“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.”