“Supposed to? So it wasn’t even your idea? Somebody told you to? Another mermaid, I mean.” Luce was still laughing, or gasping, too hard to answer. She just nodded. “So how come you didn’t do it? It’s not like you give a shit about killing people. You murdered my whole family. Or at least you helped.”

“I don’t want to kill anyone,” Luce objected, but her voice was feeble. The boy just glared at her, suddenly vicious, and his eyes went blank and desolate.

“But you don’t even know what that means, do you? A family? Do you—whatever you are—do monsters like you even have parents?” Luce’s insides clenched with pain, and she looked down. Getting drawn into this conversation was obviously a horrible mistake. Mermaids and humans couldn’t possibly have anything good to say to each other. How could she have forgotten that? “Got it. You don’t.”

Luce made herself look back at him. “I don’t anymore. My parents are both dead.” She still half hoped that he would soften again, but instead he gave a bitter laugh.

“Yeah, but for you that’s normal, right? I bet your parents swim upstream to spawn and then die. You were hatched from an egg or something. Like a salmon with . . .” He hesitated and pitched a rock into the waves. His whole body was trembling. “Whatever. You look beautiful, but that doesn’t mean anything. You don’t have any real emotions at all.”

Luce fought down an angry impulse to point out that, if he really thought she was a talking salmon, maybe he shouldn’t have kissed her. That wasn’t what mattered, and he could say he’d only done it to stop her from killing him. It didn’t matter that she’d once been human herself either, though it was becoming obvious he didn’t know about that. The sadism in his voice reminded her of Catarina.

“You know you sound exactly the way mermaids do when they talk about humans. They say the same kinds of things. Like having legs makes somebody automatically worthless.”

He was still glowering. “I bet they do!”

“Well, if you think we’re monsters with no emotions, why do you want to act the same way we do?”

His expression changed, and he sat back. Luce was surprised. She’d expected a blast of hostility or defensiveness; instead he seemed to be seriously thinking over what she’d just said.

“So you don’t agree with that? That humans are all trash?”

“If I did, why would I even be talking to you?” She shouldn’t be talking to him, Luce thought. She should just race south before Dana found out that she’d let him live a second time. He nodded, and now Luce could see that he was trembling harder, wrapping his knees against his chest for warmth.