by Aimee Carter
“Watch your back,” he said quietly. “I don’t want to lose you, too.”
“I’ll try,” said Simon, but that was all the promise he was willing to make right now. Gulping in a giant breath of the salty air, he fell backward into the dark waters below, torn between fear and determination. That feeling, he was quickly discovering, was the only way he got anything done anymore, and as he sank into the water, he saw the silhouette of a peregrine falcon take off from the railing of the boat.
Now that Simon knew what it was like to have fins and gills, swimming as a human felt more like clawing his way through the water, and it took him much longer to reach the cave than he’d anticipated. No moonlight reached inside the maze of tunnels, and Simon ran his hand over the wall, remembering to turn right at each fork. Only when he sensed the larger cavern around him did he turn on the flashlight Leo had given him.
He eyed the thousands of rocks, shells, and gemstones with grim determination. It would be impossible to search by hand, but Simon pulled out his father’s pocket watch, making sure to wrap the chain around his wrist so it wouldn’t get lost. Underwater, it was possible the broken watch wouldn’t heat up when it got close to the piece like it did on land, but Simon had to try. It was his only chance.
He had to make several passes of the large cavern, gripping the pocket watch and scanning the cavern floor, but sure enough, the metal began to grow warm toward the center. It was like playing a game—every time the watch cooled, he knew he was on the wrong track. If it felt warm, he knew he was getting closer. At last, when the metal was almost too hot for him to hold, he knew he must have been right on top of it. He ran his hand through layer after layer of shell and stone, and at last his fingertips brushed against a rock also hot to the touch.
The piece.
He grabbed it as fast as he could, shoving it into his pocket before he could lose it. The heat was no less intense, almost burning his thigh, but he forced himself to ignore it. As hot as it felt, he knew from experience that it wouldn’t do anything more than make his skin a little red.
From that same pocket, he fished out the rock he’d stolen for Winter. Removing his mouthpiece, he spoke into the water, feeling as crazy as the kids at his old school had thought he was. “I’m sorry I stole it, Gordon. I didn’t mean to insult you, and I know why you took the crystal from me.” He sucked in another lungful of oxygen. “But I need it. It’s important—really important, so I hope you’re okay with a trade.”
Carefully he set down the glittering stone. Replacing his mask and taking another deep breath, he shone the flashlight across the cave. No sign of the octopus. But he hadn’t seen him last time either, and Simon cautiously headed back to the cavern entrance. He wouldn’t make the mistake of dropping the piece again, so if the octopus wanted it back, he would have to—
Whoosh.
Simon flew backward. His mouthpiece fell out, and he tried to reach for it, only to be yanked back by his oxygen tank a second time. In a panic, he wriggled out of the straps that held the tank to his body, and once free, Simon spun around in the water.
Behind him, staring at him with dark eyes, was a great white shark.
16
THE SHARK’S CAVE
Simon’s heart raced, burning through precious oxygen. The great white shark was small, but it didn’t matter. He still couldn’t fight off those teeth.
“Give it to me,” said the shark in a feminine voice. He grabbed for his mouthpiece again, but she snapped her teeth at him, and he had to pull back. “Not until you give me the piece, Simon.”
He almost sucked in a mouthful of water. He knew that voice. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly whose it was, but he knew without a doubt that the shark was one of Jam’s sisters.
“Need—air,” he tried to say, but he barely had any left in his lungs. He went for the mask a third time, and yet again, she cut him off.
“The piece,” she demanded, her voice growing strangled with desperation. “Or you’ll never take another breath again.”
His mind whirled. He could shift into a fish to breathe, but that would mean exposing his secret to her, whichever sister she was. What were his other options, though? Drown?
Simon lurched toward the mask again, using all his strength to push off from the ground, but the shark knocked him aside as if he were a Wiffle ball. “The piece. I know you have it. I saw you, I heard you talking—you have it.”
