“No!” Another unfortunate slip of the brain.
“Yeah, okay. Why are you always in a mood?” Charlie said sourly.
“Oh, gee, it wouldn’t have anything to do with me having amood disorder, now would it?”
“This has nothing to do with your bipolar. You’ve been stable for months,” Charlie accused.
“Maybe it has to do with the fact thatyou— what was that?”
Our bickering was cut off by the sound of arguing coming from the merperson cellblock of the prison.
Uh-oh. That didn’t sound good.
Charlie and I hurried down the hall, Oberi scrambling behind. Opal stood outside of her dorm room, holding onto a blanket that had little narwhals all over it. She was trying to get it back from a huge, hulking merman, who was yanking on the blanket with a cruel laugh.
“Cut it out, Kyle!” Opal screamed. She bordered on hysterics as she tugged on the other end of the blanket, trying to get it back.
Kyle snickered. “Still need a blankie? Aren’t you cute.”
I knew this loser. He’d choked me out during the Darke Games, and Charlie had almost killed him. I wasn’t a fan. His windpipe, which Charlie had crushed, still rasped with each word he spoke.
“It’s mine!” Opal’s voice grew louder. Kyle let out a cruel laugh and pulled the blanket so hard it nearly yanked Opal off her feet.
I was about to intercede, until I heard someone cry out, “Give it back, jackass!”
My brother was out of the hospital and back to his old self, though he was still making a recovery and trying to get used to his treatments. The way he moved, though, you wouldn’t think he was sick at all.
Ez crossed the cellblock in minutes as he squared up with Kyle. “You’ve got two seconds to fuck off.”
“Why? I thought we were having fun,” Kyle teased. He pulled again on the blanket, and my heart cringed as I heard it rip. A huge hole ran up the side, ruining the quilt squares. “Oops. My bad.”
“No!” Opal screeched, and she began sobbing.
Kyle tossed it back at her with a sneer. “Game’s over, I guess.”
Ezekiel socked Kyle across the face. He went sprawling to the floor with the force of Ez’s punch. My brother had nearly knocked him out.
Kyle clambered clumsily to his feet, bunching his hands into fists. “You bitch-ass cripple. I’m gonna—”
“Bad idea,” Charlie said. He stepped up behind Ez, and Kyle’s eyes widened. He didn’t bother to say anything else. The coward took off running, leaving the merperson cellblock and abandoning the fight.
Opal cried harder. Ez put a hand on her shoulder and said softly, “Don’t worry, Opal. We can’t get you a new one.”
“You can’t! It won’t replace this one!” Opal wept, and she clutched the blanket to her chest like it was made of gold.
“I’m sure we can find something,” Ez said, looking helpless.
“You don’t understand.” Opal sniffled. “It was mydaughter’s!”
Ez’s mouth dropped open, and Charlie went rigid beside me. I was frozen in shock. Opal was younger thanme. She had a kid? What… what had happened?
Ez and Charlie were still shell-shocked, so I decided to take action. “I can fix it, Opal,” I offered. “Give it here.”
“Can you?” Her eyes burned with hope. Oberi nosed her fingers, giving a soft nicker.
“Yes. A couple of stitches, and it’ll be better in a jiffy.”
Opal handed over the blanket, and I took it from her. “Let’s go to the Arts & Crafts room.”
