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The car slowed to a stop, and I blinked at the extensive building outside the window. It suddenly dawned on me—I hadn’t even bothered to ask where we were going before hopping into the car.No wonder I was so easy to kidnap.
“Awesome. Thanks, man,” Kai said, unbuckling his seat belt. “I owe you one.” Before I even thought of going for my buckle, Kai beat me to it. I couldn’t even mumble a thank you before he was out the door.
Kai thumped the back of the car, and I jumped as the trunk popped. He dove right in, pulling out a backpack and a couple of industrial-sized brown paper bags as I crawled out of the back seat. Slinging the backpack over one shoulder, he slammed the trunk closed, and the passenger door window rolled down. I felt my lips tighten as Laverne’s head slid out of the window, her nose veering toward Kai like she was looking for some reassurance. She let out a low sort of crackling noise that sounded a lot like a whine until Kai came over to cup a hand underneath her chin.
“You’ll be fine, Laverne. I’ll be back soon. You need to include Claira next time, okay? It’s not nice to exclude your friends. I think you know how it feels to be left out, don’t you, pretty girl?” Kai cooed, giving her chin a few good scratches. Laverne’s enjoyment of his affection was short-lived. She snorted, seeming less than pleased with his little lecture, and rolled away from his palm. “Make sure you take good care of my girl, all right?”
Instead of answering, Barren opened a pair of sunglasses with a practiced pop of his wrist, adjusted them high on his nose, then reached into the center console and pulled out a second pair. He took care situating them square in the middle of Laverne’s snout before hitting the gas.
Dust trailed behind them as they zoomed off. Before I noticed how my jaw was practically hanging off my face, grit had already found its way into my mouth. I spat it out just as I remembered what Leander had mentioned about trusting Barren to keep me safe. Well, so much for that. “Why are they leaving without us?” I said, coughing up the rest of the dust from my lungs.
“Because it’s my turn!” Kai hiked the backpack over his shoulder and beamed that innocent smile of his. “Leander told you the three of us are going to take turns with you, right?”
I was sure my eyes had popped out of my head.My mouth probably wouldn’t ever hinge properly again.
What did he mean bytake turns with me?
Kai bounced to the side of the building, gesturing to the sign over the door by swinging the oversized brown bags through the air. “Even though it’s only half a day, I wanted to be the first to take you out!”
My eyes scanned the sign. “Longshore Bay Community Aquatic Center,” I read aloud, feeling my lips slump.Oh.That’s what he meant. But Longshore Bay?Where was that?I hadn’t even heard of it. And an aquatic center? Like a regular swimming pool chock-full of chemicals? One that was lacking the key ingredient needed to make the whole transformation thing work? What was Kai thinking?
I eyed the bags in his hands. They looked awfully heavy. “Are those bags full of salt?”
“Salt?” he asked, his head tilting. “Why would I bring salt to a community center?”
Something told me this swimming exercise wasn’t going to go quite like he’d planned, but who was I to burst his cheery little bubble?
“Oh, no reason,” I said, walking to the front door. He’d find out on his own soon enough.
Kai passed me one of the brown bags and slid a key out of his pocket. He hummed a cheerful note when it slipped into the door’s lock without resistance. “Nice.”
“You have a key to the community center?” I gawked as the lock turned over. A tag was fixed at the key’s end, the words “Aquatic Center” lettered onto it in such a fanciful script it was hard to imagine anyone other than a scribe had penned it. “How’d you manage that?”
“Barren took me for a tour of the Atlantic’s new territory, and I asked around a bit while you were still asleep.” A thoughtful smile touched the corners of his lips. “Made friends with one of their captains over a game ofskipjacks. I had to show him how to play, but he still hooked me up when I won. Turns out they’ve got keys to all of these buildings.”
The merfolk hadkeys?I’d spent hours trying to cut through that gas station’s damn lock and chain. “So, just to make sure I’m understanding… The Kingdom of the Atlantic showed up one day, and the citizens of Longshore Bay just handed their town over to them?”
After a quick shrug, Kai swung the door wide, motioning for me to go through first. “I guess you can accomplish anything with enough land money.”
Well, yeah. That was the way things worked on land. Problem was, it was hard to believe the Kingdom of the Atlantic actually had any money. They were currently a kingdom held up by poles and scraps of fabric. Their king was ruling from atop a flippingbeach chair.
“And it doesn’t hurt that King Eamon has more than a few mermaids under his rule. I’m sure you know a little glamouring can go a long way.” He threw me a playful wink as I passed.
Now that made more sense. The poor citizens had given up their homes, their jobs, their entire lives. The thought made my stomach sour. Freaking mermaid magic.How disgusting.
“Yeah, well, that’s one trick I’m glad I never learned,” I mumbled, making my way inside. Chlorine fumes hit like a rotten fish slapped across my face, the chemical smell burning a trail up my nose. Still, thank Poseidon it wasn’t a saltwater pool.
Even though chlorinated pools were the majority, Kai seemed so carefree, bouncing around and projecting that “everything will work out in the end if we just believe” aura of his, that a part of me wondered if he’d somehow managed to find a pool filled with salt water.
His free and easy smile spoke of his upbringing, as if he’d probably take every minor setback in stride, then credit his positive attitude whenever good fortune landed right on his lap. Yeah, well,can’t relate.
I struggled, hid knives in blankets and under boxes, and took nothing in stride. But at least I wouldn’t have to worry about transforming in front of him for now. His idea of helping me swim would probably boil down to a chant of “just believe in yourself!”
“I don’t think glamouring is something you have to learn to do, right?” Kai came up beside me, his nose wiggling as if he was trying to determine whether he liked the smell of the air. “My little sis was doing it on her own when her tail was only about this long.” His arms spread to a short length. Clearly the tail of a merfry. “She had no problem sweet-talking more food on her plate. Left the rest of us to duke it out over whatever was left.Wham!”
A playful fist went for my stomach, and I used the brown bag as a shield so I could dart ahead of him down the hall. Kai was right on my rear, pantomiming a few more punches aimed at my back—complete with more childish sound effects ofwhamandpow.
I was laughing before I knew it, easily catching his contagious enthusiasm for our pretend fight. Although each fist stopped short, I fake-dodged every one he threw, and he doubled his efforts when I tossed back a few of my own.
