Archive of Our Own

Connie had never pedaled so fast. Her parents could believe or disbelieve anything they wanted about her after-school activities. Wherever she was going, her parents wouldn’t ever know. Nobody that turned to look at her reddened and panting face knew her as she raced down the streets towards the town limits. The sand, wet from the passing drizzle, hissed under her tires. There was no time to waste.

Mr. Universe had been specific in his directions. Connie couldn’t use her phone’s GPS and bike at the same time, but she knew her maps, she knew the coast, and she knew where nobody else was able to go.

It took almost a full half-hour of on-and-off riding before Connie found herself at the parking lot of the trailhead. Ocean noises echoed from below her, muffled by the overgrowth of evergreens that surrounded the granite flats. The path was far off the main road, and Connie hadn’t remembered coming here during their summer day trips way back when. All the hidden beaches of Beach City and Delmarva’s coast were poorly lifeguarded, and that just wouldn’t do for her parents. If only they knew how isolated she was now. But she wouldn’t be doing any swimming, hopefully.

Or would she? There was no telling what she would need to do. Overalls were poorly suited, though, but Stephen could help. He was here. He was back. Connie practically threw her bike onto the dirt as she stopped and dismounted. She heard the snapping of plastic as one of her mirrors cracked on the ground; there was no time for kickstands. She shrugged off the weight of her backpack and dropped it with a muted thud.

There it was. Greg’s van looked strangely lonely in the back corner. Green shade covered its body, an air of abandonment. The back door opened.

Connie heaved to catch her breath. Her hands were shaking with worry, and sweat dripped down between the bridge of her nose and her glasses. She fumbled with her helmet and let it drop to the ground. Gulping, Connie opened her mouth to call for Stephen as soon as she could rest her throat.

A hand emerged and gripped the edge of the door with unspoken sternness. If it curled into a fist, Connie knew it would be almost as large as her head. Calluses and scars were embedded wherever they could fit on the sun-warmed skin. Jasper stood, and the whole van creaked with relief. He looked at Connie from above the edge. Even from here, Connie could see that the selkie’s fingertips were still flecked with dried blood. Her blood turned to ice. If the van was here, though...

The driver’s side door opened and Greg swiveled to stand. Connie’s rationality allowed her to breathe again. Of course he was here. Jasper didn’t know how to drive; Stephen probably couldn’t reach the pedals.

How they had gotten here, though, Connie had no idea, considering how awful Mr. Universe looked. He looked like he could barely stand. His hair was disheveled and salty, even if it drifted down with its usual waves. Fluff and flecks of dirt stuck out on his black shirt, and both that and his shorts looked like they had been slept in and reformed from being soaked. When he looked at Connie, his jaw stiffened. He could tell that she was staring.

“Connie.” He swallowed. His voice was deep and distant. “I’m sorry, I... He’s okay.”

“Mr. Universe? Where is he?”

Jasper closed the door. In his left arm, Stephen jumped a little at the noise, groaning as he turned in the cradle of the hunter’s grasp. He was too big to be carried easily by someone like Greg, probably, but to Jasper? He was no burden at all. Connie could see Mr. Universe’s old shorts underneath the poncho that Stephen had made out of his skin. His skin —it was back. Connie wanted to hug him so badly, but he looked just as tired as Mr. Universe did, half-asleep and also held above her head.

Well, the energy had to go somewhere. She stumbled towards Mr. Universe with her arms out, and squeezed her eyes shut as she hugged the man tightly. There were so many questions, but those would be answered in time. For now, she just needed the assurance that had been lost to her for the last three days.

Greg probably did, too. Connie wished she could ignore his eyes, and in the hug, she could pretend. But when she stepped back and looked up, she could tell that he could tell; she couldn’t see him any other way. His cheeks were sunken and defeated, unshaved but even more than his usual goatee. Deep lines of worry were etched underneath his eyes. He stared down, and Connie knew that he could see her reaction.

“What’s wrong?”

“Mr. Universe...have you seen your eyes?” Connie murmured.

The man opened his mouth, then turned away like he was swallowing something bitter. He shook his head.

“I can’t,” Greg said. “I can’t even look at myself in the mirror. I-I get these, um...I got dizzy. I know I’m seeing myself, but there’s something... What’s wrong with my eyes, Connie? Are they like his?”

She shook her head. “They’re blue. Completely.”

Mr. Universe’s eyes twitched, as if he wanted to widen them in surprise, but as it turned out, nothing was surprising about this at all. To call his eyes blue was an understatement. Connie could see intricate cracks where there shouldn’t have been any lines at all. Icy blue, deep chasms of sapphire, descended into the navy depths where a friendly brown had been. It was almost electric blue, lightning blue, a lifeless and quiet blue that was so unlike him that Connie felt mournful.

It was then that she recognized the bruise. She raised her hand, almost touching Mr. Universe’s neck. The imprint of a larger hand prevented her from going through with it, and she could tell that Mr. Universe probably didn’t want to draw attention to it. He glanced up and behind her.

Connie turned around and saw Jasper’s malevolent glare. There was no question who had made that bruise in the first place. He could have died. Both of them had been attacked by the selkies at this point and almost died. Connie didn’t want to think about that. Jasper was cradling Stephen in both hands now like a doll. When he looked at Connie, to the girl’s surprise, his gaze softened somewhat.

“Thank—I mean, thank both of you for bringing him back,” she managed to stammer.

“Yeah,” Mr. Universe muttered. “Not that we had a choice.”

The question now was how much Jasper and Stephen had told Greg about this. Connie wanted to check in, but Stephen was still twitching, almost stirring, not quite conscious. The fever was either gripping him or leaving him, she couldn’t tell—but it had to have been leaving, right? He was back with his skin and close to the ocean. Connie wiped her face, pushing the tears from behind her glasses before wiping them on her overalls. Maybe she was song-struck too. But nobody had said anything yet, so that was a good sign.

Jasper let out a rumble from his throat, a wet and quiet clicking noise. He lowered his head and pushed his nose into Stephen’s cheek with a mighty nuzzle. Stephen groaned in response, raising a hand to feebly push Jasper’s face away. The selkie man increased his volume and growled into Stephen’s cheek once more. Finally, reluctantly, Stephen blinked his eyes open blearily. He snapped his teeth at Jasper, then finally turned his head with a big stretch.

As soon as Stephen saw Connie, his mouth was moving. The noises that he was making weren’t words, but he was scrambling as much as he could out of Jasper’s arms. The man huffed and twisted Stephen around until he could stand on his feet again.

“Connie!”

Stephen stumbled forward out of Jasper’s release and practically fell onto Connie’s sternum. He laughed and hugged her so tightly before she could react. He felt warm and strong and definitely still in the grip of exhaustion by the inelegance of his motions. Connie could only laugh in return, a bubbling laugh that came up before she could stop it, and she pulled Stephen up until they could actually see eye to eye again.

“Stephen! We’re so glad you’re back, you—you vanished on us, and I couldn’t call you, a-and we didn’t know where you were, and oh Stephen, don’t you make me worry like that ever again!”

“I was not—meaning! I was not, I promise, I...am not. I am not wanting to... Hoo...”

This hug was more of an anchor, as Connie discovered by Stephen’s sudden weight. The selkie wobbled and rested his chin on her shoulder. He seemed as safe as Mr. Universe had proclaimed, but Connie could feel the unsteadiness. No, he was still trembling slightly; she could tell he was trying to hide it.

“Didn’t they tell you?” she murmured.

“Tell me?”

“About the fever. The—the thing that happens when you’re away from your skin and the water too long. I know they wanted to keep you safe, but oh gosh, why didn’t they tell you...”

“They were knowing?” Stephen murmured. His arms tensed for just a moment before they deflated in defeat. “Mm. I had known. Not the...fever, but the danger. They had told me not to be going. But...not why.”

“Connie?”

Cautiously, she broke from the hug. When she looked up at Mr. Universe, his shoulders were solidified, his spine completely straight. His face hid a cold fury that she had only seen a couple times, in teachers who were dealing with the absolutely worst-behaved students. But his eyes couldn’t hold it. Connie couldn’t look at Mr. Universe as the silent tears began to drift into his stubble. Her stomach sank with guilt.

“What’s going on here?” he muttered.

Connie opened her mouth, but she couldn’t bear to look anywhere but Stephen’s silver-covered chest. She felt Stephen’s eyes drift between her and the man.

“How much did you know?” Greg said. “How much were you going to hide from me?”

“I-I couldn’t. I couldn’t...”

“When were you going to say something? I needed to know. I needed to be someone who knows this, Connie, I-I have—the responsibility .”

His voice broke on the last word. Whatever had happened over the last weekend, it hadn’t been good. Connie could feel the pit of her stomach sinking, the last vestige of her fantasy eroding like a stone tossed into the middle of a deep ocean trench. Everything felt like the ocean with Stephen here, all mysterious and cold and beautiful and dangerous. She couldn’t begin to describe it, but she knew that Mr. Universe had felt it too, and he had felt it without knowing why he was feeling any of this at all. Connie felt hot and horrible tears pricking her eyes.

Two familiar little thumbs pressed into her cheeks. Through the blur, Connie looked up and saw Stephen trying and failing to smile at her. He must have known, and that cloud of guilt engulfed her as it must have come over him. This was his fault.

Stephen gently wiped her tears away as they came, sliding over her cheeks before he relented. He took her hands in his again, warm and just a little wetter. He opened his mouth as if to murmur an apology, but nothing came up. Stephen looked down, then released himself from Connie and turned to Mr. Universe.

The sudden relief that washed over the man’s face was less comforting to Connie and instead reinstilled the awful sinking feeling she had experienced back at the car wash, the last time she had seen the man in person. Fever, it seemed, went both ways. How much did he know? How much did he care? Connie could only watch as Greg practically fell to one knee, reaching out for Stephen with open arms. He had fallen suddenly, as if seeing Stephen for the first time in a thousand years, as if all the paranoia and uncertainty he had just pushed in Connie’s direction could be erased with a single hug. The girl felt sick.

