The rest of the table was occupied by girls—Jam’s sisters, Simon assumed. Most of them whispered to one another as they passed, but a couple looked about as pleased to see them as they were to be there.
“The prodigal son returns,” said one of the older sisters nastily. She would have been one of the prettiest girls Simon had ever seen if her face hadn’t been pinched in a sneer. “Just in time to save the kingdom, too.”
“I don’t know what we would’ve done without the patience and guidance of our little brother,” said the girl beside her with a laugh.
Jam turned red. “Hi, Ondine. Good to see you, too, Halie,” he mumbled before hurrying to his seat. Simon wanted to retort, but the way Jam slumped in his chair stopped him. He would only make things worse if he tried. Instead he made his way to the end of the table and sat down beside him.
“How many sisters do you have?” said Winter as she also took her place.
“Seven,” said Jam in that same gloomy tone he’d been using since they’d arrived in California. “Rhode is the oldest—”
“Rhode? Colonel Rhode?” said Simon, chancing a glance up the table at her. “She’s your sister?” Judging by how she’d greeted him, he would have never guessed.
“Unfortunately,” muttered Jam, but it was so quiet that Simon wasn’t sure he’d heard him right. “She’s the General’s favorite. None of the others serve on his private council like she does.”
“If she were really the General’s favorite, he wouldn’t still insist on you being his heir,” said the pretty sister—Ondine—from the middle of the table. Jam fell silent and stared at his plate.
“Who’s that?” said Nolan, nodding to the youngest, who was on the other side of Winter. The sister caught Nolan’s eye and quickly looked away.
“That’s Pearl, who’s only pretending to be shy,” said Jam. “She’s a year older than me. Then there’s Lorelei, Nixie, Halie, Ondine, and Coralia.”
“They don’t attend the L.A.I.R., too, do they?” said Simon, studying their faces. Several of them stared back, and he lowered his gaze. He couldn’t remember ever seeing them before. Besides, none of the sisters had traveled back with them, and school was still in session.
Jam shook his head. “Rhode attended years ago, when it was still on the Beast King’s island, but that’s it. She was there during the bird attacks and everything, inside one of the wings that was destroyed.”
“Is that how she got the scar on her cheek?” said Winter, who could usually be relied on to ask those kinds of questions. Jam nodded.
“Apparently she almost died, and Mom refused to let everyone else go. The General put his foot down for me, though,” continued Jam. “Said I had to go to the L.A.I.R. since I’m going to rule someday.”
“Unfortunately,” said another one of the sisters as she stabbed her crab salad. Lorelei, thought Simon, but he couldn’t be sure.
“Girls,” said their mother in a gentle voice, but there was a hint of sharpness underneath. “We all know it’s unfair, but the decision’s been made. If you want to do something about it, bother your father, not your brother. It isn’t his fault the General is biased against sharks.”
“I am not biased,” said the General abruptly, looking up from his quiet conversation with Malcolm. “Dolphins have ruled our kingdom for over a thousand years. I won’t end an unbroken line simply because the girls aren’t mature enough to understand the importance of tradition.”
As the rest of the table broke out into a loud argument, with several of the sisters all talking at once, Simon studied Rhode, who remained quiet. He had visited the Beast King’s island on his first full day at the Academy, for Unity Day—the anniversary of the day the five kingdoms had overthrown the Beast King hundreds of years before. He had been overwhelmed, having learned only the day before that Animalgams existed and he had an entire family he’d never known about, but he could vividly remember the devastated wings of the castle, with a mountain of broken stone where great halls had once stood. He couldn’t imagine anyone surviving that, not if they’d been inside.
“Your sisters are all sharks?” said Nolan, his voice squeaking despite his attempt to hide it.
“Yes, but we don’t bite, I promise,” said a new, playful voice. The youngest sister—Pearl, who hadn’t jumped in on the argument happening at the rest of the table—smiled shyly. “What’s your name?”
