casts ghoulish shadows all over his features. There’s a man who takes up three seats that sink beneath his weight. He clears an entire section, running his hand over his face, trailing green mucus.
There’s even a guy in a suit who tosses his long, blond hair back every couple of seconds. He hesitates before sitting down and then gets the brilliant idea to place his newspaper on the seat.
These are the landlocked. I wonder what they’ve all done to get banished from the Sea Court. I can’t imagine any of them being all that powerful. Our presence has them all unnerved.
“Is that the son of the king?” someone whispers.
Another replies with, “That’s the grandson. The king only has daughters.”
The last person to walk in doesn’t even look around the room. He walks slowly, straight toward me, like he knew I was here even before he started weaving through the tunnels. His face, arms, and legs are all wire thin. His shoulder-length hair is bleached blond. The roots are black and greasy. He uses the cuff of his sleeve to wipe at his raw, red nose.
He holds his arms out, and at first I think he’s going to hug me. Adaro takes it as a threat and draws his sword. Instead, the bleached blond pulls a dart from the board and uses it to pick his teeth. When he’s done, he twirls the silver dart between his fingers.
The landlocked fidget and whisper among themselves.
I grit my teeth and say, “Adaro, put that away.”
When the bleached blond smiles, it takes up his whole face. “So the Sons of the Sea have come slumming.”
“I’m—”
“I know who you are.”
I hate the way he cuts me off. And from the way his body tenses and his face grimaces in my direction, he doesn’t think much of me, either.
“And who are you?” I say, minutes away from losing my patience.
“This is Jesse,” Thalia says.
Jesse lingers where we stand, like he’s sizing up his opponents or avoiding dog shit. He proceeds to take center stage, a preacher welcoming us to his church, extending arms wide. “Welcome to our weekly community meeting.”
His arms go slack and he groans. “Yes, Ben, what is it?”
The guy in the suit has his hand raised. He’s got scars all across his knuckles. When he tucks his hair back, I notice his ears are shaped like fins. “I’d just like to say that I’m confused. I thought we were going to vote on when we brought the champion in. I mean, we are still a voting group, right? I’m just saying.”
Jesse’s smile is tight, annoyed. Even though he’s a skinny, oily, grungy little punk, he leads them. “Don’t worry, Ben. No one is changing any rules. I knew the champion of the sea would come to us eventually. Didn’t I say that? What I didn’t expect was two of them.”
Adaro crosses his arms over his chest, his dagger gleaming in one hand. The air is getting denser. Everyone sweating. Nerves sizzling like crossed wires.
“Thalia, it is good to see you again,” Jesse says, cocking his head and squinting way too hard at Kurt. “I look forward to the day we can count you in our ranks. Now. Let the champion come forward. Come, come. I’m sure you’re brimming with kind words for us.”
I move from the back of the room to closer to the raised stage. Sweat runs down my back and my mouth is dry.
“Do you know what we are, Tristan?” Jesse asks me.
“You’re Sea People,” I say.
“Were. We were Sea People.” Jesse smiles with his red, raw mouth. “Now, we are the landlocked. Excommunicated. Discarded. Unwanted. Untouchables.”
Jesse paces, weaving that silver dart between his fingers. The flickering bulb gives his hair an orange glow and deepens the shadows of his face. His lips look swollen, but they might just be big. His teeth are too prominent. I kind of hate him.
“For some of us,” Jesse says, “it wasn’t our choice to be here. Unlike your mother, not all of us fancy being on two legs. Clumsy, ugly, nasty things. Foot-fins, you call us.”
He hops off the stage and passes through the crowd, and they follow his wiry body, snake-like in the way he turns his neck. I wonder if his tongue is forked. I make a note to punch him the next time he talks about my mother.
“You broke the law,” Kurt says. “That’s why you don’t have your fins anymore.”
Every eye turns to him. The volume in the meeting hall