“Come on. Dad’s got you.”

When Jasper stepped forward, Connie realized that the other selkie had been so still that she had almost forgotten about his presence. He grabbed Stephen by both shoulders and crouched until his head was floating just above Stephen’s own. All the good will drained from Mr. Universe’s face as his hands turned into fists. His mouth twisted as if to say something defiant when Jasper began to click.

Everyone blanched at the sound, and Connie couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sight. Jasper’s eyes were wide open and blazing, his brow tightly clenched without lowering. The selkie’s mouth was barely open but his lips peeled back as far as they could go. They were farther than a human’s could stretch; that much Connie knew without measuring. Rows of jagged, shark-like teeth glistened with slimy saliva in the late afternoon sun. Behind his teeth, Jasper’s jaw began to morph underneath his skin. His throat twitched as if it was pregnant, and it birthed a series of deep clicks that escalated into a slow and steady growl. It sounded like a helicopter from far away, like a door being broken down underwater, like footsteps in a nightmare running across a floor made of fresh bone. Jasper croaked steadily with his unblinking eyes fixed on Greg in a fury Connie knew had no translation. She didn’t want to hear this song.

Jasper closed his mouth but didn’t look away. Connie didn’t want to even come near Stephen. That hadn’t stopped her before, not even after Pearl had hurt her, but Jasper was a boulder of a man, as dangerous as the wild animal that he sometimes became. Connie could smell the blood on him.

Was it Mr. Universe’s? No, there was too much, and it must be stinking up the van as they stood. Greg wasn’t injured as far as Connie could tell, but the hopelessness with which he stared back at the selkies almost broke her heart. He was taken. That part did break her heart, though to what degree she knew she could only tell once they had seen the worst of their separation. His lips were pressed together and trembling, his eyes fixed and frustrated. His entire body steamed with dueling emotions: on the one hand, exhausted rage; and on the other, equally exhausted mourning.

“Tell him to give Stephen back to me,” he hissed.

“I can’t do that, Mr. Universe.”

“Tell him. Connie, y-you have to, you have to tell him to give Stephen back. They can’t take him from me. I’m his dad. I’m his papa. He needs me.”

“Mister Universe...” Steven whispered.

“Stephen—tell him. Tell him to... Please, buddy, you gotta, you haf’ta tell him...”

Jasper snorted like a bull. He blinked once, then turned his eyes in Connie’s direction. The immediate chill in her blood was temporary, but she didn’t know why. He was studying her. As Mr. Universe sniffled with his knees in gravel, Jasper straightened up to his full seven feet and closed his mouth.

Connie stepped back, arms folded and squeezed over her chest, as she watched Mr. Universe transition into full and silent rage. If she was in his position, to be fair, she would have felt the exact same way—but if she was in his position then she too wouldn’t have been able to see how lost she was. That phrasing he used was all she needed to know about what had happened to him. In the stories, many selkies seduced the sailors and fishermen with hypnotic romance and desire. With Stephen, Connie had called for a friend, the only one in the world. And with Mr. Universe, Stephen had somehow awakened the kind of parental protection that all the kids in Beach City had experienced once in their lives. Connie had wondered sometimes why Mr. Universe had never had kids of his own. Back then, it hadn’t been her business. Here in the parking lot, she wished it still wasn’t.

“What are—” Greg lowered his head, his voice catching, before he leveled his eyes at Connie. “You know what’s going on. Please, Connie.”

“...How much do you know?”

“Nothing. We went out, Stephen showed up in the middle of the night, we went camping, a-and he had these... He got lightheaded, and dehydrated, and we rocked out and in the middle of the show he just—everything went bad.”

Stephen winced at the thought, but Greg continued, pulling himself up with the van as an anchor. “He burned up all over. Couldn’t eat, could barely sleep. I took him to the water, and some wannabe cop showed up with a gun, and then—Jasper came just—from nowhere, out of nowhere, and he...”

This was the short version, Connie knew, but that was all that she needed to know. Jasper made no apology and had no shame. He gripped Stephen’s shoulders tightly, sniffing the air just once without changing his steely gaze. Connie reached out tentatively and took Stephen by the arm. The younger selkie seemed apologetic as he side-eyed Connie, grimacing at the thought. Maybe Jasper had just hurt this intruder, or maybe he had killed him. With a sickening twist in her stomach once more, Connie wondered if Jasper had eaten this person. Dried blood remained everywhere the rain couldn’t wash off. He had eaten before. Even without proof, Connie knew in her heart that Jasper had had his fill of humans.

“But—but we’re here!” she said. “We’re home! Stephen can, um, go back to his...family for a bit, and we can go back to the wash, and I can ride home. And later we can all just talk about what happened?”

Her voice had absolutely no faith in it whatsoever. Connie trailed off. Greg was boring into her with his eyes, unnatural blue slitted in a kind of rage. He had seen what Connie couldn’t imagine, this she knew. Nothing was going to go back to the way it was.

Jasper rolled his head to the side, and his neck audibly crunched as he rolled it around in the silence.

“They come.”

“They’re here? They’re here, um, now?”

“Who’s here?” Greg said.

Jasper stepped back, pulling Stephen with him. He didn’t even point or look. Connie looked past the enormous man to the winding path leading down through the thickets towards the beach. Not every hiking trail was well-maintained, and this was the most secretive one they could have found, probably. Connie straightened up as much as she could. She had to be brave.

“I think Stephen’s...guardians want to talk to us,” she said.

“Good. I have some stuff to say to them, too.”

Before they could all turn, Stephen grunted with frustration. He shoved Jasper’s hands off his shoulders and started to walk to Greg. Connie hated how uncomfortable he looked, but she couldn’t imagine he had found any comfort in his journey—except with Mr. Universe.

Jasper snarled and grabbed Stephen by the arm. The boy whirled and snarled right back, baring his own little white teeth. Connie didn’t dare try and move Stephen out of the way; even if Jasper was more or less nice to her, he wouldn’t appreciate the confrontation. Stephen dug his heels into the gravel and pulled, his little hand balled up in defiance. It was just like that first day on the beach, before Connie knew what this would all become. Garnet would have been kinder, though, or at least Connie would’ve hoped so. It was entirely possible that none of the selkies were kind when it came to protecting the pup of the colony.

Briefly, Jasper locked eyes with Stephen, and even as his hand loosened enough for Stephen to wrench it away, he didn’t break contact. He watched like a statue as Stephen stumbled over and back into Greg’s arms. The absolute relief that washed over the man should have made Connie feel good, but...not yet. Not until this was all over.

Mr. Universe held Stephen’s face to his stomach and took forcefully measured breaths, trying to calm his trembling hands. Stephen grunted, looking back at Connie once before turning to Mr. Universe sheepishly.

“I-I will be the one. To be...to tell you. I will show you,” Stephen said slowly, measuring his grammar. “When we are there. I...promise, Mr. Universe.”

“Okay. Okay, that’s alright. It’s gonna be okay.”

“Jasper is to be taking us. But I do not want him to hurt you. He won’t.”

“Stephen...” Connie murmured, “do you know what they want to talk about? This isn’t like a trial or something, is it?”

Stephen paused, then shook his head before moving to Mr. Universe’s side. The man held his hand around Stephen’s shoulder, gripping forcefully.

“Let’s just go,” Greg said.

Jasper turned and began to walk away. Connie paused, then nodded for Stephen to follow. Stephen tugged at Greg, and Greg gave Connie one more glance before he ushered the as-of-yet unrevealed selkie down to the path. Deep in her heart, Connie knew that he was trying to hide betrayal. His feelings were running through him with so much strength that Connie couldn’t help but feel like some of it was her fault. But there was nothing she could have done differently, she knew that. If there was, it was too late now.

Summer would be here soon, and that she knew for a fact. The birds sang curiously around them as the four started through the woods, down the short, winding path to the sea. Jasper had to reach out and break the branches ahead of them to make room for his bulk, bobbing and shoving all along the way. Stephen stuck close to Greg, and Greg stuck even closer to Stephen. Connie felt dizzy as she stumbled behind them as her body reminded her how much adrenaline she had exerted just to be here. The world was bright green around them, opening to an afternoon of deep silver. It was just warm enough to cushion the discomfort.

In her stomach, though, Connie knew that this was wrong, and that she hadn’t done anything wrong herself. Mr. Universe was the only one who didn’t know that anything was happening to him. As far as Connie knew, there was no going back.

But they’d have to see. If anything, Connie would try to defend Mr. Universe. There wasn’t much of a choice, because condemning him meant a fate she could only imagine. Jasper had come out of the back of the van covered in blood that wasn’t his own. Did she really want to know what had happened? What would Jasper do to Mr. Universe if the selkies decided things had gone too far? Connie shuddered to herself. Stephen tried to look back, but she couldn’t meet his eyes right now. They might be descending into an execution. Would she be able to be with Stephen at all after this? Or would she too be blamed for introducing Stephen to the human world in the first place?

The stairs down to the cove were built into the sand, embedded with massive spikes and weathered down to petrification. Crashing waves lapped at the cliffs beyond the scope of the inlet. Connie wiped her eyes and forced herself to begin walking down, step by step, salt stinging her bare arms.

For the second time in her life, Connie realized that she could die here. The first time in the ocean had been a surprise, and the feeling hadn’t caught up with her except in a single nightmare, one she had almost forgotten about in a swirl of dreams. Pearl’s judgmental face after the fact compounded the sensation of being attacked so far away from the air, with no light even from Stephen’s eyes, with her side aching from phantom pain that she knew would last for years to come. The selkies would have killed her if she had been a single degree more forward or threatening. Now that they had seen her, now that she had stood up to all of them, Connie was merely a weakling, a pup just like Stephen. But she was human.

Jasper seemed to treat her similarly, though, regarding her as a kid. She could sense something about his behavior that was like a distilled version of her mom or dad—pure firmness, zero room for nonsense. He wouldn’t kill her unless he was ordered.

