when I woke up and the scepter wasn’t there. Like something inside of
me was missing, couldn’t be filled.
“This is still mine.”
She pushes herself up, but the turtle giant is unsteady and we
both heave. She thrusts the trident to the sky and pulls on the
lightning. But I’m faster. I can feel my sea horse’s power inside me.
I push the quartz scepter through her heart.
The silver mermaid gasps, tendrils of lightning wrapping around
her in bursts. Her bright red blood stains her white skin, and the
silver scales dissolve instantly. I hold her wrist. Her flesh hardens
beneath my fingers. Her head rolls back in a scream that scares the
sky into silence.
When Nieve dies, the coral of her bone solidifies around the
crystal of my scepter. Her hand around the rest of the trident.
When I pry the weapons out of her hands, what’s left of her snaps
into brittle little pieces. There is no garden outside the Glass
Castle; there are no tears of pearl. The sky trembles above me. Waves
rise to meet my touch. I slide the quartz piece back into the trident
and it’s complete once again. It’s like the world falls apart, like
everything is rushing past me all at once, heavy on my shoulders. Is
this what Nieve felt? Is this what my grandfather felt? It’s like
thousands of voices linked around me. The cries of the sea people, the
waves, thunder and lightning, and the deepest ends of the ocean. It’s
part of me. For a moment, I can’t breathe.
The turtle giant moans, a long sad noise. I can feel its anger,
its confusion. It’s been asleep for so long, and believe me, I know
what it’s like to get woken up before I’m ready.
“It’s okay, boy,” I say. “Stop right there.”
Even though I’ve got this awesome trident, I’m not ready for the
turtle giant to hit the coast. Its steps shake the ground and I nearly
topple over. It kneels forward, lowering its head so I can walk off.
Its eye is not as fierce as I saw in the vision of their battle.
“You must be tired.” I press my hand on its nose. The tide washes
around us. “We just have one last thing to do, okay? Then you can be
free.”
I don’t speak ancient turtle, but he opens his mouth and a deep
horn blast rings out.
Behind me is the shore I’ve known forever. Ahead is the open sea
that calls to me. When I close my eyes, I can feel the waves listening
to me, pulling back from land. I search and search for the thoughts of
the kraken. He’s off on the Jersey Shore, plucking out a group of
crazy guys who thought it’d be fun to go body surfing into the middle
of a storm.
“Alleas,” I tell the kraken, his name like a faint memory in the
back of my thoughts. “Come back, we still have work to do.”
“Doris,” I say out loud. “Can you hear me?”
She neighs.
“The merrows. Stop them from coming on land.”
Together the turtle giant-his name pops into my mind, Krios-Krios
and Doris dive back into the stretch between Coney and Toliss. But the
merrows that don’t make it into their awaiting jaws still make it onto
the shore, and I know this is far from over. The line of troops we
kept to protect the shore is led by Dylan. Mermen and vampires fight
with fang and sword against the intruders.
I take my trident and aim it, one, three, six, twelve. Lightning
strikes, breaking the merrows into black, fleshy piles that get pulled
in by the waves.
Dylan runs over to me and starts to kneel, and I press my hand on
his shoulder.
“No time for that,” I say. “This isn’t over yet.”
•••
Dylan and I swim into the waves. I shift into my tail and this new
power is a turbo boost. I reach the Toliss shore in minutes. My legs
rip when I break the surface.
After all the pandemonium, the silence on the beach is unnerving.
I take in the momentary quiet of the beach, the darkness of the sky. I
can feel the giants returning. Their steps shake the earth. All three
of them touch my mind with quiet good-byes as they make their way into
the ocean, free.
When I hear my name, I smile. Dylan’s finally caught up.
“Tristan, watch out,” he screams, wading out of the water.
Behind me is Leomaris, raising his dagger. I slam my trident at
him like a baseball bat and he falls back, blood dripping out of his
mouth.
“It’s over,” I tell him.
He spits on the white sand. “As long as you live, we will always
fight. Every day, every night, we will come for you.”
I stare at him for a little bit. He doesn’t get up, his amber eyes
so pained from losing his son. I was wrong about merpeople. I always
thought they didn’t care about death, just because they didn’t leave
traces behind. Except they do, and they will remember for ages.
“You will never know the truth of our ways,” he says. “You will
never know, and you will die a young king.”
Bodies surround us now.
“I know,” I tell him, taking the trident and piercing his chest. I
force myself to look at him, even though what I want to do is close my
eyes, just close my eyes for a little while.
He crumbles into coral.
“Report,” I say to Frederik.
Black smudges cover his face. “It seems that when you defeated the
silver mermaid, what was left of her army ran away.”
Surrounded by the landlocked, the Alliance, and what’s left of the
Sea Court, I know what I have to do. I know that I’ve never been one
to believe in prophecies. I believe that my fate is my own. I did
this. I chose this. I wanted to fight for these people.
And I have fought.
And I have won.
I hold the power of the trident, the power of the king. Layla
takes my hand, and in that moment, I am certain.
“This isn’t a congratulation speech,” I say. “This isn’t a
congratulation speech because I’m not the one that’s won anything. Our
homes are safe for now, if a little more crunchy than usual. But we
will rebuild. We will rebuild the Glass Castle, this time with metal
of some sort and hope for the best. We will rebuild the lake here, and
the throne, and it’ll be better than it was before.” I turn to Penny.
“The landlocked are free of their bindings. I release you and your
children.
“For as long as I’ve been a merman, I’ve had other people tell me
that ‘the sea people are responsible for their own demise.’ They
aren’t wrong. Not from where I’ve been standing. It’s time that we
take that back. And the only way to move forward is with a king who
truly knows you.”
I turn to Kurt, and he takes a step back. “What are you doing?”
I hold the trident out for him to take. “My grandfather was right.
I was meant to change things. To make you see that humans aren’t so
bad, that the landlocked can be forgiven. You don’t have to be afraid
of the unknown. But the kingship? That was meant for you.”
“Tristan-”
“I’m only going to offer the one time,” I say, the power of the
trident pulling me. It’s tempting, it is. I saw how power was a living
force that fed Nieve. I never want to be like that.
Kurt takes the trident from me. He stares at it for a long time,
and I know in my bones I’ve done the right thing.
“King Kurtomathetis,” I say.
He laughs, taking my arm. “Just call me Kurt.”
For days, I stay on the island.
Along with the Alliance and the landlocked-not so landlocked
now-we help rebuild Toliss as much as we can.
Most of it is on Kurt, whose formal awkwardness as my guardian has
translated into being a king. Sometimes he forgets that he can smite
people if he felt like it, and he bows at the end of conversations.