Nolan immediately sat up straighter and puffed out his chest a little, as if to prove he wasn’t scared. “I’m Nolan Thorn,” he said. “The Alpha is my uncle.”
“Do you turn into a wolf, too?” said Pearl, leaning toward him and practically into Winter’s lap.
“Yes, he does,” said Winter tersely. “I’m Winter, by the way, in case you’re interested. Since you’re getting so close and all.”
Pearl settled back into her seat and studied her, barely batting an eye. “You must be the cottonmouth. I’m surprised the General let you into the city.”
“She’s my friend,” said Jam with more force than Simon had heard from him since they’d left New York that morning. “And she isn’t going to report back to anyone.”
“What about your other friend?” said Pearl, and this time her gaze shifted over to Simon. “The General said—”
Suddenly a loud, anguished cry came from near the head of the table, where one of the older sisters—Coralia, Simon thought—stood up, her chair scraping against the floor. “I’m nineteen years old. You can’t tell me what to do anymore!”
Dead silence. Even the General looked startled by her outburst, and at last he said, with more dignity than should have been possible, “Sit down, Coralia. We’ll discuss this another time—”
“You always say that, and it’s never a good time.” Her voice caught in her throat. “I love him. I’m marrying him. I don’t care what you say. I don’t need your permission to live my life.”
“She’s still dating him?” whispered Jam to Pearl, who seemed to have forgotten what she was going to say about Simon in favor of whatever was going on with her older sister.
Pearl nodded as the argument down the table continued. “He proposed last month.” With an impish little smile, she added, “We might have a human as a brother-in-law.”
“He’d still be more capable of running the kingdom than Benjamin,” said a dour voice—another one of the sisters sitting a few spots down. Nixie. Simon’s skin prickled.
“You have no idea what he’s capable of,” he said, and she raised a single eyebrow. Her brown hair was tied back in a knot of braids, and her fingernails were painted black. There was nothing messy about her appearance, but Simon had a feeling it toed the General’s strict line.
“Don’t I?” she said. “And how long have you known him, exactly? Because I’m pretty sure he’s my little brother, not yours.”
Jam had gone red again. “It’s fine, Simon. In case you can’t tell, they’re always like this. The General doesn’t care. He thinks it’s character building.”
“Speaking of building character, you should have heard him when he found out you ditched school and went to Arizona,” said Nixie with undisguised relish. “He nearly had an aneurysm.”
“He did it to help me,” said Winter, who looked less and less impressed with Nixie as the conversation went on. “Sometimes being a good person means breaking the rules. Not that I’d expect you to know anything about that.”
Nixie sniffed and looked Winter up and down. “The General was asking for volunteers to babysit you for the next two weeks. Maybe my homework can wait after all.”
“What a rebel,” said Winter with a roll of her eyes. She stabbed a piece of sushi on her plate. “Hope you enjoy wasting your time.”
Simon was quiet for the rest of the meal. As Jam bickered with his sisters and Pearl flirted with Nolan, who didn’t seem to mind, Simon strained to hear snatches of conversation from the head of the table, where the General was back to having a low debate with Malcolm and Ariana. At first Simon wond
ered what they were talking about, but every so often, one of them would glance down the table and meet his eye.
They were discussing him. Or—if not him, exactly, then the bird kingdom. Orion.
By the time Jam led them back to their guest rooms, he was anxious to talk to Ariana. He waited until Nolan was brushing his teeth, humming happily to himself as he did so, before sneaking out of the room and knocking on the door straight across the hall.
“I hate them,” said Winter as she ushered him inside. “All of them. Especially Nixie.”
Simon looked around their room, which was as bare as his and Nolan’s, though the walls in here were purple. “I’m pretty sure she feels the same way.”
“If she’s following me the whole time, then how am I supposed to help you?” said Winter with a huff.