Immediately, Connie knew that Rosa would be the one to give that order. The girl felt bile rising. One last step, and the beach path began.

Whatever force buckled the rocks millions of years ago, it had created something like a natural sea wall over which tides ran. The hills grew into cliffs far beyond the end of the path, at the end of which the basalt wall held in the brunt of the waves. As a result, Connie and Greg found themselves staring over a wooded lagoon, flanked by trees and boulders. The water was dark and brackish and studded with the broken smooth-faced stones jutting out like eldritch knuckles from the gentle sea. Connie stepped onto the sand; it was less smooth than the sand back at the boardwalk, and she could see the places where the granules had merely collected around a giant dome of granite. Gray-brown patches stuck out of the beach, but Connie didn’t know if they were singular rocks or just pieces of the chunk of which these cliffs were made.

Jasper reached around his shoulder and pulled the cape of skin off his back. Connie watched him walk, bare-torsoed, into the shallow waters. There was a break in the rocks, probably, so it was a matter of time before everyone showed up. How had Jasper called them? Songs traveled in water, maybe. Maybe he had memorized Rosa’s cell phone number and given it to Greg to call. But that was unlikely—Connie hadn’t heard Jasper say more than two words at once. The selkie dove, then disappeared. He’d be back.

“Where did he go?” Greg hissed.

The voice had come so suddenly that Connie barely had time to register the fear. She looked up to see Greg’s blue eyes darting back and forth across the surface of the water, wide and confused.

“That’s what he did. He came out of the—” he said, “—when I took Stephen to cool his fever, we went into the ocean, and that...Jasper, he was just there . How did he do that?”

Finally, Connie and Stephen exchanged a glance. The selkie didn’t even have to shake his head. Connie winced and crossed her arms over her chest, rubbing her biceps nervously.

“Mr. Universe, um...what do you know, right now?” she asked hesitantly.

“This isn’t a quiz, Connie. That man...killed someone. I think he—”

—ate a guy! Mr. Universe mouthed. His eyes darted down to Stephen as if this fact would somehow taint Stephen’s view of Jasper, as if it would cause even more tension. Connie looked at Stephen as her friend chewed on his lip, hugging the hand that was slung over his shoulder. If anything, Connie could imagine that Stephen had seen far, far worse. In the songs, he had; both of them had.

Connie turned back to the water. “That’s not good.”

“No! No it is not!”

Greg’s mouth stayed open to continue ranting, but just ended up huffing and pulled Stephen in closer, rocking the boy. Beads of stress-sweat dried in the sea air against his forehead. Against his side, Stephen looked about as miserable as he could possibly be. Both he and Connie had so much to say to potentially placate Mr. Universe, and it still felt as though they weren’t allowed.

“I...I know that this is his ‘skin,’” Mr. Universe said after a minute of tense silence. “And it eases some of the, um, the symptoms. And water, too, however we can get it. Like...a fire curse, something out of one of your books, if I’m being honest. Connie, I know this seems crazy, I know that much for sure. But I could have sworn that Jasper’s body...changed? His—mouth, when he... And Stephen’s teeth, too, that’s not normal, it’s not supposed to be like...”

Magic was real. Connie wanted to tell him, but there was more of a curse on Mr. Universe than there was on Stephen at the moment, and she had a feeling that he didn’t know that he was cursed. He looked down at Stephen’s head, raising his left hand to pull down on his cheek and stretch his eyelid.

“Am I turning into one of them? Is...is this real?”

“I-I don’t think you’re turning into anything, Mr. Universe.”

“You cannot,” Stephen chimed in. “You are still being human.”

“So what are you?”

Now it was Stephen’s turn to wince as the silence overtook the trio again. Mr. Universe lowered his left hand slowly, but didn’t let go of Stephen; in fact, he hugged the boy somehow even tighter. Connie cast her eyes down to the sand. Interruptions would be wasted. Conjecture was unsafe. Somehow, the calmness with which Mr. Universe had asked that question told Connie he had had his suspicions for a while. Still, the silence told her that he didn’t know what to do with them. Maybe that was good for now.

“I’m about to find out, aren’t I,” he muttered.

‘About’ was relative. After five minutes, Connie was hugging her arms around herself from the ocean’s soft chill just as much as she was from anxiety. After ten minutes, all three of them were sitting on the sand. The sun was beginning its noticeable dip towards the horizon. At least there was no rain today. After twenty minutes, Connie heard soft snoring.

Greg had sat down, too, and Stephen had crawled into his lap. Connie couldn’t help but smile at the sight. She really didn’t want to infantilize Stephen, but it was hard not to think of him like a big dog as Mr. Universe cradled him. The connection was more real than Connie could have imagined, and she wished she could feel better about it. Greg looked so quietly happy as he stroked the selkie’s hair. From what Stephen had said, the colony often slept together for warmth, and he looked quite comfortable with his cheek squished against Mr. Universe’s chest. Despite the paranoid misgivings, he seemed to trust the man, and even to like him.

Whether or not it was close enough for a parent-child love, Connie couldn’t say. That was what really chilled her to the bone. What was the difference between genuine father-like feelings and being song-struck? Mr. Universe certainly couldn’t tell the difference; he had been feeling sick himself, but had apparently ignored all the symptoms in his pursuit. If the end result was that Stephen got himself a surrogate human dad, one that truly loved him, what was the difference?

Connie couldn’t kid herself. Greg Universe wasn’t acting voluntarily. He was a sensible man who shied away from risks and would take being the safe babysitter over being the fun babysitter for as long as Connie and her family had known him. He would never kidnap a child. Connie watched with weary eyes as he pressed a flat palm onto Stephen’s chest, smiling at the beat of the boy’s heart.

It was Stephen that warned them. Connie was about to see how long they had been waiting when her friend twitched in his sleep. Stephen’s eyes fluttered open and he half-consciously pulled at Greg’s body to get upright, looking left and right across the waves. Connie pushed herself unsteadily to her feet. Mr. Universe’s eyes darted over the surface of the water, but he stayed on his knees, crouched behind Stephen as the boy got upright. He held Stephen to him as if he was going to shove the boy backwards to dive and protect him from the danger to follow.

Rosa’s head broke the waves first. They must have all swam around the sea wall as seals, but there were human heads emerging all in a line. Greg audibly sucked in air as he stared at the woman emerging from the sea.

Connie held her breath as she saw Rosa’s unsmiling stare, followed by bare shoulders, followed by a bare collarbone. She let it out again as she saw the black line of Rosa’s selkie-skin wrapped around her torso. She wore it like a dress, stepping up onto the sand to her full height, with one leg mostly visible through a makeshift slit. Of course she was beautiful, and of course she was being dramatic. Connie felt something like envy burning her cheeks.

To Rosa’s right, Perry, Jasper and Amelia shuffled up from the lagoon in the exact same way. Amelia edged closer to Rosa, but Perry stuck near Jasper’s back, glancing upwards at the larger selkie, almost impressed. To Rosa’s left, Garnet and Pearl rose from the water coldly. Pearl had her nose held high as if she had expected this development, snide and justified.

When Garnet came up, her eyes met Connie, and the selkie woman’s face broke its composure. She hadn’t wanted any of this, and Connie knew it. Her dark curls drifted in front of her eyes, and she shook her head sadly. This could be blamed on her, too, if they wanted to go that far. Who was the one to take the blame in the end? Stephen, probably, and Connie, and Greg, and everyone as far back as they could create blame. Blame didn’t matter now, not any longer. Connie wished any of them could just say something and cut the tension.

“Stephen,” Rosa said curtly.

Stephen didn’t move. His eyes darted past the woman to the ocean. Connie watched Rosa’s eyes narrow curiously, not quite calculated—but she had expected Stephen to defy her, or at least she had known it would be a possibility.

Briefly, Connie wondered: should she encourage him? But there was nothing she could say. She didn’t even know why they were all here when Jasper could have just taken Stephen back through the ocean. This was all so unnecessarily tense. The selkies had a tendency to be that way, as far as Connie could tell. She balled her hands into fists, but Garnet sighed and walked up to Connie with gentle strides.

“Come on,” she murmured. She put both hands on Connie’s shoulders.

“Garnet, b-but—”

“Come. I am glad he is safe. I am glad you have kept your promise.”

She pulled Connie backwards, crouching on her knees and pulling on Connie’s shoulders. What, were they just supposed to be witnesses to this? Greg watched with furious incredulity. Stephen kept his eyes to the sand.

“Who—who are all of you? What are you?” Greg demanded hoarsely. He snapped his eyes to Rosa and pointed an accusatory finger. “What did you do to him? Don’t take a single step closer, don’t you dare.”

Rosa’s spine straightened to tower over Greg and Stephen as she stepped closer. Greg couldn’t see it, but Connie could see the predation in every motion, the subtle flaring of the nostrils, the manner in which Rosa readied her hands for clawing the man’s cheeks open. Connie stifled a gasp between her lips as she reached over and grabbed Garnet’s hand. The woman offered them freely, and offered Connie’s fingers a squeeze as well.

“Well, Stephen?” Rosa said. “Answer the nice man’s questions.”

That condescension felt like a slap in the face. Connie stiffened as she watched Stephen squirm in Mr. Universe’s arms. Greg stiffened in equal confusion, and everyone’s eyes were on Rosa as she clasped her hands together over her stomach and waited.

Somehow, this was worse. There was no formality in the selkie colony, not a shred from what Stephen had described. How could he possibly react to being put on the spot like this? Connie could feel the anxiety radiating off of him as he looked around at the collected adults. Finally, he looked at Connie. His lips twisted in that telltale sign, the trying-not-to-cry expression that Connie knew all too well from keeping it together in school. Finally, the boy turned himself around, having to practically wrench himself out of Mr. Universe’s grasp before facing him.

“Stephen, you don’t have to go with them,” Mr. Universe croaked.

The selkie didn’t answer. He reached down to his shorts as the tears began to roll off his face. Stephen paused, looking over at Connie.

“Y-yeah,” she muttered, turning her eyes down to the beach.

