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

and grabs hold of Maddy’s arm. The three of us run down the carpeted

stairs.

“Ryan.” Thalia pushes girls out of her way and runs ahead of me.

“What is that smell ?” Gwen covers her mouth with her free hand.

I can feel the heat of my dagger, like it’s burning its way

through the backpack. Kids race past us out of the house as we run

toward the backyard. The music is still blaring, masking the screams.

In the kitchen the floor is covered with broken glass. Some guy

has a phone shaking in his hands as he tries to dial 911 but messes up

every time. Outside, anyone who couldn’t run away is hiding behind

lawn chairs, bushes, and garbage cans.

Gwen lets go of Maddy and rushes to the poolside. Princess Violet

is lying with her hand against her chest. There’s a shard of glass

sticking out from it. The girl’s green eyes are full of tears. Gwen

pulls out the glass and helps her stand up. Angelo swims out of the

pool. He doesn’t notice the bloody cut on his shoulder, or he doesn’t

care. He just drapes the princess’s arm around his neck and helps her

inside.

The lights in the house go out, which only leaves the mosquito

torches that line the backyard. The darkness is still. The merrows are

hiding.

Kurt pulls out a thin bow, and the metal symbols on it catch the

firelight and glisten. I fumble with the zipper to my backpack. The

blade of my knife glows in the dark. Thalia brandishes two long and

thin swords.

“I shouldn’t have come here,” I say. “I should’ve known.”

Layla looks at me and speaks. But as a scream rips through the

scared silence of the backyard, I can’t even hear her.

The merrows seem to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

One with yellow scales along his arms seems to be more human than

fish. Then he bares his rows of shark teeth. He smells the air and

lets loose with an angry wail.

“Stay down,” I tell Maddy, pushing her as gently as I can behind a

patio chair.

In the meantime the yellow merrow has vanished. Kurt wrestles with

a hammerhead merrow who looks like nothing but sinewy strength. Angelo

runs out brandishing an aluminum baseball bat. I’m ready to run to

Angelo’s side, but he’s caught a red one with a face like something

that hasn’t surfaced from the depths of the sea in years. Once it’s

dead, it starts decomposing, but he keeps swinging.

Their rotting flesh and black blood covers the ground, sticky

under our bare feet. We stand waiting as the merrows hide in the

shadows again, watching us.

Maddy is pulling on my shirt. “What’s happening?” She cries when

she realizes there’s a thin line of blood on her arm. I wipe it off.

It isn’t hers. It’s dripping from above us.

The yellow-scaled merrow wrestles with someone on the balcony.

It’s so dark I can’t see who he’s fighting, I can only hear the loud

snap of a neck. The wail of triumph. The heave of the body over the

merrow’s head. He throws the limp body over the balcony but misses the

pool by a few inches. The body rolls over once until it lies on the

blue tiles, broken. Then again until it falls into the pool with a

splash.

Not it. He. Until he falls.

“Tristan!” Kurt yells. The hammerhead is on Kurt’s back, jaws open

to bite.

I run.

I slip on the slick ground.

I keep my blade out and cut cleanly across both the hammerhead’s

ankles. When I right myself, I see Thalia’s thin dagger pierce the

creature’s neck. The weight of him collapses on top of Kurt, and they

topple into the pool.

Maddy screams. A blue merrow sniffs at the air around her.

It smells me.

It goes in for her.

I don’t think about the fact that they’re yards away, that if I

miss by a few centimeters I will probably slice off my ex-girlfriend’s

face, which might make her like me even less. What I do know is that I

can make it. I know it like I know I’m my mother’s son. I throw my

dagger and it pierces the merrow’s spine.

The merrow stumbles once, deteriorating into mush as he does. It’s

like smelling a fish market and burning sulfur in chemistry class at

the same time. It’s not the most opportune time to think that I’ll

never get the smell off me. The black blood splatters over Maddy’s

clothes.

I walk over and pull my dagger out of what’s left of the merrow’s

back.

Gwen walks out of the shattered doorframe. There are black smudges

on her white-blond hair. “The human authorities are on their way. I

can hear their sirens.”

In the pool, the body of the dead boy floats face down. The water

is muddy with merrow chunks and blood. Kurt lies on his back with his

bow clutched to his chest. Layla bends down at his side. There’s a

long gash on her arm. How could I have been so stupid? I get on my

knees and hold Maddy’s face in my hands. She rubs her cheek against my

dirty palm.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “I can say it a million times and it won’t

matter. But this does. I can’t explain it now. I don’t know if I ever

could. But I need that necklace.”