saying good-bye. My lady-in-waiting came in to pack for me and told me
where we were going. That’s why I’m not at court. I’d be expected to
sit around waiting for his return. Dead or alive.”
The sharpness of her words is startling. It really is a different
world. “I don’t get why you have to hide your powers. Everyone knows
Thalia can talk to her sea horse.”
Gwen forces a laugh. “It’s not that I’m hiding. I don’t believe we
should be forced to reveal all parts of ourselves. After all, there
was once a time when we all had magics. But like anything else, when
you suppress it long enough, you forget it. If you really wanted to,
you could make yourself forget anything.”
I don’t think that’s true. There’s nothing that would make me
forget my parents or Layla. But I don’t say as much. Instead I say,
“Show me something.”
She tilts her head to the side and looks at me with those gray
eyes. She takes a long puff and blows the purple smoke out slowly. Her
fingers reach up to the swirling smoke, where they take the shapes of
a mermaid and a merman. They swim around each other; they have faces
and arms, and lips, which they aren’t shy about using. They run their
hands against each other so hard that I think they’ll go right through
the smoke. She twirls her fingers again, and they’re pulled apart.
Their faces contort, their arms reach for one another. They look up at
Gwen with ghoulish faces. And then the smoke goes out, and the only
thing that lingers is the smell of burning flowers.
“What the-” I start. “And Elias knows you can do that?” Knew.
Elias knew.
Something dark passes over her eyes. “Magic isn’t bad . But it’s
considered dangerous. The Sea King always worries we can’t be trusted
with it.”
“Can you?” I adjust the weight of my backpack. I can feel the thin
hum of the sword. “Be trusted with it?”
She doesn’t say anything. I think of how quickly she used it to
help Layla win. It’s not her fault Elias attacked me, but if she
hadn’t done it, everything might be different now. We stay in this
silence, staring over the railing. Right below us the lifeguard girls
and Layla are watching Kurt talk to Thalia. If he would look up, he’d
see me and Gwen watching them.
The giggles from below drift up. Cindy is loud-whispering to the
other girls, “Ohmigod, he’s so totally hot . Why are all of his
cousins so totally hot?”
Gwen rolls her eyes. We lean closer and hold on to the metal bars.
It looks like we’re in a little prison.
“Even the girls!” another girl says.
“It’s so unfair,” a third girl adds. “At least there’s finally
more eye candy than Tristan.”
“I always though Tristan was just a man-slut who thought he was
too hot for everyone.”
The girls laugh. Layla doesn’t say anything in my defense. Do they
know that we kissed only minutes ago? Would she even tell them?
“I don’t think you’re too hot for everyone,” Gwen jokes, elbowing
me in the side.
“Har-har.” I wish I had a bucket of water to dump on them.
Cindy gasps, like she just got hit with the mother lode of ideas.
“You should go talk to Kurt, Layla.”
“Why?” she says defensively. “It’s not like I haven’t talked to
him before .”
“Yeah, but you said you think he’s hot. So you need to go ask him
if he has a girlfriend.”
“He doesn’t.”
“Did you ask ?”
Layla groans. “No, but he never talks about one.”
“Guys never say it unless you ask. It’s like they think they can
get away with it if you don’t ask. So it’s technically not lying.”
Girl Number Two chimes in, “Yeah, I hate when they do that.”
“He’s not like that,” Layla says, and I hate that she comes to
Kurt’s defense and not mine.
She stands up with protest, taking time to smooth out her tank
top. She pulls her ponytail loose and shakes her hair out. The
lifeguard girls whistle.
Gwen laughs. “Ugh, I can smell their humanity. It’s like a burning
tar pit.”
I force myself to laugh, because my skin is on fire as Layla walks
up to Kurt and Thalia. Thalia says something and points to the house.
Layla shrugs and Thalia walks away, handing Kurt her backpack. I bet
they’re asking where I’ve gone. Kurt adjusts the bag on his shoulder.
Even with his human clothes and surfer-dude hair, his violet eyes
stand out. People take turns stealing quick looks at him. He catches
himself bowing at Layla when she stands in front of him and smiles at
his feet.
She tucks her thumbs in the pockets of her skirt and shifts her
entire weight to one side. I’ve never seen her flirt before. Not
really. It’s not that she thinks I’m making her like me; it’s that she
doesn’t want to tell me that she wants him . Of course, Tristan. How
could you be so stupid? I want to puke. I want to jump over this
railing and toss him in the water, rip his face off for talking to my
girl.
Gwen stands up. “ Boring . I’m getting hungry.” She loops her arm
through mine and kisses my cheek with her glossy lips. “Cheer up,
little merman.”
“Huh? I’m not upset.”
“Sure you’re not.” She says this matter-of-factly.
I’m glad she doesn’t pry. I decide I like Gwen. She’s like the
friend who is brutally honest with you even when you want someone to
help you nurse your wounds.
“You’re a prince, Tristan. You should learn to keep your emotions
from your face.”
I open the door. She thumbs my cheek where her sticky pink
lipstick must have left a trace. Someone bumps into her, sloshing a
cup full of beer all over Gwen. Her gray eyes darken like the sky
getting ready for a thunderstorm. A thunderstorm directed right at
Maddy, who stands in a white David Bowie T-shirt and a long black
skirt. Her eyes are drunken headlights as she pats Gwen’s hip where
the beer sloshed.
Maddy laughs and hiccups. She slurs an apology. Then she sees me.
Her eyes fall to where my cheek is pink with lipstick. I wonder how
many things could go wrong all at once without me even trying.
“Maddy.” When I say her name, her eyes focus.
I hold on to Gwen’s hand to appease her, and her eyes go back to
their unstormy gray.
“Your cousin?” Maddy says. “The one with the green hair? You know?
She said I needed to come see you.”
She wobbles where she stands. She pulls her braids off to one
side, and when she does so, her necklace gets caught. She pulls too
hard and the chain breaks. It slides down her shirt. She cups her
hands over it to stop it.
“What is that?” I don’t care that I’m yelling.
Maddy shakes her head, but she loses her balance and gropes at the
air. The necklace keeps sliding. I hold on to her by the waist. The
Venus pearl falls to the wooden floor with a thud.
“You lied to me,” I say.
“You cheated on me!”
Thalia ascends the staircase and takes in the sight of us. I don’t
know who she’s more surprised to see, Gwen or Maddy.
“Let go of me!” Maddy pushes me off her, and we both grab for the
necklace at the same time. Her fingers clamp around it. I’m flashing
back to junior high football when we had a coed team for about a
second. I always lost the ball, because I didn’t want to hurt the
girls. She elbows me in the gut and steps on my feet.
“Maddy, you don’t know what you’re doing. I need that back.”
From outside the house there’s a crashing noise, like windows
breaking and things falling into the pool. Gwen doesn’t miss a beat