But the skin was covering everything already, so it was mostly a formality. Connie hated the thought, but she really hadn’t expected her magical destiny to incorporate so many real-time costume changes. Stephen was an animal, though, and there was no reaction from his kind that Connie could hear as she listened to Stephen getting ready to transform. When she looked up again, he looked basically the exact same, except now he was pulling a confused Greg Universe down past Rosa to the water’s edge. Rosa stepped aside, watching the pair with toxic amusement.

Greg reached into his pocket and threw his keys over to the shorts where they landed with a metallic chime. Nobody was looking at Stephen at this point; as Mr. Universe glanced around the circle of selkies, every single one had their eyes on him.

Amelia and Pearl shared in their distrustful stiffness. Perry was trying not to seem too curious, and Jasper glared with something between boredom and satisfaction. The hunter had done his job, after all. Rosa didn’t bother to hide some semblance of a cruel smile. Connie didn’t look at Garnet, but she could feel the selkie woman’s tension. If everyone was trying to make a game out of this, the tide could turn at any moment. Still, Connie had to admit, the selkies had far more advantages—such was their gift, the ability to vanish from human civilization.

The ocean sucked hungrily at Stephen’s ankles as soon as the boy touched the water. Connie had to resist her own protective urges as Stephen gasped shrilly and nearly jumped back against Mr. Universe. Mr. Universe steadied Stephen cautiously, looking more and more confused by the second.

If the fever had really knocked Stephen out, then coming back to the water must have been either wonderful or awful, depending on the sensation. Connie watched as Stephen’s eyes fluttered closed, as he sighed and leaned into Mr. Universe with his mouth barely open, tiny breaths grounding him back to the water—if that could be ‘grounding,’ anyway. His hands clenched and unclenched, his back straightening as he tried to find his home once more. Once more, Connie thought about how he had taken her out to sea, how he had sung to her a song of wonders, and she knew what Mr. Universe was about to hear. What that would lead to, she had no idea, but her body tensed with anticipation regardless. She squeezed Garnet’s hand tightly; the selkie squeezed back as if to confirm.

Stephen grit his teeth, then pulled. Greg yelped as Stephen tugged him into the waves, but he didn’t resist. The man stumbled forward as his false son dragged him knee-deep, then waist-deep, and then chest-deep into the water. Greg didn’t even have a chance to glance back before Connie saw him look down, take a breath, and sink. Then the air was quiet for a moment.

When the song came, Connie let herself cry, even if it was distant, even if she couldn’t understand it fully. Notes rose from the waves, notes of simple truths that formed cords of apology.

It wasn’t for her. Connie’s mouth wanted to quake from the beauty of it all. It was possible she was only imagining what the song could be, but her body felt it, an ache in her throat where her heart had leapt. She could see the subtle shifts in the faces around her as well. Everyone knew the song was close by. That’s how it must have carried in the past, to sailors and fishermen. The distance almost made it more intoxicating.

What were any of them here for? Jasper could have forced this, or even just Rosa, but it had been Rosa to call them all here in the first place. She was so cruel. She listened, just like the rest of them. Connie wondered: if Stephen were to lie, in the song, would any of the other selkies understand it? Was it even possible that songs could lie, or were they purely honest? Connie wouldn’t even know how to ask the question. Everything her ears could pick up was true, but there were no words to which she could label truths or lies at all. If Stephen was lying, would she be too struck to tell as well? Trusting Stephen was easy, but this just showed her that not everyone could rely on that trust. Whatever he had done to Mr. Universe, it may have been true, but it wasn’t honest.

After a minute that felt like a lifetime, Greg’s head burst from the ocean with a staggered gasp. He flailed in the water, grabbing at the waves with panicked dizziness. Greg turned with wavering feet, and in front of him, a familiar set of darkened eyes popped up. The seal blew air from his nose in a tiny spray of salt water.

Connie couldn’t help but smile at the sight despite the seriousness of it all. Mr. Universe watched, rapt and panting, as Stephen swam in a tight circle around him. He reached out, and Stephen obediently slowed down and closed his eyes as a shaking hand came down to stroke his fur.

As she watched, Connie realized just how well she had taken it all. The very first time that Stephen had come to her, she had almost turned him away. What had kept her from screaming and running? Maybe it was the fact that she had drowned herself in fantasy beforehand, that she had lived a life full of magic not yet realized. Maybe the desperate need for friendship, to hold on to whomever she could, was enough to let her accept the impossibility of this new world. The rules had been fuzzy then, almost as fuzzy as Stephen. Did he know about that term, the fuzziness of the mind? It seemed like something Mr. Universe would say. Obviously, neither one of them cared about it now. Mr. Universe merely pet the selkie with both hands.

His mouth curled into the telltale shape of someone who had to force a smile. Even with the water running down his cheeks, Connie knew he was crying. She wanted to feel bad for him, but she was still scared for him. This wasn’t over yet. Garnet shifted uncomfortably next to her.

All the other selkies were watching intently as well. The fact that nobody else had spoken didn’t feel right. Rosa’s cruel smile outweighed Garnet’s encouragement, the power of which was matched by whatever Jasper felt the urge to bark out. At least, Connie could have placed them—but nobody was saying a word. Connie couldn’t let it go. She knew she had to ask.

The girl wrenched herself to her feet. Garnet sucked in a gasp, but let Connie run right past Pearl and Rosa to the shore.

Pearl still had her arms crossed, barely acknowledging her presence. As Connie looked up, she made eye contact with Rosa, but the woman’s mouth was tight in grim stoicism. Greg raised his head, but only for a second, as Stephen turned and made one final circle.

Stephen’s transformation to his half-form was just as grotesque as the first time she had seen it, the shaking-off of his animal parts. Could he ever go with a seal’s torso and little legs underneath? Actually, Connie didn’t want to wonder about that part. She forced herself to watch without further questions as her friend grew pale arms with which to hold onto Mr. Universe as the man winced, but didn’t make any moves to run. Stephen shook out his head vigorously as the dense fur grew finer, shaggier, darker with black curls. Some of the fur seemed to be absorbed into the skin, and some seemed to slide away where Connie’s eyes could not follow. Greg dipped so that Stephen could grab onto his shoulders as the last of the boy’s jawline clicked into place, and finally, he hoisted Stephen out of the water.

The man stared one more time at the body of the boy he had raised from the ocean, then raised his eyes to meet Rosa. One arm squeezed the bare skin of Stephen’s back, and the other curled around the silver fur of where Stephen’s hips would be.

“Mr. Universe?” Connie murmured.

“Why did you bring me here?”

The question was directed to Rosa, of course, but Connie couldn’t help but feel a little put out. This was her chance to explain it all, and a touch of guilt crossed her mind at the thought. Still, she was supposed to be the voice of reason here. Right?

Rosa clenched her jaw. Connie could see her weigh her words, letting the silence linger. Suddenly, Pearl’s voice made the girl jump.

“To let your blood atone for you, before you face justice,” she snapped.

“To hear you scream as we tear you open,” Amelia snarled, stepping up to the shoreline.

“What?!” Connie reached out, but couldn’t bring herself to grab Rosa’s hand; the woman hadn’t moved. “No, nonono, wait, you don’t have to do this!”

“Connie...”

Garnet had already come up behind her. Connie’s chest began to heave involuntarily as she watched Jasper and Perry approach as well, the latter scurrying up in pure inquisitiveness, until a blockade of selkies was blocking Greg from the beach. Stephen was starting to look more than a  little worried as well. Why wasn’t he speaking up? Garnet sighed as she put a hand on Connie’s shoulder.

“Greg Universe, you know the truth as far as it had been entrusted—to this human girl alone,” she said, firmly but clearly. “And this trust was not broken by her, but...”

They were all looking at Stephen. Something wasn’t right here. Connie could feel the ticking in her chest, like she was trying to crack a safe, but there were no answers except for the ones Stephen had to say for himself. Rosa clicked her tongue in impatience.

“Stephen.”

Her firmness only made the boy shrink into Greg’s arms more. The man shifted, as if making a defensive stance on the sandbar, as if he could make a run for it.

“He stole you. You sang to him, and he took you away from the water. What would you have done when it was too late? If Jasper had not come with your skin, you would have been alone. Burning. With him .”

“Don’t you dare speak to him like that,” Greg warned.

“All that you wanted,” Rosa continued, “and all that you would have deserved. We were all disobedient once, but we knew the price, enough to stay away—”

“Then go,” Greg said, just a little louder. “You want to stay away from us, then do it. I don’t care what you are. I-I just know—”

“You know nothing. You don’t even know your own heart.”

“Don’t touch him. Touch him and I—”

“Mr. Universe, wait!”

“STAY AWAY!”

The bark that came from Greg’s throat even made Pearl jump. Stephen looked like he wanted to melt into the ocean as the man’s echoes lingered against the rocks and waves and vibrated throughout this little canyon. Connie watched with dawning horror as Mr. Universe grit his teeth and glared up at the selkies, blue eyes burning with hatred.

“STAY! AWAY!” he shouted again. “FROM MY SON! ”

Nobody moved. Connie covered her mouth with her hands. The world blurred, but only for a moment.

She didn’t seem to have any tears left, no matter how much she wanted to cry. Connie wanted to wail at the sight of Mr. Universe, lost in his own head, lost to a song. Stephen hugged the man, but he couldn’t meet his gaze; that was impossible, and everyone knew it. Tension weighed like frozen sand on the whole menagerie of selkies and humans alike.

This may be how it ended, like putting down a rabid dog. Connie was tired. She would be allowed to see Stephen again, until the day where she too would feel dizzy every time she looked in the mirror, and then she would never see again. Maybe Mr. Universe and Stephen had felt the same fevers, except for Mr. Universe it happened whenever he and Stephen were apart, and he could endure it more, for however long he had lived with it, for however new the spell was to him. Magic was real and it had turned him into the father he had perhaps always wanted to be. Connie knew that nothing had fundamentally changed about him, nothing except for the inhibitions, the chains of his humanity that had kept him from acting out. And it was Stephen—

“It was me.”

