I wake up, I’m in a tight embrace with someone. I hug the warmness to me and rest my forehead on the warm back—
When I open my eyes, I notice the broad shoulders. Soft, wavy brown hair, just like mine. At the same moment, he turns around and we roll over. I fall out of my bed and curse at pain from my toes to my temples.
But I manage to laugh and say, “You pervert.”
Kurt groans. There’s a sickly green pallor on his face. I’m afraid he’s going to throw up on me so I get up and throw some clothes on.
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”
“Why are you shouting?” He picks up the closest shirt on the floor and puts it on.
I bat my hand over his face. “Sweet baby Zeus, I can still smell the beer in your pores.”
My laugh is cut short when I remember yesterday. My craptastic date with Sarabell. My parents and their new baby. The arrow piercing my hand. Midnight poker. The prophecy. Eternity. Gregorious. Blue fire.
Kurt rubs his eyes slowly. I throw a pillow at his head. “Come on, Captain Lightweight. You slept through all the good stuff.”
•••
“Why do humans do this to themselves?”
Kurt holds on to the kitchen counter for dear life.
My mom comes in and makes tea. She holds it up to Kurt’s face and he drinks it slowly.
I take the black marker and draw a big X on Monday. Dad’s already at work and it’s Tuesday morning. I feel about a hundred years old. Then I flip on the news. A great blue fire ought to have gotten someone’s attention.
Eighty-five degrees and partly sunny with a storm warning for Thursday is followed by the morning news. Behind a frazzled newscaster is the great blazing fire, and farther behind that, the Brooklyn Bridge is backed up with traffic. Firemen blast the house with water but the flames are violent, living things like hands reaching up, climbing up the tree and fanning out against the open space on either side of the crumbling brownstone.
“That’s our combat flame,” Kurt says. “How in the world did it get here?”
My mom gapes at the same time I drop my spoon on the floor. Layla says that when silverware falls on the ground, it means unexpected visitors. I really hope that’s just a bunch of superstitious bullshit, but my merman senses are tingling.
“We were there last night. At Greg’s house.” I stand in front of the television so they look at me instead. I tell them about Shelly and the translation and running to Greg’s house. “What gets me is that he has the protection stuff. The wreath that the court gave him.”
“It’s a symbol, Tristan.” My mom rests one hand on her belly, even though she isn’t showing yet, and places the other on my shoulder. “Just like the one on our door. The king is only king right now as a formality to crown the new one. But without the trident, his power ebbs. Whoever did this knows that.”
“My behavior is unacceptable.” Kurt broods. “I should’ve been there.”
My mom takes my hand and examines the smoothness. “She shot you?”
“She’s new,” I say. “Frederik’s been calling in reinforcements because of the rise in dead bodies.”
“And they were all there,” Kurt asks. “The vampire and the shape-shifter? They heard everything Shelly told them?”
I don’t like what he’s implying. “They’re our allies, man. Anyway, I figured something out.”
I take five index cards and flip them over to the unlined side. I tape them in a row on the Command Central wall. “We’ve found Shelly in Central Park, but that’s been her home for a long time. She hasn’t moved anywhere. Unlike the others. Kurt, what do you know of the oracle from the Vanishing Cove? The one you were expecting to see?” “Her name is Lucine,” he says.
If Shelly is the youngest, I’m afraid to see what the oldest one of the oracles looks like. But when I start to write her name down, Kurt hops off his seat and takes the marker from me. He draws the outline of a mermaid with a split tail.
“She’s the Starbucks mermaid?”
Kurt ignores me and labels her name and location.
“Then, there’s Chrysilla, the nautilus maid.” I draw a spiral and label her as well, leaving us with two blank cards. “If Chrysilla came from Eternity, that means one of her sisters took her place.” I put the cap back on the marker, expecting them to start shouting out compliments for my brilliance.