Page 19 of Cruel Tides (Queen of Tridents #2)

19

Claira

G lancing down at the sky’s reflection in the water, I sighed. By the look of the midday sun, I hadn’t slept for very long. There was still half of a day left. With Leander still at his father’s side and no end to King Eamon’s anger in sight, what was I supposed to do with myself now? My eyes scanned the empty stretch of water leading out to the horizon.

There was nothing for me to do.

No nets to mend, fish to clean, or boats to wash down. Well, there was one boat, but unless I’d missed a whole spare engine lying around here somewhere, it wouldn’t be running any time soon.

“Hey! You’re not supposed to stand there,” a voice called out behind me, and I turned to see an accusatory finger pointing to the spot where my boots met the pier. “See those planks you’re standing on? One, two, three, four steps. My papa says everyone has to stay four steps away from the water!” The little merfry sniffled in a shiny bubble of snot, her chest puffing with pride. “And whatever my papa says, you gotta listen to,” she added with a knowing nod.

“Is that right?” I suppressed a laugh as I took a lengthy step away from the edge of the pier. The merfry’s face brightened. She looked so satisfied by my compliance that it wouldn’t surprise me if she thought she was a captain herself. I took three more steps.

Her grin expanded, showing off a sizable gap between two squared front teeth. “Yeah, that’s right. Because he’s a captain, and you gotta do whatever a captain tells you to do. Even if it’s eating something yucky like a lobster .”

The merfry’s snotty nose crinkled, and I found it hard to hold back a chuckle. “Thanks for letting me know. I didn’t know there was a rule about the pier.”

“Yeah,” she said, her lips slowly broadening. “You were standing so close to the water that I could have pushed you right in.” The edges of her mouth curled up as she spoke, the slight movement molding her face into an alarming vision of uncanny and otherworldly madness—a creature more than human. A chill crept up my spine.

The merfry turned her eyes down to the open palms of her hands, and the sinister aura seemed to evaporate away from her smile, morphing her face back into the likeness of any normal yet mischievous human child.

I recoiled a step back as the merfry rocked playfully up and down on the tips of her toes. She looked so harmless. All bright eyes rimmed with long lashes, with an angelic tilt to her chin as she shuffled on her feet. It was a sharp contrast to the horror I’d seen only a second earlier.

My eyes blinked rapidly, studying her face for another glimpse of the more-than-human side of her. I’d been away from merfolk for so long; were all of them like this? A kingdom of deep-sea terrors draped in human flesh?

Did that make me a terror, too?

My whole body froze with that thought. Had I ever checked to see if my eyes glinted with fury like Leander’s and his father’s? Could I immobilize and bewitch some unsuspecting mortal with a pull of my lips? As far as I knew, I’d done none of those things. Never even wanted to.

But had I ever thought to look at myself in the mirror to see if I had a fiend living inside me, too?

“Hey, your name is Claira, right? My name’s Echinea. Do you want to see my shells?” The merfry’s dark crop of hair bounced off her shoulders as she struggled to wiggle a heaping fistful of shells out of her pocket. “I have thirty-nine shells. Thirty-nine!” The back of her free hand wiped across her face, smearing a shiny line of snot above her top lip. “Started collecting them as soon as they took us here. Look! Look at this one.” She dug a cream-colored disk out of the bunch and held it up for me to take.

“Wow, Echinea, you found a perfectly whole one. That’s impressive.” I accepted the circular shell and held it up so that sunlight could shine through it. “It’s a really pretty sand dollar. Where did you find it?”

“Sand dollar?” Echinea sniffed sharply before snatching the shell out of my fingers. “It’s a clypeasteroida , and it used to be alive .” She whipped her head back to scowl at me, her eyes narrowing. “Hey… why do you wanna know where I got it?”

I blinked down at her, interested in her reaction. I’d mostly asked just to humor her, but now I was curious. “Maybe I want to go down to the beach and find a nice, juicy lobster for dinner?”

“Eww,” she groaned.

I shrugged. “Better me catching them than your father.”

