“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.”
“What does Nieve love?” I wonder aloud. “Besides her power.”
We say it together. “Her children.”
Steps echo outside our chamber prison. Kurt and I remain silent as
Gwen comes back in. She ignores Kurt and touches the bloody gashes
where the sea dragon grabbed me, and I scream bloody murder.
She flinches and looks me dead in the eyes. “You’re awake.”
“Gwen.” I take on a lighter tone. “Enjoying the weather?”
“You don’t have to put on a brave face,” she says.
“Is that what you’re doing?” I will her to look at me. “Because
you don’t have to heal me. You can let me bleed out. I’ve been
wondering lately what will happen to me when I die. You know, since
I’m half human. Humans leave behind their bones, no matter how old
they are. It’s the one thing that we have in common at the very end.
But then there’s the fishy part of me. What if the bottom half of me
washes away in little bubbles and from my waist up I’m all human bone?
What if it’s the other way around?” I cough and laugh, making a
terrible choking sound.
“Say something,” I whisper.
The white stone walls bounce my words back at me. Say something.
She squeezes the towel soaked with a green liquid. Then she throws
it on the floor. The green ooze trickles from the broken shell bowl
and spreads out like the Finger Lakes on a map.
“What would you have me say?” Gwen lowers her face to mine. “That
I love you. That I love you so much I’d betray my family for you?”
She laughs a bitter laugh and turns away so I can’t see her. “We
have worked too hard and too long to stop now. Don’t you see? Mother
will bring our people together when we take over the land that once
belonged to us.”
“That world doesn’t belong to you,” I say. I pull at my bindings,
my joints screaming in pain. “Is that what you really want, or your
mother?”
She traces her fingers on my face, down my neck and along where
the cuts on my shoulder have started to scab. Her magic leaves a dirty
trail on me, and I think I’d rather feel the pain.
“I don’t know what I want anymore,” she says softly. Then she
turns around and leaves me, walking out into the dark corridors of the
Toliss chambers.
“Gwen, don’t go,” I say. “Don’t go.”
“Leave her,” Kurt tells me.
She stops at the door, but she isn’t talking to me. She’s talking
to someone out there, waiting in the hallway. “He’s ready.”
Leomaris walks in. It wasn’t Adaro I thought I saw; it was his
father. His long hair is pulled back, and the thick golden band frames
his forehead. He’s joined by a slender merman with a face that looks
like a jigsaw puzzle of skins.
Leomaris raises his hand and the binding ropes loosen. My muscles
are cramped and I fall hard on my face. They’re on me at once.
“Gwen!” I shout her name but she’s gone.
Leomaris and the merman pick me up and drag me out into the
hallway.
“You’re making a mistake,” I tell the herald. “You can’t trust
her.”
“I don’t have to trust her,” he tells me. “I can’t defeat her. No
one can. Someone has to pay for my son’s death. That someone is you.”
They throw me in front of the great white throne where I first met
my grandfather. Kurt falls beside me on his knees, his head bent
forward. Wet strands of hair cover his face.
Then there’s Nieve flanked by Archer and Gwen. She smiles wide as
a shark, her teeth a waiting trap. Her legs are covered with bright
silver scales that look thick as armor, right down to the ankles where
her slender feet touch the ground. Her crown is gilded gold with woven
pearls as if they’re floating on her white hair.
The pool was once bright and laughing with mermaids singing and
swimming. The paradise welcomed me to my life as a merman. Now there
is only the smell of death. Merrows in clusters adding to the
destruction. It’s gone, broken in half. The gash down the lake has
created a connecting rush of water from the shore. It’s like a
wrecking crew ripped out the lake and went straight for the sea,
crushing the valley wall that used to block the surrounding trees.
Now, that’s all demolished. From here, there’s a direct path where
trees were crushed to mulch. The sea is dark and I squint my eyes for
some sign that my army got my signal, that I wasn’t too late-
No, it wasn’t a wrecking crew that did this. Not even Nieve. Not
the merrows. It was the Sleeping Giants. Well, wide awake now.
With a shove, I’m on my knees beside Kurt, facing the Silver
Queen. The pieces of the trident are suspended in the air for her to
take. Hands push our heads to the ground. My cheek presses against the
top of her foot. She lifts my chin with her toes. Kicks me in the
face.
First, she holds the Staff of Eternity. She twirls it between her
hands like a baton. Her merrows holler and shout in a discordant
chorus. Then she takes the Scepter of the Earth. My scepter. I tug on
my ropes, summoning the energy that ran inside me moments ago, but
it’s gone. She slides the handle into one of the openings of the
staff. The core of the quartz lights up like a headlight shining in my
face. I have to look away.
Then she takes the Trident of the Skies. She holds it alone first,
raising it to the sky, pulling on the power of the heavens until it
circles her in a shower of sparks. Kurt can’t look, but I force
myself. I force myself to get angry. I force myself to hate.
Finally, she connects the missing piece. The lake of the Sea Court
is full of stomping feet and shouts of victory.
Then she walks forward to face her merrows. She raises the trident
into the sky and blocks out the sun.
Without my scepter, I don’t know what to do but watch the silver
mermaid wield the Trident of the Seas.
Her exterior changes. She looks taller, her hair as white as the
lightning that courses through her body. She stares straight into the
eclipse, and in turn, we all stare at her. I don’t want to. But she’s
a force of nature, wild and fierce. Her arms look like they’re holding
up the sky.
The waves around Toliss are so tall that I can see the white surf
rising high.
“Today we take back our oceans,” she says.
Kurt lifts his head to look at me, his eyes glowing. He doesn’t
have to say it. No matter what, Nieve can’t win. Even if it means our
lives.
Merrows flood out of the court and into the sea. Terrible moans