“I don’t like them, either, but we can’t make waves, not down here.” Ariana perched on the edge of her bed in a pair of pajamas, looking like she was seconds from passing out. “You heard Malcolm. You can’t sneak around.”
Simon blinked. Ariana was the last person he ever expected to tell him that he couldn’t break a rule or two in order to find the piece, but there was something different about her—ever since she’d met with her mother’s adviser, she’d looked … wilted. It was almost as if someone had doused the fire inside her with a bucket of water, and all she could do now was limp along.
Maybe it was Atlantis, he thought. He found it easy enough to forget they were underwater, but no doubt Ariana had a much more difficult time doing so. He didn’t think that was it, though, not entirely. Something else was going on, and it worried him.
He knew her well enough to know that asking her outright wouldn’t help—if anything, it would only make her even more closed off and distant, so he didn’t bother. If she wanted to talk, she would eventually. “What did you and Malcolm and the General talk about the whole time?” he said instead.
“Mostly about Orion,” said Ariana. “The General sees the bird army’s invasion of the Santa Catalina beaches as an act of war, but he doesn’t have the numbers to mobilize for an aboveground strike. That’s why he asked everyone here. It isn’t just about keeping the piece of the Predator safe. He wants to go to war with Orion.”
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” said Winter bitterly. Simon shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was. Orion had raised Winter as his own granddaughter, but had abandoned her when he’d discovered she was a cottonmouth snake instead of a bird. Outside of Simon, she had the most reason to hate him.
“If the kingdoms go to war, innocent people will die,” he said. “We can’t let that happen. We need to make sure they keep circling each other until we find the pieces and destroy the Predator.”
“Easier said than done,” said Ariana wearily. “Malcolm isn’t for it, either, but if the reptiles agree—”
“But the reptiles hate the underwater kingdom,” said Winter. “They’ll never side with them.”
Ariana grimaced. “Maybe. But if they think Orion’s on the verge of putting the weapon together, that might be the one thing that would unite the kingdoms.”
The three of them fell quiet. At last, with his heart pounding, Simon said in a voice so low that he almost couldn’t hear himself, “I could tell them what we’re doing.”
“No,” said Winter immediately. “Don’t you dare.”
“He might not have a choice,” said Ariana tiredly. “If we really want to avoid war—”
“Telling them what we’re really doing will only start one, and this time, they’ll all be after Simon,” said Winter, exasperated. “You’re on the inside, Ariana. Convince them to hold off. Or distract them. Anything, I don’t care—just do something instead of acting like a spineless jellyfish.”
Ariana clawed her fingers through her blue hair. “I’m trying, okay? There’s only so much I can do. They won’t listen to me—”
“Then make them listen,” said Winter vehemently. “Or have you given up already?”
“I haven’t given up,” said Ariana. Her eyes grew watery. “This is a lot harder than we thought it’d be, okay? It isn’t just us anymore. Real lives are on the line—”
“I don’t want anyone else dying because of me,” said Simon suddenly. “You need to stop them, Ariana, all right? Whatever you have to do, buy us as much time as you can.”
She closed her eyes, looking worn down and defeated. “I’ll do my best.”
Winter flopped down on her bed. “Let’s hope it’s good enough.”
“It will be,” said Simon, but even he couldn’t be sure anymore. There were too many people and too many kingdoms closing in on them, and sooner or later, time would run out.
7
A GALAXY OF STARFISH
Rhode hadn’t been kidding about handing out schedules.
Pearl, the youngest sister, arrived at their door at exactly 0600—six o’clock in the morning—to deliver a minute-by-minute breakdown of their days. To Simon’s dread, he saw that other than meals, he was only supposed to do one thing: remain with chaperon.
“Who’s my chaperon?” he said as Pearl led them to breakfast. Malcolm and Ariana had already disappeared with Rhode, and neither had looked happy about it.
“Me, of course,” she said cheerfully, trying to loop her arm through his. Simon immediately stepped away.
“I’m Simon,” he said, and her expression dropped.