Her mouth opened wide in contemplation. “Answer a riddle, and maybe I’ll tell you.”

A riddle? And from a merfry young enough that her father still called her a sea squirt? It must have been some sort of popular new game. Times certainly had changed from the days of digging for clams and playing shooters. “All right, let’s hear it.”

Leaning in close, she recited the words like she was confiding a secret. “I follow each boat, each bird, each fish, each net… I glide across the ocean floor, but I never get wet.”

Echinea paused, her eyes growing wide with a sort of strange optimism. She seemed to hold her breath as I puzzled over the rhyme.

“Hmm.” What followed a boat, a bird, a fish, and a net? “Is there more to it?”

Her face fell. “You don’t know either, do you?”

“Echo!” a deep voice cut between us, and Echinea’s spine shot up as straight as a captain’s spear. Her hands moved faster than lightning bolts, working to shove the shells back into her pocket. She spun around and took off for the warehouse.

“My papa needs me,” she yelled out, not even bothering to look back. “And he’s a captain, so I gotta go!”

Her hair trailed behind her in a dark swish of movement as she ran. I’d spent little time with young mermaids, even when I was a merfry myself. It sure was impressive to see how much chaotic energy Poseidon had managed to fit into such a small package.

“You look like you had a good nap,” a low voice called from behind me, and I turned to see Kai’s cheerful smile.

“Oh, wow,” I said, taking in how different he looked in the daylight. I’d thought his hair was blond, but the short tips were actually a light shade of purple. An edgy choice—one that seemed to set off his overly bright persona. “You made it out of the gas station.”

“Yep, sure did!” He stepped next to me, and his hand dipped into his front pocket. “Brought you a little something.”

Half-expecting Kai to pull out a fistful of seashells, it surprised me when his hand emerged with what looked like a long, plastic snack packet.

He flourished the lengthy package of meat in the air, looking like a triumphant puppy waiting for praise and a pat on the head for a job well done.

“A beef stick,” I drawled. My mind went back to the disaster that was the gas station. Surely the mob of raccoons wouldn’t have left anything edible behind?

“Thanks, that was very thoughtful of you.” I took the stick, and his puppy-dog eyes opened even wider. Wow . His irises really were lilac. It was a softer shade than the purple color of his hair but still an odd coloring for a human or a merman. Next to him, my fiery red hair probably didn’t seem as absurd as usual.

His face seemed bursting with energy as he nodded, urging me on. He totally expected me to eat it right now. Gulping, I peeled back a corner and ripped off a chunk of meat with my teeth. Lilac eyes settled on my lips as I ate it, and self-consciousness crept in—like I’d suddenly forgotten how normal people were supposed to chew.

At least it tasted all right. I went for another bite.

“Do you feel like getting out of here?” he asked casually, and an arm hooked around my shoulder.

I nearly choked trying to swallow down a half-chewed chunk of beef. “Wh-what, right now?”

“Of course, right now! We’ve got a whole half of a day ahead of us, and I hear you’ve been busy lately learning to swim. Oi, Barren! Hey, man!” Kai’s hand shot up into the air, waving at the black car parked next to the warehouse. A tinted window rolled down a few inches, just long enough to show off the squared angle of Barren’s jaw, and raised back up again.

“Wait,” I said, pulling my arm back as Kai bounded for the car. “Hold on, Kai. I’m not going anywhere with you guys.”

“We won’t leave the compound. Don’t worry.” Kai turned to me, and when he saw my expression, his friendly smile wavered. His arms sank down to his sides like weights. “There are guards posted on the ends of the streets, and we already ran it past King Eamon. He knows we won’t take you out of his territory.”

He took a few backward steps toward the car without me, his eyes never leaving mine.

I eyed the open door to the warehouse. Maybe Kai had a point. It was odd that King Eamon hadn’t posted anyone around to guard me. Sure, a captain would have been a bit much, but not one mer seemed to care about the captive being whisked away by the princes of foreign kingdoms. Plus, Leander told me I could trust Barren, and Barren was the one sitting in the driver’s seat.

