yet.”
“It’s just something to say.”
“You seem jumpy. Come, have a smoke.”
I don’t know why I look at the door, as if someone is going to
come and tell me not to do what I’m about to do. I’m not doing
anything wrong. I pull my backpack on and follow her through the
curtain. Form here we can see everyone in the backyard, on the
boardwalk, and on the bit of the beach that’s in front of the house.
“You missed the sunset,” she says. “It was exceptionally beautiful
today.”
“Yeah?” I reply, just for something to say.
“It’s my favorite time of day.”
“The end of it?”
“The beginning of night.”
“What are you doing here, Gwen?” I don’t know why I keep asking
her that. I like having her around, I’ve decided. She’s not like
everyone else around me.
“I have nowhere else to go.” There’s something raw about the way
she says it. The automatic light above the balcony goes off. “I spent
all day swimming. Went to court for a bit to see if they had news of
Elias.”
At the mention of his name I look away. Down by the pool a guy
picks up a girl and throws her into the water. Her top comes off with
the force of it, but she just holds her hands in the air and woo-hoos.
“No news?”
She shakes her head.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but you don’t seem so upset.”
I tuck a bit of hair behind her ear, and when I do, I see
something I would never notice unless I was this close to her. Right
over the razor-thin slits where her gills would be is a long scar that
runs from the opening of her ear down to her clavicle. It nearly
blends into her, so it looks like a thick vein of extra skin. It
must’ve hurt like hell.
It startles both of us. That I would touch her so absentmindedly.
That I would even notice.
“That was an accident,” she says.
“Someone accidentally tried to cut you open?” I don’t know why,
but I’m suddenly angry for her. I don’t want to ask if it was Elias,
if this is the real reason she doesn’t care that he might be missing.
That he’d never be around to do this again.
“Would you be able to do it?” she starts. “If you were forced to
marry a man and pretend that you cared about his every whim, his every
mood, every desire-And if I didn’t do as he asked, fixed things to his
liking with my magic-”
“Actually I don’t think I’d ever be forced to marry a man.”
She punches me lightly, but at least it makes her smile.
“Elias swam into our palace with sea-horse loads of gold. Somehow
he knew of me. He wanted me. And my father gave me away without even
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