dated. ’”

“Don’t. Come on. Don’t use air quotes.”

“Two, you’re a merman .”

“I can’t control that. That’s like your hair when it gets frizzy

in the summer or the crooked little toe on your right foot.” I realize

that won’t help my case.

“Three, I can’t breathe underwater, Tristan. I’ve thought about

this since it first happened and I-I trust you with my whole life. But

this-where does it leave me when you’re king and I’m stranded on the

Coney Island beach wondering which ocean you’re in?”

“Layla, I will never leave you.”

“You aren’t listening to what I’m saying.” She grabs chunks of her

hair and then smooths them down. “We’ve waited sixteen years to be

together. I think we can wait another week and see what happens.”

I take her hands in mine. But I don’t want to wait another week.

So I’m like, “I don’t want to wait another week.”

That’s the thing about girls. Sometimes they say one thing and

they mean another. She traces the outline of my lips and gives me a

quick kiss.

“See?” I say, to prove my point.

“Hey, what happened to Gwen and Kai?”

“Kai went to alert my grandfather, just in case.” At the mention,

I think of Gwen trying to kiss me. Should I tell Layla? Unbidden,

Angelo’s voice pops into my head and he says, “She didn’t ask so don’t

tell her .”

I say, “Gwen went wherever she goes.”

“Do you hear that?”

“Sirens,” I say. “A lot of them the last couple of days.”

Sunrise creeps over the houses across the street. The siren horn

dies down, and Layla and I are sitting on her front porch. I remember

what Gwen said about thinking of Nieve like I would another champion.

I’ve been to three oracles. How many of the other champions can say

that?

“New battle plan.” I slap my knees and stand up. All of my joints

pop and ache. My mind is dizzy with exhaustion. “It seems everyone’s

got themselves an army.”

Layla’s eyes peel back to me with this new realization. “So what

you need is-”

“An army of my own.”

After I leave Layla, I head home.

My temples pulse. A whisper fills my head. I don’t quite know how

I 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.”