Stephen’s whisper broke the dam a little. Connie felt her eyes well up as Stephen began to cry as well. Greg’s anger turned instantly to worry as he let Stephen lean away.

“It was... It was my song. I was wanting. I-I was feeling...”

The silvery skin began to crawl back up the pale torso. Greg watched as calmly as he could appear as Stephen grew his skin back over his body. The boy looked miserably over his shoulder at Connie, but she didn’t turn. One arm at a time, he pulled it inside his body, until he had grown his skin into a cloak again, bare legs pushing up against his surrogate father. Connie wished she could understand how the skin worked. Maybe one day, she could get Stephen to wear a bathing suit as he changed in and out of his body in front of her, seeing what he could do, what he had learned. The half-transition amazed her, and the process itself, despite the agony of the gathering, was beautifully indescribable.

“I sang to you,” Stephen said.

“You...you sang with me, buddy, you sang...”

“No!”

Stephen’s eyes shut tightly for just a moment before he choked out his words. “I sang to you, in the van, in the water, a-as we were asleep, I was singing.”

Greg stopped for a moment. His eyes whipped up to meet Connie for just a moment as his face hardened. The man adjusted Stephen to sit in his arms, swaying back and forth.

“Singing. That’s what you just— That’s what you just did now,” Greg muttered. “Showed me what you were, all the stuff... Everything about humans and, um, seal-people, that’s a song. Not like a song but a song -song.”

“I did not mean to hurt you. I didn’t.”

“Stephen, you didn’t do anything, kiddo—”

“I sang! I-I wanted it and I wanted too much!” Stephen blurted. His voice cracked as he held Greg’s shoulders and stared with watery eyes. “And I—I didn’t mean to— But—”

The boy couldn’t look at anyone right now. The dawning realization came over Greg’s face like a wave breaking in slow motion. He looked right at Connie as he cradled Stephen, his boy, a boy just barely too big to be cradled. Connie forced her arms down and forced herself to be firm. If nobody else was going to say it, then she was.

“Selkies, Mr. Universe,” Connie said. She swallowed. “They can do kind of what sirens can. And Stephen might not’ve meant to, but his voice, well...”

Was it right? No, but she had to say it. Connie stiffened and forced herself to speak. “When you picked us up on the beach, w-we had just learned about...his mom and dad. And...it was awful. Really, really awful. You showed up and you were just—yourself. Nice. You cared about him.”

“Connie...”

“I know you never meant to hurt anyone, especially not Stephen, never him! But that’s just what a song does! Mr. Universe, you’re literally—”

“I know what sirens are. I know what that means. This changes nothing .”

Did he actually understand? Stunned as she was, Connie could feel the tension around them, and the confusion on Stephen’s face made it even odder. Mr. Universe walked forwards, making his way through the gentle waves. As he approached the beach, Stephen caught sight of Rosa and ducked his face in shame.

“What do you think is going to happen, human?” Rosa started. “Do you think you’re going to walk out of here with our pup?”

“Do you think this’ll stop him from coming back to me?”

No, no, no, this was far too dangerous a game. As Mr. Universe sloshed back onto dry land, Connie reached out and tugged at the sopping t-shirt sleeve, the only thing she could really grab. The man barely acknowledged her. Stephen looked down at her uncertainly.

“Mr. Universe, don’t! We can work something out! You’ve seen what they’ll do, a-and I know it’s hard, but we can’t fight about this!”

“Oh, yes we can,” Greg snarled, though more towards Rosa than Connie. “Stephen sang to me for a reason. I don’t care how ‘ real ’ this is. I’m his dad just as much as he’s my son.”

“But you’re not! He’s not!”

“And why not?!”

Stephen twisted his legs. That was the signal, and Greg knelt to let Stephen back onto the sand. Rosa took a few small steps backward, glancing to the assembly around her. Comfort had abandoned this place ages ago. Connie whipped her head back and forth at the incredulous, furious assembly of selkies. Stephen looked at his colony with equal awkwardness as he fumbled with his skin, enclosing it around himself in a robe-like configuration.

“Just because it’s created, just because...just because it was sang to me doesn’t make this feeling any less real.” Greg put both hands squarely on Stephen’s shoulders. “I’m gonna be like this for the rest of my life. Isn’t that right? No matter if I leave forever, no matter if you take Stephen away, I’m gonna feel this...this song, inside me. That I’m his father. And it’s gonna kill me if I don’t do something about it.”

Rosa tsked and stared down her nose. “Finally, some sense.”

“No! That’s—not true!”

Even Stephen looked at Connie with some degree of confusion, except for Jasper, whose face twitched from irritated hunger in Greg’s direction to stony indifference in hers. Connie looked at the gathered seals, hands raised. Her heart was beating too quickly to distinguish the actual beats themselves, or pretty close to that. Hopefully her academic side could make sense of this before Rosa sicced someone on her.

“Well, um—all the stories from the selkies, with a human who’s been songstruck, they’ve been about the humans doing bad things. And when they do, then they need to be dealt with. That’s...the right thing, when there’s no other way,” she said, glancing at Amelia.

Amelia ground her teeth, but didn’t break her glare. Connie turned to face Rosa directly. “But nobody’s tried to cure it. Nobody’s tried to help someone, because the humans who’ve been caught, they’ve all been bad people. All Mr. Universe wants to do is be a dad! That’s— Okay, maybe the road trip was a bad idea, but he meant well!”

“Kidnapping. Theft. You say he meant well, by taking Stephen in the night,” Rosa answered, sounding less and less bemused by the second.

“Because Stephen showed up! If it hadn’t been bad with you, Stephen wouldn’t have come!” Connie blurted out.

That was the wrong thing to say. Even Stephen cringed as the gathered pelts and hairs bristled. Only Perry maintained a sick grin with his sharp little teeth as the selkies faces turned stony and furious.

“Watch your tongue, girl ,” Pearl hissed.

“W-what I’m saying, um, I just...”

Mr. Universe was inching closer to her, but Stephen up and grabbed her arm, clearly afraid for her safety.

“Stephen’s decisions were his own, yes, and they were also a child’s decisions.” Garnet grimaced between the two parties. “And perhaps this man’s decisions were not his own. Is that not more reason to mistrust him?”

“I don’t know. But...I know that if you do anything to him, Stephen’s not gonna trust you either.”

Finally, Connie had some ground to stand on. She hugged Stephen tightly and stared up at Rosa. She was the central figure, their prime leader, the only one that seemed to be giving orders. The selkie woman stared down at the children with her eyebrows knitted together in an expression Connie knew was approaching contempt. Amelia behind her was focused on Greg, hands splayed as if she would grab him the second he moved; this was despite the fact that Jasper had been poised for that exact purpose this whole time.

“Trust has nothing to do with it! This is survival! ” said Pearl.

“You don’t know a damn thing about living,” Greg snapped back. “Stephen’s never done anything that a boy should do. He’s been—here, when he could be—”

“When he could be dying,” Rosa said with far less patience in her voice than before. “Again, with you.”

“If you’d just told him—! If you had let him go, I could have helped him! How could I have known? How could I, if he didn’t know?!”

“Would be being a lesson.” Perry snickered, and Connie couldn’t help but shoot him a look. “A lesson for both.”

Stephen leveled a growl. Greg stepped back until he could put a hand on the boy’s shoulder. Connie didn’t know how to feel when Stephen got all defensive like this, even when it was justified. She had admired his animal nature the first time he had stood up for them on the beach, but after that, after seeing Jasper and feeling Pearl and knowing what the selkies would do without remorse, she could only hope to prevent that. But would that kill him when he grew up? Or would those survival instincts always be there? Connie shivered, trying to hide the fact that she knew: to some degree, the selkies were right.

“Is this what you want for him? This can’t be all there is,” Greg said to the collected selkies. He swept his hand in front of him before letting the gesture fall in exhaustion. “I-I don’t want to be his— I can be a good dad, even if I’m spellbound or—whatever. But I’m not letting him be trapped like this, I can’t. I can’t! Kill me if you have to—”

Please don’t say that , Connie thought. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jasper lick his fangs.

“—but I’m not letting Stephen be forced to live a life he doesn’t want to! I can show him! Just... Just let me do it safely, let me...”

He trailed off. Pearl scoffed as she watched Mr. Universe’s face fall. The man kept his lips as stiff as he could, but they quivered nonetheless, as wobbly as his watery gaze. Amelia clenched her fists.

Connie knew he was telling the truth, but as for whether or not the parting would kill him, well, nobody knew that. Madness was the most likely result. Wasn’t that how the stories went? The sailors couldn’t reach the sirens, and their ships got wrecked on the rocks for the creatures to devour. Or, in the selkies’ case, their curiosity attracted the desperate humans, and someone’s pride got to the other, and the humans either had their revenge or got revenged before the seals vanished. There was no other way.

Begging wasn’t the best strategy to convince them, even if Connie had to admire his bravery—or no, he was forced by the song, but still. She couldn’t imagine how bad Stephen felt about this. The young selkie reached up, released Connie to wrap his arms around Mr. Universe’s own, pale sea-kissed freckles covering a sun-tanned elbow. Connie wished this was her decision to make, but she didn’t even have an argument anymore, did she. It was all up to them.

Garnet, too, looked at Rosa uncertainly. Jasper readied himself in the sand like a crouching tiger, and Perry behind him looked more uncertain than not. Amelia stared with uncomfortable bewilderment between Rosa and her captive human. Rosa’s eyes were locked with Mr. Universe’s, and Connie could see the pink glimmer in them as she tilted her head, the color of freshly spilled chum.

“Rosa, this is enough,” Pearl said firmly. “Let me take Stephen back, and Jasper will—”

“Hush.”

Pearl’s sentence floundered in a series of indignant half-growls as Rosa stepped forward. Her bare feet were soundless on the sand. For a second, she paused, and she looked down at Stephen with a hardness in her eyes Connie had never seen before. The boy let go of Mr. Universe and pulled away even when Mr. Universe tried to grip his wrist. Stephen just shook his head and took Connie’s wrist instead. She knew he could probably feel her pulse.

