caves beneath the sea, the hidden places where we would seek shelter. It seems fitting that it would fall into our family again.”
Layla moves closer and leans against my chest. The look I get from Gwen brings a memory flash of her trying to kiss me. Even when her lips hovered, it didn’t feel right. Cold. So cold compared to Layla. My heart is running laps, and Layla is looking up at me, pressing her hands right over it. She whispers, “Relax.” “Where was she?” Thalia asks. “The oracle.”
This time it’s Adaro’s turn to shine. “She was in plain sight. In the tunnels beneath the Glass Castle.”
Somewhere in my memory of the crash course Mer History 101, I remember them mentioning the Glass Castle.
“For the foot-fins, I’ll clarify,” Sarabell says to me. “It’s the most wondrous of our homes. Our home beneath the sea. Far lovelier than Toliss. Our most prized kin live there—the keepers of our histories, our musicians who train for court, even our guard and the bigger armory.
“When the Glass Castle was destroyed in the first war with the fey thousands of years ago, its destruction was devastating. But we pulled through. We always do. Kurtomathetis and Thalia’s parents helped rebuilt it the second time.”
“Hold up,” I say. “This thing was destroyed twice?”
The mermaids and merdudes nod sadly. Thalia says, “We were forced deeper and deeper by our enemies. The first time by the land fey. The second time during our civil war.” She says “civil war” like it’s made of glass itself. I wonder where Adaro’s family stood in all of this.
“If you would,” Sarabell says. “Now it stands stronger as a fortress instead, the Glass Castle, more beautiful than ever. Am I not correct, Kurtomathetis? You would come over to our wing and play. So little you were, always in a corner with your scrolls and tablets, the odd one of your bunch.”
Kurt’s jaw tightens. I don’t like the way she says this. Some of the girls trade glares. What did I miss? Might as well be at the school cafeteria.
“Maybe one day, you’ll visit.” Adaro tells me. As much as I’m trying to not like him, to put him on my shit list for being a natural rival, I can’t. He’s kind of a cool guy. He’s kind of like me.
“How did you find her?” I ask.
He looks up to the drifting clouds playing hide-and-seek with the sun. “She came to me in a dream…I couldn’t see her face but she whispered my name. It echoed in the halls of the castle. My father told me I was mad. He swears on augurs, but they led us nowhere, and after the third night of the same dream, I knew to trust myself. I swam beneath the castle, where the last circle of dragons is said to be kept. Only, it was empty. The dragons were gone, replaced by a ring of blue combat fire. As if the oracle wanted me—”
“Dragons,” I repeat. “The sea dragons were gone?”
“It is what he said,” Sarabell snips.
Behind her, Gwen shakes her head from side to side. She presses the top of her finger to her coral lips.
“Sorry,” I go, “bad ear.”
“The fire was a mirage. So I swam through the tunnel, so deep I thought my insides would burst. That’s when they came. They were shadows at first, slithering around my arms and my tail until they were solid black vines. We use those for prisoners.”
Thinking of the black vines that bind Arion to the ship, I say, “I know.”
“The vines pulled me in different directions. It was the most painful moment of my life. All I could think of was my limbs ripping right off clean.”
“How did you fight it?” Kurt asks for me. He can tell I don’t want to sound eager. In a way, I don’t want to know. Could I have done it? Could I have found that oracle without my friends? The only one who comes to me in my dreams is Nieve. No oracles, and I can’t help but wonder.
“I didn’t. It released me. I could barely stay afloat. There was a deep grumble and the ground moved. It took all my strength to swim into the tunnel. The ground kept moving. Not until the wall closed behind me did I realize I was inside a giant eel. I was too big and it was choking on me. With the little strength I had left, I picked up my sword and cut