Page 30 of Cruel Tides

Wait…

A young girl was next to the bushes, her dark hair bouncing as she rocked on her toes. I squinted, pulling Barren’s sunglasses off to get a better look.

Yes—I knew that merfry. Echinea.

Relief hit me. I’d hoped to have time to talk to her about the sea wizard. I pulled my seatbelt off as soon as the car stopped and handed Barren back his sunglasses. “Thanks, Barren. You can wait here if you want. I’ll be right back.” Throwing him a quick smile, I hopped out of the car to head toward Echinea.

A bucket sitting between her legs held her attention, the water inside it sloshing around as she stirred it with a long stick. “Echinea.” I flashed her a smile and a wave.

When she saw me, all the childish amusement on her face soured. “Oh.” She dropped her stick and crossed her arms high over her chest. “It’s you.”

Ouch.Okay, it seemed she was still mad at me for getting her into trouble with her father. Smiling again, I looked down at her bucket where a heap of shells glittered along its bottom. “That’s not salt water, is it?”

Echinea’s eyes rolled. “No,” she said, looking exasperated that I would even ask. She gave the side of the bucket a tap with her foot that sent water sloshing all around. “My papa says we have to stay away from salt water, remember? I got this from that wall over there.” She pointed to the side of the warehouse where a spigot jutted out, a hose coiled in the bushes in front of it.

“That was clever of you,” I praised, but her lips hardened like I’d cursed her.

“What do you want?” she asked, snatching the stick back up to swirl her shells around some more. “If you want to tattle on me to my papa, he already knows what I’m doing. He helped me reach the bucket.”

“I actually wanted to talk to you about”—I inhaled a breath before forcing out—“Poseidon.”

Her eyes sharpened as she looked up from her shells, honing in on me. “What about Poseidon?”

“I met him,” I said, and her face immediately lit with excitement. Oh, crushing her little Poseidon-believing heart was going to be painful.

She gasped, dropping her stick again. “You did?” Energy buzzed through her as she ushered me closer to the bushes. Leaning down, she whispered, “And?”

“Black hair, white eyes, carries a trident,” I recited, just as she had listed off to me days earlier.

Echinea nodded fiercely. “That’s him, that’s him! What did he say to you? Did he tell you a riddle?”

There was no way she would believe the truth, but I had to try. “Echinea, listen. The man you met when you were looking for seashells… I met him, and heisn’tPoseidon.” Her mouth snapped open, but I shook my head. “So, if you see him again?—”

“I wasn’t looking for seashells,” she spat out, a look of disgust on her face. “I was hunting lobsters.”

“Uh, what?” My head tilted. “Lobsters? I thought you said lobsters were yucky?”

Her shoulders deflated as she tossed her head back. “Theyareyucky.” She sniffed at the air, her eyes suddenly glistening. “But my papa likes lobsters, and I wanted to make him happy.”

Suddenly, she looked about two seconds away from bursting into tears.

“Oh—oh, I see. That was sweet of you?—”

“When all of us moved here, my brother never showed up.” She sniffed at the air again, and my heart sank. “Papa made me promise not to go near the water to look for him. I didn’t. I stayed far, far away from the water, but every day he would go out and come back really sad.”

“Echinea—” I reached for her shoulders, but she swatted my hands away.

Crinkling her nose, she kicked the side of the bucket again. “Just when I found where the lobsters were hiding, they outsmarted me, and I almostdied.” She picked up one foot and pointed to it, wiggling her toes in the air. “They sent a jelly to trap me! I hunted them all the way back to their cave and stepped on the squishy jelly they’d hired to guard it.”

She let out a hiss like she was reliving the memory. “It started stinging me, and I knew it was a jelly.” Her chin lifted. “I wasn’t crying or anything, but Poseidon heard our battle and came to save me. He zapped it with the end of his trident and BAM!” She made an explosion with her fingers. “He murdered it for its treachery. Jellies aren’t supposed to attack mermaids,” she added.

The sea wizard had saved her? My head buzzed as it tried to wrap around what she was saying. And she was correct. Live jellyfish wouldn’t sting merfolk, but it sounded like the one she had stepped on had likely been long dead. “Are you sure? You told me before that he came to you with a riddle and offered you a gift.”

“I asked him for a gift,” she said plainly, then her voice fell to a mumble. “I really wanted to make Papa happy…”

I pressed against my forehead, taking it all in. I’d assumed the seashell the sea wizard had given me had something to do with Echinea, but maybe?—

“Echo?” a voice squeaked, and I looked over to a small girl with big, coral pink eyes toeing closer to the bushes where we were standing. “I set them all out in the sunshine, just like you asked me to.”

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