Biting my lip, I thought about what my options were. Stand around all day waiting for Leander to finish his princely duties, or take a ride with some strangers. Choices.

Feeling suddenly foolish, I heaved a sigh and stepped toward the car.

Kai beat me to the passenger side—he clearly kept springs hidden in his shoes. When he moved to the back door, my hand was already on the front seat’s handle. Yeah, he could sit back there but there was no way I was getting stuck in the back with him. Barren was a merman, and my last trip with ocean dwellers hadn’t exactly gone well.

Ugh. My stomach rolled at just the thought of rumble strips. Never again. If it turned out Barren’s driving was anything like those freaking harpies, I needed to be within reaching distance of the steering wheel.

I swung open the door, edging my hip toward the seat so Kai wouldn’t have time to bounce on those springs of his and beat me to it.

“RAAAAAAAAH.”

A tan snout lunged at me from inside the car, its whiskers splayed out on high alert. Jaws opened wide, shooting off bark after bark, the creature’s head bobbing closer to my face with each subsequent yap. My feet scrambled to get me the heck out of there at the exact moment my hips decided they were too broad to fit through a reasonably sized car doorway. Fan-freaking-tastic.

Time slowed as the left side of my hip caught on the edge of the car, bouncing me into the free-swinging door, where I then ricocheted in the other direction. The earth practically lurched underneath my boots as I fell backward, the yapping snout and car quickly replaced by clear blue as the sky rolled into my vision. But before I hit the rocks, something caught me by my waist, snagging me up like a fish on a line, pulling me back to my feet.

The barks turned into one long crackle of amusement, drawing my eyes back to the passenger seat, where a sea lion was situated on top of the cushion, its tail tucked in a neat circle around it. When our eyes met, the yap grew even louder. Why did the sound remind me of laughter?

“Laverne!” Kai’s voice barked back at the sea lion from over my shoulder, and my boots stirred up gravel as I slid away from the car. I looked down in time to see Kai’s lean arms as they loosened around me, his body coming up next to mine. “Come on, we talked about this! That’s no way to greet a new friend!”

The sea lion turned its snout up sharply, almost like it was a deliberate move made in defiance. But that was too silly, right? A sea lion acting openly defiant…

I blinked at the scene in front of me, my eyes jumping from the stone-faced titan with his wide hand resting on the steering wheel to the rowdy sea creature sitting beside him. I couldn’t decide which of them seemed more out of place.

“Laverne?” I tested saying the name as Kai stepped in front of me, his finger wagging and chin held in the air like he was about to count to three before putting the sea creature in time out. “But why a sea lion? ” I gasped out, exasperated by the absurdity of it all. “We don’t even have sea lions here!”

“Well, why not? Laverne isn’t from here.” Kai’s finger booped the very tip of the sea lion’s snout, and he tucked the rest of its head back into the car before carefully closing the door. “She’s from sunny California!” he beamed, gesturing up to the sky with a much too enthusiastic wave of his arms.

I stood there focusing on the bright color of his hair, his arms flailing, until my mind conjured up an old commercial featuring a wacky inflatable tube person. I had to look away so I wouldn’t be sucked into the silliness and start singing the jingle. “Wait—California? You brought a sea lion all the way here from California? ”

“Yeah?” Kai shrugged, easing open the back door. “Sorry, but I think it’s better if you let her sit in the front. She’s still not over the plane ride.” Holding the door open extra wide, he took a lengthy step back and gestured to the back seat like he expected me to get in first. Great—he totally thought I was a klutz. He was probably going to give me a wide berth in every doorway from here on out. Was there a way to tuck in your hips as you walked?

I took a stiff step forward, too embarrassed to check if his lilac eyes were on my curves as I walked. When I ducked to slip through the doorway, Kai closed in beside me, his head dipping so low his lips were almost against my ear. “She’s upset they made her fly in the cargo hold,” he whispered, then flashed me a genuine smile.

