by Amy McNulty
“I’ll show you to the registrar’s office,” offered Llyr. Calder’s pickup pulled in a few spots down and I bounced in place, rubbing my arms as I watched first Calder and then Laguna disembark from the vehicle. Calder adjusted a backpack up his arm and stared pointedly our way, then sent me a nod before heading inside.
Honestly?
Lately, I felt less and less like this prince had my back and more like I’d just been enlisted in a stranger’s family drama. With actual combat a part of it.
“Calder has early laps,” said Llyr as we made our way inside. I felt naked without my tote bag, even if the only thing I’d have kept in it before I got new books was my phone and my wallet. I was definitely going to have to figure out how to get that all back from Paisley—before the “war council” planned for today. “Early laps?”
“Swim team,” explained Llyr. Bay interrupted us to wish me a fun first day and then pecked Llyr on the cheek before jogging up to Cascade and joining her among one of the groups milling about in front of the entrance. “He missed practice for a couple of days. He and Laguna and Bay…”
As if on cue, Bay nodded to the group and then fell in step behind Laguna and Calder, disappearing inside.
“Hey, you should join the team,” suggested Llyr.
“The swim team?” I held the first set of doors open for the redhead. “No, thanks.” Something about straining to keep my legs as legs while in the water just ruined the whole thing for me. Not that I’d ever been the most devoted swimmer anyway. Though thank goodness Mom and Dad had sprung for swimming lessons when I’d been a tot or I’d have been at a loss on how to get anywhere underwater, tail or no.
Llyr thanked me and got the second set of doors and I noticed a couple of new faces look my way as I stepped inside. Lockers on either side of the hallway ahead—classrooms being struck by the intense morning sunlight through floor-to-ceiling windows on corridors on my left and right. Pretty standard school design.
“But swimming can be so relaxing,” said Llyr, smiling at a few of the staring faces as he led the way straight ahead. “Rejuvenating even.” He tapped the side of his temple. “It might be just what you need to get ready for battle. It gets your muscles in shape.”
“Or maybe strength won’t be that important and Nerida could take my suggestion and ensure the next fight only happens in the water,” I mumbled.
“Is that what got the adults all hot and bothered?” Llyr headed for a large staircase at the end of the hallway. Instead of going up, though, he led me to the side and around the back. “They said to keep an eye on you and make sure you come straight back after school.”
Because otherwise, I’d what, lure the vampires into my trap without first consulting the rest of them? It was aggravating how nonchalant these merfolk seemed to be about it all, but my plan was no one-woman show—I’d need them on board for it to work. I checked over my shoulder, but the nearest students seemed to be out of earshot. I ran up beside Llyr to get closer to him. “I want to lure the vampires to your house.”
He stopped cold, and I took a few more steps before I realized I had no idea where I was going without him.
“Oh,” he said. He seemed disturbed by the very suggestion.
“Why not?” I folded my arms and took a few steps closer to him. “It’s defense city.”
“So what makes you think any of… Any of them would show up? They have more than a vague idea of what awaits them.”
“Easy. We find some way to lure them there.” Okay, maybe not so easy if I couldn’t figure out what to use that they’d care about. Other than me. To end this battle. But they were probably smart enough to figure out it’d be easier to catch me outside the place and to bide their time.
Not that they’d have to bide it long. A shiver ran down my spine and I checked both to the left and to the right of me, almost expecting vampires to jump out from dark corners to send a healthy dose of venom through my veins.
But I wasn’t moving into the Pooles’ little fortress. I had a life. And as amazing as the house was, I wondered if they had mold problems with all that moisture. There had to be some drawback.
“Hmm, maybe,” said Llyr as he started walking again. “But I don’t think any of our parents will go for it.”
“Why not?” The words fell out in a rush.
“There are kids there,” he said quietly, his eyes darting back and forth at the other students who were observing us. Maybe I had been a little loud. “It’s our… It’s our home.” He cringed.
