“Not to mention, I’m not in a particular hurry to save Jagen,” Galen says. “I’d say he got exactly what he deserved.”

I’m thinking the same thing. I can’t help it. The guy stabbed me.

“It would be unfair to take that perspective, brother,” Grom tells him. “We are not doing it for Jagen. We are doing it for our kind.”

“We?” Rayna snaps. “What Gift do you have, Grom? Oh, that’s right. You and Nalia get to stay safely behind while me and Galen and Emma drown an entire island.”

Oh heck no. “Um, I’m not killing anyone,” I say, raising my hand. “Not humans, not Syrena.”

“It’s a good thing your Gift isn’t deadly then, isn’t it?” Rayna sneers. “I have an idea. You can give the humans their last meal. That would be special, wouldn’t it?”

“How would you like to go without eating for a while?” I shoot back. I could use my Gift to send the fish away from her, or I could just bust all her teeth out. Maturity seems to be evaporating into the air. I wonder if her Gift includes pushing all my buttons in rapid-point-five seconds. But then, I know her animosity is really toward Grom, not me. All I’m doing is feeding her anxiety.

Galen tucks a tendril of my hair behind my ear. It’s enough to distract me and he knows it. I give him a sour look for interfering, but he grins. “You don’t have to kill anyone, angelfish. In fact, we need your help to save them.” He seems to be telling me something with his eyes, but I’m not picking up on it. I’d love to blame it on the pain meds.

“Doesn’t that kind of miss the point?” Rayna says.

“Of course not,” Galen says. “Our objective is to rescue our kind, not kill the humans. We can do that without destroying them.”

Everyone is all ears, but Galen is not ready to divulge his plan just yet. He stands. “Highness, tell the Archives we will meet with them to discuss our terms.”

“Terms?” Grom says. “This isn’t negotiable, Galen. They need us. It’s our duty as Royals.”

Galen shrugs. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s entirely negotiable. And we’re not Royals anymore, not until I hear it from their lips.” He turns to Antonis. “And tell them that in view of recent events, the council must come here, on land. There is no reason for us to doubt that this is a trap to recapture us.”

Antonis chuckles. I get the feeling that this is all an amusing game to him. But then, old people have earned the right to be amused by everything. And I’m pretty sure he’s the oldest person I know.

“Young Prince Galen, I am at your service.” With that, my grandfather leaves. I turn away as he begins to finagle the shorts from his skinny waist on his way down the beach.

20

GALEN STANDS behind Rachel and Emma as they scroll down the screen of the laptop. “Toraf stuck his foot in the water. The Archive council will be here soon. Antonis is with them.” He’s met with silence, except for Rachel flipping the page of a notebook she has in front of her. Emma bites the end of a pencil as she watches Rachel scrawl on the page. Being ignored is not Galen’s favorite. “What are you doing?” he says.

Emma looks up. “Oh. Hey. We’re researching that island on the Internet. Might as well do some recon while we’re waiting, right?”

Brilliant. The Internet. Galen keeps forgetting that he’s not without his resources, either. The humans have their technology, but Galen has it, too. Plus, he’s got something better. Rachel.

“The island is called Kanton,” Rachel says. “Do you want the good news, or the bad news first?”

“Bad news,” Galen says.

“Everyone who lives on the island is either government employees, or the family of government employees.”

“Which government?” Emma asks.

Galen taps her on the shoulder and motions for her to let him sit. Pulling her into his lap, he peers around her hair to the screen, trying to ignore her scent and failing miserably at it.

“Some country called Kiribati,” Rachel says. “Never heard of it.”

“Me, either,” Emma says.

“What’s the good news?” Galen says.

“The good news is that there are only about a dozen people living there. Not a whole lot of technology going on here like we thought. Their job is to keep the surrounding waters protected from commercial fishing. But”—Galen hates it when she says “but”—“there is a functioning airport on the north side. They could have already flown your friends out of there.”

“Is there any way to find out if they did?” Galen says.

Rachel shrugs. “I think it’s safe to assume that if the discovery of mermaids—sorry, Syrena—isn’t all over the news by now, then probably they’re still there. If your friends are smart, they’ll stay in human form.”

“Why would they keep a big discovery like that under wraps?” Emma says, frowning. “It would be the biggest scientific finding in centuries. Maybe ever.”

“Like I said.” Rachel takes a sip of her wine. “Maybe they haven’t shown them what they are. Maybe they think they just rescued some dumb humans from drowning or something. That would be the best-case scenario.” She snorts. “Maybe they got arrested for commercial fishing.”

“Can you give us an advantage at all?” Emma asks Rachel. “Like, shut down their communications or something? Work your Rachel magic?”