I swallowed hard and dove into the back seat. It was far more cramped than I’d expected, and my butt stalled in the middle seat.

Barren’s seat was pushed so far back there wasn’t even room to squeeze into the seat behind him. And yet his knees looked cramped, and his legs were wedged underneath the dashboard on either side of the steering wheel. My eyes swept over the entire expanse of his body, from the shiny toe of his enormous dress shoe as it pressed against the brake pedal to the top of his dark curls blending in with the upholstery, flattened down by the roof of the car. Talk about a tight fit.

I cleared my throat. “Uh, hey there,” I said, feeling strangely awkward. How were you supposed to interact with undersea royalty when you didn’t really consider yourself a part of their world? Were normal greetings off the table? Staring at the back of Barren’s head, I noticed his jaw seemed to tighten, but he offered no greeting in return. Not like that, apparently. Noted.

Kai dove in beside me, and I scooted over until my leg dug into the back of the driver’s seat. When his butt landed, our hips pressed snugly together.

So much for my wide berth.

“Don’t forget to buckle your car leashes!” Kai said brightly, his hands going for the strap of his seat belt. The sea lion in the front seat groaned, her head whipping back and forth like a loose sprinkler. “Oh, come on, Laverne,” he cooed. When he fastened his buckle, he leaned forward to scratch at the short hair on the back of the sea lion’s neck. “Gotta make sure my best girl is always safe, don’t I?”

Laverne’s pitch lowered to a rumble, her tongue chirping softly like she was eating up all his praise. After a few more good scratches, Kai’s hand left her neck and slid over to her seat belt. When he held it out, Laverne gave a haughty snort, but Kai clicked his tongue, and she relented, snatching the buckle out of his hand with her teeth. Her neck seemed to move like it was boneless, contorting to draw the belt around her belly as her jaw sank to latch the buckle down into place.

I was almost too astounded by the feat to notice that Kai was now leaning into me . His arm reached over my body, his hand feeling around the space between Barren’s seat and my hip.

“Wait—what are you?” I gasped, my pulse kicking into overdrive. Kai was overly friendly, sure, but I hadn’t read him as that kind of overly friendly.

“You too.” The weight from his shoulder left me as he pulled back, bringing the buckle of my seat belt up with him. “Sorry, I know mermaids don’t like feeling trapped, but it makes me nervous.” His voice trailed as he pulled the seat belt over me. He clicked it in with a smile that showed his relief. “I feel better with you wearing the leash, too.”

It felt strange, looking at Kai’s lips as he smiled. While other grins seemed to hold a million hidden meanings, there was something so genuine about the way his mouth formed. Like his smile was simply that—an expression of pure emotion I didn’t have to spend energy dissecting, picking apart for its actual intent. Looking at him felt… oddly refreshing.

Barren shifted into drive, and I suddenly remembered that a merman was at the wheel. Though from how smoothly his arm slid back up, resting on the twelve o’clock position like driving was second nature to him, he sure looked like someone who knew what he was doing behind a steering wheel. I held my breath as the tires started moving over the gravel. A smooth start— thank Poseidon . I let my spine relax back into the seat a fraction.

Laverne’s head slowly turned, bending back like a crazy straw until it was completely turned upside down. Were all sea lions able to move their necks around like owls did? As I pondered that thought, pitch-black eyes caught mine. When Laverne seemed sure she had my attention, the dark circles of her eyes narrowed into mere slits.

There was definitely something she wanted to tell me. I cleared my mind on instinct, waiting for words or emotions to project their way into my mind, but nothing came through.

Whiskers on her chin twitched, pointing all the way up at the ceiling. It was kind of cute, actually, how the little lines of whiskers on her snout were all—

A wad of spit rocketed through the air like a bullet, hitting a mark that just so happened to be right in the center of my forehead.

“What the—Laverne!” Kai gasped, throwing his hands up like her behavior was a complete shock to him. “That’s not how we treat our new friends!”

Okay, maybe some emotion had gotten through.

Laverne definitely did not like me.

