curls stick to his neck and around a face that is familiar, but I just

can’t place it. Not that I want to. I want him to get out of my

bathtub and put some clothes on. Instead the guy turns to me and bows

-stands with his back straight in the world’s best attempt to look

poised, stoic even.

“Well,” he says, clearing his throat, “this is awkward.”

Sorry,” the naked guy standing in the bathtub says, “so sorry.”

There’s a trace of not so much an accent but an over-enunciating

of words. He looks down at the deflating bubble bath and thankfully

sits immediately. He turns around and turns the faucet off. It stays

off.

His hair is the same length as mine, right to the base of our ears

and messy in curls like we spend too much time at the beach. There’s

this sculpture in the Greek section at the Met that Layla dragged me

to a few weeks ago that looks just like him. He doesn’t look fazed,

but his violet eyes gape at me. He sort of bows.

“I have a fishtail, and that’s not half as weird as this right

here.” I point at him and look to my mother for some sort of

explanation. “Mom?”

“Priscilla-?” is what she says instead.

Naked guy bows at my mom too, then shakes his head. “She’s dead.

For quite a while, actually.”

“Who the hell are you?” I say finally. “Am I going to be a mermaid

magnet now or something?”

“Tristan!”

“My name is Kurtomathetis,” he says with his head held high, “and

I am not a mermaid , as I am clearly not a woman. I am a merman, as

are you, but of course you’ve already figured that out.”

“Fine-Kurtom-can I just call you Kurt?-we’re mermen. Most

importantly, how come you don’t have a tail, and how do I get rid of

mine?”

He sighs, and I can feel the exasperation in his voice as thick as

wading in mud. “I am part of the Sea Court. I am to be your guide-your

guardian, if you will. My purpose is to make sure you’re safe at all

times. It is the highest honor of the sea folk.”

“Sea Court?” It’s foreign in my mouth.

Kurt turns his attention to my mother. “He really knows nothing?”

“I know stuff!” I yell. “Not mermaid stuff but-”

Kurt and my mother move to talk over each other, but the sink

faucet bursts on again. Dad stands back as a lime-green fish pops out.

Like when Kurt appeared, the sink is flooded with a bright light. Dad

has a bewildered smile on his face. “I hope the neighbors don’t come

up and complain,” he says.

I sure hope it’s not another naked mer-guarding guy. And it isn’t.

There’s a girl no older than fourteen sitting in the sink. Her skin is

pale, but it has a slight greenish tinge; her hair is long and wet and

a shade of black with green. Her hair covers her breasts and pools in

her lap. She reminds me of a green Rapunzel. Dad grabs Mom’s bathrobe

off the hook behind the door and wraps her in it. She hops off the

sink with the tiniest splash, ties the robe around her waist, and

gathers her hair to one side.

“Thalia!” Kurt’s proper nose is wrinkled with the kind of

annoyance that I’ve only seen siblings have toward each other. He

chokes on the beginning of every sentence he tries to speak and slaps

his hands in the water, adding to the pool on the bathroom floor.

“What-I can’t believe-may I too have a cloth?-why-what are you doing

here?”

Thalia’s slender frame looks even more so in the big robe. Her

lips are full and pink, and her eyes a cattish green-yellow, twinkling

with mischief. She turns to me, gathers the hem of the bathrobe, tucks

one foot behind the other, and curtseys. She turns to my mother and

does the same. “Lady Sea.”

She looks in the sink as Dad comes back with a red-and-black

flannel robe for Kurt. She sticks her hand in the water and pulls out

a long, skinny bottle full of iridescent black liquid that seems to be

moving in a continuous swirl inside. “You forgot the ink,” she says.

Kurt ties Dad’s bathrobe around the middle and stumbles out of the

tub like he’s not used to his legs yet. He makes to grab for the vial

between Thalia’s fingers, but she takes one step back, smirking. “Only

if I can stay.”

“Very well.” He makes fists at his sides.

She doesn’t hesitate and hands it over.

He snatches it and puts it in the robe pocket. “Good. Great. Now

leave!”

“But-you said I could stay! Your word is binding!”

“Right. Binding to the king, not my sister.”

Mom brings her hand to her mouth, covering the chuckle that’s

escaping her lips. I laugh too, but only because I like seeing this

guy get so huffy and puffy.

Thalia looks indignant but not defeated. She stomps one foot on

the floor, and water splashes. “That’s thanks for you. I’m not going

anywhere.”

“This is my duty, not yours. Now go before I tell the king.”

Her yellow-green eyes are wide with a new realization. “You can’t

. We’ve no contact with Toliss until Arion’s ship gets here.” The

silence that follows should be accompanied by a So there. Na-na,

na-na-na.

“Hello? Remember me? One of you. Kurt, Kurt’s little sister, Mom.

Tell me how to turn back!” I say loudly.

Kurt pulls the vial out of his pocket. I don’t have a good feeling

about it.

“You were never given the rites of the newborn. Only court merfolk

can shift. You are not an average merman, as you are, quite literally,

half human. When you were born-”

“Kurt, one thing at a time, please,” Mom says. And I thank her,

because my headache is back and all I want is a warm, dry bed.

I dip myself into the bathwater, this time preparing for the gills

to open and shut again when I surface.

“As part of the Sea Court, we get our legs whenever we visit

shore. There was a time when all creatures coexisted on this plane.

Humans, fey, shifters, and what humans started calling monsters. Then

suddenly it changed. Humans outnumbered all of us. They wanted us

gone. Those who didn’t want to start wars chose to move their courts

to hidden islands. Ours is the only isle that is still in this realm,

with the exception of two fairy islands. We cover them with mists so

humans cannot detect them, and from a distance it looks like a storm

at sea.

“Courts?” I find myself saying. “In the stories it’s always just

one mermaid.”

“The Sea King took away our legs to keep us from straying. But

that doesn’t stop some from showing themselves to humans. The easiest

thing in the world is to fall in love with one of us. Shakespeare and

Donne were particularly obsessed, as were all the poets who’d caught a

glimpse. Or thought they did. Besides, it’s usually the mermaids who

get caught on land.”

“Because mermen don’t like getting dry?”

Kurt takes on a face that Ryan made when he tried to explain to

Angelo the difference between a microcosm and a macrocosm. “Mermaids

are more likely to seek a human’s affections than mermen. I suppose we

lack the same amount of curiosity when it comes to human lovers. So

there are fewer merman sightings recorded. Because of that, there’s

the misconception that mermen are unattractive. As you can see in the

case of you and me, that is not so.”

I mean, not to sound like an ass, but I was thinking the same

thing.

My father snickers, and my mother purses her lips.

“But enough about us man-hungry mermaids ,” my mother says. “Are

you quite sure you know how to do that, Kurt?”

He holds up the vial to the light and shrugs. “I’ve read all the

texts, and I’ve seen it executed on a few lucky merfolk who’ve pleased