Then I add, “Sorry, Mom.”
At once, they start talking over each other.
Mom’s all, “It’s not that I doubt you—”
Kurt’s all, “I decided to go forth with your plan, did I not? It was my idea to search for Violet—”
Kai’s all, “Really, you went to Violet first?”
Gwen’s all, “Just because Tristan figured something out, finally, I believe Kurtomathetis to be jealous.”
I lean back. “Me too.”
Dad, the only sane person among us, holds his hand up. “I have to say, as the only original human biped here, I’m completely shocked at how incredibly close-minded you all sound.”
They start to argue again, but I take out my scepter. It glows in my hand, and a thin whistle settles over the room, like it’s the sound of the light inside the scepter. It’s enough to make them quiet and listen to my dad.
“You’re merpeople,” he says. “By all laws of nature, you don’t exist in this reality. Yet here you are, fighting for your futures.”
“My dad’s right. Kai, is there a physical place called Eternity?”
The shift in Kai’s posture is drastic. When she’s around the princesses, she’s like a crab digging herself back into the sand. Now, she’s beautiful and confident.
“Yes,” she says. I cross my arms attentively, but it’s to fight the urge to wag my finger in front of Kurt’s face. “In fact, all the protective charms that come from the king have been bathed in water from the Springs of Aurora, or Eternity.”
“My grandfather gave Layla a necklace. She was poisoned by merrows and it saved her.”
“But the necklace was the symbol of the king’s family,” Kurt says. “Spirula spirula. That’s what grants protection.”
“Haven’t you been listening?” Kai counters. “It’s a symbol, Kurtomathetis. Which, as there is no king, no longer matters.”
Kurt gets huffy. “We’ve always been told it is the protection of the king.”
Kai leans forward, a deep red blush creeping over her face. “What you haven’t been told is what it was blessed with.”
“Why would it be kept from us?” he shouts.
“Tristan, where is your dagger?” Kai turns around to me like a whip.
“I don’t think violence—”
“Get it, please!” And the pleading look in her eyes reminds me that she’s trying to prove a point. So I unsheathe Triton’s dagger. She takes a marker and draws the Spirula coil on a piece of paper. She gives it to Kurt to hold.
“There. Tristan, stab him.”
“What?” Kurt takes a step back.
“Go ahead,” Gwen says. “Take a stab at Kurtomathetis.”
Kurt’s mouth is hanging open, maybe partly because he’s wondering if I actually would. “Very well, Lady Kai. You’ve proved your point.”
Kai smiles victoriously. “This is a symbol. The king is power. And his symbol has power, but it needs something else. Water from the Springs of Aurora.”
Kurt raises his hands. “Don’t stab me, but if this place is real, wouldn’t we all be drinking from it, Lady Kai?”
“Don’t forget,” Gwen says. “We were immortal once.” “So the Springs of Aurora and Eternity are the same place?” I ask.
Kai’s smile is wicked but brilliant, as if she knows all the secrets we aren’t privy to. “One and the same. It was said that the water from the springs was the source of our immortality. It was the original home of the Sea People. Its waters have the most regenerative properties on Earth.”
Kurt shakes his head. “No, we were immortal because Poseidon made it so. Then he took the gift away and left us in the human world with nothing but the ability to age slowly and live for hundreds of years.”
“That’s one of many theories of where we come from,” my mom says.
I raise my hand like I’m in class. “I thought we came from Triton and those Greek dudes.”
Kai nods thoughtfully. “Yes and no.”
“What do you mean no?” Kurt’s hands are flailing in the air. “Our origin is irrefutable.”
Now it’s Kai’s turn to laugh. “You may be the king’s most prized warrior, but I’ve got half the Hall of Records memorized. Our kind wasn’t born to age this way at first. We had a short lifespan, like humans. Then Triton wanted immortality. The gods denied him, but he was Poseidon’s favorite child. Cutting open his wrists, Poseidon bled and from his blood formed the Springs of Aurora for Triton and his kind to live in.”
“Gross,” I say.
Kurt makes to speak again, but Kai cuts him off and keeps talking. “The Sea People lived there, deep, deep down in the earth, away from the rest of the world. Until we got a visitor.