“And this is war,” I hissed.
Llyr’s pace slowed as we approached what was clearly an office, a couple of students entering ahead of us as another exited with a piece of paper in her hand and a scowl on her face. “This is it,” he said, running a shaking hand through his hair.
Had I really upset him that much?
“You’ll see,” I said, ignoring the banalities of him taking me to an office to get my schedule and the books I’d need to start at a new school. My life wasn’t going to be this for long.
“Oo, Double-L, finally done batting for the home team?” Some guy brushed past, sending me a way-too-appraising look. “Hey, baby.”
“Excuse—” I started.
“Shut up,” said Llyr, his jaw muscles twitching, though his tone was somewhat light. He flipped the guy the bird and the guy guffawed, practically howling the whole way.
That was more backbone than I’d probably see in Calder in a similar situation.
There was hope for these merfolk yet.
“Miss Sheppard. Miss Ivy Sheppard, please make your way to the registrar’s office.”
The bell had just rung for lunch and I’d been about to find a familiar face to ask what was I supposed to do without any cash for lunch or a brown paper bag when the overhead speaker had blared out my name.
Though virtually no one around me knew the announcement was referring to me, I found myself trying to flick two big chunks of my hair in front of my shoulders in order to partially cover up my face.
“See you around, Ivy,” said a probably-well-meaning girl named Katie I’d just partnered up with in my new English class. We were studying The Sound and the Fury, which I’d just finished doing at Union High, so she’d probably mistaken me for a fellow smart student instead of a regurgitator of points made in my last class.
“You too,” I said, pasting a smile onto my lips. My eyes darted around the room as I looked to see if anyone had put two and two together about me being the one summoned via intercom, but no one was even paying me any mind—aside from the occasional quick glance and taking of inventory of the new girl in perky patterned leggings.
It wasn’t until I was almost at the registrar’s office that I stopped considering all the new faces around me and started considering this was a trap.
“Ivy!” shouted a familiar voice from behind me. Calder came jogging up, Bay and Cascade at his heels.
“Honey?”
I turned back to face the registrar’s. Mom stood there, her brown work apron on, my middle school mylar lunch bag in hand.
“Mom.” I let out a deep breath and went to join her, ignoring the merfolk hot on my heels behind me. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought you might need lunch or lunch money,” she said. “Though I wondered if Nerida might be hospitable enough that I needn’t worry about it, but anyway…” She passed off the bag and then kissed my forehead.
“Mom,” I hissed.
“I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay.” She hadn’t been this motherly to me since I’d been an only child.
“Hello, Ms. Sheppard,” said Calder as he appeared next to me, his shallow breaths quiet but unmistakable. He must have run as soon as he’d heard the intercom.
Run toward a potential fight? No, that simply wasn’t Calder.
“Hello, dear,” said Mom, all smiles all of a sudden with the guy she’d mistaken for a pervert over the weekend. Maybe having Nerida take her to coffee had made all
the difference—or Orin’s little mind trick.
“I’m fine, Mom,” I said, my face flushing as more and more people started brushing past us in the hallways. “Thanks for checking on me. And for lunch.” I shook the bag, juggling the stack of books I’d yet to return to my new locker in the crook of my other arm.
“All right then. I can tell when you’re saying no cool kids have their moms come bring them lunch.” She chuckled as she readjusted her purse. “Do you need a ride home?”
I looked to Calder and he shook his head. “No,” I said. “I’ve got it covered.”
“She may be late,” said Calder. “There’s swim team and then my mom invited her for dinner again.”
“Swim team?” Mom asked. “Honey, you’re joining swim team?”
I glowered at Calder. “I’m thinking about it,” I said, covering for him.
“That’s good exercise,” she said, and her phone vibrated from her purse. “Oh, your father called earlier,” she said. “Your step-sister found your phone last night and they want you to stop by and pick it up.”
