I smiled when he gave me a tiny bow. Then he was off like a flash, a darting light that somehow retained a sense of weight and form. There was a funny, joyful, zipping sound as he traveled.
In a moment, he was back in my hand.
Our teacher clapped delightedly, as did most of the students. I smiled a little, thinking maybe I wasn’t so terrible at magic after all.
“Another!”
I bent forward and asked him to take a spin around the room. The class gasped as he darted around the periphery of the room, grazing their heads and ruffling their hair. I blinked and he was back in my cupped palms, looking up at me.
“Can he . . . stay with me?”
“He’s a light being, so he will need to recharge. But he could for a time.”
I frowned, recalling the uncomfortable process of reabsorbing the giant ball of light the last time I had summoned magic.
“If I reabsorb him, will he die?”
“No. He is a part of you. You are lucky. This ability is very rare. He is your guide, and you are his caller.”
“He’s a familiar? Like Beaz, I mean?” I asked, forgetting I was in class and using Beazil’s nickname.
“It is similar but not the same. Beazil was born to a shark. His spirit was called to yours and enhanced by your magic. He was probably born with a bit of magic himself.”
She smiled at me.
“It’s not just Mers who have magic. All species have some, though less than us. I’ve even heard of two-leggers with some abilities.”
I nodded, staring in wonder at the small creature in my hand.
“Name him so you can call him again.”
I bit my lip, considering. Then I bent down and asked him if he liked the name ‘Lumi.’ I didn’t want anyone else to hear his name, feeling instinctively that it was powerful.
“It’s short for Luminous,” I said when he bobbed his little head and spun in a circle excitedly, throwing off sparks.
“You can tell him to go to sleep now. Or just to return home.”
“Will you come inside me now? To sleep?”
He nodded his elongated head once, and I watched as he lifted up and dove into the center of my palm. I stared at my hand, in awe of what had just happened. I could feel him with me.
I knew in my heart that I’d never be alone again. That I never truly had been. I smiled softly, deciding not to share his name with anyone just yet.
“Well done, Tri! I hope you can continue your private lessons with Annaruth. They are serving you well!”
I blushed a bit as the class applauded me. Even Juno clapped slowly, a sarcastic smirk on his mouth. I looked at my sister, but she was turned away, whispering something to Minka. Then the horn blew and it was time for Magical Transformation.
Chapter 12
“Change starts small, remember that,” Jonquar instructed. “We aren’t going for the full tentacle. Not at first.”
I stared at my freckled arm, frowning with concentration. We were trying to give ourselves tentacle arms. Well, arm.
Starting with one body part was apparently the easy way.
It didn’t feel easy, however. It felt impossible. I was sure I was about to flunk out of the Academy, truth be told.
I glanced at Dane and saw that his skin was already changing colors.
“Picture the suckers. Just one.”
My eyes closed as I tried to imagine the rubbery cups that lined an octopus’s arm. I could feel them popping out of my skin. I opened my eyes and the effect faded.
“Triton!”
“Keep going. That was the hard part. Now you know how it feels. Remember that.”
I closed my eyes again, focusing hard.
“Ease up. Imagine using the tentacle, not forcing it into existence.”
I imagined wrapping my arm around something. Using the suction and bendy bits to pick it up. I frowned, realizing I needed more motivation.
Food. My stomach grumbled. Imagine it’s a lobster claw. Or the bread I had tasted only a few nights before.
Or lobster on bread.
That did it.
I felt my tentacle brush against something. Another tentacle! I opened my eyes to see Dane smiling at me, his tentacle wrapped around mine.
We were holding hands!
More or less, anyway.
“Cute. Creepy and weird, but cute,” I said, staring at our bendy limbs.
“You look nice today,” he said, a warm look in his eyes. Thankfully, he wasn’t staring at my arm. I blushed.
“You are weird, Dane.”
He threw back his head and laughed.
“Very good! I’m tempted to have you hold it overnight, but I think we should work on quick transitions first. Return to normal,” he said, clapping his hands together.
I closed my eyes and imagined my real arm was back. I peeked and watched in awe as the arm became solid, shifted colors, and the suckers popped back inside me, one by one.
“Can we get bigger? Or smaller?” I asked without thinking.
“It is very rare, but yes, it can be done, according to legend. I myself cannot. There is no living Spark who has been able to master that feat.”
“So if we become a scuttle fish or a carp, we will be the same size?”
“More or less.” He smiled patiently. “If you become a blowfish, you will be quite large as their center is mostly air.”
I blinked, imagining floating awkwardly as a very round fish. A balloon, as the two-leggers called it. I had been learning a lot in Human History and Etiquette.
“So stealth is not an option,” I said, thinking through the possibilities.
“Ah, but it is! Imagine your flesh made of translucent jelly!”
We stared in awe as Jonquar’s arm became see-through. He grabbed it and twisted it with his other arm, then stretched it out. My jaw nearly dropped.
“Handy to get out of a tight squeeze, no?”
I nodded, my mouth still gaping open.
“You could use that to grab anything. Right under someone’s nose,” Dane said. I stared at him. Of course. It was brilliant!
