orphanage. It wasn’t until she found some of us that she could truly
know what she was, who she came from.
“Ben, over there. His parents were part of the first rebellion.
And now he’s banished from court. As his children will be. And their
grandchildren and so on, until the blood of the sea is no longer in
their veins.”
Ben crosses his arms. His muscles strain against the fine tailored
suit. “I’ve got too much invested in my firm to have kids, anyway.”
Jesse murmurs a curse under his breath. “Really? I’m trying to
prove a point here.”
He swipes at his watery nose with the back of his hand. Despite my
really casual pose, I force myself not to recoil as he walks up to me,
twirling that dart. He smiles with his horse teeth. “Do you know how
your grandfather punished me? He took his trident and stuck it right
in my spine. The pain was ghastly. I could barely swim to shore. I was
lucky. Some of the others got eaten up by the shark guard who, by the
way, weren’t fed for a week just for that purpose.
“They never had a chance. Sitting here, underground, we still
don’t have a chance. Up there, we’re deformed, forever bartering with
tricksy court fairies for their glamours because we have no protection
of our own.”
“You have protection,” Kurt says.
“The tithes? Giving what little we have for safety from each
other?” Jesse laughs. The sound is brittle, broken, like taking a
hammer to glass. “Do you suppose all of us can survive as humans? Ben,
he can hide his ears with that mop of his. Penny can shift back and
forth from her tentacles. What about the rest? Jim and the flashlight
on his forehead? Alice and her crocodile eyes?
“It’s time for a change. I’ve watched us dig our way deeper and
deeper under this city, and the tunnels are giving out. How much
farther can we burrow?”
“What is it you want?” It’s my turn.
“We want what the Sea Court has.” He walks back to the center of
the stage. “We want a fair chance.”
The wood sinks under our weight. When I’m this close to him, I can
see the eternity in his eyes. They’re black as oil slicks. “Don’t
forget my mother was just like the rest of you.”
“Princess Maia knows nothing of our suffering. The Sea King made
the change easy for her. He gave her gold. She had her beauty. Her
human lover. She had you. We didn’t have the luxury you’ve been given,
and yet you’re technically still one of us.” He puts an arm around me
and I suppress a shiver. His skin is clammy and cold, but there’s a
spark at his fingertips. “How do you suppose you’ll rule at court and
not know the Rites of Summer? The way to control the island? The names
of every merman and maid that breaks themselves to build your castles,
your thrones, your weapons. How will you know?”
My heart is racing. His voice has swallowed all our breaths as he
inhales steadily, calming. I look out at the motley crew of the
landlocked. There’s hatred in their eyes and I know it comes from
Jesse. This is what he’s good at-filling people with hate.
“I have no way of knowing what your lives are like,” I say, “and
Jesse’s right. In many ways, you have been forgotten.” In the back,
Adaro and Sarabell don’t like that I’ve said that. “But in a couple of
days, there might not be a Sea Court to go back to.”
Jesse’s eyes light up.
“This right here,” I say, “is the city you’ve called your home.
Imagine it all gone. Swallowed up by an army of merrows that won’t
hesitate to destroy you. Because this is your home, just as much as
it’s mine. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I ask you to stand behind
us.”
They talk among themselves. Some call me crazy. Others call me
worse things.
“We want to be part of the sea again,” Jesse says. He doesn’t
consult them. He doesn’t let them speak. “We offer our support in
exchange for yours. Our wish is simple.”
I hold my hands up. I can’t let him corner me. “Easy, isn’t it?
Standing up here and telling them what they want to hear. Promises are
easy. My dad, who is very much human, taught me a few things. Other
than how to tie my shoes, that is.” Penny and the girls around her
laugh, which is a comfort in the tension of the room. “He taught me
that I’ll never get anywhere by making false promises.” Granted, I’m
pretty sure he was talking about girls, but it stuck with me.
“Your lives have pretty much reached a level of suck that I will
never know. Jesse’s right. I’ve lived my whole life with everything
handed to me.
“But when my grandfather handed me this championship, I could’ve
backed out. I could’ve gone right back to high school. I’d probably be
with the girl I care about instead of wasting time with princesses who
want to bite my head off.”
Ben pumps his fist in the air and shakes his head. “Been there,
bro.”
“I’ve seen the kinds of things-punishments-that I would never want
to see done to anyone. Especially people like me, because you guys are
like me. Right now, the only promise I can give you is that your
voices will be heard.”
“Hear my voice right now, land prince.” Jesse studies my face.
“Will you restore me once you are king?”
Adaro steps forward. “This isn’t about kingships. This is about
protection.”
But Jesse is thrilled. He turns to Adaro and says, “And what of
you, champion of the Southern Seas? What will you give us?”
Adaro backpedals and Sarabell stands in front of him-like she’s
his body armor-and I realize this is why she’s the only person he
trusts. “Our family doesn’t negotiate with the banished. You can
either acknowledge that you will need our guard to protect this shore,
or not.”
The landlocked are up in arms despite my attempts at quieting them
down. Jesse does that best. “Here we have it, two champions who will
offer us nothing.”
He lets the words sink in and we don’t deny them. Adaro won’t and
I can’t.
Jesse takes the dart in his hand and throws it at Adaro.
Adaro recoils and Sarabell stands in front of him. Everyone jumps
out of their seats, scrambling for an exit, but Jesse claps his hands
and laughs. The arrow has turned into a slick blue bird. It flies
around the room in a swift circle and lands on Jesse’s open palm
where, in a flutter of wings, it vanishes. There’s a regular old dart
in his hand again.
“How did you do that?” I demand, resting my hand on the hilt of my
sword.
“It was a gift from a very old friend.” Jesse shrugs, all, Who,
me? “Nieve, the first daughter of King Erebos and true queen of the
seas.”
The landlocked do everything from shouting and whispering to
demanding explanations to storming out. The sisters with webbed hands
are texting.
“She has come back for us,” Jesse says. “This time around, her
power will be so great that she will cast a shadow over the sun.”
The landlocked watch us with anxious eyes. There are those who
scurry out of the room. There are those who get up quietly and form a
cluster behind Jesse. “What have you for us now?”
I unsheathe my dagger and point it steadily at him. “This doesn’t
turn into a butterfly when I throw it.”
Jesse smiles with delight. “I think I can see why she likes you
after all.”
Ben cocks his eyebrow. He shakes his head and rolls up his
newspaper. “Screw you, Jesse. What about some glamour for the rest of
us, huh?” He pushes his hair away and cups his hand behind his ear so
he can make sure we get a good look at it. It’s iridescent and wiggles