Warm spit slid down the space between my eyebrows, and I went for my sleeve. “No, no, use mine,” Kai said, lifting the bottom of his overshirt.

Ignoring his offer, I scrubbed over my face. After everything my clothes had seen me through over the past day, what difference did some sea lion spit make? “No worries, it’s just a little slobber,” I said, but the concerned tilt to Kai’s eyebrows suggested he had a hard time believing it. I inspected the damp circle on my sleeve. Honestly, it looked a little cleaner now than it did before. “It’s fine, really. I’m usually covered in much worse.”

A playful intrigue lit Kai’s eyes, and he leaned in like a kid eager for story time. “Oh? Like what?”

“I, uh…” My brain stalled. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of the work my family did, because I wasn’t. It was hard, honest work. Work that was far below a couple of princes—I stopped myself right there. What they thought of me shouldn’t matter one bit. “Lots and lots of fish goo,” I finally mumbled, turning away so I wouldn’t have to see his carefree features twist in disgust.

A line of buildings flew past the window, their doors and windows boarded up with a mixture of scrap planks and low-grade plywood. Everything looked uneven and half-assed, like whoever had lived here was in a rush to leave everything behind. I shuddered, feeling definite horror movie vibes. What the heck happened in this town before the merfolk arrived?

“Fish goo?” Kai asked, a note of amazement brightening his voice. “Oh! Like some kind of skin treatment? I think it must be working, because I noticed before your nap that the skin underneath your eyes was looking a little—”

Barren barked out a cough so loud that I initially thought it came from Laverne.

“Whoa, you okay, man?” Kai asked, scooting up in his seat to clap a hand over the circular strap of leather covering Barren’s shoulder. I caught the reflection of Barren’s eyes in the rearview mirror, but they flashed right away. It was a nice save—I just hoped that brief glance wasn’t him checking for bags under my eyes.

An awkward silence drifted around us as Kai’s hand stalled on Barren’s shoulder. Out of nowhere, Barren threw back his head and roared out a spontaneous burst of laughter. It was a rough, howling sort of sound that caught me completely off guard. Kai was quick to follow, and he started snickering beside me like he’d just heard the funniest joke in the world. What the heck? I was clearly missing something. Or were they laughing at my face?

I rubbed under my eyes, but neither of them seemed to pay me any mind.

What was so damn funny all of a sudden?

“Oh—oh man!” Kai gasped out, his fist pounding on Barren’s shoulder. Tears streamed from his eyes as his head shook. “You didn’t!”

Barren’s wide chest seemed to be coming out of its fit of convulsions, and the hearty rumble of his laughter slowed as he struggled to catch his breath. What was going on here?

My eyes whipped between the two mermen, then caught on Laverne. Diabolical shadows seemed to form under her eyes as her head swiveled back, sparing me the briefest glance before barking out a few boisterous yaps herself.

“Oh, man, you didn’t hear it?” Kai said, finally noticing how far out of the loop I was. “It’s just that Laverne told this funny story about boarding the plane. The guys rolling her crate, they said—well, you kinda had to hear how she did all the voices—but man, it was so good!” Kai’s poor description seemed to be enough to tickle all three of them all over again, and I folded my arms as an annoying chorus broke out around me.

It was like being the new kid in school all over again. “I like funny stories, too,” I mumbled, my eyes trailing back to the window. Feeling oddly alone, I stewed in silence while they composed themselves. Sure, Kai had tried to include me, but Laverne had sent me an obvious message without bothering to say a single word.

You are not one of us.

Yeah, well, I didn’t need to be a part of their group. It wouldn’t be long before Leander would drag me with him to retrieve his father’s trident, and then all of this would be over with. Getting along with the three of them wasn’t necessary. I just needed to survive a little while longer, and I’d be back home.

The car slowed to a stop, and I blinked at the extensive building outside the window. It suddenly dawned on me—I hadn’t even bothered to ask where we were going before hopping into the car . No wonder I was so easy to kidnap.