Ice flooded my veins and I exchanged a look with Calder and Cascade and Bay, all seeming to have paled at the idea.
“I don’t know if I’ll have time—” I started.
“Ivy, I need you to have your phone on you, okay? That was the deal when we agreed you could hang out so often with your friends. You always pick up your phone.” She checked her screen and frowned, brushing some text away.
“Maybe I should get a new one,” I said, brittle laughter breaking into my words.
Mom looked up from her phone, her eyebrow arched. “Rather than check in with your father for a few minutes? You can’t…” She shook her head, her eyes suddenly going glossy. “You can’t… Why can’t you see him? He should… Didn’t we…? Autumn is with him…”
“Maybe Autumn can bring Ivy her phone when you pick her up,” suggested Calder, putting a hand on her arm and guiding her in the direction of the door. “That’s today or tomorrow, isn’t it?”
“Tomorrow,” said Mom softly, her eyes rapidly blinking.
“I might stop by with friends to get it,” I said, shooting Calder a look. I didn’t like the visual reminder of how Orin had interfered with Mom’s mind—mostly on my request at that.
Calder swallowed visibly, but said no more.
“Anyway,” said Mom, brightening. “That was work. Tara can’t come back after her lunch break—family emergency—so they need me back ASAP.” She threw an arm around me for a halfway hug. “Have fun at your new school, honey.”
“Thanks,” I said, and I watched her go.
“You can’t be serious about going to your dad’s,” said Calder.
Over his shoulder, Cascade and Bay fidgeted. Cascade tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear and averted her gaze. Bay bounced on his toes, flexing his muscles as he clenched his fists at his side.
“I’m not going into hiding forever, Calder,” I said, feeling more confident with the thought of at least some of the team behind me. “And I’m not going to pretend certain family members don’t exist because it’s not convenient for you.”
“Me?” Calder rubbed his nose. “This isn’t about me, Ivy—”
“Then you have no excuse not to do what I say.” I grinned. “After all, I am your people’s champion, am I not?”
Chapter Twelve
We were going to Dad’s—the whole lot of us—but first I had to agree to one thing.
“Observing” the swim team to see if I wanted to join it.
I already knew I couldn’t care less about anything like extracurriculars right now, my need for a few more things to dazzle the college applications or not. Too bad I couldn’t add “Mermaid, Vampire Hunter” to the list of extracurriculars.
It was hard to picture ever going to college at this rate. It was hard to picture more than a few weeks from now—at least until I put this mess behind me.
“We’re almost exactly the same size,” said Cascade as I came around the corner of the locker room. She’d lent me one of her spare team suits, a no-frills navy-blue one-piece. Laguna already had hers on and was tucking her hair into a rubber swim cap, snapping a set of goggles over her eyes.
Cascade must have noticed me observing. “Team rules,” she said. She tsked and tossed me an unopened swim cap package. “Though they’ll probably be okay with you not using goggles since you’re just observing.”
A couple of the girls on the team giggled from the showers on the other side of the locker room and I lowered my voice. “So how do you…?”
Cascade plopped one foot up on a bench, showing off her gams, so to speak. “Keep these beauties intact? Focus. Should be easier for you since it’s your default state.”
Right. But so far, it was taking more focus than I was comfortable with to not mermaid-out in water for specific periods. Not that I’d done more than shower since Homecoming. Had that really been less than a week ago?
“Think of dry things,” said Laguna, so quietly and unexpectedly, I almost yelped. “Humidity. Brisket. Deserts.”
“Or Laguna’s sense of humor,” added Cascade.
Chuckling, I finished unwrapping my cap and slapped it over my head. My nose wrinkled. It smelled strongly of rubber, and pulling tightly on the straps that went under my chin only made it worse.
We padded toward the showers, Cascade exchanging a few words with some of the other girls on the team.
“So… Can I ask you guys something?” I lathered my hands with soap from the nearby dispenser.
