He shakes his head and pushes himself up, like he’s wading through

cement. “I have to go to her.”

“No!” I pull on his arm.

He wavers on his knees, gasping for air. He gulps it down and it

sounds easier. He grabs my shoulder for support. “It’s like she’s

squeezing my lungs.”

“She can do that?” I hope I’ve never seen Kurt complain about pain

before. “As your friend, I’d like to point out that this is what we

call an abusive relationship.”

“Lucine wants what’s best for me.” He leans on a tree trunk for

support, pressing his hand to his chest like he’s making sure his

heart is still beating.

“We have to get back to the others,” I say. “Shelly’ll know how to

make it stop.”

“No. We have to finish this. Nieve has weaknesses just like

everyone else.” He breathes normally again.

The sky is dark and so are our paths. We follow the light of our

weapons and the animals that scatter away. I scream as I feel the

ground fall beneath me. Kurt grabs on to me by the back of my harness

and pulls me back. With one foot out to sea, I’m a step away from free

falling off a cliff and into the crashing waves.

“Only way out is down,” I say.

And he goes, “Together.”

“On three,” I say, retracing our steps and getting ready to jump.

“Tristan, I’m sorry,” Kurt says.

The wind is screeching in a fury, bringing the sea over the cliff.

“One-” I say, but neither of us waits. We run, run, run, and then

jump.

It feels so long since I’ve taken a dive. I’ve come a long way

from Karel pushing me in the Vale of Tears. I tuck my head between my

shoulders and straighten my legs.

But I don’t reach the sea.

Searing pain digs into my shoulders. Something warm runs down my

chest and back. In the dark, I see a slick body and massive wings

flying beside me. A sea dragon. It wasn’t the wind screeching; it was

the sea dragons. Thick black talons grab Kurt by the shoulder and fly

away. Talons, cutting me and dragging me away.

I scream, and as I feel my body being lifted into the sky, I know

no one can hear me.

My body is cold. There’s a void that is getting bigger and bigger.

It’s like losing a part of myself. I can feel a piece of me missing.

Gone. The scepter is gone.

I try to lift my arms. Feel my chest. Move my legs.

Except I can’t move my legs.

I hold my breath and brace myself to look down. My vision is

doubled and my temples pound. I lift my torso up and even that’s a

challenge. The ground has stopped shaking, but I feel a wave of nausea

hit me and I turn my face to the side and puke last night’s pizza.

When I see my tail, I could cry tears of joy that it’s there and

I’m in one piece. I search the room and I must be dreaming because I

see Adaro. His face is right in front of mine.

I shut my eyes to make his face go away and it does. When I open

them again, I see Gwen. She presses something warm and smelly on my

shoulders. I blink and she’s gone.

Off to the side, Kurt’s hands are chained against a wall. His

blood is smeared all over his torso so that with my fuzzy vision, it

looks like he’s wearing a shirt.

“Don’t say it,” Kurt says. He shuts his eyes and I picture him

trying to retrace his steps to see what he could have done

differently.

“Say what?” It hurts to talk.

“I told you so.”

“I didn’t say it, you did.”

He closes his eyes and leans his head back. “They’ve been coming

in and out. Gwen healed you. She loves you. She won’t let Nieve kill

you.”

The combinations of being without my scepter and the beatings I’ve

taken have left me quiet. I did it. I killed the nautilus maid. I can

feel the sleeping giants stirring awake. I signaled my army.

But I messed up badly. “How did we get here?”

“My father told me that if we follow our hearts to the very end,

we’ll find what we’re looking for.”

I laugh and it hurts. “If what you’re looking for is death.”

“You don’t believe that.”

He’s right, I don’t.

“What made you change your mind?” I ask. “What made you come

back?”

“Lucine herself.” Kurt lifts his legs and swallows the pain. “She

told me to give the Trident of the Skies to the sea witch so we could

be together in peace, away from all this. All I had to do was kill you

myself. Now she has it anyway.”

I sit up like I’ve been set on fire. In the back of my head, I can

see Kurt and me as mortal enemies. We can’t end up that way. Perhaps

this is how it starts. Perhaps this is how it ends.

“Where was this when I was warning you, huh?” I could kick him.

“We were together, Kurt. We were together from the beginning, through

all of this. We watched your father die. And then you still went back

to her.”

“Do you think I wanted this?” He leans forward, pulling on his

chains. “I’ve spent my entire life doing what the king asked of me.

Then I find that he’s-was-my father, and despite that, he chose you.

Forgive me, Tristan, but that hurt me more than I’ll ever want to say.

You have been in a land where time is unmoving, but it has only been a

day of mine.”

Look at us, the mighty champions.

“Nieve promised me that my loved ones would be alive at the end of

this,” he says. “And Lucine-I’ve loved her since I met her. When I was

searching for vengeance for my parents’ deaths, she gave me a path.

She gave me a reason to live for that was all consuming and wrong, but

I wanted it. If she had told me to chop off my limbs and give them to

her, I would have without question. Then she cast me aside because her

mind isn’t right. I know that. When I saw her again, it was like she

had never left me in the first place.”

“To be fair, you seemed to enjoy it,” I say, laughing.

He squints and gives me his cheek.

“The king was right,” he says, “in the end. You and I are not very

different.”

I agree.

“Though now I have better hair.”

I point to my head. “This is your fault.”

“Tristan, why did you go to get the nautilus maid again?”

How do you change a future that seems to be laid out for you? Here

I am, looking at my friend turned family turned enemy turned ally once

again. He’s asking me to trust him. I’ve had too many misses with the

trust thing recently. I never knew how much it would hurt to have

someone betray me.

“Because I had to kill her.”

The fog lifts from my head when I say that.

“No one can do that.” He’s startled. “There’s a curse. If you kill

an oracle, you’ll die a young king.”

“Well…I did. With the scepter.” I reach for a weapon that isn’t

there and the emptiness grows tenfold. “She was in bad shape when I

got to her. After you and Gwen came to get her-”

“That’s not why I went.” He looks away, ashamed. “Lucine told me

to go to my father because he was dying. She told me to help Gwenivere

rescue her sister oracle.” A bitter laugh leaves his lips and he looks

to the hole in the ceiling. “Because you wanted her, that’s why. I’m

such a fool.”

“Layla says it’s part of being a guy,” I say. “The fool thing. I

don’t think she means that.”

Kurt nods. “I’m sure she does.”

“Thank you,” I tell him.

His brow creases. “What for?”

“For protecting her. From the sharks.”

The earth rumbles harder.

I shake my head. “You warned me that the people I love would get

hurt.”

“It’s the best kind of way to hurt your enemy,” he says. “By

taking away the things they love.”