Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [64]
“Of course,” I said. “We’ll do everything we can to —”
“You will not do everything you can to make this happen — you will MAKE THIS HAPPEN!” Neptune bellowed. “Or else you will face my wrath!”
“Absolutely, Your Majesty. We will make it happen,” I hastily agreed.
“TWO: the memory drug remains lifted in Brightport.”
My hopes began to sink. The whole of Brightport was still on a mission to catch a mermaid. How could we keep on living there? We’d have to move. Or I’d have to get a plastic surgeon to give me a new face. I opened my mouth, about to ask Neptune to reconsider this condition. I couldn’t imagine trying to convince Mom and Dad to start again in yet another new town. And if I was honest, I quite liked my face the way it was.
“Nonnegotiable!” Neptune said, reading my thoughts and cutting them down in one simple word. “How do you expect to bring together the human and the mer worlds if you wish the one to be in darkness about the other? How do you expect the people of Brightport to care about their neighboring town enough to stop destroying it if they don’t even know it EXISTS?”
He did have a very good point.
“You will make this work,” he said somberly.
I let out a sigh. “OK,” I said eventually — not that we had any choice in the matter, so I don’t know why he was waiting for us to agree each condition. Then I had a thought. “My grandparents,” I said.
“What about them?”
“Well, if we agree about the memory drug staying lifted in Brightport, will you lift it from them too — permanently?”
Neptune’s face reddened. “Do not PRESUME to barter with me!” he roared. “I, and only I, make conditions! Do you understand?”
“Yes, of course, Your Majesty,” I said meekly. “I’m sorry.”
Neptune thought for a moment. “If I do not know where your grandparents are, there is nothing I can do,” he said. “But I will grant you this: if they come to Brightport, the rule will apply to them also. That is the best I can offer you.”
“Thank you sir, thank you, Your Majesty,” I gabbled.
Neptune raised his hand again. “There is one more condition,” he said. “The most important of all.”
This was it, then — the bit where he told us that I had to give up Aaron and Shona, never see either of them again, or leave Brightport forever, never to return, live out my days in a solitary, dark —
“You must give up your power,” he said. For the first time ever, he seemed uncomfortable, awkward, almost like a normal person.
“Our power?” Aaron asked. “You mean . . .” He took hold of my hand. Curling his fingers around mine, he held our hands up in front of us. “This?”
Neptune clutched his trident. “No one should have the ability to undermine my power,” he said. “It is not right; it is not how things should be; it is not what I intended with that verse. But once it is done, the nature of the magic you have claimed means that I cannot undo it.”
“You can’t undo it?” I repeated. “How is it undone then?”
“You must relinquish it,” he said starkly. “You must agree to give it back to me. On this, and this alone, I need your agreement.” He held his trident over our hands. “You must willingly give it up. If you both agree to do this, the power can be returned to me.” He held tightly on to his trident. “Do I have your agreement?”
I looked at Aaron. He didn’t have to worry about his best friend being trapped in an underwater cave with a bunch of evil sirens. He might not want to give up such a cool power.
He didn’t look back at me. Without blinking, Aaron tightened his grip on my hand. “We agree,” he said firmly.
As soon as he’d spoken, I wanted to leap up and hug him. I wanted to throw my arms around him and — and — my face burned when I realized what I wanted to do, and for once I hoped he couldn’t read my mind. I wanted to kiss him.
Before I had a chance to worry too much about what I wanted and whether he wanted it too, and whether it was ever going to happen, Neptune was speaking again.