What little he could see from the flashlight grew dark and fuzzy. His head swam and his lungs burned, and he knew if he didn’t get any air in the next few seconds, he would pass out and drown. Resisting the urge to breathe in a lungful of water, he closed his eyes and imagined the shape of a small dark fish he’d seen swimming around earlier. Maybe he could get away and hide from her, and as soon as he had enough air, he could—
“Give it back to him.”
To Simon’s shock, a second great white shark appeared—this one much bigger than the first. It chomped down on the first shark’s tail, and she let out a bloodcurdling shriek. Simon forgotten, she spun around and tried to bite back, but the bigger shark was too fast. They sparred in the wide beam of the flashlight, the second shark sinking its teeth into her twice more, and during those precious seconds while she wasn’t paying attention, Simon used the last of his energy to propel himself toward the mouthpiece. Grasping on to it, he brought it to his lips and took the biggest breath he’d ever taken in his life.
Air filled his burning lungs, and spots appeared in front of him as his body got the oxygen it desperately needed. From a dark corner, Simon watched as the bigger shark chased the smaller one out of the cavern, his mind too cloudy from the lack of air and the earlier knock on his head to put two and two together. But as soon as Jam’s sister disappeared, the remaining shark let out a whoop of joy. A very familiar whoop of joy.
“Nolan?” gasped Simon, pulling the mouthpiece away for a moment. The shark grinned, his teeth a little bloody. Simon’s stomach turned.
“That was awesome. Are you okay?”
Simon nodded, taking several more deep breaths before speaking again. “What are you doing here?”
“You told me to keep an eye out and see if anyone acted funny. What are you doing here?”
“I—” Simon stopped, using the mouthpiece as an excuse to buy himself a few seconds. What was he supposed to tell Nolan? What excuse could he possibly come up with that would explain what he was doing in a cave before dawn?
He couldn’t. There was nothing he could possibly say to his brother to explain any of this, and even if he tried, the way Nolan watched him with his dark, beady shark eyes made Simon wonder if he’d heard what the other shark had been saying. He must have, Simon figured. And his brother might have been a little self-absorbed sometimes, but he wasn’t an idiot.
So, taking one more deep breath, he pulled the piece from his pocket. “I was looking for this.”
Instead of more questions, like Simon expected, Nolan grinned again. “I knew it. I knew you didn’t run off to the reptile kingdom because of Winter, and I knew you didn’t want to come to California for some stupid summit. You’ve been putting the Predator together, haven’t you?”
Simon took another breath and nodded. There was no denying it now. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. Mom—”
“I know that’s why Orion took Mom,” said Nolan. “It all makes sense now.”
“She sent me to find the pieces before he can,” he said, slipping his arms back into the scuba harness.
Nolan considered this for a long moment, swimming in a circle around Simon. If it had been any other shark, Simon would have tried to bolt. As it was, he felt oddly safe with his brother there—and also terrified that Orion’s shark army would come through the cavern entrance at any moment and find them both there.
Before Simon could blurt anything out, however, Nolan spoke. “I’m going to help.”
It wasn’t a question or an offer. It was a statement of fact, and Simon knew he shouldn’t h
ave expected anything less. But even now, he was hyperaware of the possibility that the shark would return and bring friends with her. Simon couldn’t let that happen. No matter what, he had to protect his brother.
But could he really protect him if Nolan was following him and trying to help in ways they hadn’t agreed on? Knowing his brother, that was exactly what would happen, and now that he knew, there was no use trying to put it off. So, reluctantly, Simon said, “Okay.”
“Really?” said Nolan, sounding slightly bewildered.
“Really,” said Simon. “Right now, if you know who the spy is, you need to find her before she can warn anyone else. And I need to—” He clutched the piece. “I need to go.”
“Mom?” said Nolan, and Simon nodded tightly.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Stay safe, okay? And stay out of the fight.”
“You should see it,” said Nolan, suddenly enthused. “I’ve never seen so many sharks in my life.”