“Oh. Then I don’t know.” She moved toward Nolan instead, who had taken extra care to style his hair that morning and had left his sling on the bed. “We are going to have so much fun today!”
Winter made a gagging motion behind their backs, and Simon had to bite his cheek to stop himself from laughing.
While Pearl cooed over Nolan during breakfast—6:20 to 6:45—Simon choked down a reasonable amount of sushi and kelp to stop the growling in his stomach. By the end of this trip, he had a sneaking suspicion he would either learn to love raw fish or starve to death. Apparently there would be no in between.
“I’d kill for some bacon right now,” muttered Winter as she pushed away her untouched tuna. “Do you think they’re doing this on purpose?”
“Probably,” said Simon. “Bet Ariana and Malcolm are getting pancakes.”
“With chocolate chips and blueberries. And scrambled eggs and toast and—”
“Stop it,” he groaned. “You’re making me hungry.”
The dining room door burst open, and a red-faced and breathless Jam appeared, his blond hair wild. Now that he was home, he wore a blue uniform like Rhode, but it was rumpled and buttoned up the wrong way. “Yes! Made it.”
He flopped into the seat beside Simon’s and began to wolf down the food he hadn’t touched. Simon and Winter exchanged a look.
“Did you sleep in?” said Simon, who hadn’t had any trouble getting up early thanks to the time difference between New York and California.
Jam shook his head. “Did drills early,” he said through a mouthful of fish. “The General said I could spend the morning with you if I did, since Coralia’s still upset and refused to help out.”
Winter let out a sigh of relief. “I was sure Nixie would be our chaperon.”
“Don’t worry, you’re not slithering away that easily.” Nixie sauntered up behind her and snatched a tuna roll off her plate. “Jam is Simon’s chaperon. I’m yours.”
Winter blanched. “Delightful.”
“I thought so.” Nixie grinned. “I’ve got some mussels waiting to be harvested in the coral gardens. It shouldn’t take more than five or six hours.”
Winter turned a dangerous shade of purple, but before she could explode, Jam interjected. “The General said we were supposed to show them around and keep them out of trouble. I’m pretty sure slave labor isn’t included in that.”
“He didn’t specify how,” argued Nixie. “And she’s my hostage, not yours.”
“We’re not hostages,” said Simon. “And do you really want to be alone in a garden with someone who
turns into a venomous snake?”
“Yeah,” said Jam. “You know cottonmouths and water moccasins are the same thing, right?”
Judging by the look of unease on Nixie’s face, she hadn’t known that. Neither, apparently, had Winter, who seemed strangely pleased by the revelation. Considering she usually wanted nothing to do with her Animalgam form, Simon thought this was a step in the right direction.
“We can garden if you’d like,” she said sweetly to Nixie. “I haven’t bitten anyone in months.”
Narrowing her eyes, Nixie snatched Winter’s plate and stormed to the other end of the table, staying there for the rest of breakfast.
They stopped in their rooms long enough to get their things, and Simon tucked Felix safely into the pocket of his sweatshirt. As dangerous as it was to risk Felix being seen by other members of the underwater kingdom, Simon thought it would be worse keeping him in the guest room all day, tempting him to sneak out and take a look around for himself. At least this way, Simon knew where he was at all times.
While leaving the mirrored compound, they were all subjected to the same security search, and Jam triple-checked that all of their names, including Felix’s, were on the list to get back in. As soon as they stepped outside into the giant dome that was Atlantis, Simon let out a heavy sigh.
“I don’t know how you stand it here,” he said to Jam as they headed down a concrete sidewalk with tall gray buildings on either side. The city was still colorless and dreary, but anything was better than the compound. “It constantly feels like the walls are closing in.”
“Just used to it, I guess,” said Jam with a shrug. “The whole city was built for security, so no one can break in—”
“Has anyone ever tried?” said Winter. Nixie hovered nearby, her heavily made-up eyes focused solely on Winter.