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“And?”
“Cora’s name was on the list.”
I turn to her, incredulous. “Wait, seriously?”
“Seriously,” I hear Javier say.
Cora approaches the pool, grinning down at me. “I heard you need a duet partner.”
“I…” I can’t believe I missed her name. Although, looking back, I’d been so pissed off my reading comprehension may not have been at its best. I saw a list of names. I made an assumption. “Cora, are you sure? I know it’s last minute, and I—”
“I want to.” She looks down at me, beautiful and striking and defiant. “I don’t have a duet this year.”
“What about your team?”
“What about them? I’m still going to be fucking perfect for our performance. What I do in my free time is none of their business.”
“Are you sure—”
“Aleks,” Cora cuts me off. “I have the time, and if I can help you with your comeback tour, then I’m in.”
I sigh, bracing my hands on the edge of the pool. “My mom will hate that you’re doing this. They all will.”
She waves a hand dismissively. “Being a siren controls so much of my life. The swimming and the practices and performing. I live where I live because of it. I have the friends I have because of it. But I don’t owe Alina shit when it comes to how I treat other human beings. She doesn’t define my morality.”
My eyes sting. “Ugh, too much crying today,” I whine, wiping at my eyes with the back of my scaled hand.
Cora shoots a look at Javier. “Are you making him cry?”
Javier holds his hands up, shaking his head. “No!” Tilting his head, he frowns. “Well, okay, maybe, but he asked me…or, well…”
I can’t help it. I snort, the sound muffled by the vocal filter.
“Actually, I don’t want to know.” Cora turns to me. “So are we doing this?”
It’s there, again. Hope, nestling between my ribs and making a home. Cora is an incredible dancer. If anyone can make this work on such short notice, it’s her.
“I owe you big time,” I say as she takes off her cut-off shorts and tank top, folding them neatly on top of her shoes.
In her racer-back bikini top and the water-soluble bottoms we wear on deck before transforming, she’s the perfect image of a siren. She dives in, transformation coming over her the moment she’s submerged in the water, purple and blue scales spreading across her skin.
When she surfaces again, her ears have lengthened and she flashes me a grin before pulling her own vocal filter over her face. Hers is more updated, the straps a slender elastic and the filter itself a matte silver.
Javier approaches, hiking up his shorts before he crouches at the edge of the pool. “Ready?” he asks.
I nod. I have to be. If I’m going to really go for it, there’s no room for distractions. Putting a duet together on such short notice is hopeless. Teams practice for years to qualify for the Clash of Creatures—who am I to think I can have a single day of practice with a partner and compete with the others?
But I have to try.
“The top twelve duets make it to the medal round,” Javier goes on. “That is all you need to do. Make it to the top twelve, and then we regroup.”
Cora and I nod.
“Aleks, run through the routine,” Javier says, and I see my own determination reflected back in his eyes. “Cora, I will talk you through it while we watch.”
The music begins, and I dive down.
Chapter 13