“You’re going to ask regardless,” said Laguna quietly. She had a point there.
“Shoot,” said Cascade, inviting me to say more.
My feet tingled then in the shower stream and I had to quickly rinse off, shaking my legs out as I stepped away from the falling stream of water.
“Whoa, you okay?” Cascade stepped up behind me.
“Yeah,” I said, taking a deep breath. “I just started thinking about what I was going to say and I got that foot tingling.” I shook my bare foot for emphasis.
“Yeah, maybe try not to think too hard about… everything going on when you’re out there. Relax. Embrace the chill.” Cascade grinned.
Laguna padded over, her thin lips in a straight line. “Ask your questions before we go out there.” She didn’t seem at home here in a gym shower with a standard swimsuit, a swim cap, and goggles. That long, red, crimped hair needed to be free, her tail the only covering she’d need, a lake or river her destination, not a stark gym pool.
“Okay,” I said, shaking my limbs out more to dry a bit off. I checked both ways to make sure no other members of the swim team were present. “How come none of you came to help at Homecoming? Or introduced yourselves to me earlier?”
“You weren’t our champion until the dance,” said Cascade, her tone uncertain. “Prince Calder had to win you to our side first before we even knew for certain there would be a shot of us winning this thing.” She frowned as her chin tilted down slightly. “Besides, we did see you under the lake a few weeks back. Don’t you remember us?”
I shook my head. I’d been overwhelmed then, and there’d been so many merfolk to take in that day. That, and the fact that I’d had a tail just like theirs and could breathe underwater for the first time in my life.
My toes were tingling again and I shook off my feet until the sensation faded away.
Laguna ground a fist against her lips before dropping it to speak. “He asked us to let him convince you alone,” she said, slow and direct. “I wouldn’t have liked to have been overcrowded in your position. I wouldn’t have been able to think clearly.”
That kind of thinking hadn’t stopped the vampires from popping up everywhere Ember and I had gone. But I liked the other merfolk my age. They might have helped make the decision easier.
That led me to my second question. “So why aren’t any of the adults helping?” I asked. “Like why didn’t they show up yesterday along with the rest of y
ou? You have the numbers when it comes to a battle against the vampires—at least from what I’ve seen.”
“This isn’t supposed to be a merfolk versus bloodsucker conflict,” said Cascade. Her feet scuffed the ground. “Otherwise, yeah, we probably could kick their butts with numbers alone.”
“They’re fast,” said Laguna quietly. “We really only have the advantage in water. And they’re savvy enough to stay away.”
“Not to mention they’re extra strong at night.” Cascade sighed, then stood straighter, almost like she was at the ready. “And you don’t want our parents and the other old people there,” she spat. I had to stop myself from chuckling at the idea of people my parents’ age being “old.” She flexed her bicep—it was toned, but no bodybuilder’s arm or anything. “We’ve got the speed and the strength to back you up.”
“It’s champion versus champion,” Laguna added. “But we can keep the other bloodsuckers at bay.” Her expression seemed pained. “The observer seemed to think that much was allowable, anyway.”
Orin. Could I possibly go more than a few hours without remembering that traitorous faery existed?
Sighing, I gave the girls a curt nod. “You’re right. You both kicked some A back at that empty house.” A fluttery smile appeared, then vanished from my face. “I hope you’ll back me up tonight,” I said, and a sense of realization dawned on Laguna’s face. Llyr had probably told her. “Because the sooner this all is over…”
I left the rest unsaid.
The coach’s gym whistle blew again. “Sheppard, watch your arms. Keep them straight.”
She wasn’t doing the idea of joining the swim team any favors, I could tell you that much. My arms burned and my heart thundered as I tried to do my third lap of the butterfly stroke down one of the cordoned-off lanes. My toes were skirting the floor of the pool as the deep end met the shallow and I lowered my legs to stand and take a deep breath.