He sounded impressed, but all it did was make Simon sick with fear. He couldn’t think about all of those soldiers he’d seen marching through the streets, possibly to their deaths. “I mean it, Nolan,” he said. “Stay away from the battle. You’re too important to risk.”
With a huff, Nolan mumbled, “Fine. I will. Are you sure you don’t want to look? We don’t have to get close to see it.”
It would be good to know what was happening and what kind of support Orion really had, Simon supposed. And maybe reality wouldn’t be as bad as the fight he was imagining. “Only if you promise to stay away. You need to find the spy and stop her,” he repeated. “Otherwise this gets really ugly really fast.”
It was hard to tell, considering Nolan was a shark right now, but Simon could have sworn he drooped a little. “Okay. At least grab on to my fin so I can get you out of here.”
Simon did exactly that, and as Nolan maneuvered through the maze of dark caves much faster than Simon ever could have, he wondered if this was the right thing to do. He’d made a promise to keep his brother safe, and this was the furthest thing from safe that he could think of. But now that Simon knew about Leo, now that he knew there was more to this than he had ever realized, he also knew he needed as much help as he could get. And while he and Nolan had had their differences, there was one thing they would always have in common: their mother.
When Atlantis came into view, Simon could barely breathe. The city glowed with eerie blue light, and surrounding the city were entire swarms of underwater Animalgams. Some of the creatures, including the whales and a few of the larger sharks, were big enough for him to make out, but from this distance, Simon couldn’t tell where the armies ended and Orion’s forces began.
But he could see one thing for certain: there was a ring of creatures surrounding a smaller force pinned against the dome with nowhere to go. Simon gulped. What remained of the underwater army were sitting ducks. It wouldn’t take more than a few hours for the sharks to pick them off one by one.
“Come on, before you run out of oxygen,” said Nolan, and with one last look at the raging battle, Simon let his brother pull him away.
Once they surfaced in the predawn light, Simon pulled off the mouthpiece and breathed in the crisp, salty air of the ocean. “They’re going to die,” he gasped. “All of those soldiers—”
“Jam said he had a plan,” said Nolan. “He and Malcolm were talking about it when I left.”
“Jam?” said Simon. “I thought Rhode arrested him.”
“She did, but then once you escaped, she let him go as long as he agreed to help. They know what they’re doing, all right? Don’t think about that right now. Think about Mom.”
Simon’s head hurt, and a desperate need to do something filled him, but there wasn’t anything he could do. Not against that many sharks. “You swear you’ll follow the spy and nothing else?”
“I swear. She won’t be hard to find. I can smell her blood,” said Nolan as he swam in circles around him, sounding slightly awed and disgusted at the same time. “I’ll come back for you. And Mom, if you can save her.”
Simon bit his lip. “She wants—she wants to stay. To help throw Orion off,” he admitted, his voice cracking. But if Nolan was in this, then he had to know everything, no matter how much it would hurt them both.
The shark was quiet for a moment. “Oh.”
“It’s not about us,” he said quickly, trying to convince himself as well as his brother. “It’s just—it’s too important for her to give up. I’ll make sure she knows someone’s trying to kill her, but she won’t come back with me. Not until the Predator’s destroyed.”
The shark seemed to tense. “Then we have to make that happen,” he said firmly, after a beat. But there was a hitch to his voice Simon recognized all too well—the hitch of helplessness hidden underneath the determination.
“You saved my life back there, you know,” he said, nearly drowned out by the waves.
“And don’t you ever forget it,” said the shark, baring his teeth in a grin once more, though Simon thought it looked halfhearted. “I expect you to let me eat your dessert for the rest of the week.”
Simon managed a smirk. “Only if it isn’t cake. Go find the spy,” he added. “And make sure Malcolm—make sure he isn’t in that mess. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“You’ll be okay?” said Nolan, and he nodded. The brothers exchanged small smiles before Simon shifted into a golden eagle, and he took off into the sky, trying not to think too hard about what was underneath those dark churning waves, and what he was sending his brother back into.