“You could even put a sleeping potion in someone’s drink,” I breathed, “while sitting right beside them!”
“Now that is one I haven’t tried.” Jonquar chuckled. “And it’s very telling that you wanted to put someone to sleep instead of . . .”
I stared at him, then at Dane.
“Killing them,” he finished.
“Oh.”
It was true. That hadn’t even occurred to me. I didn’t want to kill anyone, except maybe the Mers who had taken my father away from me. Who maybe even now held him captive . . . and yet, I didn’t even want to kill them. I just wanted him back and I wanted them to stop what they were doing. If they had to be locked up to protect other Mers, so be it.
The bell rang before I could go any further down that line of thinking, thank Triton.
“Lunch?” Dane said with a smile.
“Yeah. I’m starving.”
He laughed. “Of course you are.”
I floated beside him as he guided me down an unfamiliar hallway. I stopped, looking around uncertainly. I’d never been this way before. I wasn’t sure we were even in the Academy wing anymore.
“Where are we going?”
“Shortcut,” he said causally, then he gave me a look. “Unless you want to disappoint Batrinza?”
I shook my head rapidly. The last person in all the Seas I wanted to offend was the Royal Chef. She was not only the best cook under the seas, but she had a kindly way about her that made me feel something hard to explain.
She was motherly. That’s what it was. And to an orphan like myself, that was pretty much irresistible.
“Never!” I said dramatically, my hand clutching my chest as if I were wearing a strand of pearls.
He laughed and grabbed my hand, tugging me into an alcove. He pressed his hand against a panel and a part of the wall swung open. I stared around me in wonder as he led me into
a dark but surprisingly well-kept corridor.
“You are full of secrets,” I said, swimming behind him.
“I’m not, really.” He squeezed my hand, looking back at me. “Not from you.”
I turned pink, glad he was facing away. I was so relieved things weren’t weird between us anymore. Well, not as weird. Dane was my best friend. Or one of them.
And he was by far the most handsome.
Don’t let Rip hear you say that, Tri. You’ll hurt his feelings. And you will never live it down with Dane!
It was a good thing no one could hear my thoughts except Annaruth.
I swam fast, nearly nipping at his fins in my excitement to get to the kitchens. Batrinza was the greatest cook in all the seas, as far as I was concerned. And I was very, very hungry!
We took our seats in the dining nook, watching as the cook and her assistants swam around, looking very busy and important. She gave us a quick smile before turning back to her work. I felt suddenly shy, sitting across from Dane with nothing to distract us. He was staring at me intently.
“So, you are determined to do this?”
“Do what?”
“Move into the barracks?”
I nodded and nearly squealed in joy when Batrinza swam over with two bowls of chilled lobster soup.
“Go on. I know you are hungry, child.”
I took a spoonful and groaned.
“How could anything taste this good?”
“A lot of practice,” she said with a wink. “And a little magic.”
“More than a little, I think,” I said, trying not to weep with ecstasy as I took another spoonful.
She just chuckled and went back to her stove.
“The beds are uncomfortable.”
“Doesn’t matter,” I said, trying not to slurp. Dane hadn’t even touched his soup. I was nearly halfway done and seriously considering leaping across the table to steal his bowl. “I’m used to being uncomfortable.”
“The security is far laxer.”
“I’m not surprised,” I murmured.
“But people will notice if you sneak out,” he added.
“I shouldn’t be getting special treatment,” I countered.
He didn’t say anything. For a moment, he just stared at me. Then he sighed and pushed his bowl across the heavy wooden table to me.
“Here.”
“Are you sure you don’t want it?”
He shook his head.
“I’m in the mood for something hot.”
“Spicy softshell crabs coming in a moment, dearie!”
“Dearie?” I asked with a snicker. Dane scowled at me. I stopped laughing when I realized he was even more handsome when he scowled. He looked a little dangerous, even though I knew he wasn’t.
“Don’t you dare.”
“Whatever you say, dearie,” I teased. He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation. Annoyingly, he looked absurdly good doing that, too.
I’d always known that Dane was handsome, brave, and kind. But recently, it was starting to irk me. Did he have to be so . . . Princely all the time? So extra gorgeous? So good at every single thing?
I squealed in excitement as Batrinza carried over two plates piled high with softshell crabs. They were dusted with spices that somehow did not float away in the water. Magic was extremely useful when it came to food, I decided.
“Ooh, these are spicy!” I said when my mouth finally wasn’t full a good while later. Dane just cocked an eyebrow at me, taking another bite of a crab. We ate in companionable silence until the food was gone, then we thanked Batrinza and left, swimming toward Combat without speaking.
Dane stopped suddenly, and I swam into his back. He turned and grabbed my shoulders, steadying me before I careened into the wall.
Awkward much, Tri?
“Sorry,” he said, looking embarrassed. “I have a lot on my mind.”
“Of course,” I said, nodding to show that my feelings weren’t hurt. Even if, you know, they kind of were. “The weight of the kingdom and all that.”
“Yes. ‘And all that,’ Tri,” he said as he shook his head, laughing at me. “Are you ready?”
