“Yeah, maybe I will.” In another of his odd mood swings, Jonas had gone from keen interest to yawning boredom in less than thirty.

“Then be off,” the prince commanded, sitting on a lab stool and nearly toppling off when he realized the chair didn’t have a back.

Fred swallowed a laugh and kept her gaze glued to the clipboard. Pearson had the handwriting of a serial killer, and she was having a tough time deciphering if this was a toxin sheet or his grocery list.

“You’re pretty strong,” she heard Jonas say to Artur, obviously ignoring the prince’s command to ‘be off.’ “Fred is, too. I once saw her pick up her mom’s fridge to get one of my Hot Wheels.”

“That is interesting about Fred. It: is also an accurate observation.”

“I’m guessing it’s the whole mer-angle, right? I mean, you can’t swim around on the bottom of the ocean day and night—all that pressure—and not build some upper body strength. I mean, you guys are under literal pressure, not: the usual ‘the H.R. rep hates me, I can’t stand office politics’ pressure.”

“Do not feel shame. An air breather is by nature much weaker.”

“Uh—okay, yeah, I’m not really a shame-feelin’ kinda guy, but thanks anyway. I’m betting you can see in the dark like a cat, too, huh?”

“What is a cat?”

“Because I bet it gets pretty dark down there, too, right?”

“It is dark in many places,” the prince said, sounding slightly confused. She couldn’t blame him. Jonas had all the tact of a pit bull once his mind starting chewing on a problem.

“So all mer-people—”

“Undersea Folk,” the prince corrected.

Fred resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Well, he could have picked a worse one, like Ben-Varry or Caesg or Meerfrau. Seemed like all of her research on merfolk came up with stuff that was ninety percent outright wrong, and silly-sounding names.

“Right, right, that’s what I meant. All Undersea Folk are super strong, and can see in the dark, and can breathe air and water—how do you breathe air and water?”

“We just—do.” Artur looked from Fred to Jonas, puzzled. “Are you not comrades? How do you not know these things about a friend?”

“Because Fred doesn’t know a lot of these things. She was raised by humans. Heck, I didn’t even know she was a fellow mammal at first, because she’s so clammy all the time. You think her mom ever let her near a doctor?”

“I’m never sick,” Fred said absently.

“Anyway, back to what we were talking about. Fred doesn’t have gills. Not even when she has a tail.”

“Never mind her tail,” the prince ordered. “And why would she? She is not part fish. She is one of the Undersea Folk. She is one of my people.”

“Oh, take a pill, handsome. I’m just making observations, here, and you’re getting all touchy.” He added, oddly, “Resist the urge to pick me up and shake me like a juice box.”