by the question, she stutters, then laughs. “I suppose court. With Elias gone, I don’t have anywhere to go.”
“I’ll always have a sleeping bag for you,” I say.
“I’m not certain if I should thank you or not.” She reaches out to touch my face. But I go to the fridge and get cold water. Despite the AC, I’m sweating.
“I’d better go,” she says.
“Where do you go off to?”
She takes my water and drinks from it. “I know things didn’t work out with Sarabell, but perhaps I could learn a few things they’d never say with you there.”
“You mean spy on then?” I take my water back. “You’d do that for me?”
Sometimes I think Gwen’s eyes are going to burn a hole right through me. It’s like staring into the stormiest sky and not knowing if you want to run from the rain or stand there and let it fall all over you.
“For you.” She presses her lips on my jaw, just under my mouth. “And for the kingdom.”
One look at our freshly scrubbed guilty mugs, not to mention the glaringly empty fire extinguisher on the kitchen floor, and Dad asks, “What happened?”
Mom has a bag of ice cream in her hand. “We passed Gwenivere in the lobby, and she smelled like smoke.”
Kurt joins us in Command Central. We exchange one look of solidarity as he sits beside me. It’s not like we stole the car and went for a joy ride, which, if this wasn’t all happening now, would be pretty sweet to do in this weather.
So I give my parents the SparkNotes version of visiting Greg, the papers, the landlocked on the boardwalk, and the fire. I leave out the parts with Sarabell and the moment on the roof when I felt awesome blowing stuff up. “I’ve seen CSI and my fingerprints are all over the fire extinguisher.”
Dad cleans his square glasses on his untucked work shirt. “The super is downstairs fighting off an angry mom because their cable isn’t working.”
“Technically,” I point out, “I only burned down the satellites on the roof. Including ours.”
“What were you thinking?” Mom yells. “There are cameras up there!”
“Actually, last year Janie said the landlord was too cheap to install a real system,” I point out. “Only the elevator and lobby ones work.”
“Janie? The super’s daughter?” Dad asks, trying to keep the grin off his face in front of Mom.
“Dad—”
“What matters is that no one is hurt.” Dad points to me, giving off the guilty smells of dirt and the excited burn of fireworks. Underneath all of that is Mom’s melting strawberry ice cream. “Just, no more fires in the house.”
I hold my hand up. “Merman’s honor.”
Dad rubs his hands together, like twiddling an invisible stick to make invisible fire we’re not supposed to have in the house. “We’re actually glad you’re here. We have something to tell you.”
“We do as well.” Kurt clears his throat, the familiar stoicism returning to his posture. “We were waiting for Lady Maia.”
Mom brushes his hair back tenderly. “Kurt, please. I’m not a lady of the court anymore.”
“You’ll always be a lady to me,” he says, softening under the gesture. “My mother would’ve wanted me to address you as such.”
“I’ll just stick with ‘Mom.’ Hey, Mom. Greg says he was your teacher how many years ago?”
She flushes like she’s going to whack me on the head with her spoon. Dad throws his hands in the air and chooses the safer option of the sofa instead. “You’re on your own, kid. I’m not going near that one.”
“Come on, guys,” I say. “Just trying to lighten the mood. Greg gave us all this riddle stuff and we need your help.”
Kurt spreads out Greg’s parchment papers.
“I can’t believe Greg is alive.” Mom wipes her hands on a towel. “The old crab. I could’ve used his knowledge when I was pregnant with you.”
“He wasn’t exactly happy to see us,” I say. “What with ol’ Grandpa firing him and all that.”
Mom shakes her head. “That’s not what Father told us.”
“One of them is lying,” I say. “He wouldn’t leave a cushy gig on Toliss for a house that’s falling apart, would he?”
Side by side, Kurt and my mother are mirror images, each with one hand examining the face of a long-gone sea king and the other tugging on the tip of their chin. They even say, “I suppose,” at the same time.
“He said he taught the king’s daughters.” I wave my hands in the air to get their attention back. “So you’re