Giya scanned the depths of the frothing pool. “Please tell me there are no sharks.”
“No. No fish either for that matter. Just mollusks.” I waded up to my knees, not wanting to wet my clothes, and leaned over to scoop up some water. I drank my fill, then splashed the rest on my face. And then, because I was still a kid at heart, I splashed Remo, who was standing vigil on the beach.
He whirled around. “Oh no you didn’t, Trifecta . . .”
When he came at me, I took off laughing. He caught up way too fast, grabbing me around the waist, locking my back against his front.
“Don’t throw me in,” I begged, between giggles.
I could feel him smile against my hair. “Give me one good reason?”
“Because then I’d be wet.” I tried to wriggle away from him, but his arms were steel bands around my middle.
“And?” His voice brushed up the shell of my ear.
“And this fabric isn’t half as concealing as my suit.”
“Not a convincing argument, Trifecta.”
“You’re not the only man around.”
He grunted, and his arms loosened. “Fine. Consider yourself spared.” He dropped his mouth to my ear again. “But next time . . .”
I turned in Remo’s arms and stole a kiss.
“You guys are seriously not some weird hallucination? ’Cause there was this cell where”—she shuddered—“where no one was real.” Her body gave another hard shake, which made the water around her submerged calves tremble.
What had my poor cousin endured? “We’re real. I promise.”
She waded in to midthigh, soaking her brown suede leggings while her long, cream chiffon top billowed atop the surface. For some reason, I was only noticing now what she wore and how stained it all was. “So I need to get used to”—she orbited her finger in the air, wrapping us in an imaginary circle—“this?”
I glanced up at Remo.
“I’m going to go with ayesfor fear of getting smacked.”
I rolled my eyes. “So dramatic.” As I splashed through the water toward her, I asked, “What’s up with the outfit?”
She stared down as though she’d forgotten what she was wearing. “I was at Magena and Dawson’s son’s spirit ceremony when I got Josh’s comm.”
A spirit ceremony was performed when the child became a man or a woman. I’d celebrated mine at twelve. It was supposed to have been a small and intimate affair—only Unseelies—but Seelies had flown over the Valley of the Five to partake in the spectacle of me offering the Gottwas’s Great Spirit a drop of my blood, thus sealing my fate with Hers. Thanks to Remo’s warning about its toxicity, none of the Seelies had drifted too close, but still they’d watched. I wondered if he’d been among the hovering crowd of silk-and-leather spectators. I was about to ask him when a nasal voice skidded over the water toward us.
“Well, if it isn’t the princess’s little sidekick? All grown up, too. Four years does the Wood women wonders.” Kingston stood beside an aloe thicket.
I stared at his hands, expecting to see the apple clutched in one of them, but his delicate, fisted fingers held only air.
“Is more of the family coming? Because I amlovingthis family reunion. Such fun to see everyone again.”
“Amara mentioned Neverra’s fool was still alive, but she forgot to mention how stylistically low he’d fallen.” She whistled as she looked him up and down. “I really wish my Infinity was working, because that outfit deserves a picture. Are you trying to launch a new trend, Little King? Not sure this one will catch. And your face. Finally hit puberty, huh?”
Kingston’s eyes blackened.
I caught Remo’s mouth twitching even though mine stayed flat, too stressed to appreciate the moment. Giya was calm like Lily until you pissed her off. Then she became like Kajika—a cat with needle-sharp claws.
Which reminded me . . .
I glanced up at the sky, at the thin coil that remained on the horizon. “Remo, the smoke’s almost gone.”
I both felt and heard the weight of his sigh. “We need to get Giya to the caves.”
