off.

“Don’t worry,” she says, and in that moment, I’m lulled into a

calm I haven’t felt in days. Somewhere I know this is the effect of

her voice, but the dulcet melody reminds me of the guy I used to be.

That Tristan didn’t get sweaty palms. That Tristan didn’t think twice

before leading a girl under the pier. Somehow, it’s easier to be him…

Sarabell pulls her dress over her head and throws it on the wet

beach. Her long brown hair tumbles to her hips in waves. She smells

like the sea, not Coney Island water but like salt and rain and the

turquoise, warm waters of Vanishing Cove.

“You’re not afraid of being seen,” I say.

“Didn’t Gwenivere tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

She twists her hands in the air like a belly dancer. “I’m an

expert at glamours.”

When the water reaches her shoulders, she turns around and blows

me a kiss playfully. She pinches her nose and sinks under. A second

later, her hand shoots up and waves me in. Her feet kick and she swims

away.

I stuff my clothes in my backpack and dive in before I change my

mind. At first I can’t find her. The water is muddy and cloudy, and I

have to swim for a mile before it clears up. My heart is pumping in my

chest, nervous, excited, and full of dread all at once. Then I see

her. Her hair darkens and smooths out with the pull of the water. Her

gold scales blossom and the iridescent glimmers of her tailfins flick

my chin.

My entire body sighs when I shift. It’s like a great release, like

breathing new air. We swim for what feels like miles. I marvel at the

way the water bends to her. Even underwater, the sweet hum of her

voice is entrancing. She gets up close to me, teasing with her lips

inches away from mine. She nudges me with her nose. I think I’ve seen

dolphins do this at the aquarium. I place one hand on her lower back

where her skin becomes soft golden scales. Without meaning to, a part

of me rises…

Then she smiles and I flatline. I swim out of her hold with the

flick of my tail. Her canines, too sharp, remind me of Nieve-her pale

face, her frail silver body-and Archer, the merrows, Layla dying in my

arms. My thoughts are a train wreck I can’t stop.

Sarabell can’t understand why I’ve pushed her away. I swim up to

the surface. We’re far from Coney, all the way to maybe Long Island,

maybe Queens. My sense of direction is discombobulated. There’s a

nasty taste in my mouth. I want to puke up my breakfast.

She surfaces beside me, smoothing out the water around us. “Did I

offend you, my lord?”

Sure, she’s all formal and stiff now. A second ago she practically

had her hands all over my-

“I’m sorry if I’m too forward. It’s just…you’re so terribly

lovely. Everyone says so. And I’ve never been with a half human-half

merman.”

I head for a mound of boulders and grit my teeth against the rip

of the shift back to legs that stops mid-thigh. The half shift. I

can’t help but feel like I’m wearing glittery boxer briefs.

“I’ve got a cramp,” I lie.

“Then we can just sit.”

“Hey, Sara,” I say, “why are you here with me? The day you

arrived, you guys wouldn’t even look my way. Why aren’t you at Adaro’s

court?”

She’s flustered. She stands in her half shift, wet hair getting

carried by the wind. There aren’t people on this shore. The beach is

stony and uncomfortable, and the water is full of seaweed and broken

shells.

I catch her hesitation. “You are so much more interesting.”

I hold her hand so she doesn’t slip on the mossy boulder, and she

sits next to me. I lick the salty water running over my lips. “You

don’t have to pretend. I’m not good at this court stuff.” Then I

swallow hard. My heart jolts, anticipating my deceit. “Wherever Adaro

is, it has to be better than here.”

She scoots over so our thighs touch. “Don’t you see? You’re so

very new. All of court says you have the king’s face as he was in his

youth. The blue eyes of Triton-” Her hand hovers over my face. I inch

back instinctively, but she follows.

“Adaro is my cousin. While I wish I could see our bloodline return

to the throne, I also wish I could be queen. I’ve already been

presented to the other champions, before the championship started.

Elias chose Gwenivere, for all the good it did him. Brendan would make

a terrible husband. Dylan would not take a queen but a Sethos, a minor

king that is. Then the ones beneath my station are afraid of my

magic.”

“So everyone knows about you…?”

She nods sadly. “It’s required.”

Looking at her now, I can see something broken inside her, beneath

the wicked smile, like the biggest parts of herself are hiding.

“Do you have much contact with Adaro now?”

As soon as I say it, I wish I hadn’t. Her guard is up, but her

eyes sparkle in the sun. She leans over and rests her head on my

shoulder. “He says if he were king, he would welcome magic into the

court once again. Would you do the same?”

I tense against her fingers tracing my chest. “I-”

Then she sits back up and takes my hands in hers. “If I tell you

everything I know of Adaro, everything he knows, would you take me as

yours?”

“Mine?”

She smiles. Not the wicked way she does on the boardwalk or among

her entourage. It’s her real smile. Insecure. Nervous. “As your queen.

We could do many great things together.”

“I wasn’t exactly expecting a marriage proposal,” I say, slipping

off the rock. I have two options, say no to her and return to square

one. Or I could pretend. I could tell her that I love her, that I want

her to be my queen of the sea. I could look into her eyes and make her

feel she’s the only one in the world to me. Take what I want from her.

Ask her to betray her family. Then I could take it all back, like I’ve

done many times before.

I want to shower.

Suddenly a guy walks down the beach hand in hand with a girl.

Oblivious to us, they start making out. He pulls on the strings of her

bikini top and she runs her hands all over his chest, his hair, his

face. I feel a pull in my stomach. A pull to be somewhere else with my

own girl. I realize the feeling is coming from Sarabell. The wordless

melody of her voice fills my head. It floats in the air like smoke,

wrapping around me, the couple on the beach. The girl stops kissing

the boy and turns to us. Her eyes are glazed over and dazed.

“We should go back,” I say.

She bares her pearly teeth encouragingly. “Don’t you see? This is

a perfect chance to experience life together. Then, we could continue

as one-”

The couple is hypnotized by her voice. She calls the couple

forward with her fingertips, leading them back into the water.

“Sarabell, no. What are you doing?”

Sarabell bares her teeth and walks backward into surf. The couple

follows.

“What are you doing?” I whisper. But the warmth of Sarabell’s

voice is like light filling my chest.

“It’s a present to you. A show of good faith to join our lines.”

I roll out the tension in my shoulders, the pressure of her voice

weighing me down. I think of everything that’s happened in the past

couple of days. Everything I’ve lost and everything I can lose. I

silently curse Brendan and Kurt and Gwen. All of them. I’ve got a

mermaid who wants to be queen so badly she’ll give me everything I

want to know about Adaro on a silver platter. The couple is knee-deep

in the water, Sarabell winding them in with her song. A show of good