“Awesome. Thanks, man,” Kai said, unbuckling his seat belt. “I owe you one.” Before I even thought of going for my buckle, Kai beat me to it. I couldn’t even mumble a thank you before he was out the door.

Kai thumped the back of the car, and I jumped as the trunk popped. He dove right in, pulling out a backpack and a couple of industrial-sized brown paper bags as I crawled out of the back seat. Slinging the backpack over one shoulder, he slammed the trunk closed, and the passenger door window rolled down. I felt my lips tighten as Laverne’s head slid out of the window, her nose veering toward Kai like she was looking for some reassurance. She let out a low sort of crackling noise that sounded a lot like a whine until Kai came over to cup a hand underneath her chin.

“You’ll be fine, Laverne. I’ll be back soon. You need to include Claira next time, okay? It’s not nice to exclude your friends. I think you know how it feels to be left out, don’t you, pretty girl?” Kai cooed, giving her chin a few good scratches. Laverne’s enjoyment of his affection was short-lived. She snorted, seeming less than pleased with his little lecture, and rolled away from his palm. “Make sure you take good care of my girl, all right?”

Instead of answering, Barren opened a pair of sunglasses with a practiced pop of his wrist, adjusted them high on his nose, then reached into the center console and pulled out a second pair. He took care situating them square in the middle of Laverne’s snout before hitting the gas.

Dust trailed behind them as they zoomed off. Before I noticed how my jaw was practically hanging off my face, grit had already found its way into my mouth. I spat it out just as I remembered what Leander had mentioned about trusting Barren to keep me safe. Well, so much for that. “Why are they leaving without us?” I said, coughing up the rest of the dust from my lungs.

“Because it’s my turn!” Kai hiked the backpack over his shoulder and beamed that innocent smile of his. “Leander told you the three of us are going to take turns with you, right?”

I was sure my eyes had popped out of my head. My mouth probably wouldn’t ever hinge properly again.

What did he mean by take turns with me?

Kai bounced to the side of the building, gesturing to the sign over the door by swinging the oversized brown bags through the air. “Even though it’s only half a day, I wanted to be the first to take you out!”

My eyes scanned the sign. “Longshore Bay Community Aquatic Center,” I read aloud, feeling my lips slump. Oh. That’s what he meant. But Longshore Bay? Where was that? I hadn’t even heard of it. And an aquatic center? Like a regular swimming pool chock-full of chemicals? One that was lacking the key ingredient needed to make the whole transformation thing work? What was Kai thinking?

I eyed the bags in his hands. They looked awfully heavy. “Are those bags full of salt?”

“Salt?” he asked, his head tilting. “Why would I bring salt to a community center?”

Something told me this swimming exercise wasn’t going to go quite like he’d planned, but who was I to burst his cheery little bubble?

“Oh, no reason,” I said, walking to the front door. He’d find out on his own soon enough.

Kai passed me one of the brown bags and slid a key out of his pocket. He hummed a cheerful note when it slipped into the door’s lock without resistance. “Nice.”

“You have a key to the community center?” I gawked as the lock turned over. A tag was fixed at the key’s end, the words “Aquatic Center” lettered onto it in such a fanciful script it was hard to imagine anyone other than a scribe had penned it. “How’d you manage that?”

“Barren took me for a tour of the Atlantic’s new territory, and I asked around a bit while you were still asleep.” A thoughtful smile touched the corners of his lips. “Made friends with one of their captains over a game of skipjacks. I had to show him how to play, but he still hooked me up when I won. Turns out they’ve got keys to all of these buildings.”

The merfolk had keys? I’d spent hours trying to cut through that gas station’s damn lock and chain. “So, just to make sure I’m understanding… The Kingdom of the Atlantic showed up one day, and the citizens of Longshore Bay just handed their town over to them?”

After a quick shrug, Kai swung the door wide, motioning for me to go through first. “I guess you can accomplish anything with enough land money.”

Well, yeah. That was the way things worked on land. Problem was, it was hard to believe the Kingdom of the Atlantic actually had any money. They were currently a kingdom held up by poles and scraps of fabric. Their king was ruling from atop a flipping beach chair .

