Free Vicious Deep by Zoraida Cordova Page A

its own like a tiny black hole collapsing—“is an ink that allows us to shift whenever we want. It is the blood of the abyss, primordial and, of course, painfully difficult to extract. The king has one of the last known cephalopods that carry it. Once that’s gone, we won’t be able to go on land anymore. Not that it would be such a bad thing. Can’t really miss what you never had, can you?”
    â€œCephalopod?” All those years of wandering through the Coney Island Aquarium, and I can’t even remember that.
    â€œSquid,” Dad answers. His voice pulls me out of Kurt’s explanation and grounds me. I’m glad he’s here. Thalia is holding the rainbow fish in a jar. They both press their noses on the glass, like a double aquarium.
    â€œDo I have to drink it?”
    Kurt turns his back to me, and sure enough there’s a tattoo on the center of his back level with his shoulder blades. It’s a trident, the middle spear slightly longer than the outer two prongs. The stem of the trident ends in a sharp triangular point.
    â€œDo you have one?” I ask my mother. The question leaves my mouth before I even know why it matters. It matters because she’s my mother, and I would’ve noticed.
    She pulls her hair over her shoulders, like opening a curtain. No, I would not have noticed it. The mark where the ink used to be is the color of pearl, maybe two shades lighter than the rest of her skin. “My father extracted the ink himself. I can never change again.”
    My fingers hover over the trident, stopping short of touching it. “What does it mean?”
    â€œIt is the symbol of the Sea Court.” I’m glad she’s not facing me, because now I can smell her sadness pouring over her, like pure sea.
    â€œOkay, so a tattoo. I can deal with that. At least I don’t have to get my lip pierced or have a stick driven though my nose.” Kurt stares at me with confused violet eyes. I emphasize, “ Right? ”
    â€œOh, yes,” he says. “I mean, no . No piercings. Though the trend has become popular among the younger ones.”
    â€œDarn that MTV,” Dad says.
    â€œI have your permission, right?” I ask him.
    â€œIf not, I think we’re going to need a pretty big fish tank.” Dad’s smile betrays the smell of worry he’s giving off like burnt rubber cement. “Or we could rent a room at the aquarium. Whatever is cheaper.”
    Kurt doesn’t try to understand the joke and shrugs off the comment. He kneels beside me, and my mind races. What if he does it wrong and I get stuck like this forever? Can I still have sex with girls or only other mermaids? Where the hell does my dick go? What if Layla sees me this way?
    I don’t have much longer to think, because as soon as Kurt uncorks the vial with a surprising champagne-bottle pop, he tells me, “This is going to sting.”
    And sure enough, it does.

The ink is a shiny, black blur spilling out of the slim glass, and it knows just where to find me.
    It coils in the air slowly, like a spinning Milky Way. I focus on the things that make it sparkle and wonder why I have to be a creature that’s half glitter. Why can’t my mom be half powerful genie or like a werewolf, anything that doesn’t look like a ten-year-old girl bedazzled the bottom half of her Ken doll.
    Kurt is whispering something in what I recognize as Latin, thanks to Mrs. Santos, who drags me and Layla to the Latin mass at the Greek church, even though Layla says she’s an atheist and I’m not Greek.
    The coil freezes, then blurs out of sight. I know where it’s gone the instant I feel the burn in my skin. I let myself fall backward into the tub with a splash. I can feel my fins parting, and the burn is now everywhere. It’s like being ripped in half over a fire pit and then being left there until the fire simmers and there’s nothing left but ash.
    The