Unknown

Veleia’s stared at them, her face going blank.

“I can’t tell you that,” she said. “It’s a secret.”

“It’s not a very well-kept secret,” Wade told her. “What are the chances those men are going right back there?”

And Veleia smiled.

“I really hope they do,” she said, and something in her voice made Stacey cringe, “because then I will be safe.”

“Why?” Dan asked.

“Because the other mermaids will kill them,” Veleia answered. “They’ll take them deep beneath the sea, and feed them to the sharks. Those hunters will never bother us again—and the other hunters will have to start all over.”

“But won’t they just start where the other hunters disappeared?” Stacey asked, noticing the way Jelly had turned pale.

“Of course not,” Veleia said. “What would be the point in that?”

“Well, it would be the most likely place for them to find clues as to why they disappeared.”

“But it’s not where we live,” the mermaid said.

“Then why were you there?” Dan asked, and Veleia blushed.

“That’s none of your business,” she said, and Stacey felt anger rise within her.

“It is, if we’re going to get ourselves into trouble for helping you,” she said, glaring at the mermaid.

Veleia looked away. She looked at the walls of the hut, where the surfboards hung. She looked at the ceiling, with its cobwebs, and then she looked at the floor—or as much of it as she could see beyond the tip of her tail.

“What?” Stacey demanded, and Veleia gave a long, soft sight.

“I went to see a boy,” she said.

“A merman?” Jelly asked, and Stacey rested her head against the edge of her hand.

Trust Jelly to sound like she thought a merman was more interesting than anything else that had happened that day. But Veleia was shaking her head.

“Not a merman,” she said, “a human, not much older than me.”

“But why? I thought you didn’t like humans.” Stacey felt like she’d missed something.

“No. I just don’t like those humans,” the mermaid said, and it was clear she meant the men in the boat. “Some of the other humans are all right.”

“Like us,” Wade muttered, and Stacey saw Veleia’s ears turn pink.

“Yes,” the mermaid said, before Stacey could intervene. “Like you.”

Jelly looked like she was going to ask something, but they heard tires crunch loudly on the gravel outside. It sounded like a truck or van or something had just pulled up in the carpark beside the surf hut. Stacey looked at Jelly and Wade.

“What’s going on?” she whispered, but they shook their heads, their eyes wide. “Well, is something supposed to be going on?”

Again, her cousins shook their heads, and Stacey thought back to the time when she used to come to the shack. She tried to work out if people ever came when the club didn’t have anything planned, and then she realised they hadn’t, which begged the question…

“How did you two get inside?”

The surf hut had always been locked when no-one was around.

She watched as Jelly glanced at Wade, and then Wade glanced at Jelly.

“What?” she demanded, in a voice that said they lied at their own risk.

Even Veleia looked a little worried.

“We borrowed your key,” Jelly admitted, ignoring Wade’s glare.

Stacey stared at them. She’d forgotten about the key, forgotten how she had gotten permission to come to the hut and get her board, so she could practice early in the morning.

“We thought you wouldn’t want it anymore,” Jelly hurried on to explain, and this time, she did glance at her brother.

He shrugged.

Stacey looked from Wade to Jelly, and then back again. She couldn’t believe it.

“Seriously?” she asked.

“Well, it’s true, isn’t it?” Wade retorted, defending himself. “You don’t need it, and they wouldn’t give a key to anybody else. Said it wasn’t safe, or something.”

The club had been right, Stacey thought. It hadn’t been safe. She’d been allowed to surf because the last club committee hadn’t had anyone who wanted to come down and supervise her that early—and because she brought the talent scouts to the beach. She’d seen a few of them at the club meets, but it hadn’t been until the day before the accident that she’d known they were watching her; she’d thought they’d been coming for someone else.

And, after the accident, she hadn’t cared. She wasn’t ever going to be able to surf again, anyway.

“So, who do you think that is?” Stacey asked, keeping her voice down to a whisper.

She watched as Jelly and Wade shrugged. Dan moved to the door, and leant against it. It wasn’t a bad idea, Stacey thought, except she couldn’t see Dan being able to hold it closed for very long.

“Hide,” she said, pointing to the racks, and then she reached out and grabbed Wade as he passed. “Give me the key.”

“I don’t…” he began, and then he caught the look in her eye, and dug the key out of his pocket. “Here.”

“Good. Now, go hide, and take Veleia with you.”

They could hear footsteps, now, coming around the side of the hut. Wade and Jelly went.

“What about me?” Dan asked.

“Stand beside me, and help me see if my board is still here,” Stacey told him.