He lets go of my wrists but doesn’t get off me because we both
know that as soon as he gets up, I’m jumping into that ocean.
Marty and Kai run up beside us. They’re backlit silhouettes
against the boardwalk lights.
“Tristan-” Marty tries to say, but he’s panting. “Look-”
“No. You don’t understand what I saw. None of you-”
Frederik looks up and stands and lets me go as a wave crashes over
my head. I push myself up on my knees. From here, there is no
separating the black sky from the sea.
“Tristan!”
“Leave me alone.” I push the hand away that tries to take my
wrist.
Thalia screams and jumps at a creature on the sand. He snorts,
shaking his mane. The green scales of his tail wag against the sand.
Atticus, Thalia’s sea horse.
Then I hear her…
“Tristan.” Softer now. Breathless.
I turn around.
She’s shivering. Cold.
I fall on my knees.
Part of me is telling me that she isn’t real. I’m making her up. I
want this so badly that I’m hallucinating. So I reach out my hands and
wrap them around her, my head pressed to her belly.
“I was going to come for you.” I’m dazed, an electric sense of
relief filling all the gaps inside me. “I was going to. I’m sorry.”
Layla sinks down too, kissing my wet face with her wet lips.
“Didn’t I tell you?”
“What?”
“I don’t need you to save me.”
Her lips are cold and blue. I kiss them and wrap my arms around
her to give her my warmth until she stops shaking. “No, but I need
you. I always need you.”
My friends and I sit at a round table in one of Frederik’s many
rooms. The walls are exposed brick, mostly covered with all sorts of
maps. A lot of planning seems to go down here. I trace my finger along
the continents. I’ve been so deep beneath the sea. These maps don’t
even cover a fraction of it.
I take in the people that have stuck by my side. Frederik, the
High Vampire of New York. Marty, the shapeshifter and all-around
keeper of the peace. Brendan, my cousin who came back to help me.
Thalia, fierce and full of love. Dylan, who is unafraid. Amada, the
Naga girl who has saved my life more than once. Ewin, a warrior who is
looking for somewhere to belong, just like the rest of us. Shelly, the
oracle of Central Park. And then there’s Layla. There’s always Layla.
Her hair is tied back from her face, and she’s holding a blanket
tightly over her shoulders.
When Thalia looks at me, I know what she’s thinking. We’re hours
away from the battle that’s been coming for days, and Kurt is out
there. I saw him with Lucine and the silver mermaid.
Marty spreads sheets of white paper on the table, like the kind an
architect or designer would use. He pulls a bunch of pens from his
back pocket and scatters them on the table. I take one and chew on the
cap.
“You got your compass and eraser in there too?” Layla asks,
drumming her pen on the table.
Marty shakes his head, adjusting his black baseball cap. That
thing really needs a wash. “This ain’t our first rodeo, ladybird.”
“Indeed.” Frederik clears his throat.
“Tomorrow, we attack Toliss.” I take the black marker and start
sectioning off land masses. “Okay, this is Coney Island, for those of
you who need a geography lesson. I’ll say Toliss is south of us by
five miles.”
“If I may,” Frederik says, coming up beside me. He takes my marker
and fills in the Coney Island landscape: the beach, the boardwalk, his
home, the Wreck, the rides. A red star marks the entrance to the
nightclub Betwixt. A II for the Second Circle where Lucine made her
home while waiting for Kurt.
“Layla, what did you see beneath the island where the tunnels
are?”
She holds her arms around her body, staring at the black ink that
bleeds when I leave it on the paper. “Two dozen hungry sharks. The
ones with the metal harnesses around their jaws. There are chains that
keep them right there. Archer said they hadn’t been fed for days.
Partly because the king was relocating to the Glass Castle, and partly
because Nieve overran the island. Either way, if they smell blood in
the water, they’ll attack.”
Everyone nods, like we’re all picturing the same thing-jaws
chomping blindly and ready to devour.
“How did you get past the great white beasts?” Ewin asks.
Layla’s eyes swivel between Thalia and me. She must have seen
Kurt. “Someone was arriving. They parted for them. That’s when I saw
Atticus hiding. Swam like hell all the way to the shore.”
I draw a few sharks beneath my outline of the island.
“Is there anything else you saw?” Frederik asks.
Layla’s eyebrows furrow. “Other than the fact that Nieve has more
mood swings than my cousin pregnant with triplets? She almost never
lets Gwen or Archer out of her sight. You can see that she loves them.
Every time they’re gone for too long, you can hear her scream for
them.”
“I can use that,” I say, squeezing her hand lightly.
“The beach is full of merrows,” Thalia says.
I nod, still thinking of the last order they had from Nieve. “They
can’t risk losing their numbers so close to tomorrow night’s full
moon. She told Gwen and Archer to go fishing in the morning.”
“Let them try. I want to keep a line here.” Frederik draws a line
across the beach. “For merrows or any rogue mermaids trying to come
ashore.”
Ewin seems confused. “Why would the mermaids of your court attack
the shore when you’re defending it?”
“Because the king is dead,” I say. “The trident is severed into
three pieces, which means his laws, his bindings, they’re all going to
be broken.”
“It’s what has kept the land safe from us for eons,” Brendan says.
“And also from us being discovered by humans,” Kai adds. “Our laws
have changed. Actually, they’ve been discarded completely.”
“She doesn’t have Layla anymore, but she’s still keeping the
nautilus maid. She hasn’t figured out what I want with her. She
doesn’t know about the Sleeping Giants. Big plus for us.” I draw
Toliss as I remember it-the beach, the forest, the river that leads to
a waterfall behind the valley where the Sea Court gathers. The king’s
throne, marking the entrance to the inner chambers.
“So how do I get me from here to here?” I say, drawing a line with
my fingertip from the boardwalk to Toliss.
“What do you mean ‘you’?” Layla says. “We’re all going. Isn’t that
the point of having a small army? That you don’t have to go at it
alone?”
Frederik stands beside me. I’m so used to Kurt being there,
lending his suggestions. But Kurt isn’t here, is he? I have to keep
reminding myself of that because part of me keeps forgetting.
“I have to go in first,” I say. “You’ll wait for my signal. What’s
up, Vampire Guy?”
“I’m concerned the night creatures won’t be much help until
nightfall.”
Kai shakes her head. “Not so.”
“What do you mean, not so?” Marty asks, jumpy. “Sun equals
extra-well-done vampires. And no offense to other supernatural beings
in the room, but few things on this plane equal vampire strength.”
Ewin smirks and Marty amends his statement. “Except for a warrior
of the Vasiks clan.”
Kai takes the marker and draws the outline of an eclipse in the
corner.
“Remember the prophecy,” Shelly says, repeating one line. “‘ And
in darkness we will remain .’ Everything we’re doing is changing the