“And it doesn’t hurt that King Eamon has more than a few mermaids under his rule. I’m sure you know a little glamouring can go a long way.” He threw me a playful wink as I passed.

Now that made more sense. The poor citizens had given up their homes, their jobs, their entire lives. The thought made my stomach sour. Freaking mermaid magic. How disgusting.

“Yeah, well, that’s one trick I’m glad I never learned,” I mumbled, making my way inside. Chlorine fumes hit like a rotten fish slapped across my face, the chemical smell burning a trail up my nose. Still, thank Poseidon it wasn’t a saltwater pool.

Even though chlorinated pools were the majority, Kai seemed so carefree, bouncing around and projecting that “everything will work out in the end if we just believe” aura of his, that a part of me wondered if he’d somehow managed to find a pool filled with salt water.

His free and easy smile spoke of his upbringing, as if he’d probably take every minor setback in stride, then credit his positive attitude whenever good fortune landed right on his lap. Yeah, well, can’t relate .

I struggled, hid knives in blankets and under boxes, and took nothing in stride. But at least I wouldn’t have to worry about transforming in front of him for now. His idea of helping me swim would probably boil down to a chant of “just believe in yourself!”

“I don’t think glamouring is something you have to learn to do, right?” Kai came up beside me, his nose wiggling as if he was trying to determine whether he liked the smell of the air. “My little sis was doing it on her own when her tail was only about this long.” His arms spread to a short length. Clearly the tail of a merfry. “She had no problem sweet-talking more food on her plate. Left the rest of us to duke it out over whatever was left. Wham!”

A playful fist went for my stomach, and I used the brown bag as a shield so I could dart ahead of him down the hall. Kai was right on my rear, pantomiming a few more punches aimed at my back—complete with more childish sound effects of wham and pow .

I was laughing before I knew it, easily catching his contagious enthusiasm for our pretend fight. Although each fist stopped short, I fake-dodged every one he threw, and he doubled his efforts when I tossed back a few of my own.

Kai whirled in front of me, his fist barely tapping the side of my cheek, and I held up the brown bag in defeat. “Okay, okay, you got me. Take all my food.” I did a wide sweep with my arms over the lovely expanse of nothing in front of me as he pumped a fist in the air to commemorate his victory. When we caught our breath, I noticed I felt strangely at ease next to him. My lungs felt light and airy, like the burden of thousands of merfolk’s lives had eased off my shoulders for a bit, and I had permission to relax.

“I guess I never needed to learn how to glamour,” I said, matching his leisurely steps. “Even on the off season, Dad and Gram always made sure there was plenty to eat, no magic or fistfights needed.”

I drew in my bottom lip, pondering over what I’d do with that kind of magic. “I hate to admit it, but it’s tempting, knowing you might have this power inside you… To control the people around you if you wanted. Don’t you think?” I cut a glance over at Kai. His grin had turned lopsided, like he couldn’t settle on one particular expression. I laughed nervously, casting my gaze down to my boots. “Now that I said it out loud, it sounds kinda creepy, doesn’t it? Controlling people . Might be nice to sweet-talk Laverne into liking me, though.”

Definitely a tempting thought, but I knew my conscience wouldn’t let me override someone’s freewill, and that included sea lions.

Kai swung an arm around me. “Don’t worry about it. She’ll come around soon.” His voice softened as he patted me on the shoulder. “It isn’t you, you know. She’s had a hard time these last few months.”

“Oh? I can’t imagine what kind of troubles a sea lion might have. They swim, they eat, they lie out on some rocks.” I cleared my throat, wincing at the sound of my rant. Laverne might not like me, but I was totally being unfair. She was a lovely young sea lion with a spirited personality. Of course she had problems of her own.