He soared toward Santa Catalina Island. In the dark, his eagle vision was poor, but he could spot light from the bobbing boat a mile off the coast. Winter was there, and Zia and Leo wouldn’t let her go until Simon gave up the piece. He couldn’t, though—wouldn’t, not when he didn’t trust either of them. But how could he possibly rescue her when they’d be up against another heir to the Beast King?
His worries were cut off by a shrill scream, however, and with a start, he zeroed in on the birds’ beach. It had come from there. Simon dived toward the shore, and another scream echoed in the night.
It was his mother.
17
FISH TO FRY
Simon landed in a tree on the edge of the sand. The beach was quiet now, but he was sure that the screams had belonged to his mother. He’d heard them before—the day she’d been kidnapped, the times she’d screamed at him to run. He would have recognized them anywhere.
She wasn’t on the log she’d been chained to earlier that night. Frustrated, Simon cast around. The branches that had been heavy with birds were now abandoned, and he heard no trace of the flock nearby. Throwing caution to the wind, Simon flew down onto the sand, hopping around while trying to spot her. There was a cluster of tents on the other side of the smoldering remains of the bonfire, and once he was sure she wasn’t out in the open, he flew over, peeking through a small rip in the canvas of the largest one.
The lighting was dim, with only a single lantern hanging from the ceiling of the enormous tent. His mother hovered in the shadows of a nearby corner, slumped over with tears running down her cheeks. In the center, near an overturned table and a sea of papers and underwater maps, stood Orion, his hands clasped around the delicate neck of a dead peregrine falcon.
Ice filled Simon’s veins. Was it Leo? From a distance, he couldn’t tell.
“I told you, Isabel,” said Orion, his voice shaking with rage. “I told you what would happen if he stole another piece from me, yet you insist on helping him anyway.”
“You don’t know it was Simon,” she said. “The entire underwater kingdom is looking for that piece—”
“And yet your son was the one to find it. How do you think he managed that, Isabel? Do you think he scoured the entire Pacific Ocean in less than two days?”
“The Flukes knew where it was. He could have easily found out from them.” She sniffed, fresh tears appearing in her eyes. “You didn’t have
to kill the messenger. He was a good man.”
“And his blood is on your hands.” Orion glanced at the dead bird he still held. “Rowan!”
Orion stalked out of the tent, taking his victim with him and leaving Simon’s mother alone among the mess of maps and books. As soon as the flap closed, Simon slipped through the hole in the canvas, inching toward her. He couldn’t get the image of the dead peregrine falcon out of his head, but for now, he took a small amount of comfort in the grim assurance that it hadn’t been Leo.
“Mom,” he whispered as loudly as he dared. “Mom, it’s me.”
She startled as if he’d yelled in her ear, the chains attached to her collar rattling. “Simon?” Her blond braid was messy, and up close, Simon could tell how puffy and swollen her eyes were. “Is that you?”
Simon bobbed his head and hopped closer. “I can’t stay.”
“You shouldn’t be here. It’s too dangerous.”
“I know. I have to tell you—”
“Did you find it?” Her voice cracked with desperation. “Orion said you did, but—”
“I did,” he said hastily. “It’s okay, Mom. I have it.”
She slumped back against the canvas as if a giant weight had been taken from her shoulders. It only lasted a moment, though, and then she straightened again, adjusting the heavy metal collar. “You need to get out of here. If Orion finds you—”
“I will,” he promised. “But you have to know—”
Suddenly two large human hands grabbed him, pinning his wings to his sides. Instinctively Simon struggled against the grip, squawking and snapping his beak at the strong fingers around his feathered body, but there was no give. He was trapped, and worse, his captor was inadvertently pressing against the wound in his side, causing the pain to intensify to agonizing levels. Twisting his head around, Simon caught sight of Rowan’s face. Even in the dim light, he looked pale.
“I was wondering when you’d drop by.” Orion appeared at Rowan’s side, speaking in a smooth, untroubled tone. Simon was suddenly extremely grateful he hadn’t shifted into anything other than a golden eagle.
