I don’t have the stomach to eat, but the urchins felt guilty over allowing the ship to be captured. The others scarf down the plates of food. Thalia uses Brendan’s arrow as a shish-kabob stick, which is incredibly gross, considering the arrow was just stuck in someone’s chest.
Layla takes a bite of the tentacle in her hand. “Is it just me, or is anyone else freaked out that merrows can talk now?”
“Not all of them,” Kurt says. “Just the leader, Archer.”
“For now,” Thalia says. “Can you imagine a thousand Archers?”
I remember flashes of the silver mermaid slithering in my dreams. “She’s not strong enough for that.”
“Didn’t want to fight, for such a shit talker,” Layla says.
“He was scouting us.” I crunch down on a handful of seaweed chips. “Now he can go back and tell Nieve. They’ll come back stronger, and we have to be prepared for their next move.”
“Especially since both of you came back empty-handed from your visits to the oracle,” Gwen says. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Charming as always, Lady Gwenivere,” Brendan says. He offers her a lily-weed cigarette, and suddenly he’s her new favorite person.
“No, it’s fine.” I take the cup Blue leaves for me. It’s his own brew of tea because he notices I rarely touch the sea mead. The bittersweet liquid warms my insides. “She didn’t have a piece of the trident anyway.”
Kurt’s shoulders sag sheepishly. “That’s my fault. I was so sure—”
“We can’t go back and change it. The thing is, we’re alive and from here on, we work our way to the next game plan.”
“You sound like Coach Bellini.” Layla leans her shoulder closer to mine. “Minus the swearing.”
“Listen,” Brendan says, throwing the latest butt into the crackling fire. The tiny thing is so potent that it floods us with its scent instantly. “You are more than welcome to tag along with my ship. We’re heading down and south. Galapagos. Lovely place. Lots of strange things hidden.”
Layla smiles. “My dad is from there.”
“See? All the more reason to come with me. My ship is full of boring people, and you have proven to be quite fun.”
For a moment, I wonder if I could do it. Stop right now and take my scepter on an adventure with my new cousin. We could discover new worlds or just party on his boat. Would Nieve keep searching for me? What would my mom think? What would become of the court? Only for a moment.
“Brendan,” Kurt says in his awkward cordial way. “If I may ask, if you don’t search for the oracles, what do you seek to find?”
Brendan’s blue eyes shine with excitement. “One of the princesses claims she knows the location of the City of Clouds, full of winged people. I needed a map from the cathedral at the cove.”
“Aren’t you worried about what happens to our people?” Thalia asks.
Her words remind me of the nautilus maid. Our blood promise lingers on my tongue.
“You mistake me for a leader, lovely Thalia.” Brendan’s charm is contagious. I think I have a dude crush on him. He reminds me of me before the storm. “Now Adaro, there’s your challenge. He’s got more men on his ship than me, you, and Dylan combined. The princesses, that’s your own personal map to the next oracle.”
“What do you mean?” Kurt asks.
“Alone, Tristan has nothing. He can swim all the seas and still not find anything. The princesses are resources, like a map of the seas laid out for you. You simply have to coax information out of them.”
I cough loudly into my fist. “There has been zero coaxing here.”
But I have to admit, without Gwen there to help me find Shelly, I’d still be in Coney Island waters chasing my tail.
“Also,” Brendan smirks, “if you don’t pay attention to them, they’re likely to decimate your village and drown all the men.”
“What?” I choke on my tea.
“No king.” My cousin shrugs. “No rules.”
“He’s right,” Gwen says. “I can think of three, maybe four of them with powerful families.”
“Good thing Gwen’s here,” Layla says. “You have your own personal matchmaker.”
I chew on my food extra long so as not to go near that statement. When I swallow, my throat is dry. “All roads lead back to Coney Island.”
“Are you sure?” Brendan holds his hands out to the fire and rubs them. “My offer stands.”
I stare at my friends for a moment. Would it be easier on all of them if I quit? Would