“She’s got man trouble, among other things. There’s this sea lion bull she really likes, Albert. Out of all the harem kings, his teeth are the largest, so I guess that makes him cute? Anyway, he rejected her again this season, even though he took a lot of new flames into his caves. So, what’s a sea lion to do?” Kai chuckled lightly, tapping a finger against the middle of my forehead. “She barked at him, spat in his face, then told him off. Said she was too much for one bull to handle anyway and stormed out of his territory.”

My lips pursed. She’d totally given me the Albert treatment earlier.

“When she heard I was going to the Atlantic, she told me she was coming along with me. Insisted on it, actually. Said she was ready to go out and start collecting men of her own.”

Uh, what? Like a harem, but reversed ? Was that even a thing? “Has she realized she’s probably the only sea lion on the east coast right now?” My heart sank at the thought. “If you need me to, I can be the one to break it to her. She already doesn’t like me.”

“What makes you think she doesn’t like you?” Kai asked, leading us into the pool room.

Was that really a question? It was obvious she didn’t like me. When I didn’t provide an answer, he nudged my hip with his own, throwing me a thoughtful look. “Well, I think she has her sights on Barren for now. He might not have big teeth, but you’ve seen his arm. It’s huge! ”

I held in a breath, picturing Barren wedged into the driver’s seat. Everything about him was huge, not just his arm. “So, there weren’t any sea lions around, and she set her sights on a merman? For real?” Laughter bubbled up as I pictured the two of them together. Strolls on the beach. Going to meet his parents and Laverne’s coronation as a princess of the Indian Ocean. She’d be wearing those ridiculous sunglasses, of course. Both of them would be.

The arm around my shoulder slid away, disrupting my glorious daydream. “I didn’t know they made bathtubs like this!” Kai exclaimed, running to the side of the stagnant, rectangular swimming pool. “An entire school of humans could fit in here, easy!”

“What do you mean, bathtub? That’s the swimming pool. You know, the place you wanted to take me for our swimming lesson?”

One of Kai’s lavender-blond eyebrows lifted. “Swimming lesson? I didn’t bring you here for swimming, Claira.”

“You… didn’t?” My head slanted as I watched him bend to place the brown bag next to the pool. When he straightened up, he let the backpack slide down his shoulder. “Then why—?” Before I could finish my thought, he had traded my brown bag for the backpack.

“I asked around for a place away from everyone where you could scrub up and refresh yourself. You know, bathe and relax a bit.”

Relax? Scrub up? Dumbfounded, I let him unzip the top of the bag while I held on to the straps.

“I picked out some clothes for you. See? Oh, this one!” He dug through the bag and yanked out a neatly folded T-shirt. “See, it’s red,” he said with a hint of wonder in his voice, obviously expecting me to be impressed. “Just like your hair! Go on, have a look.”

Letting the backpack drop, I accepted the shirt, holding it up so the bottom could unfold.

And unfold it did. When the fabric settled, I was face-to-face with a cartoon crab holding a wooden sign and sporting a pair of suggestively cocked eyebrows. And that wasn’t even the best part of it. No, the best part was written on the sign in big, bold lettering. Some cheeky designer had scrawled “GOT CRABS” over the illustrated planks of wood.

There wasn’t even a question mark; it was a statement.

Clearly a tasteful choice.

“Oh, wow, I—I love it.” I contorted my lips into what I hoped was a passable smile. Would he notice if I wore it inside-out? “Thank you for thinking of me.”

My current outfit was beyond salvageable, but did I really want to go around with that kind of advertisement plastered over my chest? Ugh.

Kai clapped his hands in approval before diving back into the bag. Crabs danced in my vision as I waited for what was to come next. “There’s a gray one, too—to go with your eyes. It has this cool-looking shark on it. You’re gonna love it.”

A second shirt emerged, this one depicting a shark standing up on its tail and leaning against a surfboard. It was striking a pose that screamed “intended for children,” but at least it suggested nothing unsavory about my nether regions.

“I picked you out some pants, too. I really hope they fit. Pants are tricky, right? Oh, and then there’s some tiny clothing to use for swimming, but Barren insisted on picking those out for you himself.”

A burst of heat flushed over my face. “ Barren did what now? ”