Then she was upon him. Greg was about to say something to Stephen when Rosa’s finger lifted his chin. She pulled him to face her with effortless control. When she opened her lips, Connie could count the little points of her teeth inside.

To his credit, Mr. Universe stared right back. He stood up to his full height, just looking up into Rosa’s eyes and steeling himself. Connie was quaking from here just looking at the woman’s presence, but Greg seemed completely undeterred. If anything, he seemed even steadier than before—was that good, or bad? Connie couldn’t tell. The tears fell freely from his unblinking blue eyes, falling down his cheeks and around his beard to touch Rosa on the knuckle. The sea air blew his hair in messy knots around his shoulders.

Rosa’s hand traced down his throat—Connie swallowed involuntarily—to his sternum, and went flat. She began to walk forward, and she opened her mouth to sing.

The worst part was watching Mr. Universe’s face as he realized what she was doing. Every inch of muscle on the man’s body tensed as he stumbled back, back into the shallows, his eyes affixed the whole time on Stephen. Even though Connie knew Rosa was singing, it was so quiet that she could only hear a mild buzzing. No, not even that, more like the sensation of someone pressing their fingers on a guitar neck in the shape of a chord. This was a song for Mr. Universe, for his ears alone. Like any song, he could have torn away—right?

He must have been able to. Connie remembered when Perry had sang on land, when she hadn’t been quite accustomed to the song, and it only hurt her ears and head. Maybe it was more direct, a supersonic focus. Who could know, and who could say? Nobody would answer her questions then, and it was even less important now that Greg was up to his waist in the water with Rosa grabbing his arm.

The man closed his eyes and took a breath, and Rosa pulled him under.

There was a thud. Connie turned to see Jasper on his knuckles, fallen to the sand and staring, waiting for the moment when he had to jump in after them, incredulous. He sniffed the air, then scowled.

The quiet song wafted over them, but Connie couldn’t understand it. For once, it genuinely scared her. The alien sensation drifted through her skull at a frequency that she couldn’t understand. She looked at Stephen for an answer, but he just stared back, half-panicked and half-confused. Of course, they shouldn’t have heard anything at all, probably, but song did travel; it must have, if the selkies had once drawn sailors from the shore back in the day.

Around the two of them, Connie could see the other selkies’ reactions, and she knew it was more than just the quiet. Amelia’s anger had shrunken within her, a strand of black hair falling over her eyes as she crouched in the sand. Perry, just like Connie, was studying the assembly with a swiveling, suspicious sneer. Garnet was the only selkie who appeared to remain nonplussed, more or less, her face stony, as if she had seen these exact notes coming. Pearl’s fury made Connie turn away before she could study it further; each line in her face was as tightly knit as paracord and she looked ready to break in and tear Mr. Universe apart herself.

“Stephen, what’s she doing?” Connie whispered.

“I-I don’t know. I do not know this song.”

“She’s not gonna hurt him, is she?”

“She has hurt before,” Stephen murmured, “but I have not seen it. Or heard the true song.”

Connie watched the water where the two grown-ups had disappeared. It was almost silly, the fact that Greg had to get himself dunked to listen to the selkies. Singing through the air was easier, but the amplification of the water was where their power lay. Stephen’s fever outside of it must have been scary. Connie imagined her friend laying in bed, pouting like a little turn-of-the-century novella character as Mr. Universe doted on him.

She opened her mouth to ask about how he had felt, but before she could, Greg’s face burst with a gasp from the surface. The man doubled over, coughing out seawater as he stumbled forward. His eyes were wide and confused, and his arms were shaking as he raised them from the ocean. Rosa took a small breath beside him as she stood as well, clearly bemused.

Connie had half a mind to tell her off. Both Mr. Universe and Stephen were probably exhausted from their little trip. Interrogations should have waited. Rosa clearly didn’t care.

The selkie woman raised her hand again, up to Greg’s chin. She tried to pull him towards her, turning his face. Her mouth opened to command or possibly comment. Greg grit his teeth. Connie and Stephen gasped at the same time as the man reached up and swiped Rosa’s hand away from him.

As Mr. Universe stumbled back to shore, back to Stephen and Connie, his feet faltered in the soft sand. Stephen broke from Connie’s side, running to the surf to pull him out. Connie looked past them at Rosa’s face, and the two exchanged a look of shock; Connie felt her mouth tainted with confusion, questions on her lips, and Rosa’s brow filled with the storm of silent indignation, the kind Connie had seen before on administrators when kids decided to be brazen about their misbehavior in the halls. Greg and Stephen ignored the gathering, hugging each other in the cold water.

“I-I’m not going anywhere,” Greg choked. “Not leaving you. Not leaving my boy behind. I’m sorry, Stephen, I’m s-so sorry.”

Rosa stalked silently out of the water, her mouth tight and her eyes roving over the boys. The pair looked up at her as she passed, towering over them. Connie watched her skin, wrapped around her, glistening in the afternoon light with the cold Atlantic water. Without turning, Rosa grunted and spoke to Connie.

“There is no cure, then.”

“What did you do?— Mr. Universe, what did she do?”

The man didn’t move a muscle. Even from the sand, he stared Rosa down. Stephen clearly didn’t want to be between the two of them, but he stuck diligently by Mr. Universe, even in the face of the allmothers. He was less yell-y than that day on the beach, but Connie felt some kind of pride nonetheless.

“He is stubborn,” Rosa said at last. “Unswayable. Loyal.”

“Rosa, what did you do? ”

The selkie turned to face Connie with poorly-disguised bemusement. “It has been a while. Perhaps some men are resistant to songs these days.”

Amelia bristled and stepped back. Perry’s snickering was just as confusing to Connie as that whole song had been, although, looking around, Connie could see that it was only her and Stephen that were truly out of the loop. Rosa looked back down at Greg, and a brief moment of disappointment shimmered over her brow.

Connie’s stomach twisted up instantly as she realized Rosa’s plan. Her face burned up like a match to paper, and all of the notes of the song turned sour in her head. One song for another, one obsession swapped out. No, it wasn’t just an attempt—it was a test. Connie knew the motivations, she knew the stories, she knew what people like Rosa did to others. And she felt sick thinking about it. But, as far as she could tell, Greg had passed. He was dirty and salty and shivering and bruised, but he had passed.

What would’ve happened? Connie didn’t want to think about the specifics of the song, what was said between the two of them. She could only imagine how Stephen would have felt, seeing Mr. Universe utterly abandon him, maybe with some flimsy justification, to chase for just one moment after the beautiful selkie woman who would then, presumably, kill him. She couldn’t have withstood it, either. As far as she could tell, Mr. Universe’s eyes were still bright blue, and he clearly wasn’t over Stephen’s song, and possibly never would be. So Rosa hadn’t cured him either. Connie clenched her fists. Rosa had gambled with Stephen’s emotions. There was a non-zero chance that she would have destroyed Greg Universe in the process, too. Connie didn’t have the strength to articulate exactly what was so maddening about what Rosa had done, but it infuriated her, and worse, it scared her. No song had found its way into her, right? Certainly she wasn’t at a point where she was obsessed or cursed, but now she worried. What was stopping any one of these selkies from dragging her into a tide pool and singing her to her own madness?

They’d do anything for Stephen; that much she knew. He was the only pup, and was probably going to be the only one. Everyone had been over this before, animal instincts and acceptance of the emotions they had songs for but not words. Connie felt herself aching. She sat down on the beach, succumbing to the pulsing misery of her leg muscles.

“What do you want?”

Rosa’s question was directed at Stephen. The boy wiped his face before he looked up, then back at Connie, and then up once more. Greg stared at him steadily, letting his arms down. Stephen had to do what he wanted now.

“I...I am wanting to learn,” he said.

“You know your song is powerful. You wanted more than to learn. Certain comforts, beyond your shore,” said Rosa. “What do you want from this human?”

“I want to read!”

Stephen’s voice cracked, but he planted his feet and continued. “I-I want to go to the rock shows! I want to eat, to go out, to meet the new friends, to wear things and watch things and learn! And...and I want to feel... I want to...”

As he balled his hands up into little fists, Connie could feel the swelling in his throat, and her heart broke. She knew exactly what was going on.

What song of lost childhood could be sung when the notes never existed? What words could there be for the feeling without definition? What could Stephen do to tell Rosa that she was no longer enough, that the selkies couldn’t help him reclaim this inherent emotion for which he had never had the language in any sense, nothing to bridge the gap? He wanted to be the kind of son who deserved to be treated like a son, and he had no idea how. What did it mean to even be someone’s child? It was with no small sense of dread that Connie realized that this was now a question for the poets, and she really didn’t have any answers for him. She could show, but only Greg Universe could help him feel.

And Mr. Universe knew it, too. The man, on his knees, lowered his head as he pulled Stephen back. He pressed his ear up to hear Stephen’s beating heart, like one would a newborn; Connie had heard her mother talk about it once at a dinner party, when she thought Connie couldn’t hear from the other room. Greg seemed to resist the shudder as Stephen wrapped his arms around the man’s head and shoulders, sniffling fiercely.

“Greg Universe.”

Mr. Universe barely turned his head.

“If you ever take this child with the intention of separating him from this colony, you will die. Do you understand?”

Rosa’s clarity carried a weight that still angered Connie, but now she was the one at a loss for reasoning. Either way, the tension in Greg’s hands was enough to show his understanding, even if he couldn’t say a thing.

“Rosa...?” Amelia said, her voice hushed.

“Rosa!” Pearl barked. “You cannot let this pass, you— He cannot live! He’s been struck!”

“Jasper has proven himself as fine a hunter as we all know him to be. There is no need to fear.”

“Then for now, it is decided,” Garnet muttered.

Amelia didn’t speak further. In fact, she seemed to shrink as Pearl hissed and snarled at the back of her throat. Connie twisted her body to look at Garnet. The selkie stared down her nose with...pity, perhaps? Connie couldn’t tell.