“For the General? Not really.”
Today was the day we went through the obstacle course. At least today, we would be fighting the course and not each other. Still, I felt kind of queasy at the thought of more or less going back to the Trials. And if Starla got into trouble, I wouldn’t be able to help her.
“Don’t worry,” he said as we swam into the indoor arena. “You got this.”
Chapter 13
“I’ll protect these for you,” Annaruth said, indicating the trunks of gowns she’d given me for events and dinners. I watched as she tucked the prizes and jewelry I’d won in the Trials inside. I wasn’t off ‘Future Spark’ duty just because I was moving out of the Royal wing of the Palace. “The doors will be enchanted to only open for you.”
“I don’t need these chambers anymore.”
“You do, but I understand that you aren’t ready to face that.”
I sighed.
“I guess I could treat it like . . . a closet. For events.”
She nodded.
“Whatever you want to tell yourself, dear.” She wrinkled her nose. “I cannot imagine sleeping in such close quarters with so many Mers!”
“Of course, you couldn’t. You were born Royal,” I said affectionately. “You’ve lived a life of luxury.”
She stopped to look at me, her beautiful face full of surprise. Finally, she shrugged.
“I suppose you are right. You know, sometimes, I think you see more than I do.”
“I don’t even have a touch of the sight,” I protested as I shoved a few of my uniforms into a small bag. Everything else I left behind, even my mother’s necklace and the dress that Lila had made out of scraps. It was safer here, I reasoned.
“But you have experienced a full range of emotions. At your age, that is remarkable. So you recognize what you have felt in others.”
Now it was my turn to be speechless.
“It’s not telepathy. It’s empathy,” she explained. I nodded slowly. I knew what she meant. I didn’t say anything, though the revelation had me deep in thought. I did empathize with others.
Even those who had treated me badly.
Speaking of which, I’d caught Thalia staring at me in almost every class of late. It was unsettling, but I had no choice but to get used to it.
It’s not like the path through the Academy was quick or painless. If I made it. And I had to make it.
I swallowed, knowing I would have to face my sister sooner rather than later. I was moving into the barracks after dinner. We would be roommates before the night was through.
Well, actually, I was moving during dinner. I’d asked my friends to sneak some food out for me. I didn’t want to make a procession through the student barracks with every Mer in the Academy watching.
Basically, I was moving right now.
“Are you sure about this?” Annaruth asked worriedly. “Mers can be cruel. Your position as Spark has likely created a lot of jealousy. And your half-sister . . .”
“I’m sure. I can’t hide up here. I’m not Royal. I didn’t earn any special privileges.”
She raised her eyebrow but waved me out of the room when I was ready to go. The hallways were quiet, but unfortunately, the barracks were not quite deserted. My sister and her cronies were there, as well as a few other Mers, lying on their beds, talking, and studying scrolls.
Thalia swam over to the empty bed I had chosen near the back corner. She sneered at me with her arms crossed.
“Did the Queen kick you out?”
“Or was it the Prince?” one of her friends asked with a snicker. “I heard he got bored of you already.”
“It wasn’t the Prince,” a familiar voice cut through their barbs. “She chose to stay with everyone else.”
I looked up to see Dane taking the cot beside me. He dropped a box onto the blank
ets, magically woven to keep us warm and stay in place. It was nothing fancy, but the cots and bedding were more than serviceable. Better than I’d had in my stepmother’s palace, for sure.
The mean Mers dispersed, clearly embarrassed at being caught with their nasty gossip. My sister threw me a dark look over her shoulder as she swam away. I sighed. I had hoped she would have forgotten about me and focused on herself. She’d never had a problem ignoring me before. Clearly, she still had an agenda. But I was more focused on Dane at the moment.
The Royal Heir was the last person I’d expected to see down here. And if he’d come because of me, he was only going to attract more attention to our . . . um, situation.
Or the lack thereof.
“What are you doing here?”
“You were right,” he said, sinking onto the thin pallet. “We don’t deserve special treatment.”
“I didn’t say that! And anyway, you do deserve special treatment. You are the heir to the throne.”
He hid a smile.
“I know,” he said patiently, as if I hadn’t just said something really, really stupid.
I threw up my hands in exasperation.
“How many guards are posted outside right now?”
“Probably about a dozen.”
“There go my late-night swims,” I sighed, flopping back on the cot. I winced. Okay, so maybe I had gotten used to the luxury. It was a far cry from the cushy bed I’d had in the Royal wing.
“She’s having second thoughts,” an amused voice drawled. I looked up to see Rip and Starla hovering at the foot of my bed. I sighed and made room for them to sit. Starla sat beside me and Rip sat beside the Prince.
“This is cozy,” I said ironically. Mers were starting to come in from dinner. Pretty much everyone was staring at us.
“We brought provisions,” Starla announced, opening a net bag to hand me a large folded seaweed. I opened it and sighed happily.
“Sole?”
She nodded and whispered, “There were softshell crab too, but they disappeared too fast.”
I groaned. Crab was one of my favorites. But so was sole. I had a lot of favorites.
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