get dressed and go to kitchen Command Central to see what the hell they’re all doing.
My heart jumps to my throat as they shout, “Surprise!” “Jesus, you guys.”
My parents, Kurt, Thalia, and Layla are huddled around a very blue birthday cake. The sugar hits my nose first. It’s better than a caffeine rush. I look at the calendar and realize it’s June 24. Thursday. Someone’s already crossed off last night, and I want to take the marker and fill the whole square in black.
“Are you seriously telling me you forgot it’s your birthday?” Layla comes around and kisses me right on the mouth. In front of everyone.
“I seriously did.” I stick a finger in the icing and let the sugar coat my tongue. My whole mouth explodes from the sensitivity of not having eaten anything yesterday. “Your mother wanted to have a huge party—” Dad starts.
“But with everything that’s going on,” Mom says, “we figure something smaller would do.”
“Cake for breakfast,” I say, hugging my mother for as long as I can, “is the best birthday present ever.”
Mom lights seventeen candles. I’m seventeen, and I’ve aged a thousand years in the last two weeks. Call me Rip Mer Winkle.
Kurt eyes the frosting with a mixture of amusement and temptation. I can tell that all of last night’s information is prominent in his thoughts, but we decided to keep it between the two of us. “We don’t celebrate birthdays on Toliss.”
“Sure we do,” Mom says. “At least, I did after seeing humans on a beach. I tried to get my father to make me a cake once. But the cooks came up with kelp pancakes and king crab claws as decorations.”
“That is so messed up,” Layla says.
“Blow out the candles,” Mom says, “or the wax is going to drip.”
I bend closer to the seventeen little flames. I haven’t made a birthday wish since elementary school. I was never the kind of kid who made wishes on stars or cakes. Swimming came too naturally and I have dozens of trophies to prove it. Girls came naturally, and I also have the trail of angry ex-girlfriends to prove it.
Since I started shifting, I don’t know what to believe in anymore. I know more things are possible. I’ve been to Eternity and back. I had an oracle give me a powerful weapon. I met my grandfather. I kissed the girl I love. But most importantly, she kissed me back.
Layla squeezes my hand, and I know that I’m not going to wish. I’m going to pray, something I haven’t done in equally as long. When I saw Kai doing it near the shipwreck, I wanted to get down with her, but I didn’t.
Maybe it’s the same as a wish, the same as a promise. A totally intangible mass of hope that everything will work out the way it’s supposed to be. I take a deep breath and blow.
•••
On the news, there’s a storm warning. The beach has been evacuated. A murder victim on the boardwalk. Ben’s face pops up on the screen. The details are vague, other than that his hands, feet, and ears were cut off. No suspects yet.
While everyone eats cake in the living room, I volunteer to get them drinks. I take the bottle of Eternity water and pour it into their drinks. I pour the rest into an empty bottle of eyedrops and pocket it. I picture my centaur maid’s fiery blood flowing, the head of the trident sucking back into the murky black depths. Just what every guy wants on his seventeenth birthday. “You don’t have to do that,” she says.
I jump, and when I turn around, my mom is standing there. I wonder how long she’s been watching me, but I realize it’s long enough.
“Yes, I do.”
“I thought they agreed not to drink it unless you did.” She comes to me and lifts my chin with her finger. “You can’t save everyone.”
“I’m sorry,” I say. “For everything I said to you. I didn’t mean it.”
“Yes, you did.” She cups her hand on my face. “You were right. For a long time, I thought I could keep my old life away. The past creeps up like the tide. I wish it hadn’t pulled you in.”
“Literally,” I say, laughing.
She kisses my forehead. “Happy birthday, my darling.”
We take the glasses to everyone and drink.
•••
We load my dad’s car with weapons. Swords and bats and more arrows than I can count.
“I can’t believe your dad lent you his car,” Layla says. “He loves