Jasper growled deeper than Pearl, but only moved to stand up, with Perry nudging him like a dog, as if egging him on. commit yet another atrocity. Had he really eaten a man? Connie wouldn’t put it past Jasper, but she truly hoped that Mr. Universe had been exaggerating. The blood was probably as good a warning sign as any that she was wrong. Maybe she should have taken more away from her first meetings, from Stephen’s sharp teeth, from the way that Pearl had tried to drown her: selkies were like animals capable of choosing harm.

But they could choose so much more, too. Wherever the line was drawn was a matter of choice. Jasper chose to give in, as Perry chose to straddle the line, as Rosa chose to be more humanlike in her touch and poise. Stephen was learning how to choose for himself. Connie smiled through the strangeness.

“We’re going home. Say goodbye, Stephen.”

“Wait, just—wait,” Greg said weakly. He released Stephen, but kept his hands on the young selkie’s shoulders as he raised his eyes to Rosa. “How can I know you’ll let him come back? How...how do I know you won’t...”

“I believe,” Rosa murmured, “that we will all be seeing each other again.”

Connie could feel the barest edge of impatience in her voice, a maternal note with which she was familiar. Stephen must have heard it as well. He pulled Mr. Universe upright, bringing the man over to Connie before he turned to his friend with those perfect silver eyes. Connie just noticed the bags under them. Sleep hadn’t been easy with a fever, no sir. She managed to get to her feet as well.

“I have my phone, and we can call, um, assuming your battery lasts for a while. Maybe you can call Mr. Universe too! A-and we can do that sleepover, like I promised! Stephen, school’s almost out too, sort of, and we’re not going anywhere for the summer, so...”

Her voice gave out as Stephen hugged her. Rest. That was the only way, really. Stephen needed to rest after being out of his skin for so long. Getting carried by Jasper had been almost cute, but Connie imagined real sleep was yet to come. Mr. Universe probably needed the same kind of sleep if he had been caring for his surrogate son for the last few days.

That was the other part. As Connie let go of Stephen, she could see how Mr. Universe was looking at them. Until the song was lifted, if it was possible for it to be lifted at all, he would never have the same kind of trust in her. Or perhaps it would grow on him. He still looked so confused, understandably upset, and just as tired as the boy he had been escorting. Connie knew he would be dreaming of a life where he could be the perfect dad, and how much that life didn’t look like this. She didn’t have it in her nerves to imagine what being chased by Jasper could do to a person. For forever and a day, though, his eyes would be stubbornly blue. 

Rosa was the first to turn. Stephen sniffled and wiped his eyes.

“I will come soon. I promise. As soon as I can,” he said.

“Be safe, buddy. D—”

Greg squeezed his eyes shut and a full-bodied tremor ran through him. The words and the body were entwined, and Connie imagined the pain of their eventual separation, like a doll feeling its stitches plucked out by the beak of a magpie.

“I’m going to be here, forever, just for you, Stephen. That’s my job,” he whispered.

“Thank you. I am loving you, Connie, Mr. Universe, I-I will...” Stephen hesitated, but he straightened his back and set his jaw nonetheless. “I will promise. I promise.”

“I love you too, kiddo.”

“Be safe, Stephen.”

Garnet trailed past, and Stephen broke the circle to take her outstretched hand. She studied the two humans, resting her eyes on each in turn without a word. There would be no more goodbyes. The two selkies stepped into the water. Stephen shuddered once more with the immersion, his return, and he smiled back over his shoulder as he gripped his skin.

This was it for now, then. When was soon? Connie barely had time to consider before she heard a splash, and she turned to see a brief glimpse of white before Pearl vanished completely. Amelia stared over, but meandered into the water nonetheless. Connie and Mr. Universe watched as the human heads dove under the surface, and seal snouts emerged seconds later farther out to shore. Perry had half-transformed already as he hit the beach, snorting in his own thoughts before the voice vanished.

Connie sighed. “Do you think—”

Greg gripped her shoulders tensely. The girl looked back down the beach. Jasper hadn’t moved.

His cape billowed in the fresh wind, just once, and he stepped cautiously towards Greg and Connie with his hands limp by his sides. Connie knew she had nothing to be afraid of, not after Rosa’s orders, not after the tension of that meeting, but her blood still chilled at the sight. Then she noticed that motion, what she hadn’t been cognizant of despite her brain seeing a moment before: caution.

Was it? Jasper’s eyes were as brazenly glowing as a wildfire, but his brow wasn’t knit to focus or to hone. He stared at Greg specifically, and there was an absence, a distinct lack of the hatred which he had shown before. The silence was almost overwhelming. Connie could literally hear Mr. Universe’s heartbeat over the waves.

A murmur of energy ran through the air, and Jasper whipped his head towards the ocean. He gave the pair a single, final glare before he growled under his breath and leapt into the water. The giant selkie dove headfirst into the cold waves, then vanished. Everything was silent once more, and this time the silence was absolute.

“Do you think...”

“What?”

Connie shook her head. “I-I don’t know. I really don’t. I’m sorry. But you know that I couldn’t tell you. You wouldn’t have believed me.”

“I—okay, yeah,” Mr. Universe sighed. “This stuff is pretty hard to believe. Are you sure I’m not dreaming still?”

“Nope. Stephen’s a selkie. Magic is real. I’m gonna tell all the language arts teachers that told me I should read more historical fiction that my fantasy books are for research now.”

Mr. Universe snorted, and the laughter faded. Connie couldn’t keep up her smile no matter how much it wanted to stay. She gently took Mr. Universe’s forearm. He felt like he was encrusted in salt.

“Can you give me a ride home?” she asked.

“Yeah, of course. I’ll put a towel down. And, um, the van kind of smells like...a lot.”

“I don’t think I want the details.”

She pulled. Mr. Universe didn’t move. His eyes were locked on the ocean. If there was any panic left in Connie, she couldn’t feel it. Adrenaline was useless now. She could let the man have a moment. He didn’t wipe his tears as they fell.

“Connie?”

“Y-yes, Mr. Universe?”

“Do you think I would’ve been a good dad? In...in another world,” he murmured, “I mean, in a world where I settled down here, got a little house, got a boy like Stephen, a partner, white picket fence. Is it too late?”

She wished they were two unrelated questions. Fear and love were all that were left now. Connie could feel the way that fear and love were coming together in Mr. Universe’s consciousness, muddling with his brain in a way that was literally impossible for her to ever know. Science didn’t exist now, not like how they could track it. Chemistry and memory were all enthralled to the song. The girl bit her lip.

“Stephen thinks so, right?”

“He’s not my son.”

“I-I know.”

“I’m coming in and out of it, Connie. I-I have memories I know aren’t real. They’re parts of it. He imagined it, in the song, and it’s there, these questions... I can’t lose myself. I’ll lose him.”

“You won’t. Mr. Universe, you won’t . I promise. You’re stronger than that.”

“Stronger than myself?”

“I don’t know. I’m sorry,” Connie mumbled. “I don’t know.”

“‘s okay, kiddo. Don’t mean to stress you. Just...”

Greg Universe shook his head vigorously, then sighed with a deep breath in time to the tidal rhythm.

“Just need to get it out. Maybe I’ll get back into lyrics,” he said.

She tugged again. The man let himself be taken, painful as it seemed to be for him to walk away from the shore. As they reached the trailhead, Connie let go. The man followed slowly. She had to get home. Maybe he knew that, and maybe that was the reason he didn’t turn back. Connie walked numbly up the steep steps into the woods. She knew she should be worried.

But Connie was more worried about the selkies. Pearl wouldn’t dare try to hurt her, but as for Greg, well, Connie couldn’t tell. Amelia had her own history that Rosa had overridden. Garnet’s peacekeeping couldn’t last forever, certainly not with Perry sabotaging their truce with gleeful curiosity. And Jasper’s energy was something Connie still didn’t know what to do with, not really.

Rosa was a different case entirely. Connie didn’t want to think about her. The girl shuddered. Stephen was safe, and she didn’t have to worry anymore. The weekend had felt years long.

But now what? Connie stepped out onto the gravel of the lot just in time to see two birds fly off, one in pursuit of the other, from the ground to the canopy. The air was getting progressively warmer. She hadn’t noticed it before, the way that the grass started to turn the world green, how nothing else had seemed green until the grass had grown. One day, there was nothing, and then as soon as she noticed it, the season was here again. Long afternoons were coming, days for doing nothing. She wanted to play chess with Stephen on the living room floor, then have an actual catnap afterwards under her father’s watchful eye. It was coming. Stephen would be back. Connie walked to retrieve her backpack and bicycle. Behind her, she knew that Mr. Universe was half-collapsed against his van. She could hear his concealed weeping.

A broken rib was nothing to shrug off. Priyanka Maheswaran smoothed out her blouse reflexively and ignored the shivers as her hands brushed her sides. As she walked up to the front of the car wash, she wondered where Greg Universe’s van was, and her stomach twisted until she saw the man opening the glass door.

She paused, unable to eke out her opening tirade. He was wearing sunglasses. Greg almost never wore sunglasses.

But this wasn’t about the sunglasses. She had shamefully envisioned this moment in all its drama. Despite his slight sluggishness, despite the attempt at a weak smile, Greg would get none of her sympathies today. The man stepped up with an apology in his mouth. Priyanka’s hand raised as swiftly as a darting hare and slapped Greg across the face.

It wasn’t a strong slap, nor was it as rational as she had wanted it to be. Rational? How could she have rationalized this? But that was how she had felt about it, how she had wanted it to be. It was an expression of anger to bring her friend to his senses, to punish him for what he had done to Stephen, and to an extent what he had done to Connie as well. Instead, it felt like she had broken a plate at a neighbor’s party, regret for a choice that hadn’t needed to be made, a choice that at one point had felt inevitable until after it had been chosen.

Greg slowly turned his face back, nodding as he straightened up. There was no more smile, but he wasn’t particularly shocked or angry, which made Priyanka feel even worse somehow. He grimaced instead, adjusting his sunglasses.

