Velli

I stop on the final step as the last of the steam disappears out the open door. Nervous anticipation pumps my heart as I wait for the mist to reveal my opponent.

The monster leans with his elbows back on the side of the pool. His scale-laced jaw hangs slack and unimpressed, as if he’s waiting for us to do something interesting. His eyes are almost glazed in boredom. His wet scales cover his body like little disgusting bumps melted onto his skin.

In the center of his forehead is a tattoo so realistic, it could be a perfect photograph. It’s Bailey, the baby we’re looking for. It crawls on its hands and knees, pointing one tiny baby finger toward us. It does not have the X yet.

Mogvaz’s wet eyes flick toward me then observe Dream. I consider rushing out to him, but the pool’s too deep, and I believe the man with alligator DNA might be a better swimmer than I am.

“Blurp, blurp, blurp.” Something’s blowing bubbles. Something’s breathing in the pool that’s not Mogvaz and not the dead body. It slithers.

It’s Mogvaz’s tail, Mogvaz’s many-mouthed tail. Bubbles come from it as it glides beneath and above the surface. Disturbing. Mogvaz has the teeth of a predator, sharp like steak knives. The mouths on his tail, though, are too close to human, and I don’t think that’s much better. He has eight active mouths on his eight-foot tail, always snapping or licking. The lips are of different shapes and shades, like he borrowed them from each friend he had. They have pristine white teeth that make me imagine he has someone brush them. However, the gums are black and filled with meat, and the tongues are hairy with black spots.

The tongue flicks out now and laps at the water. Maybe it hopes for a new taste. Maybe it hopes for us. One tongue gets a piece of human kebab. It brings it inside his mouth and munches on it until it’s no more then goes searching again.

I imagine the furry black tongue licking me and squirm on the inside. Anxious to not look scared of Mogvaz, I step down with a grin and tread water toward him, cautious of every move Mogvaz or his tail makes.

The tail circles me as I do. Never wrapping around me, just stirring the water by my waist. My fears come true. Even underwater, the wildly furry tongue bathes my leg in its unique level of filth. And of course, the feeling never goes away—a constant ick, a constant loathing and fear of being tasted. Then I imagine what it would be like if it took a bite, peeling off my skin. This time, it’s harder to appear fearless, but I do.

Dream plops in after me.

“You all right, Dream?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she says between gasps as she tries to tread water.

We’re both sure to tread out of range of his thick arms. The more we tread, the smaller the pool seems and the closer those arms. We’re four swim strokes away from him.

Mogvaz is enjoying himself now and flicks out his meat-stained red tongue. It’s forked like a snake or the devil himself.

“Mogvaz,” I say. “We represent Anne Graves.”

“You stole her child,” Dream interjects. “And we want him back.”

“Dream Tower…” His scratchy voice comes out strained. It reminds me of a mob boss from a movie, the quintessential one, with the curly mustache, who pets his cat. “So, what is she to you? Miss Graves, that is?” He hisses the S, the sound too similar to that of an alligator.

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“A friend,” Dream says more bravely than I’m sure she feels.

Everyone with a Curse or Weakness is a friend to Dream. I know I never met Anne before an hour ago, and I doubt Dream has met Anne in person more than once.

“Huh.” Mogvaz thinks it over and licks the air around him in a circular motion. “Friends are important. You two… together?” He acknowledges me for the first time. His face at the word “together” was not a compliment. “Your sister’s getting married soon, Dream. What, you didn’t want to go alone, so you hitched up with…?” He waves his hand, looking for the right word to describe me. “Just anybody?”

I open my mouth to speak, and he waves me off.

“I’ve got an invitation to the wedding, y’know,” he says.

“Lots of people are invited,” Dream bites back. “She’s royalty. Where is Bailey?”

“Lots of people, lots of people, yeah. If I were in the Heirs’ position, I would invite lots of people too. As I said, friends are important.”

“As I said, where is Bailey?”

“Huh?” Mogvaz cups his flat ear. “What did you say? I can’t hear you. Come closer.”

“You can hear us fine!” My words echo quickly through the pool room.

“No, sorry, I can’t hear you. Come closer.” He points one three-inch-clawed finger toward us.

Dream swims toward him.

“Dream!” I call with gritted teeth, but she ignores me.

Mogvaz smiles because, of course, he can hear me. My frustration with Mogvaz boils. I have a plan, but that plan involves us staying out of his reach for an extended period.

But she doesn’t know the plan because you know she wouldn’t like this plan.

It doesn’t matter. She’ll thank me later.

Doubtful. She’ll hate you later. Go help her, though, Prince Charming. You’re not going to let her spine get pulled through her throat on her own, are you?

The tail circles below Dream’s belly button, and she flinches. It leaves her front and pets the small of her back. Dream braces for the worst. The tail dives beneath the surface, invisible in the filthy pool.

Dream settles about three feet away from Mogvaz, well within his striking zone. We tread water together. She’s a lot shorter than I am, so she has to use her arms to keep herself afloat every couple of seconds. Her pants leap from her faster and faster.

The end of Mogvaz’s tail wraps around my finger. My body freezes, and every inch of me tightens. I sink and have to remind myself to swim before I come back up, coughing and gasping. The tail hangs on. It’s not too tight, just strong enough to let me know it’s there. It reminds me of a baby grabbing my finger, but it’s so much stronger than that. Mogvaz eyes me, still bored.

I tread water beside Dream.

“So, you were telling me to give the child back?” Mogvaz asks.

“Yeess!” Dream spurts, water filling her mouth.

“Dream, just hop on my shoulders,” I say.

“No, I’ve got it,” Dream says, and her head submerges. “I’m fine,” she says as she pops back up from beneath the water.

“What’s in it for me?” Mogvaz asks.

“We have money.” Dream splashes hot water on us both.

The money isn’t for Mogvaz, but neither he nor she knows that.

“How much money?”

“Eighty thousand,” I lie. It doesn’t matter. He won’t see it either way.

“Nah, not enough for me.” Mogvaz waves his hand, dismissing us.

“Mmfmfm…” Dream struggles to get her head above water. “Rose,” she lets out. She must be desperate to mention her.

“You said Rose, sweetheart? She’s scary, yeah, she’s scary.” Mogvaz leans forward off the pool’s edge and smiles. “Only, I hear she’s got problems of her own right now. All the clowns in the castles do.”

Dream’s fluttering movements slow, as if treading water is futile.

It is futile, Velli. Just sink.

The tail gently tugs my finger.

“But,” Mogvaz says, “you know something? You can have the boy. What’s his name? Baby?”

“Bailey!” I scream and yank my finger from his tail.

Mogvaz pats his armor-plated stomach twice and grins from ear to ear.

“You can have him when he comes out all brown and mushy.”

Dream leaps toward him. In two large splashes of her tiny frame, she reaches Mogvaz. He swings his big, clawed hand. She ducks his strike and swings a kebab poker at his eye. He blocks, and it splinters harmlessly into pieces.

Mogvaz slashes across his body, hoping to split Dream’s skull. She grabs his hand and lets the momentum take her across his face as she slashes at his other eye with her nails.

Contact.

Blood shoots from the socket. He hisses, high-pitched and bone rattling.