happen and then they move on. It doesn’t feel natural. And he literally turned into coral.” I sit up. “I wonder what will happen when I die, since I’m half and half?”
“Don’t,” she whispers. “Don’t say that.”
“There’s a chance,” I admit. “I was so close to that trident. But I hesitated because I wanted to help the oracle. In the end, she died anyway. Nieve is stronger every day and she’s coming for me.”
“Then you just have to be stronger than her.” Layla makes it sound so easy.
I hold her tighter. “When I’m with you, I feel like I can do anything. I don’t want to mess this up.”
“Us? Or the championship?”
This sounds like one of those girl trick questions that I shouldn’t answer. I’m too quiet. Every part of me hurts. I should drink some of the spring water but I want to save it for something more important, not just wimpy pains I can get at the gym.
“It doesn’t matter,” she says. “There can’t be an us anyway.”
“Shut up, dude,” I scoff. “You’re so totally my girlfriend. You’ve been dying to be my girlfriend since we were in the sandbox. Marked your territory by peeing on me and everything. I’m just going to tell everyone that you’re my girl, and then you’ll make me look like a loser when you try to deny it. Can you really do that to me?”
She punches me in the ribs and I kind of exaggerate the pain so she’ll rub it. “Seriously, Tristan. This is fun, admittedly. But we shouldn’t do that to each other. Not now, at least.”
“Why? One,” I count my fingers in front of her face, “you like me. You know how I can tell? You keep feeling up on me all over the place. Don’t act like it’s my mer thing because you like my mer thing just fine.”
I brace for the next jab in the ribs, harder than the first.
“I knew Angelo shouldn’t have taught you to fight.”
“Are you done?” She sits back. “Was that the one reason?”
I pop my lips. “Yep.”
“My turn,” she says. “One, I’ve known 80 percent of the girls you’ve ‘dated.’”
“Don’t. Come on. Don’t use air quotes.”
“Two, you’re a merman.”
“I can’t control that. That’s like your hair when it gets frizzy in the summer or the crooked little toe on your right foot.” I realize that won’t help my case.
“Three, I can’t breathe underwater, Tristan. I’ve thought about this since it first happened and I-I trust you with my whole life. But this—where does it leave me when you’re king and I’m stranded on the Coney Island beach wondering which ocean you’re in?”
“Layla, I will never leave you.”
“You aren’t listening to what I’m saying.” She grabs chunks of her hair and then smooths them down. “We’ve waited sixteen years to be together. I think we can wait another week and see what happens.”
I take her hands in mine. But I don’t want to wait another week. So I’m like, “I don’t want to wait another week.”
That’s the thing about girls. Sometimes they say one thing and they mean another. She traces the outline of my lips and gives me a quick kiss.
“See?” I say, to prove my point.
“Hey, what happened to Gwen and Kai?”
“Kai went to alert my grandfather, just in case.” At the mention, I think of Gwen trying to kiss me. Should I tell Layla? Unbidden, Angelo’s voice pops into my head and he says, “She didn’t ask so don’t tell her.”
I say, “Gwen went wherever she goes.”
“Do you hear that?”
“Sirens,” I say. “A lot of them the last couple of days.”
Sunrise creeps over the houses across the street. The siren horn dies down, and Layla and I are sitting on her front porch. I remember what Gwen said about thinking of Nieve like I would another champion. I’ve been to three oracles. How many of the other champions can say that?
“New battle plan.” I slap my knees and stand up. All of my joints pop and ache. My mind is dizzy with exhaustion. “It seems everyone’s got themselves an army.”
Layla’s eyes peel back to me with this new realization. “So what you need is—”
“An army of my own.”
After I leave Layla, I head home.
My temples pulse. A whisper fills my head. I don’t know how I quite make it to my bed. Exhaustion blankets me like fog. When I close my eyes, I’m in water.
It’s a cave made of smooth, bright-white stone. Skinny red and black plants sprout from thin