“Alright,” he murmured. “Alright...”

“If you ever pull a stunt like that again—”

Priyanka let the threat hang in the air. What would she do, then? Adopt Stephen—as if. Connie would be elated but Doug would...also be happy to have a boy in the house. Bad idea. Would she call the police on him? Absolutely not; she had worked with enough cops through the medical system to know the limits of justice as it applied to truth with them. That was all she could do, then—let the threat hang and hope that Greg would accept it.

Thankfully, the man rubbed his cheek gingerly and looked away, in something approaching shame. “I’ve been read the riot act, Doc, trust me. Stephen’s folks weren’t happy either.”

“Connie could barely focus on finals this weekend. She’s been bicycling around and—I shouldn’t even be letting her bike to school, but she’s so insistent on recovery, and then she wants to come here to see him!”

“Wasn’t that almost two months ago? More? Jeez. That was the first time I met this poor kid...”

He was drifting. He was still thinking about Stephen. Apparently, that’s all everyone was thinking about. Priyanka didn’t like the sickness she had to repress.

“And it should have been the last.”

“Don’t say that. Please don’t say that.”

“You aren’t like this. I’ve already told you, but—”

“I know! Doc, I know! A-and I didn’t...”

“You didn’t what, Greg?” Priyanka said. “What happened? No, nonono, firstly, what happened with Stephen’s...family? When you came back.”

Greg’s face changed with the wind. It wasn’t breezy, but it felt like the sun had blown through the parking lot, like time had slowed to drink in the horror that Priyanka could feel Greg was hiding. She had seen people react like this before, felt the manner in which they wanted to avoid her questions before answering them with horrendous honesty.

“They got to me first. Found us up north a ways,” Greg muttered.

“What? H— Were they following you?

“You’ve met Rosa. Connie’s told me. But you haven’t met the others.” Priyanka shook her head. Greg’s lips curled in a sad smile. “There’s a fella you should get to know sometime, then. Name of Jasper. Big guy. Few words.”

It was then that Priyanka noticed the yellowing splotch in the shadow of Greg’s neck, disappearing into his old t-shirt. If she had been in a dramatic mood, she would’ve said it was in the shape of a hand. The bruise was enough to tell her what had happened, though, and Priyanka took a small breath.

“How bad was it?”

“Real bad. But I’m okay. Stephen’s okay, and Connie is, too.”

“She came home yesterday in...a strange state. Wouldn’t say anything except that Stephen was back, and that you were okay. I didn’t press her. She slept through half her study time.”

“Kids her age shouldn’t have finals. Maybe a big project, sure, but—”

“Did they threaten her? Greg, I need to know if anyone was going to hurt my daughter,” Priyanka murmured.

The man’s mouth tightened up, but he shook his head, and even let out a short, humorless laugh that raised Priyanka’s hackles. He pushed his sunglasses up once more.

“Oh no. They wouldn’t dream of it. They like having her around.”

“I...suppose that’s good.”

Priyanka crossed her arms over her chest. Greg just nodded along. It felt like he was waiting for her to ask something, but all the questions that came to her mind felt unanswerable. Greg wouldn’t want to answer them. The woman swallowed her pride—or whatever this feeling was.

“So they did follow you.”

“They followed Stephen. Something like that. Doc, I promise, Connie is...fine. She’s not in any danger, neither are you, and...Stephen’s okay too.”

“Even if I believed Stephen was okay, the kids aren’t the only ones I’m worried about.”

Greg stiffened when Priyanka took his arm. With her cousins and uncles, as an adult, she had had moments where they resisted her advice. They didn’t always listen when she talked about caring for mother, and with her in-laws, sometimes it was like beating her fists on a brick wall. She squeezed his bicep softly, trying to see behind the sunglasses.

“Greg, we’re your friends. You’re practically family. Connie thinks so, and she was worried about you too,” Priyanka said softly. “Honestly, I— These people, from what I can tell, they have nothing to lose. Whatever compelled you to take Stephen, what happens when it comes up again?”

“I don’t know.”

“You can’t just say that.”

“I don’t,” Greg said flatly. “I thought I was in control. I thought I was doing the right thing. I know it was right. But...”

He shook his head. That wasn’t an answer, either. Priyanka suppressed a sigh. She couldn’t trust him like she had before. With Connie, nothing had changed—of course he was fine with Connie. With Stephen, there was no telling what would happen. What had Greg seen? What had he heard? What had they done to him? A lump circled around Priyanka’s throat.

If Greg chose to take Stephen again, they’d kill him. Priyanka didn’t like violence. Connie’s books about gruesome magical fates and epic battles were necessary, but confrontational violence was beyond the scope of what Priyanka wanted to imagine; she couldn’t let Connie know. Stephen may have already known. They were his family members, after all, and she could imagine the stipulations that had taken place to allow him to come back to Greg at all. Perhaps a deal had been made. Extortion, maybe. Whatever the limits of Greg’s love for Stephen were, clearly they hadn’t reached that point yet. Priyanka couldn’t do anything but keep her daughter safe. The rest was up to Greg.

“I think things are going to be okay,” Greg said.

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Greg offered another small smile. “Maybe I’ve learned my lesson. Maybe not. You know me, Doc— I’ve always been a little impulsive.”

There were several anecdotes that Priyanka could bring up to corroborate. The hot dog eating contest fiasco of ‘13 came to mind, as well as the one-man band idea, as well as freelance guitar repair with wood glue and a borrowed toolbox. This wasn’t quite the same, and Priyanka couldn’t smile back.

Greg noticed, or at least he seemed to. The man stepped away, opened his mouth, then closed it, pressing a finger to his lips. He nodded towards the outside of the wash and began to walk around.

Priyanka couldn’t not follow. Presumably, Connie was ready for pickup, although Priyanka had intentionally not texted ahead of time. It felt wrong to plan on seeing something secretive. Her rules were strict, not to catch Connie in lies, but to ensure that her daughter understood why the rules were there in the first place. She couldn’t help but feel twinges of guilt as she walked cautiously with Greg to the back.

The van’s doors opened northwest to the bay. As they approached, Priyanka could hear the familiar sound of stifled giggles. Greg motioned for her to come around the side.

From the window, Priyanka could peer just inside. Greg encouraged her forwards. The woman looked over the edge to the sunbeam-covered mattress, where a bundle of pillows were bunched into a corner, and on top of them, Stephen and Connie were curled up together, staring intently at a book in Connie’s hands. Connie’s left arm curled underneath Stephen, bringing him close as she turned the page. Priyanka felt her heart skip.

“...and...” Stephen began, “l...lee—?”

“Leapt! Like leap, jump.”

“Leapt! Leapt...onto the flaming— Flaming, with fire?”

“Yeah, on fire,” Connie said in a hushed whisper. “Keep going!”

Stephen wriggled into the girl with a toothy grin. “Onto the flaming cart! The...horses rushed down the streets in a...fren-zy. Lisa pulled out her dagger—” With that, Stephen raised his hand, mimicking the motion. “—cutting the rrrropes that held the rebel leader’s...wrists!”

“Yeah! I dunno why there’s the ‘w’ there—”

“I remember! From ‘write’ and ‘wrong.’

“Of course you know right from wrong! But that’s what I really like about these books, and we’ll get into that more with book... Well, kind of the end of this one, but book two really starts it in the middle, is when the author really gets into free will and consequences of change, and—”

She stopped when she saw Stephen giving her a look. Priyanka watched her fumble with the book as Stephen broke into a smile and growled. He rubbed his temple against the side of the girl’s blushing cheek, taking the book from her hands.

“One day, I will be writing words you don’t know,” he said snarkily.

Connie settled into the pillow pile. “What’re you gonna write about?”

“I will know later when I have the words.”

Priyanka backed away as Stephen began to find his place again. She couldn’t interrupt this. Her daughter was teaching someone to read. It warmed her heart to know she had raised the girl with such wonder. It pained her to see her in such close physical contact with a boy when they had already gone over those rules years and years ago. But he was reading. He wanted to write. Priyanka’s face held its composure as a single tear slid down her cheek.

She wiped it away as Greg Universe came up beside her. She turned, but his eyes were fixed on the window, and he was smiling just as broadly as Stephen. He could be the one to tell them that Priyanka was coming, that they would have to break it up.

A sleepover would be harder than Priyanka had imagined. If these two were much younger, setting them in a bed together would have been easy. Now? She had the feeling that Stephen wasn’t used to sleeping alone. She knew almost nothing about him, except that he was smart, polite, borderline illiterate, possibly unhoused, and that he was Connie’s best and only friend. She didn’t want to think about it. They would roll with the punches, as it were.

As Priyanka looked over to ask Greg if he was ready, she saw his eyes from the side. Her right hand gripped her left wrist and held it as tightly as she could bear. Greg Universe had always had deep brown eyes, almost black until they were in the light. Now, the blue was so bright it was almost reflecting light off the inside of his lenses. Priyanka turned back to the van.

No. It wasn’t a mystery to be solved, not a question to be answered. The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Greg wouldn’t answer. There was no way he would have told Connie, either. If Stephen knew, Priyanka couldn’t ask him, and she couldn’t ask Connie if she knew, either. Maybe there was no reason. Maybe she had to be content with not knowing, and let it eat at her insides until there was nothing left but horrible complacency. Priyanka opened her eyes to keep from yelling out. She hated it. But there was nothing to do with the discomfort but allow herself to remain uncomfortable for everyone’s safety.

She would know in time. She had to. In a moment she would take Connie home, and then there would be rounds of final prep before the tests overlapping the next three weeks or so, and then the summer would be upon them. Priyanka listened.

It was still sweet, hearing Stephen read. She smiled as he pronounced, mispronounced, corrected himself, and elaborated the action as best he could. Maybe Greg could find him a job in radio. Priyanka could only control herself in the end. The future was out of her hands. In the van, she began to hear her daughter talk excitedly about the rebellion to come.